Birthdays
1900 - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, Comte de Saint-Exupéry), French writer, poet, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. He is best remembered for his French novella The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight. In the heart-warming and lyrical classic The Little Prince, (a children's book for adults really), the little prince represents the open-mindedness of children. He is a wanderer who restlessly asks questions and is willing to engage the invisible, secret mysteries of the universe. The novel suggests that such inquisitiveness is the key to understanding and to happiness. The fox teaches the Little Prince three important life lessons: "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." "It's the time you spent on your rose (symbolizing love & beauty, could also be vain & demanding) that makes your rose so important." and "You become responsible for what you've tamed." After he is tamed, the Little Prince realizes that his rose is unique, because she is his rose, and he cares for her. A lovely novella to be read and re-read... a strange and lovely parable, written as much for adults as for children. (The Little Prince and The Fox. YouTube, uploaded by Aristotle Go. Accessed June 29, 2013. The Little Prince - Stories with values for kids. YouTube, uploaded by Smile and Learn - English. Accessed June 29, 2021.)
1901 - Nelson Ackerman Eddy, American baritone and actor, who appeared in 19 musical films and operas, during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. In his day, he was the highest paid singer in the world. He earned three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one each for film, recording, and radio), left his footprints in the wet concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater, earned three gold records, and was invited to sing at the third inauguration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. He also introduced millions of young Americans to classical music and inspired many of them to pursue a musical career.(Nelon Eddy sings "Just a Song at Twilight" (more popularly known as "Love's Old Sweet Song"), and "Indian Love Call" with Jeanette MacDonald. Uploaded by Mac&EddyMagic. "The Rosary" - Nelson Eddy. Youtube, uploaded by The Sweethearts: Jeanette & Nelson. Accessed June 29, 2014.
1908 -Leroy Anderson, American composer of light popular music, and conductor. Many of his short, light concert pieces, of which many were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music." (Here's L Anderson's most popular "Blue Tango" played by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, uploaded by Nayer-Nagui. Accesed June 29, 2022.)
1911 - Bernard Herrmann (born Max Herman), American composer and conductor, best known for composing for motion pictures. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. An Academy Award-winner (for The Devil and Daniel Webster, 1941; later renamed All That Money Can Buy), Herrmann is known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also composed scores for many other films, including Citizen Kane, Anna and the King of Siam, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Cape Fear, Fahrenheit 451, and Taxi Driver. He worked in radio drama, composed the scores for several fantasy films, and for many TV programs. (North by Northwest Soundtrack Suite. YouTube, updated by Soundtracl Fred. Accessed June 29, 2021.)
1914 - Rafael Kubelik, KBE (born Rafael Jeroným Kubelík) Czech-Swiss conductor and composer. Son of of well-known violinist, Jan Kubelík, he made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at 19 years old. Having maintained a career in Czechoslovakia under the Nazi occupation, he refused to work under what he considered a "second tyranny" after the Communist Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, and took refuge in Britain. He became a Swiss citizen in 1967. Kubelík was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, musical director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and was a frequent guest conductor for leading orchestras in Europe and America. He composed in a neo-romantic idiom.
1920 - Ray Harryhausen (born Raymond Frederick Harryhausen), American-British dual citizenship artist, designer, visual effects creator, writer and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for Mighty Joe Young, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects; his first color film, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad; and Jason and the Argonauts, which featured a sword fight with seven skeleton warriors. His last film was Clash of the Titans, after which he retired. His innovative style of special effects in films inspired numerous filmmakers. In November 2016 the BFI compiled a list of those present-day famous celebrity filmmakers who claim to have been inspired by Harryhausen.
1924 - Ezra Laderman, American composer and professor of classical music. His film scores for 'The Eleanor Roosevelt Story' and 'Black Fox' won him an Oscar. During the weeks after the war was over, Laderman composed his Leipzig Symphony, his work that brought him recognition within the army, and subsequently he was assigned as orchestrator of the GI Symphony Orchestra.
1944 - Gary Busey, American actor. As a character actor, he has appeared in over 150 films. For portraying Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story (1978), Busey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor.
1963 - Anne-Sophie Mutter, German violinist. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan, and has had several works composed especially for her, by Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, John Williams and others. Though her repertoire includes many classical works, Mutter is particularly known for her performances of contemporary music. She owns two Stradivarius violins: The Emiliani of 1703, and the Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius of 1710. She also owns a Finnigan-Klaembt dated 1999 and a Regazzi dated 2005. (Anne-Sophie Mutter – Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major: III. Rondeau. Allegro (Excerpt). YouTube, uploaded by Deutsche Grammophon -DG. Accessed June 29, 2021.)
Lefties:
None known
More birthdays and historical events today, 29 June - On This Day.
1613 - William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground after a stage cannon ignites the thatch. It is rebuilt the following year.
1944 - In bomber-besieged London, George Orwell sends to T.S. Eliot the manuscript for his Animal Farm, with a note: "This MS has been blitzed which accounts for my delay in delivering it and its slightly crumpled condition."
Historical Events
1613 - William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground after a stage cannon ignites the thatch. It is rebuilt the following year.
1944 - In bomber-besieged London, George Orwell sends to T.S. Eliot the manuscript for his Animal Farm, with a note: "This MS has been blitzed which accounts for my delay in delivering it and its slightly crumpled condition."
