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Roberta
''Roberta'' is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel ''Gowns by Roberta'' by Alice Duer Miller. It features the songs " Yesterdays", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Let's Begin", "You're Devastating", "Something Had To Happen", "The Touch of Your Hand" and "I'll Be Hard to Handle". Productions The original Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 18, 1933, and ran for 295 performances closing on 21 July 1934. It starred Tamara Drasin (billed as Tamara), Bob Hope, George Murphy, Lyda Roberti, Fred MacMurray, Fay Templeton, Ray Middleton (billed as Raymond E. Middleton), Allan Jones, and Sydney Greenstreet. Hope, Murphy, MacMurray and Greenstreet were not yet the Hollywood stars they would soon be, and Middleton was not the Broadway leading man he would become after '' Annie Get Your Gun''. An Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on December 22, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberta (1935 Film)
''Roberta'' is a 1935 American musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of the 1933 Broadway musical ''Roberta'', which in turn was based on the novel ''Gowns by Roberta'' by Alice Duer Miller. It was a solid hit, showing a net profit of more than three-quarters of a million dollars. The film kept the famous songs " Yesterdays", "Let's Begin" (with altered lyrics), and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from the play, along with a fourth song, "I'll Be Hard to Handle". Three songs from the play were dropped—"The Touch of Your Hand", "Something Had to Happen" and "You're Devastating". Two songs were added to this film, "I Won't Dance" (resurrected from the flop Kern show '' Three Sisters'') and "Lovely to Look At", which both became #1 hits in 1935. The latter addition was nominated for the Best Song Oscar. The songs "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At" have remained so popular that they are now almost always in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as " Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", " A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "The Song Is You", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Long Ago (and Far Away)". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg. A native New Yorker, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice Duer Miller
Alice Duer Miller (July 28, 1874 – August 22, 1942) was an American writer whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. Her feminist verses influenced political opinion during the American suffrage movement, and her verse novel ''The White Cliffs'' influenced political thought during the U.S.'s entry into World War II. She also wrote novels and screenplays. Early life Alice Duer Miller was born in Staten Island, New York on July 28, 1874, into a wealthy and prominent family.BiblioBazaar, LLC Prominent Families of New York' New York: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009; . Pg. 193 She grew up in Weehawken, New Jersey with her parents and two sisters. She was the daughter of James Gore King Duer and Elizabeth Wilson Meads.Burstyn, Joan N. ''Past and promise: lives of New Jersey women'', Syracuse University Press, 1997; . Pg. 171-173 The family lost their fortune during the Baring Bank failure. Her mother Elizabeth Wilson Meads was the daughter of Orlando Meads of Albany, New York. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Amsterdam Theatre
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater on 214 West 42nd Street, at the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the New Amsterdam was built from 1902 to 1903 to designs by Herts & Tallant. The theater is operated by Disney Theatrical Productions and has 1,702 seats across three levels. Both the Beaux-Arts exterior and the Art Nouveau interior of the building are New York City landmarks, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. The New Amsterdam consists of an auditorium facing 41st Street and a narrow 10-story office wing facing 42nd Street. The facade on 42nd Street is made of gray limestone and was originally ornamented with sculptural detail; the rest of the facade is made of brick. The lobby from 42nd Street leads to a set of ornamental foyers, a reception room, and men's and women's lounges. The elliptical auditorium contains two balconies cantilevere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I'll Be Hard To Handle
"I'll Be Hard to Handle" is a 1932 song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Bernard Dougall. It was written for the musical ''Roberta'', where it was introduced by Lyda Roberti. ''Roberta'' opened on Broadway in November 1933. ibdb.com, accessed May 24, 2016 In the 1935 film version of '','' the song was sung by , who did an imitation of Roberti. In the 1952 version, '' |
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 54 feature films with Hope as star, including a series of seven '' Road to ...'' musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner. In addition to hosting the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host, Hope appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune. Hope was born in the Eltham district of southeast London, he arrived in the United States with his family at the age of four, and grew up near Cleveland, Ohio. After a brief career as a boxer in the late 1910s, Hope began his career in show business in the early 1920s, initially as a comedian and dancer on the vaudeville circuit, before acting on Broadway. Hope began appeari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical '' Roberta''. The song was sung in the Broadway show by Tamara Drasin. Its first recorded performance was by Gertrude Niesen, who recorded the song with orchestral direction from Ray Sinatra, Frank Sinatra's second cousin, on October 13, 1933. Niesen's recording of the song was released by Victor, with the B-side, "Jealousy", featuring Isham Jones and his Orchestra. Paul Whiteman had the first hit recording of the song on the record charts in 1934. The song was reprised by Irene Dunne, who performed it in the 1935 film adaptation of the musical co-starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. The song was also included in the 1952 remake of ''Roberta'', '' Lovely to Look At'', in which it was performed by Kathryn Grayson, and was a number 1 chart hit in 1959 for The Platters. Later recordings 1930s–1950s Paul Whiteman and h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamara Drasin
Tamara Drasin (c. 1905 – 22 February 1943), often credited as simply Tamara, was a singer and actress who introduced the song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in the 1933 Broadway musical ''Roberta''. Tamara Drasin is sometimes confused with two other performers of the 1930s musical era, the dancers Tamara Geva and Tamara Toumanova. Early life Drasin was born around 1905 in the village of Sorochintsï in Poltava Governorate (modern-day Ukraine), the daughter of Hinda "Eda" and Boris Drasin, a tailor. Her family moved to the U.S. in 1922. Stage career With her dark, exotic looks and throbbing vocal style, Drasin was ideal casting material for European characters in musicals of the 1930s. In '' Free for All,'' she was Marishka Tarasov; in ''Roberta,'' she was Princess Stephanie of Russian nobility; and in '' Right This Way'' and ''Leave It to Me!'', she portrayed Frenchwomen. In all, Drasin appeared in seven musicals, from 1927 to 1938. Music career Besides "Smoke Gets in Your E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach (August 18, 1873 – January 24, 1963) was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading Broadway composers of the early 20th century, including Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. Harbach believed that music, lyrics, and story should be closely connected, and, as Oscar Hammerstein II's mentor, he encouraged Hammerstein to write musicals in this manner. Harbach is considered one of the first great Broadway lyricists, and he helped raise the status of the lyricist in an age more concerned with music, spectacle, and stars. Some of his more famous lyrics are "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine". Early life and education Otto Abels Hauerbach was born on August 18, 1873, in Salt Lake City, Utah to Danish immigrant parent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film leading man began in 1935, but his most renowned role was in Billy Wilder's film noir '' Double Indemnity''. During 1959–1973, MacMurray appeared in numerous Disney films, including '' The Shaggy Dog'', ''The Absent-Minded Professor'', ''Follow Me, Boys!'', and ''The Happiest Millionaire''. He played Steve Douglas in the television series ''My Three Sons''. Early life and education Frederick Martin MacMurray was born on August 30, 1908, in Kankakee, Illinois, the son of Maleta (''née'' Martin) and concert violinist Frederick Talmadge MacMurray, both natives of Wisconsin. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allan Jones (actor)
Allan Jones (October 14, 1907 – June 27, 1992) was an American actor and tenor. Jones is best remembered as the male romantic lead actor in the first two films in which the Marx Brothers starred for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935) and '' A Day at the Races'' (1937), as well as the film musicals ''Show Boat'' (1936) and '' The Firefly'' (1937), in which he introduced what became his signature song, "The Donkey Serenade". Early years Jones was born in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Scranton, where he graduated from Central High School. His father and grandfather were Welsh coal miners, and he worked in coal mines early in his adult life. He left that occupation to study voice at New York University. In an interview in 1973, Jones recalled that his father and grandfather were musically talented: "My father had a beautiful tenor voice. So did my grandfather...Grandfather taught violin, voice, and piano when he could. My father sang every ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yesterdays (1933 Song)
"Yesterdays" is a 1933 song about nostalgia composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Otto Harbach. They wrote the song for ''Roberta'', a musical based on the novel ''Gowns by Roberta'' by Alice Duer Miller. "Yesterdays" was overshadowed by the musical's more popular song, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", which was a number one hit for the Paul Whiteman orchestra. Other recordings *Billie Holiday - 1939 and 1952 recordings *Larry Coryell – ''Shining Hour'' (1989) * Lee Konitz and Miles Davis -- ''1949'' * Dorothy Donegan * Clifford Brown -- ''Clifford Brown with Strings'' (1955) * Ella Fitzgerald -- '' Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book'' (1963) * Erroll Garner – ''Magician'' (1973) * Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band – '' Act Your Age'' (2008) * Stevie Holland (''More Than Words Can Say'', 2006) [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
