Richard Rodgers

Musicals / Composers


Richard Rodgers was born on June 28, 1902, in Hammels Station, Long Island, borough of Queens, New York City. He is one of the most renowned Broadway composers with string of successes on stage and screen first with librettist Lorenz Hart, and hitting the box office when he teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II.

Rodgers studied at Columbia University (1919-21) and the Institute of Musical Art (1921-23), later at Juilliard School, New York.

His first smash at the Broadway musical with Oscar Hammerstein II was Oklahoma (1943, NY), followed by Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1959).

With Lorenz Hart, his earlier collaboration before Hammerstein II, Rodgers aimed to use good poetry in place of the banal lyrics of current popular songs. Their association produced 30 stage musicals as well as films.

A Tribute to Richard Rodgers

Oscar Hammerstein II

Musicals / Great Lyricists & Librettists

Oscar Hammerstein II (born Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II, July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960), was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and theater director of musicals for almost forty years.  He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song.

Hammerstein II co-wrote 850 songs. He was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. He collaborated with numerous composers, such as Jerome Kern, (with whom he wrote Show Boat), Richard Rodgers, Rudolf Friml, Vincent Youmans, Sigmund Rombert and Richard A. Whiting; but he is best-known for his collaborations with Richard Rodgers, which include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific (Pulitzer Prize), The King and I, and The Sound of Music.


Article:

Revisiting Rodgers & Hammerstein by Tel Asiado,  July 27, 2006 (edited, July 12, 2017.)




Hammerstein's sharp dialogue and ability to create dramatic movement through song helped transform the American musical theater; where musical comedies became seamless and powerful dramatic works.

Below, "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein's one of all-time best musical The Sound of Music. It is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess for Maria, in particular. In general, it is themed as an inspirational piece, to encourage people to take every step toward attaining their dreams. Beautiful and uplifting. 

Apology: Video embedding of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is unavailable on websites. Please WATCH on YouTube.

Listening Pleasure:

Rodgers & Hammerstein -  A partnership that redefined musical theatre forever.

June 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1491 - Henry VIII, King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. He is famous for his six wives, with their fates remembered in divorces, beheading, and survival. However, he was well educated, fluent in several languages, an athlete, a soldier, and a writer. Henry VIII was a lso passionately devoted to music. He both played and collected musical instruments, and he composed masses (likely lost now) and more than thirty-five ballads, including "Pastime with Good Company", also known as "The King's Ballad" ("The Kynges Balade"), and "Departure is My Chief Pain" (King Henry VIII of England), Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature.   

1577 - Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish artist, considered the most influential artist of Flemish Baroque tradition. His highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, color, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens specialized in making altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.  In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Rubens was a prolific artist.

1703 - John Wesley, (refer to June 17 Dateline for Old Style date). English founder of Methodism. 

1712 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss social philosopher, music critic, composer, and contributor to Diderot's Encyclopedie. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic and educational thought. Jean-Jacques Rousseau strongly believed in the innate goodness of man and in basic human rights founded upon universal natural law; in addition, he believed that both rulers and the citizens have natural human rights as well as obligations to each other which should be bound in a social contract.

 

1867 - Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. His works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theatre." He was an Italian nationalist and supported Fascism in a moderate way, at one point giving his Nobel Prize medal to the Fascist government to be melted down as part of the 1935 Oro alla Patria ("Gold to the Fatherland") campaign during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. 

1902 - Richard Rodgers, American composer of music, with over 900 songs and 43 Broadway musicals, leaving a legacy as one of the most significant composers of 20th-century American music. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music. Rodgers was the first person to win what are considered the top American entertainment awards in television, recording, movies and Broadway – an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award — now known collectively as an EGOT. In addition, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, making him one of only two people to receive all five awards (Marvin Hamlisch is the other). Composer  (The Rodgers-Hammerstein duo is considered the greatest musical partnership including The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, and more hits. (Richard Rodgers - Kennedy Center Honors. 1978. Uploaded by John Randolph. Accessed June 28, 2017.)

1909 - Eric Ambler, OBE,  influential English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels and Screenwriter, who introduced a new realism to the genre of spy novels. Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.

1926 - Mel Brooks (born Melvyn Kaminsky), American director, writer, actor, comedian, producer and composer. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comedic parodies. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. Together with Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series Get Smart. Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of the year they were released.

1948 - Kathy Doyle Bates,  American actress and director, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Her performance as Annie Wilkes in the horror film Misery, marked her Hollywood breakthrough, winning her the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her TV work has resulted in 14 Emmy Award nominations, including two for her leading role on the NBC series Harry's Law. She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance on the ninth season of Two and a Half Men and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her portrayal of Delphine LaLaurie on the third season of American Horror Story. Her directing credits include several episodes of the HBO television series Six Feet Under and the television film Ambulance Girl.

1966 - John Cusack,  American actor, producer, screenwriter and activist. He began acting in films during the 1980s and has since starred in more than 85 movies, including Better Off Dead (1985), Say Anything..., Bullets over Broadway, Grosse Pointe Blank, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, 1408, Igor, 2012, The Raven and Love & Mercy.

1966 - Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress. She has starred in the films At Close Range, Some Kind of Wonderful, Chances Are, Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny & Joon. She won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1989 film Immediate Family, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the 2003 Broadway revival of Nine.

Lefties:
Actress Mary Stuart Masterson
Artist Peter Paul Rubens

 

More birthdays aand historical events today, 28 June - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1914 - The Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophia, are killed in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The beginning of WWI in Sarajevo. The archduke was relatively unpopular in Bosnia, Herzegovina, which had been annexed by Austria-hungary in 1908. This displeased the large Serbian community who wantaed to be unified with Serbia. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited this day in 1914, a plan was hatched to assassinate him. 

