2nd Tony Awards
The 2nd Tony Awards were held on March 28, 1948, at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom in New York City, and broadcast on radio station WOR and the Mutual Network. The Masters of Ceremonies were Harry Hershfield, Bert Lytell, and Hiram Sherman. The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, or more commonly, the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live Broadway productions and performances, plus several non-competitive Special Awards (such as the Regional Theatre Award). They are presented by the American Theatre Wing and the League of American Theatres and Producers at an annual ceremony in New York City. Ceremony The award for the women was a gold bracelet, with a disc inscribed with the actress' initials and the name of the prize, and the men received a gold bill clip, similarly inscribed. Performers and performances were: ''High Button Shoes'' (Nanette Fabray, Helen Gallagher, and Donald Saddler), ''Make Mine Manhattan'' ( Kyle MacDonnell and Joshua Shelley), ''Loo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze and Weaver, which was completed in 1931. The building was the world's tallest hotel from 1931 until 1963 when it was surpassed by Moscow's Hotel Ukraina by . An icon of glamour and luxury, the Waldorf Astoria is one of the world's most prestigious and best-known hotels. Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts is a division of Hilton Hotels, and a portfolio of high-end properties around the world operates under the name, including in New York City. Both the exterior and the interior of the Waldorf Astoria are designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as official landmarks. The original Waldorf–Astoria was built in two stages along Fifth Avenue and opened in 1893; it was demolished in 1929 to make way for the constructi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nanette Fabray
Nanette Fabray (born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Theresa Fabares; October 27, 1920 – February 22, 2018) was an American actress, singer, and dancer. She began her career performing in vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ... as a child and became a musical-theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed for her role in ''High Button Shoes'' (1947) and winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in ''Love Life (musical), Love Life''. In the mid-1950s, she served as Sid Caesar's comedic partner on ''Caesar's Hour'', for which she won three Emmy Awards, as well as appearing with Fred Astaire in the film musical ''The Band Wagon''. From 1979 to 1984, she played Katherine Romano, the mother of lead character Ann Romano, on the TV series ''One Day at a Time ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Maggie Teyte
Dame Maggie Teyte (born Margaret Tate; 17 April 188826 May 1976) was an English operatic soprano and interpreter of French art song. Early years Margaret Tate was born in Wolverhampton, England, one of ten children of Jacob James Tate, a successful wine and spirit merchant and proprietor of public houses and later lodgings. Her parents were keen amateur musicians and opera enthusiasts. She was the sister of composer James W. Tate. Her family moved to London in 1898, where Teyte attended St. Joseph's Convent School, Snow Hill, and later studied at the Royal School of Music. Career Her father died in 1903 and she went to Paris the following year to become a pupil of the celebrated tenor Jean de Reszke. She made her first public appearance in Paris in 1906 when she sang Cherubino in ''The Marriage of Figaro'' and Zerlina in ''Don Giovanni'', both conducted by Reynaldo Hahn. Her professional debut took place at the Opera House in Monte Carlo on 1 February 1907, where she perform ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Met was founded in 1883 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, and debuted the same year in a new building on 39th and Broadway (now known as the "Old Met"). It moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. Until 2019, it presented about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pia Tassinari
Pia Tassinari (15 September 1903, Modigliana – 15 May 1995, Faenza) was an Italian soprano and later mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertories. Life and career Born Domenica Tassinari, she studied in Bologna with Cesare Vezzani and in Milan with Marcantoni. She made her debut in 1927 as Mimi, in Casale Monferrato. She sang widely in Italy before making her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1932 in the première of Veretti’s ''Il favorito del re''. She also appeared in Russia and South America, and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1947, as ''Tosca''. She appeared in Naples in a notable revival of Saverio Mercadante's ''Il giuramento'' in 1955. She sang a wide range of roles, including: Marguerite, Manon, Elisabeth, Elsa, Fedora, etc. She was also much admired in contemporary works by Zandonai, Wolf-Ferrari, and Respighi. In the 1950s, as her voice darkened, she tackled successfully mezzo-soprano roles, notab ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ferruccio Tagliavini
Ferruccio Tagliavini (; 14 August 191329 January 1995) was an Italian operatic tenor mainly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Tagliavini was hailed as the heir apparent to Tito Schipa and Beniamino Gigli in the lyric-opera repertory due to the exceptional beauty of his voice, but he did not sustain his great early promise across the full span of his career. Career Tagliavini was born in Cavazzoli, Reggio Emilia and studied in Parma with Italo Brancucci and in Florence and with Amedeo Bassi, a well-known dramatic verismo and Wagnerian Italian tenor of the pre-World War I era whose voice (as recorded) could not be more unlike Tagliavini's (see M.Scott, ''The Record of Singing'', 1978). It was also in Florence that he made his professional debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in ''La bohème''. He swiftly gained recognition as one of the leading tenori di grazia of his time in operas such as ''The Barber of Seville'', ''L'elisir d'amore'', ''Don Pasquale'', ''La sonnambula'', ''Lucia di Lammermoo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lucy Monroe
