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Rio Rita (musical)
''Rio Rita'' is a 1927 stage musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, music by Harry Tierney, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, and produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. This musical united Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey as a comedy team and made them famous. It premiered on Broadway on February 2, 1927, at the new Ziegfeld Theatre and, after moving to the Lyric Theatre and Majestic Theatre, closed on April 7, 1928 after 494 performances, a very long run for its time. In Sydney, Gladys Moncrieff appeared in a successful production at the St James Theatre. The musical premiered in London's West End on April 3, 1930, at the then newly opened Prince Edward Theatre. The musical was made into a film in 1929, '' Rio Rita'', starring Bebe Daniels and John Boles along with the team of Wheeler & Woolsey. Based on the success of this film, Wheeler & Woolsey were also given contracts to star in a series of comedies. Another film based on the musical was made in 1942. Background ...
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Harry Tierney
Harry Austin Tierney (May 21, 1890 – March 22, 1965) was an American composer of musical theatre, best known for long-running hits such as ''Irene'' (1919), Broadway's longest-running show of the era (620 performances), ''Kid Boots'' (1923) and'' Rio Rita'' (1927), one of the first musicals to be turned into a talking picture (and later remade starring Abbott and Costello). Life and career Born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, United States, he was most active between about 1910 and 1930, often collaborating with the lyricist Joseph McCarthy. His mother was a pianist, his father a trumpeter, and he himself toured as a concert pianist in his early years. After a brief spell working in London for a music publisher, he returned to the United States in 1916. Over the next couple of decades many of his songs were used in the ''Ziegfeld Follies'', and were performed by the premier singers of the day, such as Eddie Cantor, Anna Held and Edith Day. The year 1919 saw his greatest Broadway hi ...
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Rio Rita (1929 Film)
''Rio Rita'' is a 1929 American pre-Code RKO musical comedy starring Bebe Daniels and John Boles along with the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. (Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in his first starring role). The film is based on the 1927 stage musical produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, which originally united Wheeler and Woolsey as a team and made them famous. The film was the biggest and most expensive RKO production of 1929 as well as the studio's biggest box office hit until ''King Kong'' (1933). Its finale was photographed in two-color Technicolor. ''Rio Rita'' was chosen as one of the 10 best films of 1929 by '' Film Daily''. Plot Bert Wheeler plays Chick Bean, a New York bootlegger who comes to the Mexican town of San Lucas to get a divorce so he can marry Dolly ( Dorothy Lee). After the wedding, Ned Lovett (Robert Woolsey), Chick's lawyer, informs Chick the divorce was invalid, and advises Wheeler to stay away from his bride. The Wheeler-Woolsey plot is actually a subpl ...
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Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance of , flying alone for 33.5 hours. His aircraft, the ''Spirit of St. Louis'', was designed and built by the Ryan Airline Company specifically to compete for the Raymond Orteig#Orteig Prize, Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown, first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first nonstop transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest by over . It is known as one of the most consequential flights in history and ushered in a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe. Lindbergh was raised mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., the son of prominent U.S. Congressman from Minnesota, Charles ...
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Noel Francis
Noel Francis (born Noel Frances Sweeney, August 31, 1906 – October 30, 1959) was an American actress of the stage and screen during the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Texas, she began her acting career on the Broadway stage in the mid-1920s, before moving to Hollywood at the beginning of the sound film era. Originally cast in films for her song and dance abilities, when musicals began to fall out of favor, she became better known for her tough girl characters. However, by the mid-1930s, she was being typecast into smaller roles, and made an attempt at a comeback on Broadway. When that failed, she returned briefly to Hollywood to make several B films, before retiring in 1937. Early life Francis was born on August 31, 1906, in Temple, Texas, and grew up in Dallas. After high school, Francis attended Southern Methodist University and moved to New York City, where she attended Columbia University. Career Her break came when she was 19 years old, when she was cast as a Ziegfeld g ...
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Ada May Weeks
Ada May Weeks Potter Castegnaro (March 8, 1896 – April 25, 1978), sometimes billed as Ada May or Ada Mae Weeks, or referred to as the Countess Castegnaro, was an American actress and dancer, on stage, film, and radio. Early life Weeks was born in Oyster Bay, New York, the daughter of Charles Meeks and Ada M. Thomson Weeks. She started dancing as a very young child. Her sisters Marion, Grace, and Ruth also became actresses. Career Weeks was a dancer, actress, and musical comedy performer. She used the name "Ada May" on advice from Zelda Sears. Her stage credits included roles in ''Around the Map'' (1915 –1916, as understudy for Marilyn Miller), ''Come to Bohemia'' (1916), ''Miss Springtime'' (1916 –1917), ''Miss 1917'' (1917), ''Listen, Lester'' (1918–1919, dancing with Clifton Webb), ''Jim Jam Jems'' (1920–1921), ''The O'Brien Girl'' (1921 –1922), ''Lollipop'' (1924), '' Rio Rita'' (1927–1928), and '' The Good Fairy'' (1932–1933). She appeared in the films ' ...
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Vincent Serrano
Vincent Serrano (February 17, 1866 – January 11, 1935) was an American actor in plays and silent films. Biography Serrano's best-known role was as Lieutenant Denton in the Augustus Thomas play ''Arizona'', which had its New York opening in September 1900. He acted the role in over 1,000 performances. He also appeared in 13 movies, the last of which was 1927's ''Convoy''. His last stage role was as General Esteban in the 1927 Broadway musical '' Rio Rita''.(January 12, 1935)Vincent Serrano, Noted Actor, Dies ''The New York Times''(September 30, 1916)Vincent Serrano ''The Moving Picture World''Storms, A.DThe Players Blue Book pp. 254–55 (1901)(April 17, 1901)Plays and Players ''Baltimore Morning Herald'' His mother was the translator Mary J. Serrano, wife of a South American government minister. He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Partial filmography * ''Lydia Gilmore'' (1915) * ''A Modern Monte Cristo'' (1917) * ''One Law for Both'' (1917 ...
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Ethelind Terry
Ethelind Terry (14 August 1899 – 17 March 1984) was an American stage and film actress. Career Terry starred in one of the most famous Broadway shows of the 1920s, the musical '' Rio Rita'' produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. She also starred in the film ''Lord Byron of Broadway''. Marriages Terry married Benedict Bogeaus in 1928. They divorced in 1931 and continued a strained relationship for 11 years. Terry eloped to Las Vegas with the actor Dick Purcell. The two married on March 3, 1942, only to divorce on August 26, 1942. Theatrical appearances *''Honeydew'' (Broadway, premiered September 6, 1920) *''Kid Boots'' (Broadway, premiered December 31, 1923) *'' Rio Rita'' (Broadway, premiered February 2, 1927) *''Nina Rosa'' (Broadway, premiered September 20, 1930) Filmography *'' Music Box Revue'' (1923), Pathé film of C. B. Cochran's London production including Terry performing with Renie Riano *''Lord Byron of Broadway'' (1930) *'' Nertsery Rhymes ''Nertsery Rhym ...
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South Pacific (musical)
''South Pacific'' is a musical theatre, musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Book (musical theatre), book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The work premiered in 1949 on Broadway theatre, Broadway and was an immediate hit, running for 1,925 performances. The plot is based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Pulitzer Prize–winning 1947 book ''Tales of the South Pacific'' and combines elements of several of those stories. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, send a strong progressive message on racism. The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of th ...
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Oklahoma!
''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Oklahoma, Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie. The original Broadway theatre, Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. It was a box office hit and ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances, later enjoying award-winning revivals, national tours, foreign productions and an Academy Awards, Oscar-winning 1955 Oklahoma! (1955 film), film adaptation. It has long been a popular choice for school and community productions. Rodgers and Hammerstein won a Pulitzer Prize Special Citatio ...
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Rodgers And Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular Broadway productions in the 1940s and 1950s initiated what is considered the "golden age" of musical theater. Gordon, John Steele''Oklahoma'!'. Retrieved June 13, 2010 Five of their Broadway shows, ''Oklahoma!'', '' Carousel'', '' South Pacific'', ''The King and I'' and ''The Sound of Music'', were outstanding successes, as was the television broadcast of ''Cinderella'' (1957). Of the other four shows that the team produced on Broadway during their lifetimes, ''Flower Drum Song'' was well-received, and none was an outright flop. Most of their shows have received frequent revivals around the world, both professional and amateur. Among the many accolades their shows (and film versions) garnered were thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academ ...
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George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the songs " Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit " Summertime". Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inq ...
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Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the ''Cotton Blossom'', a Mississippi River show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", " Make Believe", and " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man". The musical was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld. The premiere of ''Show Boat'' on Broadway was an important event in the history of American musical theatre. It "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness", compared with the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century. According to ''The Complete Book of Light Opera ...
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