1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed ending World War I with Germany, but imposes harsch sanctions. Germany's economy is destroyed, setting the ground for the rise of Nationalism which will see the Nazis rise to power in 1933.

July 12 Dateline

Birthdays

100 B.C.E. - Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman statesman. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. An accomplished author and historian, much of his life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns. Other contemporary sources include the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust, and later biographies of him by Suetonius and Plutarch. Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history. His cognomen was subsequently adopted as a synonym for "Emperor"; the title "Caesar" was used throughout the Roman Empire, giving rise to modern cognates such as Kaiser and Tsar. His political philosophy, known as Caesarism, inspired politicians into the modern era.

1730 - Josiah Wedgwood, English potter and entrepreneur. He founded the Wedgwood company. Leader in the industrialisation of the manufacture of European pottery, he developed improved pottery bodies by a long process of systematic experimentation.

1817 - Henry David Thoreau, American writer, essayist, poet and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. (Political Theory - Henry David Thoreau. Uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed July 12, 2016. Thoreau and Civil Disobedience. Uploaded by The School of life. Accessed July 12, 2018.)

1861 - Anton Arensky (born Anton Stepanovich Arensky), Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music. Tchaikovsky was the greatest influence on Arensky's musical compositions. Especially popular are the Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky for string orchestra, Op. 35a - arranged from the slow movement of Arensky's 2nd string quartet, and based on one of Tchaikovsky's Songs for Children, Op. 54.  Arensky was perhaps at his best in chamber music, in which genre he wrote two string quartets, two piano trios, and a piano quintet.

1884 - Amedeo Clemente Modigliani, Italian Jewish painter and sculptor, worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces, necks, and figures that were not received well during his lifetime but later found acceptance. (A Collection of Modigliani's 281 Paintings. YouTube, uploaded by LearnFromMasters. Accessed July 12, 2017.)

1885 - George Butterworth, MC (born George Sainton Kaye Butterworth), English composer who was best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from A Shropshire Lad, amongst the best known. Butterworth destroyed many works he did not care for, before and during the war. Of those that survive, his collection of poems A Shropshire Lad are among the best known. Many English composers of Butterworth's time set Housman's poetry also, including Ralph Vaughan Williams. (George Butterworth - A Shropshire Lad: Rhapsody for Orchestra (1912). YouTube, uploaded by AntPDC. Accessed July 12, 2018.)

 
1895 - Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II, American lyricist, librettist, theatrical director and producer, most especially known for his partnership with Richard Rodgers. He was director in the musical theatre for almost 4o years. Hammerstein II is widely considered the most influential lyricist and librettist of the American theater. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose major musicals include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. He also collaborated with Jerome Kern (with whom he wrote Show Boat), Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Richard A. Whiting, and Sigmund Romberg.

1904 - Pablo Neruda (born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto), Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Neruda is often considered the national poet of Chile. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language". (Poetry by Pablo Neruda. Leaning into the Afternoons) YouTube, Poetry in Motion. Accessed July 12, 2020. 

 
1934 - Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr., American concert pianist, first American to win the Tchaikovsky Prize. At the age of 23, he achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, during the Cold War. Cliburn's mother, a piano teacher and an accomplished pianist in her own right, discovered him playing at age three, mimicking one of her students and arranged for him to start taking lessons. Cliburn developed a rich, round tone and a singing-voice-like phrasing, having been taught from the start to sing each piece. One of Cliburn's contributions to society was the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. (1958 Van Cliburn Tchaikovsky Competition Moscow Newsreel. Uploaded by PublicDomainFootage.com. Accessed July12, 2013. 'Russians Conquered My Heart': Pianist Van Cliburn Reflects on 50 Years of Music Making. Uploaded by PBS NewsHour. Accessed July 12, 2018. Finals Round Concerto 4 - 2022 Cliburn Competition. YouTube, uploaded by The Cliburn. Accessed June 19, 2022.)

Lefties:
None known

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 12 July - On This day. 

Historical Events

1543 - King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who survives him and marries again.

1776 - Captain James Cook sets sail from Plymouth on the Resolution, beginning his third and final voyage of discovery.

January 11 Dateline

Birthdays

1842 - William James, American philosopher and psychologist, leader of philosophical movement of pragmatism and psychological movement of functionalism, older brother of writer Henry James and diarist Alice James. He was the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James was a leading thinker of the late nineteenth century, one of the most influential U.S. philosophers, and has been labelled the "Father of American psychology." (William James and the Sick Soul, uploaded by Academy of Ideas. Accessed January 11, 2019.)

1856 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer and teacher, best known for his lyrical work for piano, Frühlingsrauschen (Rustle of Spring, 1896). He was often compared to Edvard Grieg and regarded as his successor. (Christian Sinding - Symphony No. 3 in F-major, Op.121 (1919), uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng2. Accessed January 11, 2019.)

1872 - George Washington Pierce, American physicist, inventor and pioneer of radio telephony. He was a professor of physics at Harvard University and inventor in the development of electronic telecommunications. He distinguished himself in school at Taylor and in the University of Texas before beginning his enduring relationship with Harvard in 1898. He wrote three innovative texts, many learned papers, and was assigned 53 patents. The most notable is the single-stage crystal oscillator circuit, which became the touchstone of the electronics communication art.

1895 - Laurens Hammond, American engineer and founder of the electronic keyboard instrument company that bears his name. His inventions include, most famously, the Hammond organ, the Hammond clock, and the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord. During his life he held 110 patents. He was married to Roxana Scoville, and had one daughter. In 2017 the Laurens Hammond Museum was founded in Kielce, Poland.

1930 - Rod Taylor (born Rodney Sturt Taylor), Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including The Time Machine, The Birds, Sunday in New York, 36 Hours, The Glass Bottom Boat, Hotel , The Hell with Heroes, and Zabriskie Point. Taylor appeared in the CBS drama series Falcon Crest as Frank Agretti, playing opposite Jane Wyman. He appeared in several episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Walker, Texas Ranger. In 1993, he hosted the documentary Time Machine: The Journey Back. Taylor returned to Australia several times over the years to make films, playing a 1920s traveling showman in The Picture Show Man  and a paid killer in On the Run. In 2007, he appeared in the horror telemovie Kaw, which revisits the idea of marauding birds turning on their human tormentors. In this film, however, the cause of the disturbance was discovered by Taylor who plays the town doctor. In 2017, a documentary on Taylor's life, "Pulling No Punches", was released and entered into the Beverly Hills Film Festival.

 

1931 - Mary Rodgers, American composer, author, and screenwriter, most famous for her novel Freaky Friday, which served as the basis of a 1976 film starring Jodie Foster, for which she wrote the screenplay, as well as three other versions. Her best-known musicals were Once Upon a Mattress and The Mad Show, and she contributed songs to Marlo Thomas' successful children's album Free to Be... You and Me. She began writing music at the age of 16. One of her recordings, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves 40, which was released in 1957, featured performances by Bing Crosby of songs Mary Rodgers wrote with lyricist Sammy Cahn. She also composed music for television, including the jingle for the Prince Spaghetti commercial. She's daughter of the famous musicals composer Richard Rodgers.

Leftie:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, January 11 - On This Day

Historical Events

1904 - Mozart's The Magic Flute  (German: Die Zauberflöte) is first performed at Metropolitan Opera, New York. 

1908 - A prominent young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma, meaning "great soul"), is hailed in Johannesburg, South Africa, for refusing to register as an Asian. 

1922 - Frederick Banting and Charles Best first use insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.

Broadway: The American Musical

Musicals / Broadway 

 

"Broadway" may refer to a famous street that runs through Manhattan, New York City, the street which has been associated with the American theatrical activity since 1735, when the first theatre opened. "Broadway" could also mean Broadway Theatre (53rd Street). Broadway is a boulevard full of famous theatres where visitors from all over the world gather to watch the top musicals of the season and other plays. The story goes: The Dutch called it the Heeren Wegh or Heeren Straat, meaning "Gentlemen's Way" or "Gentlemen's Street" – echoing the name of a similar street in Amsterdam – or "High Street" or "the Highway"; it was renamed "Broadway" after the British took over the city, because of its unusual width.

New York City's Broadway theatre, along with London's West End theatre, have been host of a constantly changing variety of productions, including plays and musicals, most likely best in the world, and are usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.

 

Broadway Musical is a theatrical performance that includes four major elements: songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance.  (Note: Sorry, where video of original Broadway show is unavailable, the film version has been substituted.) 

 

Timeline of the Golden Age of Broadway Musicals  (1943 to 1959)

1943

"Oklahoma!" Oh What a Beautiful Morning and More.  The first Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway collaboration, opens to rave reviews. It enchants wartime audiences and runs for 2,212 performances. Four memorable scenes from the 1955 Broadway Musical movie "Oklahoma" which starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. Classic Rodgers and Hammerstein songs "Oh What a Beautiful Morning", "The Surrey With The Fringe on the Top", "People Will Say We're In Love", and "Oklahoma!"

1944

"On the Town" marks the Broadway debut of composer Leonard Bernstein, writers and performers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and choreographer Jerome Robbins; songs include "New York, New York (It's a Helluva Town)."

The first ever original cast album to be released, with songs from "Oklahoma!" -- "People Will Say We're in Love," with Alfred Drake-Joan Roberts (“Oklahoma” cast album) and "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" -- tops the charts.

1945

"Carousel" reaffirms the success of the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership; songs include "If I Loved You", "You'll Never Walk Alone", and "Soliloquy." 

1946 

Irving Berlin writes the songs for his first "situation show," "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman; it includes "There's No Business Like Show Business." Bernadette Peters sings "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun" in the 1999 Broadway.

Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer write "St. Louis Woman," an all-black musical. It flops, but produces the hit song "Come Rain or Come Shine."

1947

The team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe have their first big success with "Brigadoon", uploaded by Conrad Askland, but without production info. (Here's a 1980 Broadway version of Brigadoon.)

"Finian's Rainbow," an unusually political musical fable from E. Y. Harburg and Burton Lane, debuts; songs include "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?". Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane, produced by Lee Sabinson. The original 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances. A film version was released in 1968 and several revivals have followed.

The eagerly awaited original musical "Allegro" by Rodgers and Hammerstein opens; it receives mixed reviews and underwhelming box office revenues. 

1948

Cole Porter's witty look at Shakespeare onstage and backstage -- "Kiss Me, Kate" -- debuts; songs include "So in Love," "Too Darn Hot," and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare."

Television programs are broadcast out of New York and lure away many Broadway comedians and dancers, including Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason.

First Tony Awards. 

1949

Carol Channing becomes a Broadway star as Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".

"South Pacific" speaks to an audience looking for tolerance and a new direction after the war; Rodgers and Hammerstein's show, directed and co-written by Joshua Logan, wins the Pulitzer Prize.

"Lost in the Stars," a sobering look at racial strife in South Africa, is Kurt Weill's last musical. 

1950

Frank Loesser's second Broadway score, "Guys and Dolls," is a huge hit; songs include "If I Were a Bell" and "Luck, Be a Lady."

Ethel Merman teams up with Irving Berlin again for a spoof on Washington social life, "Call Me Madam"; songs include "You're Just in Love."

1951

Barbara Cook makes her Broadway debut as the ingénue in "Flahooley."