Lucy Monroe (October 23, 1906 – October 13, 1987) was an American operatic soprano and dancer. She was noted for her performances of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States, which she performed for Presidents and at sporting and military events, which earned her the nickname of "The Star-Spangled Soprano". Early life Monroe was born on October 23, 1906, in Manhattan, New York; she was the only child of Anna Laughlin, an actress, and Dwight Monroe, a gem merchant. Dwight met Anna when she performed the role of Dorothy Gale in the Broadway production of '' The Wizard of Oz''. On her father's side, she was a descendant of James Monroe. Monroe graduated from the Horace Mann School, where she was a member of the glee club. Her father did not want her to pursue a career in music, but after he died in 1925, her mother encouraged Monroe's ambitions. She pursued further studies in singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk (born Elsie Kirk, February 25, 1925 – November 11, 1990) was an American actress and singer noted for her comic talents and rich contralto (her voice was called a husky alto). Career Born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, she was raised in Roscoe, Pennsylvania. Her Roscoe home later became the Hotel Roscoe. She enrolled as a law student at the University of Pittsburgh but abandoned her studies when she was offered a spot in the chorus line at the Versailles nightclub in Manhattan.Lisa Kirk biography Bigbandsandbignames.com, retrieved March 18, 2010 She studied theatre at in New York City and made her [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jack Carter (comedian)
Jack Chakrin (June 24, 1922 – June 28, 2015), known by his stage name Jack Carter, was an American comedian, actor and television presenter. Brooklyn-born, Carter had a long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid-paced contemporaries Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam. Life and career Carter was born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York, in 1922 to a Jewish family. Carter served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He hosted an early television variety program called ''Cavalcade of Stars'' on the DuMont Network. He was lured to NBC to host his own program titled ''The Jack Carter Show''. Carter recommended Jackie Gleason take his place as host of ''Cavalcade of Stars'', though DuMont did not hire Gleason until the network's choice, Jerry Lester, also jumped to NBC. ''The Jack Carter Show'' appeared under the banner of the ''Saturday Night Revue'', NBC's -hour Saturday night programming slot. Carter hosted his show for one hour each week followed b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Virginia Gorski
Virginia Gibson (born Virginia Gorski; April 9, 1925 – April 25, 2013) was an American dancer, singer and actress of film, television and musical theatre. Early years Of Polish and Irish lineage, Gibson was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Gorski. She graduated from St. Alphonsus Parochial School. Career Gibson, who was signed by Warner Bros. in 1950 and made her film debut in '' Tea for Two'' (1950), started her career in musicals in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1937, she was one of 35 girls chosen for ballet in St. Louis Opera Company productions. She danced in the chorus of a production of ''The Student Prince'' there in 1940, and in 1943 she was part of the dancing chorus of the summer season of the Muny Opera. In the fall of 1943, she was one of three dancers from that group to sign contracts to perform in ''Roll Up Your Sleeves'' on Broadway. She used her birth name on Broadway through 1949. In 1947, she returned to perform at Muny Opera, this time ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joshua Shelley
Joshua Shelley (born Joshua Kurzweil; January 27, 1920 – February 16, 1990) was one of the actors blacklisted by movie studios as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee's ( HUAC) investigation of the Communist Party in Hollywood in 1952. He did not begin to again work regularly in Hollywood until 1973 when his career restarted. Career A member of The Actors Studio from its inception in 1947, Shelley worked frequently on stage, both on and off Broadway, during his Hollywood exile. Shelley's onscreen work, both pre- and post-blacklist, was confined primarily to television. Nonetheless, two career highlights remain Shelley's enthusiastically received 1949 feature film debut in ''City Across the River'', as well as the blacklist-related 1976 film, ''The Front'', notable for reuniting Shelley with several fellow blacklistees, including cast members Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough, screenwriter Walter Bernstein and director Martin Ritt, the latter al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kyle MacDonnell
Ruth Kyle MacDonnell (c. 1922 - September 28, 2004) was an American model, singer, and actress. She was featured as a "Television Ingenue" on the front page of ''Life'' magazine's May 31, 1948, issue. Early years The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George B. MacDonnell of Larned, Kansas, she graduated from Larned High School and Kansas State College and did post-graduate study at Ward-Belmont College, where she was a member of the Glee Club. Career In September 1945, MacDonnell was named Miss Nashville Air Transport Command, making her the group's "official sweetheart and pin-up girl". A contemporary newspaper account of the event reported that thousands of people were turned away from the "jam-packed" War Memorial Auditorium in which MacDonnell was selected over 26 other contestants. The win gained national attention for MacDonnell and worldwide distribution of her photograph to ATC stations. Winning led to MacDonnell's becoming a professional model for Harry Conover's agency. Conov ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |