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Second Little Show
''The Second Little Show'' is a musical revue with lyrics by Howard Dietz and music mostly by Arthur Schwartz. Produced by William A. Brady, Jr. and Dwight Deere Wiman, in association with Tom Weatherly, the Broadway production opened at the Royale Theatre on September 2, 1930 and closed in October 1930, after 63 performances. Directed by Wiman and Monty Woolley and choreographed by Dave Gould, with scenic design by Jo Mielziner, the cast included Jay C. Flippen, Gloria Grafton, and Al Trahan. This was the second in a series of ''Little Shows'', notable for the song "Sing Something Simple" with words and music by Herman Hupfield, introduced by Ruth Tester. Other songs include "I Like Your Face" (originally "Foolish Face"), "Lucky Seven", "What a Case I've Got On You", and "You're the Sunrise". In staging this production, producers of the first ''Little Show'' chose a cast of unknowns, and sales suffered as a result. At the same time, the stars of the first ''Little Show'' we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz (November 25, 1900 – September 3, 1984) was an American composer and film producer, widely noted for his songwriting collaborations with Howard Dietz. Biography Early life Schwartz was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on November 25, 1900. He taught himself to play the harmonica and piano as a child, and began playing for silent films at age 14. He earned a B.A. in English at New York University and an M.A. in Architecture at Columbia. Forced by his father, an attorney, to study law, Schwartz graduated from NYU Law School with a Doctorate in Jurisprudence and was admitted to the bar in 1924. Career While studying law, he supported himself by teaching English in the New York school system. He also worked on songwriting concurrently with his studies and published his first song ("Baltimore, Md., You're the Only Doctor for Me", with lyrics by Eli Dawson) by 1923. Acquaintances such as Lorenz Hart and George Gershwin encouraged him to stick with composing. He att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Box Theatre
The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theater at 239 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, the Music Box Theatre was designed by C. Howard Crane in a Palladian-inspired style and was constructed for Irving Berlin and Sam H. Harris. It has 1,025 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks. The facade is made of limestone and is symmetrically arranged, with both Palladian and neo-Georgian motifs. At ground level, the eastern portion of the facade contains the theater's entrance, with a marquee over it, while the stage door is to the west. A double-height central colonnade at the second and third floors conceals a fire-escape staircase; it is flanked by windows in the outer bays. The auditorium contains Adam style detailing, a large balcony, and two outwardly curved box seats within ornate archways. The th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revues
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Though most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news or literature. Similar to the related subforms of operetta and musical theatre, the revue art form brings together music, dance and sketches to create a compelling show. In contrast to these, however, revue does not have an overarching storyline. Rather, a general theme serves as the motto for a loosely-related series of acts that alternate between solo performances and dance ensembles. Owing to high ticket prices, ribald publicity campaigns and the occasional use of prurient material, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned more and felt even less restricted by middle-class ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Musicals
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End theatre, West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1930 Musicals
Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 193 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * January 1 – Year of the Five Emperors: The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helvius Pertinax, against his will, to succeed the late Commodus as Emperor. Pertinax is forced to reorganize the handling of finances, which were wrecked under Commodus, to reestablish discipline in the Roman army, and to suspend the food programs established by Trajan, provoking the ire of the Praetorian Guard. * March 28 – Pertinax is assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard, who storm the imperial palace. The Empire is auctioned of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constance Carpenter
Constance Emmeline Carpenter (19 April 1904 – 26 December 1992) was an English-born American film and musical theatre actress. Biography Carpenter was born in Bath, Somerset, in 1904, the daughter of Harold Carpenter and his wife Mabel Anne, ''née'' Cottrell, music hall artists. Her first appearance on stage was with fellow-pupils of the Lila Field Academy, a stage school whose alumni included Noël Coward and Ninette de Valois. Her debut as an adult performer was in the C. B. Cochran revue ''Fun of the Fayre'' in 1921. She made her Broadway debut in ''André Charlot's Revue of 1924''. She remained in America for five years, appearing in ''The Charlot Revue of 1926'' in 1925–26, after which she played Mae in George and Ira Gershwin's ''Oh, Kay!'' in 1926 and Alice Carter in the Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Herbert Fields musical '' A Connecticut Yankee'' in which she played for a year, from November 1927. In 1929 Carpenter returned to London, appearing in Cochr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Truex