Burlesque and movie comedian Phil Silvers spoofs TV star Milton Berle in "Top Banana", a musical with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and book by Hy Kraft. The show was written as a star vehicle for comedian Phil Silvers, who played the host of a television variety show program. Silvers won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical in 1952.

"The King and I" makes Yul Brynner a star and is another success for Rodgers and Hammerstein. 

1952

Gertrude Lawrence, star of "The King and I," dies of cancer; she asks that Yul Brynner get star billing in the show.

A revival of "Pal Joey," produced by composer Jule Styne, is the first revival to run longer than the original show, which confirms its reputation.

1953

Rosalind Russell is one of the first non-singers to play the lead in a musical, "Wonderful Town", a musical with book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein.

Dancer/singer/actress Gwen Verdon steals the show in "Can-Can" and wins her first of four Tonys.

Perry Como makes "No Other Love" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Me and Juliet" into a number-one hit single.

1954

David Merrick produces his first musical, "Fanny", a musical with a book by S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan and music and lyrics by Harold Rome. A tale of love, secrets, and passion set in and around the old French port of Marseille, it is based on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of works titled Marius, Fanny, and César.

Nineteen-year-old Julie Andrews makes her Broadway debut in "The Boyfriend."

"The Threepenny Opera" opens Off Broadway for a successful run of more than seven years.

"The Pajama Game," the first musical produced by Harold Prince, opens. It is directed by George Abbott and Jerome Robbins and choreographed by Bob Fosse; songs include "Hey There." 

1955

Cole Porter teams up with George S. Kaufman for the Cold War satire "Silk Stockings"; songs include "All of You."

"Damn Yankees" is the second big hit for the songwriting team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross ("The Pajama Game"). Ross dies of tuberculosis two months after the opening. 

1956

"My Fair Lady," Lerner and Loewe's unlikely adaptation of Shaw's social critique "Pygmalion," opens and is Broadway's biggest hit to date: 2,717 performances. It makes Julie Andrews' career, turns Rex Harrison into an international star, and grosses more than $800 million over the next 20 years.

Frank Loesser writes the music, lyrics, and book for the operatic "The Most Happy Fella."

Judy Holliday conquers Broadway as the gamine lead of "Bells Are Ringing." 

1957

"West Side Story," directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, opens, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, in his Broadway debut.

"The Music Man," a piece of charming Americana, stars Robert Preston in his first musical. He wins the Tony and the show defeats "West Side Story" for Best Musical. 

1958

Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical comedy about cultural conflict in San Francisco's Chinatown, "Flower Drum Song," opens, with Gene Kelly directing (his only Broadway musical). (About the video: This production, starring Tony Award® winner Lea Salonga, was the first major revival since its original Broadway run in 1958.)

British writer Kenneth Tynan becomes The New Yorker's drama critic. He calls "Flower Drum Song" "the world of woozy song" -- a pun on a current play, "The World of Suzie Wong." 

1959

Moss Hart's memoir of the theater, Act One, is a New York Times bestseller.

"The Sound of Music" and "Fiorello!" win the first and only tie vote as Best Musical at the Tonys.

"Gypsy," with a score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, gives Ethel Merman the dramatic role of her career as Gypsy Rose Lee's mother, Rose. Both the show and Merman lose Tonys to "The Sound of Music" and Mary Martin. 

 

Suggested Link:

The Most Popular Musicals of All Time. www.ranker.com. Accessed February 21, 2021.

Resources:

Broadway: en.wikipedia.aorg.

Broadway: The American Musical. www.pbs.org

Broadway Theatre. en.wikipedia.org.

Broadway Theatre (53rd Street). en.wikipedia.org

George M. Cohan. en.wikipedia.org. Known as "the man who owned Broadway" and "the man who created Broadway". 

(c) September 2011. Updated February 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All right reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' In the Mood

Choral Singing / Choir Music

Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers  Present 'In the Mood'

Sydney Philharmonia’s acclaimed Chamber Singers appear in a new light! Accompanied by a jazz trio, they’ll present a cabaret-style concert of classic popular songs from the 1920s and 30s, wrapped in the stories of a city plunging between a spirit of optimism and the challenges of the Depression.

Photography by John Feely, for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

Think Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and more – in sophisticated upbeat arrangements with the cool sound of piano, bass and reeds.

Think Ain't Misbehavin', Autumn Leaves, I Got Rhythm, Blue Moon, Over the Rainbow and more, all presented in sophisticated upbeat arrangements, accompanied by a jazz trio comprising piano, bass and reeds.

But this is more than a concert… Conductor and Artistic Director Brett Weymark has wrapped the musical program in the stories and ephemera of Sydney between the wars – a city plunging between a spirit of optimism and the challenges of the Depression.

Two intimate shows in Sydney and Parramatta:

Friday 30 August at 8pm
Sydney Opera House Utzon Room

Saturday 31 August at 8pm
Riverside Theatres, Parramatta

PROGRAM
American songbook standards presented cabaret style with choir and jazz trio

ARTISTS
Brett Weymark conductor
Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers


The Chamber Singers in Rehearsals

(Photos credit: Rachel Vanessa Maiden, SPC-CS chorister) 

 






































Review:

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: In the Mood  @ The Utzon Room. Sydney Arts Guide. Accessed September 4, 2019.




Resources:
(All websites available at the time of access.)

In the Mood. Sydney Opera House. Accessed August 10, 2019.

In the Mood.  SydneyPhilharmonia.com.au. (Available at this time.) Accessed August 1, 2019. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Present IN THE MOOD. Broadway World, Sydney. Accessed July 25, 2019.




(c) August 2019.  Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Irving Berlin

Composer/Songwriter Datebook: May 11

Composer Famous for "White Christmas"

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989), was born on Tyumen Russian Empire and migrated to the United States. He was a composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage. Along with Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers, he is widely considered one of the greatest American songwriters.

His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became famous worldwide.  Over the years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular which was simple and direct that reached the hearts not only of ordinary Americans but simple people all over the world.

June 2 Dateline

Birthdays

1840 - Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Hardy was famous for his best novels: The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891). Among those made into films include: Far from the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native, Tess, and The Mayor of Casterbridge.

1857 -  Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM GCVO, English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and classical concert repertoire.  His works in the orchestral idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism, which was characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery of large forms, stimulated a renaissance of English music. Famous for his Enigma Variations and the magnificent "Pomp and Circumstance", Elgar is often considered as the greatest English-born composer since Henry Purcell, two centuries ago. (Elgar's Nimrod from "Enigma Variations" with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, opening the 1997 season at Carnegie Hall, uploaded by medpiano, accessed  June 2, 2015.  Performed by the BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek. Royal Albert Hall, 8 September 2012.)

1863 -  Paul Felix Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg, Austrian conductor, composer and pianist. Weingartner was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies, and the second (to Leopold Stokowski in Philadelphia) to record all four Brahms symphonies. In 1935 he conducted the world premiere of Georges Bizet's long-lost Symphony in C. He was more like Arturo Toscanini in insisting on playing music as written. His 1935 recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, for instance, sounds much more like Toscanini's 1936, 1938, 1939 and 1952 renditions (only the last of which was recorded in a studio rather than at a concert). He experimented with films of himself conducting (such as in his only recorded performance of Weber's overture to Der Freischütz) as a tool in "orchestral training". (Felix Weingartner - Cello Concerto in A-minor, Op. 60 (1916)  Uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng2. Accessed June 2, 2016.)

1904 - Johnny Weissmuller, Austro-Hungarian-born American competition swimmer, water polo player and actor (Star of Tarzan). He was known for playing Edgar Rice Burroughs' ape man Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century.

1907 - Dorothy West, American novelist and short-story writer during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her novel The Living Is Easy, as well as many other short stories and essays, about the life of an upper-class black family.

1944 - Marvin Frederick Hamlisch, American composer and conductor. Hamlisch was one of only sixteen people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. This collection of all four is referred to as an "EGOT". He is one of only two people (along with composer Richard Rodgers) to have won those four prizes and a Pulitzer Prize ("PEGOT"). Hamlisch's first job was as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl  with Barbra Streisand. Then he was hired by producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at Spiegel's parties. This connection led to his first film score, The Swimmer. His favorite musicals growing up were My Fair Lady, Gypsy, West Side Story, and Bye Bye Birdie. Hamlisch attended Queens College, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967. (Linda Eder - What I Did For Love (A Chorus Line) - Hallelujah Broadway. "What I Did for Love" is a popular song from the musical A Chorus Line, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban. YouTube, Accessed June 2, 2021.)


Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events today, 2 June - On This Day.

 

 

Featured Novel:

Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. 

To be “far from the madding crowd” is to be removed, literally or figuratively, from the frenzied actions of any large crowd or from the hustle and bustle of civilization.  Hardy's novel is a reminder that passion and beauty can reside in unexpected and ordinary places, even in the lowliest hearts of men. But, ultimately, nature will not fail, even in the presence of flawed beings such as Bathsheba Everdeen. 

Far from the Madding Crowd is the story of independent, beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene, who attracts three different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer, captivated by her fetching wilfulness; Frank Troy, a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor. This classic story of Bathsheba's choices and passions explores the nature of relationships and love, as well as the human ability to overcome hardships through resilience and perseverance. 

 

A famous quote from novel:  

Features:

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, this day, June 2, in 1953. 
"The Coronation" - HM Queen Elizabeth II. British Movietone. Accessed  June 2, 2017.

Historical Events

1793 - Jean-Paul Marat leads the expulsion of 31 Girondists from the French National convention, precipitating the Reign of Terror that sees 17,000 to 40,000 "counter revolutionaries" guillotined over the following year.    

1865 - The surrender of forces under Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith at Galveston, Texas, marks the end of the American civil War.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

 Classical Music / Composers Datebook: March 22

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. His various musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. To date, he has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He shares the same birthday with another 'giant' in musicals: Stephen Sondheim, 18 years his senior.  

 

 

Early years

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on 22 March 1948 in Kensington, London, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber, a composer and organist, and Jean Hermione Johnstone, a violinist and pianist. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a world-renowned solo cellist. On the BBC's genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, he learned that his mother's great-great-uncle was the soldier Sir Peregrine Maitland who in 1815 served as a major general at the Battle of Waterloo.

In 1965, when Lloyd Webber was a 17-year-old budding musical-theatre composer, he was introduced to the 20-year-old aspiring pop-song writer Tim Rice. Their first collaboration was The Likes of Us, an Oliver!-inspired musical based on the true story of Thomas John Barnardo. They produced a demo tape of that work in 1966, but the project failed to gain a backer.

The Likes of Us is stylistically fashioned after the Broadway musical of the 1940s and 1950s; it opens with a traditional overture comprising a medley of tunes from the show, and the score reflects some of Lloyd Webber's early influences, particularly Richard Rodgers, Frederick Loewe, and Lionel Bart. In this respect, it is markedly different from the composer's later work, which tends to be either predominantly or wholly through-composed, and closer in form to opera. 

^Mid-1970s

Lloyd Webber collaborated with Rice once again to write Evita (1978), a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. As with Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita was released first as a concept album (1976), featuring Julie Covington singing the part of Eva Perón. The song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit single and the musical was staged at the West End's Prince Edward Theatre in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Elaine Paige in the title role. This original production was enormously successful, eventually running for nearly eight years in the West End. 

Yvonne Elliman sings Jesus Christ Superstar ('73) "I don't know how to love him", the most brilliant interpretation in my books. Elliman doesn't just sing, she tells a story and shows her mixed feelings, emotions and doubts... all in a heartbeat.Youtube, uploaded by Blu Eyeangell. Accessed March 22, 2024.

Mid-80s

Lloyd Webber premiered The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in 1986. He wrote the part of Christine for his then wife, Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside Michael Crawford as the Phantom. It became a hit and is still running in the West End; in January 2006 it overtook Lloyd Webber's Cats as the longest-running show on Broadway. On 11 February 2012, Phantom of the Opera played its 10,000th show on Broadway. With over 14,200 London productions it is the second longest-running West End musical. The Broadway production closed on 16 April 2023, having played 13,981 performances, the most in Broadway history.

'Music of the Night' - Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, The Phantom of the Opera. Youtube, accessed March 22, 2024. 

February 3 Dateline

Birthdays

1525 - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. Considered the greatest composer of liturgical music, he wove his music from the traditions of the Counter-Reformation and the Baroque. He died February 2, 1594. He had a long-lasting influence on the development of church and secular music in Europe, especially on the development of counterpoint, and his work is considered the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. His compositions included masses, lamentations, hymns, motets, litanies, and magnificats. (O Magnum Mysterium - Palestrina. YouTube, King's College Choir Cambridge, Sir Philip Ledger. Uploaded by Frank James. Accessed February 3, 2018. Sicut Cervus - Palestrina. Westminster Cathedral Choir. Martin Baker, Director. YouTube, uploaded by AAMMS1967. Accessed February 3, 2020.)

1736 - Johann Georg Albrechtsbreger, Austrian music theorist and composer, organist, and and one of the teachers of Ludwig van Beethoven. He was friendly with Haydn and Mozart. His fame as a theorist attracted to him in the Austrian capital a large number of pupils, some of whom afterwards became eminent musicians. Among them were: Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, Josef Weigl, Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson, Antonio Casimir Cartellieri, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Reicha  and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Beethoven returned to Vienna in 1792 (a year after Mozart had died) to study with Joseph Haydn, but became infuriated when his work was not being given attention or corrected. Haydn recommended his friend Albrechtsberger, with whom Beethoven then studied harmony and counterpoint. On completion of his studies, the young student noted, "Patience, diligence, persistence, and sincerity will lead to success", which reflects upon Albrechtsberger's own compositional philosophy.

1809 - Felix Mendelssohn, (born Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Felix was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. (Listen to his best-known oratorio, Elijah, Op. 70).

1874 - Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. She moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home for the remainder of her life. She hosted a Paris salon, where the leading figures of modernism in literature and art, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson and Henri Matisse, would meet. In 1933, Stein published a quasi-memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Alice B. Toklas, her life partner. The book became a literary bestseller and vaulted Stein from the relative obscurity of the cult-literature scene into the limelight of mainstream attention. Two quotes from her works have become widely known: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," and "there is no there there", with the latter often taken to be a reference to her childhood home of Oakland. Her books include Q.E.D., about a lesbian romantic affair involving several of Stein's friends; Fernhurst, a fictional story about a love triangle; Three Lives; and The Making of Americans.

1894 - Norman Rockwell (Norman Percevel Rockwell), American author, painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades.

1907 - James A. Michener, American novelist of more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. His numerous bestsellers include: Tales of the South Pacific for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Caribbean, Alaska, Texas, Space, and Poland.  His first book was adapted as the famous Broadway & film musical South Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.  (Writers - James Michener (1907-1997). Accessed February 3, 2020.)

1927 - Val Doonican (Michael Valentine Doonican), Irish singer and entertainer. He sang traditional pop, easy listening, and novelty songs, and was noted for his warm and relaxed style. A crooner, he had five successive Top 10 albums in the 1960s as well as several hits on the UK Singles Chart, including "If the Whole World Stopped Lovin'", "Walk Tall" and "Elusive Butterfly". The Val Doonican Show, had a long and successful run on BBC Television; he won the Variety Club of Great Britain's BBC-TV Personality of the Year award three times.

Lefties:
None known

 
More birthdays and historical events, February 3 - On This Day

 

 

Historical Events

1966 - The first soft landing of an unmanned probe on the moon, Luna 9, is done by the U.S.S.R. This Soviet success spurs the U.S. on in the race to put a man on the moon. An earlier American probe, Ranger 8, crashed into the moon in 1965. The soft landing of Luna 9 showed that one day a manned landing might be possible.

1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper currency in America.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' The Golden Age of Broadway

 Choral Singing / Musicals

 

The GOLDEN AGE of BROADWAY presented by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Date:  Saturday 6 May 2023, 7pm
Venue: Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall

Note: This Concert Hall performance will be broadcast live to a ticketed audience on the Forecourt, as part of Inside/Out at the House, celebrating 50 years of the Sydney Opera House. Find out more at Sydneyoperahouse.com 

All the classic favourites in a dazzling tribute to the great Broadway musicals. 

 

What’s playin’ at The Roxy? I’ll tell ya what’s playin’ at The Roxy!

For one night only the Sydney Opera House will go back to a time of lush orchestrations, toe-tapping tunes, and those catchy songs that changed the shape of musical theatre for decades to come.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs will light up the stage with over 100 choristers, a star-studded cast of vocalists, and bring the Golden Age of Broadway back to life with the brilliant music of Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and more.

As part of the Inside/Out at the House classical festival celebrating the Sydney Opera House 50^th Anniversary, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Orchestra will present a stunning concert inside in the Concert Hall –  whilst also being broadcast to an audience on the Forecourt.

Music was the salve that healed the wounds of 1940’s America, a time in dire need of laughter and lightness – and composers answered the call with upbeat sing-a-long musicals such as On the Town and Kiss Me, Kate while stars like Gertrude Lawrence and Danny Kaye lit up the stage.

