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My Friend Lester
''My Friend Lester'' is a 1947 farce play by Alec Coppel. It debuted at the Embassy Theatre in London on 14 April 1947 and later moved to St Martin's Theatre. The play seems to have been reworked by Coppel as ''The Gazebo''. Plot A playwright, looking for material, invites a harlot to his flat, where she is shot by her protector. The playwright has to dispose of a body. Original cast * Richard Bird as Lester Judd, the writer * Linden Travers as Miriam Hudd * Charles Goldner as Mick, the pimp *Sydney King as Chalfont *Jack Richie as Lynch * John Sharp as Randall *Pat Smylie as Toto Original reviews ''The Guardian'' said the central "situation is perhaps not inherently wretched... but the skill and wit, to say nothing of the good taste which might make the effort worthwhile are not to be found in the material." The ''Observer'' felt that "Alec Coppel is hardly resourceful enough... the farce goes off the boil too soon. But there are passages of fine frenzy and the right comic de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alec Coppel
Alec Coppel (17 September 1907 – 22 January 1972) was an Australian-born screenwriter, novelist and playwright. He spent the majority of his career in London and Hollywood, specialising in light thrillers, mysteries and sex comedies. He is best known for the films ''Vertigo'' (1958), ''The Captain's Paradise'' (1953), '' Mr Denning Drives North'' (1951) and '' Obsession'' (1949), and the plays ''I Killed the Count'' and ''The Gazebo''. Biography Early life Coppel was born in Melbourne and attended Wesley College. He moved to England in the 1920s to study medicine at Cambridge University, but dropped out before graduating and went to work in advertising, writing in his spare time. Coppel's first stage plays were ''Short Circuit'' (1935) and ''The Stars Foretell'' (1936). ''I Killed the Count'' His first big success was his play ''I Killed the Count'' (1937), which had a successful run in the West End. Coppel turned it into a novel (1939), screenplay and radio play. It also led ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sun (Sydney)
''The Sun'' was an Australian afternoon tabloid newspaper, first published under that name in 1910. History ''The Sunday Sun'' was first published on 5 April 1903. In 1910 Hugh Denison founded Sun Newspaper Ltd and took over publication of the old and ailing and ''Australian Star'' and its sister ''Sunday Sun'', appointing Monty Grover as editor-in-chief. The ''Star'' became ''The Sun'', and the ''Sunday Sun'' became ''The Sun: Sunday edition'' on 11 December 1910. According to its claim, below the masthead of that issue, it had a "circulation larger than that of any other Sunday paper in Australia". Denison sold the business in 1925. In 1953, The Sun was acquired from Associated Newspapers by Fairfax Holdings in Sydney, Australia, as the afternoon companion to ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. At the same time, the former Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Sun'', was discontinued and merged with the ''Sunday Herald'' into the tabloid '' Sun-Herald''. Publication of ''The Sun'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bird (actor)
Richard Bird (4 April 1895 – December 1979) was an English actor and film director, director of stage and screen. Born George, Bird took the stage name Richard Bird after being nicknamed "Dickie" by his theatre colleagues. After working in a newspaper office for a year he made his stage debut as a member of the Liverpool Repertory Company in 1917. He went on to appear on both the London, (vide (Latin) 'The French Mistress') and American stage, making his film debut in some silent shorts during 1919. He appeared in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s, playing the lead roles in quota quickies ''The Warren Case'' and ''What Happened Then?'' (both 1934). His film roles of the 1930s tended towards melodrama, such as the jealous Ernest in Maurice Elvey's ''The Water Gipsies (film), The Water Gipsies'' (1932), and the murderous Eric opposite Matheson Lang in ''The Great Defender'' (1934). Middle-age made his characters more affable and his later films showcase his ability at light ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linden Travers
