1860 Birthday of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), one of the fathers of modern drama, whose comparatively small oeuvre includes classics The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters, The Seagull and …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1908 J. Lucifer Mephisto tempts a sculptor to be unfaithful in The Soul Kiss. Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, this musical comedy stars Ralph Herz, Adeline Genee, and Cecil Lean. Harry B. Smit…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1885 Birthday of master tunesmith Jerome Kern (1885-1945), who will write scores to many Broadway shows, including classics, Show Boat, Sally, Very Good Eddie and Roberta. His songs will…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1925 Birthday of actor Paul Newman, who will star on Broadway in Picnic, The Sweet Bird of Youth and The Desperate Hours before going to Hollywood and becoming a film star. He will make a la…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1915 It'll be 90 in the Shade for only 40 performances. The unpaid actors will refuse to go on in this musical with a Jerome Kern score and book by Guy Bolton. Richard Carle and Marie Ca…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1776 Birthday of E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), whose stories formed the basis of the ballets Coppelia and The Nutcracker.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1922 It's booze, jazz and The National Anthem. J. Hartley Manners' work showcases his wife, Laurette Taylor, and Ralph Morgan. This drama will run at the Henry Miller Theatre for 114…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1912 Stop in at the Liberty Theatre in New York and see just what it takes when you're Elevating a Husband. Edward Everett Horton, Conway Tearle and Jessie Carter are among the cast of t…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1903 Dorothy, The Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are first seen on Broadway today in the original musical The Wizard of Oz, with music by Paul Tietjens and book and lyrics by L…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1896 Say good morning, George. Actually it was "Nathan" then — Nathan Birnbaum born today. As George Burns, he and Gracie Allen will become headliners of vaudeville. Together the…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1887 Birthday of Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943), actor, author, radio personality, theatre critic of The New York Times, and one of the original members of the Algonquin Round Table is …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1882 Birthday of A. A. Milne (1882-1956), best-known as creator of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, but also a prolific Broadway playwright, author of Mr. Pim Passes By, The Truth …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1911 Love is never easy, especially when a woman is the object of affection for The Scarecrow. Percy MacKaye used "Feathertop," Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale as a starting point f…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1622 Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by the nom de plume Moliere (1622-1673), one of France's greatest playwrights, who will go on to write Tartuffe, School for Wives, …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1903 Opening night of The Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett play about a child, much in the same vein as her The Secret Garden. Little Princess will run just 34 performances.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1925 Birthday of one of Broadway's all-time greatest leading ladies, Gwen Verdon (1925-2000). She was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actress or Featured Actress in a Musica…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1878 Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár (1878-1952) is born today in Budapest. He will write The Good Fairy, The Play's the Thing, The Guardsman, The Swan and Liliom, the latter of…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1899 "I would rather play Ibsen than eat — and that's often what it amounts to," said Eva Le Gallienne, born in London today. Her determination and drive will lead her to a s…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1820 Birthday of Louisa Lane Drew, matriarch of the Drew and Barrymore acting dynasty that would eventually include John Drew, Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and today'…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:27AM1890 Playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) is born today in Bohemia. His 1920's play R. U. R. will introduce the word "robot" (from the Czech word for worker) and show robots …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1900 Blanche Bates, who will go on to play Cho-Cho San in Madame Butterfly, now stars in David Belasco's Naughty Anthony. Oliver Redpath co-stars in this comedy at the Herald Squ…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1923 Future actor Vincenzio Scognamiglio is born in Naples, Italy. Doesn't sound familiar? Try Vincent Gardenia, who will appear on the stage in The Wall, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1768 Birthday of John Durang (1768-1816), identified by scholars as one of the first American-born professional dancers and actors. Known for his "Dwarf Dance," "Sailo…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1894 U.S. premiere of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Ida Jeffries Goodfriend, at the Berkeley Lyceum Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1905 Quivery-voiced actor Sterling Holloway (1905-1992) is born today in Cedartown, GA. He will become a fixture of Broadway's The Garrick Gaieties revues of the 1920s and '3…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1909 Birthday of Victor Borge (1909-2000), pianist and comedian whose 1953 Comedy in Music ran 888 performances, the longest run ever for a solo musical on Broadway. He followed it with …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1910 American actress Agnes Booth dies today at age of 63. She was the wife of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. and the sister-in-law of Edwin Booth.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1900 Chris and the Wonderful Lamp is based on the Arabian Nights and opens at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre in New York. This musical, with a book by Glen MacDonough and score by John P…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:13AM1879 World premiere of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York, with Alice Barnett as Ruth.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1907 In The Comet Alla Nazimova plays a woman who falls in love with her former lover's son, who eventually kills himself. This first play for Owen Johnson will run for seven weeks.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1919 The Lafayette Players of New York, a black troupe, opens the newest theatre in Philadelphia, the Dunbar, with a production of Within the Law. The house, named for poet Paul Lawrence Dun…
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