The Golden Age reached its zenith in the 1950s when audiences filled the theatres to see the likes of Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady with their unforgettable tunes and dancing. In the 1960s, as the Sydney Opera House was taking shape on the other side of the world, Broadway’s audiences thrilled to Hello Dolly, Mame and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It’s high energy, optimistic music that puts the choir in the spotlight!

Sit back and watch the house lights dim, and as the first notes unfold be transported to the Golden Age of Broadway.

Saturday 6 May | 7pm
Concert Hall | Sydney Opera House
And broadcast to the Forecourt

PROGRAM

An evening of dreamy choruses and beloved songs from the Broadway musicals that shaped our times, including Guys & Dolls, Oklahoma, Gypsy, Kiss Me Kate, My Fair Lady, and more*.

*Please note, this program may be subject to change.

 
The performance will run for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one 20-minute interval.

ARTISTS

Brett Weymark Conductor
Virginia Gay
Georgina Hopson
Kanen Breen
Alexander Lewis
Symphony Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra

BOOK TICKETS HERE

This Concert Hall performance will be broadcast live to a ticketed audience on the Forecourt, as part of Inside/Out at the House, celebrating 50 years of the Sydney Opera House. Find out more at sydneyoperahouse.com

 

Image: Conductor Brett Weymark, soloists, Symphony Chorus, and the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra.   

 

Reviews:

Golden Age of Broadway a Bewitching Show.  ClassikON.  Reviewed by Jacqui Smith | May 7, 2023 | Ambassador thoughts, Choirs, Music Directors & Conductors, Orchestras.  Accessed May 9, 2023.

Golden age of Broadway -A music review by Shirley Politzer.  J-Wire.  May 10, 2023. Accessed May 10, 2023.

Review: The Golden Age of Broadway is Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Contribution to The Sydney Opera House's Inside/Out At The House Season. broadwayworld.com.  Reviewed by Jade Kops. Accessed May 7, 2023.

The Golden Age of Broadway. Stage Whispers. Reviewed by Carol Wimmer. Accessed May 7, 2023.

The Golden Age of Broadway (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs). 4.5/5 Stars.  The stars come out for a night of popular music that sends its audience out on a high. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. Reviewed by Deborah Jones.  May 7, 2023

Related Links:

Broadway: The American Musical. Inspired Pen Web.

New York Philharmonic New Year's Eve: Bernstein on Broadway. YouTube, uploaded by rayray10. Accessed April 26, 2023. The New York Philharmonic celebrates the centennial of the late Leonard Bernstein, its fabled Musical Director from 1958 to 1969. Led by Bramwell Tovey, with special guests Annaleigh Ashford, Christopher Jackson, Laura Osnes and Aaron Tveit, this loving tribute promises to become a classical music moment to remember.

Oscar Hammerstein II. Inspired Pen Web.

Richard Rodgers. Inspired Pen Web.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Bernstein's Candide. Inspired Pen Web

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Bernstein's Wonderful Town. Inspired Pen Web.

Video Credit:

Videos are provided by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. 

 

Photo Credit:

 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs / Keith Saunders, Harvey House, Kate Williams, Alex Smiles, Amelia Dowd.

Resources:

The Golden Age of Broadway. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Accessed April 6, 2023 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' 2023 Season Catalogue. 

Tickets:

Premium $129 | A $105 | B $85 | C $60 | D $45
Concessions $116 | A $92| B $75 | C $55 | D $41
Under 30 $30
A booking fee of $8.95 per transaction applies.

COVID-19 SAFETY AT SPC CONCERTS

Up-to-date COVID guidelines will be available a few weeks before the concert. SPC regularly update their guidelines based on health directives from NSW Government & the Sydney Opera House. 

 

(c) April 6, 2023. Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

December 1 Dateline

Birthdays

1913 - Mary Martin, American actress, singer, and Broadway star. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949) and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1959). She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. Her next major success was in the role of Peter in the Broadway production of Peter Pan in October 1954 with Martin winning the Tony Award. She opened on Broadway in The Sound of Music as Maria on November 16, 1959, and stayed in the show until October 1961. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Amongst her other numerous awards, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1973. She received the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual honor for career achievements, in 1989. She was the mother of Dallas actor Larry Hagman. (Mary Martin's Peter Pan (1954) Colored Televised Musical. YouTube, uploaded by ObamaBin Lama.)

 
1930 - Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons), English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Known as The Man with the Golden Voice, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums across the world. His recordings include the UK Top 10 hits: "Portrait of My Love", "My Kind of Girl", "Softly As I Leave You", "Walk Away" and "Yesterday" (originally by The Beatles). He also recorded several film themes such as "From Russia with Love" for the James Bond film of the same name, "Born Free" for the film of the same name and "On Days Like These" for The Italian Job.  The Precious Moments.  Accessed December 1, 2020. )

1932 - Dame Isoleen Heather Begg, DNSM OBE, New Zealand-born operatic soprano who spent most of her career in the UK and Australia. She was renowned in roles such as the title role in Bizet's Carmen, Amneris in Verdi's Aida and in lighter operas such as The Gondoliers. (Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado - Act 1 Finale. Uploaded by DancairoOpera. Accessed December 1, 2016. The Act 1 finale to the 1973 production with the marvelous Heather Begg as Katisha. )

1933 - Louis Allen Rawls, American songwriter, actor, singer, and record producer. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song "You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine".

1935 - Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg), American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans multiple Academy Award-winning movies. He began his career as a comedy writer, working alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart and Neil Simon. He also began writing material for television, published several books featuring short stories, and writing humor pieces for The New Yorker. In the early 1960s, he performed as a stand-up comedian in Greenwich Village. He released three comedy albums during the mid to late 1960s, even earning a Grammy Award nomination for his 1964 comedy album entitled simply, Woody Allen. In 2004 Comedy Central ranked Allen fourth on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians, while a UK survey ranked Allen the third-greatest comedian.