Florence Lindon-Travers, known professionally as Linden Travers (27 May 1913 – 23 October 2001Ronald Bergan ), was a British actress. Life and career Travers was born in Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, the daughter of Florence (née Wheatley) and William Halton Lindon-Travers. She was the elder sister of Bill Travers, and attended La Sagesse. She made her first stage appearance at the Newcastle Playhouse in 1933. She made her West End debut the following year in Ivor Novello's ''Murder in Mayfair'', and appeared in her first film, ''Children of the Fog'' in 1935. She played a substantial role in Carol Reed’s ''Bank Holiday'' (1938). One of her most widely seen performances was as "Mrs." Todhunter in Alfred Hitchcock's ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938). She also appeared in ''The Stars Look Down'' (1940) '' The Ghost Train'' (1941), and ''Quartet'' (1948). Her career consisted mainly of supporting roles, but she also played occasional lead roles, such as Miss Blandish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Goldner
Charles Goldner was an Austrian-born actor who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Vienna, Austria, on 7 December 1900, he made his screen debut in the 1940 film '' Room for Two'' and went on to appear in '' Brighton Rock'', '' No Orchids for Miss Blandish'', '' Bond Street'' and '' The Captain's Paradise''. His stage work included starring in the 1954 Broadway musical ''The Girl in Pink Tights''. He died on 15 April 1955 in London, England. Partial filmography * '' Room for Two'' (1940) - (uncredited) * ''The Seventh Survivor'' (1942) - Tony Anzoni * ''Mr. Emmanuel'' (1944) - Committee Secretary * ''Flight from Folly'' (1945) - Ramon * ''The Laughing Lady'' (1946) - Robespierre * '' Brighton Rock'' (1948) - Colleoni * '' No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' (1948) - Louis—Headwaiter * '' One Night with You'' (1948) - Fogliati * '' Bond Street'' (1948) - Waiter * ''Bonnie Prince Charlie'' (1948) - Capt. Ferguson * '' Third Time Lucky'' (1949) - ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sharp (actor)
John Herbert Sharp ( – ) was a British actor who made numerous appearances on television during a career spanning 42 years. Biography Sharp made more than 130 appearances in television and occasionally films between 1949 and 1991. Although active in theatre, Sharp began as a film actor in 1949 and appeared in films throughout the 1950s. By the mid-1960s he mostly appeared in British television on popular shows of the era such as '' The Avengers'' ''"Murdersville"'' episode, the ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' episode ''"The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo"''; ''The Prisoner'', ''Not on Your Nellie'' opposite Hylda Baker, ''Z-Cars'', and in 1976 in ''The Sweeney'' episode ''"On the Run"'' in which he played ''Uncle,'' a homosexual retired Magistrate who becomes embroiled in the escape of a psychopathic prisoner having befriended the prisoner's former accomplice. He performed in Charles Dickens TV adaptations in the 1980s. In 1991, he made his last television appearan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1947 In Theatre
It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in the 20th century causes extensive disruption of travel. Given the low ratio of private vehicle ownership at the time, it is mainly remembered in terms of its effects on the railway network. * January 1 - The Canadian Citizenship Act comes into effect. * January 4 – First issue of weekly magazine ''Der Spiegel'' published in Hanover, Germany, edited by Rudolf Augstein. * January 10 – The United Nations adopts a resolution to take control of the free city of Trieste. * January 15 – Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", is found brutally murdered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles; the mysterious case is never solved. * January 16 – Vincent Auriol is inaugurated as president of France. * January 19 – Ferry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1947 Plays
It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in the 20th century causes extensive disruption of travel. Given the low ratio of private vehicle ownership at the time, it is mainly remembered in terms of its effects on the railway network. * January 1 - The Canadian Citizenship Act comes into effect. * January 4 – First issue of weekly magazine ''Der Spiegel'' published in Hanover, Germany, edited by Rudolf Augstein. * January 10 – The United Nations adopts a resolution to take control of the free city of Trieste. * January 15 – Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", is found brutally murdered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles; the mysterious case is never solved. * January 16 – Vincent Auriol is inaugurated as president of France. * January 19 – Ferry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Plays
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Plays
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב maarav 'west' from עֶרֶב erev 'evening'. Navigation To go west using a compass for navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