Ernest Truex (September 19, 1889 – June 26, 1973) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Career Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Truex learned acting at an early age after his father, a doctor, treated actor Edwin Melvin, who paid his bill by giving the son elocution lessons. He started acting at age five and toured through Missouri at age nine as "The Child Wonder in Scenes from Shakespeare". His Broadway debut came in ''Wildfire'' (1908), and he performed in several David Belasco plays and portrayed the title role in the 1915 musical ''Very Good Eddie''. Truex played the lead role in the disastrous 1923 premiere of F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Vegetable''. In 1927, he created the role of Bill Paradene in '' Good Morning, Bill'', which was based on an original play by Ladislas Fodor and adapted by P.G. Wodehouse. In 1926, he performed for the first time in London's West End. He played a leading role in ''The Fall Guy'' at the Apollo Theatre. He continued to p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys Lillie, Lady Peel (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989), known as Bea Lillie, was a Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedic performer. She began to perform as a child with her mother and sister. She made her West End debut in 1914 and soon gained notice in revues and light comedies, becoming known for her parodies of old-fashioned, flowery performing styles and absurd songs and sketches. She debuted in New York in 1924 and two years later starred in her first film, continuing to perform in both the US and UK. She was associated with revues staged by André Charlot and works of Noël Coward and Cole Porter, and frequently was paired with Gertrude Lawrence, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. During World War II, Lillie was an inveterate entertainer of the troops. She won a Tony Award in 1953 for her revue ''An Evening with Beatrice Lillie''. Early life and career Lillie was born in Toronto to Irish-born John Lillie and his wife Lucie Ann (née Shaw).Morley, Sheridan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Connelly
Marcus Cook Connelly (December 13, 1890 – December 21, 1980) was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. Biography Connelly was born to actor and hotelier Patrick Joseph Connelly and actress Mabel Fowler Cook in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. His father died in 1902. Connelly attended Trinity Hall boarding school in Washington, Pennsylvania, after which he began collecting money for ads in ''The Pittsburgh Press'' to help to support his mother. He began writing plays at the age of five. His initial newspaper job led to Connelly's working as an Associated Press cub reporter, after which he became a junior reporter for ''The Pittsburgh Gazette Times''. Eventually he began writing a humor column for that newspaper. He also became a journalist for the ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' until he moved to New York City. In 1919 he joined the Algonquin Round Table. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise"."Noel Coward at 70" ''Time'', 26 December 1969, p. 46 Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as '' |
The Little Show
''The Little Show'' was a musical revue with lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz. It was the first of 11 musicals that featured the songs of Dietz and Schwartz. The revue opened at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway on April 30, 1929 and ran for 321 performances until February 1930. History The show grew out of a number of Sunday evening variety shows co-produced by Tom Weatherly with James Pond at the Selwyn Theatre . Weatherly said that they were "really nothing more than high-class vaudeville shows but they were far more artistic than the Sunday night variety programs being offered at the Winter Garden."Green, S., p. 163 Revue elements "This was the first American revue to give wit precedence over spectacle." Fred Allen (who had been a vaudeville headliner as a juggler and ventriloquist) "won acclaim with his sardonic banter", "torch singer Libby Holman smoldered." Clifton Webb, the debonair star, "wanted a number that was more perverse, a number he could delive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz (September 8, 1896 – July 30, 1983) was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist, best remembered for his songwriting collaboration with Arthur Schwartz. Biography Dietz was born in New York City. He attended Columbia College and then studied journalism at Columbia University. He also served as publicist/director of advertising for Goldwyn Pictures and later MGM and is often credited with creating Leo the Lion, its lion mascot, and choosing their slogan '' Ars Gratia Artis''. In 1942, he was made MGM's Vice President in Charge of Publicity. He held that position until his retirement in 1957. He began a long association with composer Arthur Schwartz, when they teamed up for the Broadway revue ''The Little Show'' in 1929. They would continue to work on and off over the next 30 or so years. Dietz served in the US Navy in World War I and became editor of their magazine, ''Navy Life''. During World War II, he assisted the U.S. Treasury Department with the public ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