1939 - Lee Buck Trevino, American retired professional golfer who is regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history. He was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. Trevino won six major championships and 29 PGA Tour events. He is one of only four players to twice win the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship. The Masters was the only major that eluded him. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "The Merry Mex" and "Supermex," affectionate nicknames given to him by other golfers.

1940 - Richard Pryor (Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor), American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is regarded as one of the most influential stand-up comedians of all time. His work includes the concert movies and recordings. As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies and occasionally in dramas. He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Pryor won an Emmy Award (1973) and five Grammy Awards. In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first-ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.  

 
1945 - Bette Midler, American actress, singer and entertainer. Many of her songs became chart hits, such as "The Rose", "Wind Beneath My Wings", and "From a Distance." She won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "The Rose", and Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings". She made her motion picture debut in 1979 with The Rose, which earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous hit films. In her starring roles in For the Boys and Gypsy, she won two additional Golden Globe Awards and received a second Academy Award nomination for the former. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which premiered at the Shubert Theatre in April 2017. The show was her first leading role in a Broadway musical. Midler received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. (B. Midler singing "The Rose." YouTube, Accessed December 1, 2018.  Bette Midler - From A Distance (Official Music Video, YouTube, uploaded by RHINO. Accessed July 26, 2020.)

1946 - Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish singer-songwriter who achieved his most significant success with his hit songs "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair", and "Get Down". O'Sullivan's songs are often marked by his distinctive, percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics using word play. Born in Waterford, Ireland, he settled in Swindon, England, as a child. He has charted 16 top 40 records including six No. 1 songs, the first of which was 1970's "Nothing Rhymed". Across his career, he has recorded 19 studio albums, up to his UK top 20 self-titled record in 2018. The music magazine Record Mirror voted him the top UK male singer of 1972. He has received three Ivor Novello Awards, including “Songwriter of the Year” in 1973. (Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (original version). YouTube, uploaded by valliseasons1. Accessed March 17, 2021.)

1951 - Richard Treat Williams, American actor, writer, and aviator who has appeared on film, stage and television. He first became well known for his starring role in the 1979 musical film Hair, and later also starred in the films Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America, The Late Shift and 127 Hours. From 2002 to 2006, he was the lead of the television series Everwood and was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has additionally been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, two Satellite Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award.

Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events, December 1 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine of Martinique.  

1886 - Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde in its American premiere is enormously successful. Anton Seidl conducted the Metropolitan Opera in the New York opening.

October 1 Dateline

Birthdays

1881 - William Edward Boeing, American Aviator, aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company in 1916.

1903 - Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz, Russian-born American Classical pianist and composer, who lived most of his life in the United States. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, his tone color, and the excitement engendered by his playing. (Horowitz Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto Mehta NYPO 1978. YouTube, uploaded by Pedro Taam.) 

1920 - Walter Matthau (born Walter John Matthow), American actor. He is most popularly known for his film roles opposite Jack Lemmon, playing Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, and its sequel, The Odd Couple II. Matthau also appeared opposite Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie. Aside from the Oscar, he won BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony awards. His performances in Hopscotch (1980) and First Monday in October (1981) earned him nominations for the Golden Globe Best Actor—Motion Picture Musical or Comedy two years in a row. On Broadway, Matthau originated the role of Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple play by playwright Neil Simon in 1965.

1921 - James Whitmore (James Allen Whitmore Jr.), American film, theatre, and television actor. During his career, Whitmore won three of the four EGOT honors: an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. Whitmore also won a Golden Globe and was nominated for two Academy Awards.

 
1924 - Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter Jr.), 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He's a politician, philanthropist, and former farmer. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Since leaving the presidency, Carter has remained engaged in political and social projects as a private citizen. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.

1930 - Sir Richard John Harris, Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, appearing as Frank Machin in This Sporting Life, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and King Arthur in the 1967 film Camelot, as well as the 1981 revival of the stage musical. (Camelot (1967). He played an aristocrat captured by Native Americans in A Man Called Horse (1970), a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992), Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) as Abbé Faria, and Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films. Harris had a number-one singing hit in Australia, Jamaica and Canada, and a top-ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and United States with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park." In 2020, he was listed at number 3 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.  "I wonder what the King is doing tonight". Sung by Richard Harris, as King Arthur. Accessed October 1, 2018.)

1935 - Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells), English actress, singer and author. She appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend. She is famous for her roles as Maria in The Sound of Music and as Mary Poppins in the title role. She rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady (1956) playing Eliza Doolittle, and Camelot (1960) playing Queen Guinevere. In 1957, Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's written-for-television musical Cinderella, a live, network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers. Andrews has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, five Golden Globes, three Grammys, two Emmys, the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Award, and the Disney Legends Award. She is also an author of children's books and has published an autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008). (Julie Andrews Sings Her Favourite Songs. Uploaded by TheMissingReels. Accessed October 1, 2017. Julie Andrews Accepts the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award. YouTube, uploaded by AFI. Accessed June 30, 2022.)

Lefties:
Actor James Whitmore

 

 

More birthdays and historical events, October 1 - On This Day 

 

Featuring:

Celebrating the birthday of incomparable Dame Julie Andrews. Below is a video: Talking Pictures: Julie Andrews, with interviews from archive and classic clips of her life and career. Uploaded by Simon Ingram. Accessed October 1, 2020.

Historical Events

1869 - Dr. Emanuel Herrmann, Austrian economics professor, sends the world's first postcard. It is "no longer than an envelope, sent open via the mails."

1964 - Bullet Trains, or Shinkansen, begin service in Japan.