Gene Shalit, Good Friday, Gloria Steinem...and MORE!

Gene Shalit

Some films could only have been cast in one way: Screen tests were given and the losers got the parts.
-Gene Shalit

Happy Friday, March 25th, 2016!
March 25 is the 85th day of the year . There are 281 days remaining until the end of the year.
AS I sit down to begin today's blog, Lou Rawls is singing Nice 'n' Easy on the radio. A nice prelude to the weekend. 
Tonight, I will be seeing Ricky Ritzel's Broadway at Don't Tell Mama with a few friends followed by supper at Joe Allen's. Please join us if you are in New York. Tomorrow will be spent in preparations for Easter dinner. I am cooking for 10! 
I would like to wish everyone out there who celebrate, a very happy Easter. Enjoy your family and friends.
I wish Charles Busch and company MUCH SUCCESS tonight for Cleopatra. From what I understand, the entire show is sold out, but keep trying! You never know when someone needs to cancel. 
Today is Gene Shalit's Birthday. I grew up with this man in our home every morning. As we were getting ready for school, the Today Show was always on in the background.  I loved, even as a child, his interviews and movie critiques. One of the funniest things that I have ever seen is Gene interviewing Carol Channing in the 7os around the time of Lorelei. She cracks him up to the point of no return. He is laughing and crying at the same time. You can see this clip in the documentary, Carol Channing: Larger Than Life. 

Today is also the birthday of Gloria Steinem. Never met her but I would LOVE to interview her. She fascinates me so. She was twelve before she completed a full year in school, traveling with her father while he worked and caring for her unwell mother. Here is a great article about why we love her. Read HERE. 

On this date 30 years ago, Perfect Strangers starring Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker debuted on ABC-TV.
On this date in 1965,  Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.

In one of the darkest moments of America’s industrial history, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down, killing 145 workers, on this day in 1911. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers.

On this date in 1932, The Supreme Court hands down its decision in the case of Powell v. Alabama.

"The Scottsboro Boys" Trials

The case arose out of the infamous Scottsboro case. Nine young black men were arrested and accused of raping two white women on train in Alabama. The boys were fortunate to barely escaped a lynch mob sent to kill them, but were railroaded into convictions and death sentences. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions on the basis that they did not have effective representation.
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused in Alabama of raping two White American women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial.

How old do you feel? The Monkees ended on this date in 1968! 

Notable Birthdays on this Day

Ed Begley, Sr.

1901 – Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970).

I got 3 garages of mine going to pot while you're talking! So lets get down and get out of here! -Ed Begley Sr as Juror #10 in 12 Angry Men

 Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time and became a movie leading lady in the late 1930s, while still in her teens. She made 36 movies between 1926 and 1977, including portraying Tyrone

Nancy Kelly

Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone later that same year. She had her greatest success in a character role, the suicidal mother in the The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination for the 1956 film adaptation.
Happy birthday to Aretha Franklin. HERE she is with Respect. 


Today in 1967 Pink Floyd played the Ricky Tick Club in Windsor, the New Yorker Discotheque in Swindon, AND the Shoreline Club in Bognor Regis.  

Happy birthday to Sir Elton John. HERE he is with Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road.

Sir David Lean

Sir David Lean, CBE (25 March 1908 – 16 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). He is also known for the Dickens adaptations of Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), as well as the romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945). 

Eileen Ford (née Ottensoser; March 25, 1922 – July 9, 2014) was an American model agency executive and co-founder, in 1946, with her husband, Gerard "Jerry" Ford, of Ford Models, one of the earliest and internationally best known modelling agencies in the world. 

Happy birthday to Hoyt Wayne Axton, born in 1938! Fun fact: he co-wrote Heartbreak Hotel. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting became well known throughout the world. Among them were Joy to the World, The Pusher, No No Song, Greenback Dollar, and Never Been to Spain. 

Anita Bryant

Anita Jane Bryant (born March 25, 1940) is a singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and former spokeswoman (brand ambassador) for the Florida Citrus Commission (marketing orange juice). She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5. She later became known as an outspoken opponent of gay rights and for her 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, an involvement that significantly affected her popularity and career in show business.

Richard O'Brien (born Richard Smith;) is an actor,

Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff

television presenter, writer and theatre performer. He was born in England, and is a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

O'Brien wrote the musical stage show The Rocky Horror Show, which has remained in almost continuous production. He also co-wrote the screenplay of the film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show released in 1975, and appeared in the film as Riff Raff. O'Brien also presented the television show The Crystal Maze and is the voice of Lawrence Fletcher, the title characters' father in Phineas and Ferb.
Thank you so much for being such a part of my last years of high school!

Sarah Jessica Parker was born on this date in Nelsonville, Ohio.
Marcia Cross was born on this date in Marlborough, Massachusetts. 

The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.
Andy Warhol. 

Notable Transitions on this date

Nancy Walker

Nancy Walker was born as Anna Myrtle Swoyer on May 10, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ms. Walker died on March 25, 1992 in Studio City, California.She was also a film and television director (most notably of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, on which she also made several guest appearances). During her five-decade long career, she may be best remembered for her long-running roles as Mildred on McMillan and Wife and Ida Morgenstern, who first appeared on several episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and later became a prominent recurring character on the spinoff series Rhoda.

The best revenge is massive success.
Frank Sinatra.

Paul William Henning (September 16, 1911 – March 25, 2005) was an American producer and writer. Most famous for the successful TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, he was crucial in the development of several "rural" comedies for CBS.

Buck Owens

Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens, Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and band leader who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band the Buckaroos. They pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound, a reference to Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call American music.

Abby Mann, as Abraham Goodman, grew up in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. He was best known for his work on controversial subjects and social drama. His best known work is the screenplay for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), which was initially a television drama which aired in 1959. Stanley Kramer directed the film adaptation, for which Mann received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In his acceptance speech, he said:
"A writer worth his salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world in which he lives."


In other Entertainment News

Late Jazz Singer Sarah Vaughan to be Honored with Forever Stamp

 At the end of this month the US postal service will unveil a new stamp to honor jazz icon Sarah Vaughan. The following week, on Saturday April 9, La Tanya Hall will do likewise with a special matinee performance of "To Sarah with Love" for the American Popular Song Society.
Won't you join us? Click HERE for more info.

Next Thursday Night - All-New Tribute Show to Broadway Legend Sheldon Harnick! Spectacular Arrangements by Tedd Firth, Directed by Lance Roberts with Tom Hubbard on Bass.
Jennifer Roberts will also be celebrating Harnick's 92nd Birthday! Click HERE for more info.

The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside. - Tenzin Palmo

Thank to ALL of the artists mentioned in this blog for the gifts they have given to the world and continue to give!

With grateful XOXOXs ,

 

Check out my site celebrating the legacy of Dolly Gallagher Levi

Hello, Dolly! Directed By Gene Kelly

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.  FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!

Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!                

Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!

Richard Skipper Celebrates May 25th  AND CAROLE DEMAS (and OTHERS!) at The Triad in NYC 8PM Show... Reservations a MUST! You Never Know Who You Might See There!
Order your Tickets HERE

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Bridging the Past with the Present
 

TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAY

Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com


 PLEASE CELEBRATE WITH US April 7th in NYC


Don't Tell Mama Presents...

Wendy Scherl returns in What Do You Do All Day?  Directed by the incredible Helen Baldasarre with great musical direction by Matthew Martin Ward. Wendy is an amazing vocalist with a rangy and rich sound.

“This is someone to watch!” Go see her, you can thank me later.
- Sue Matsuki   In “What Do You Do All Day”, Wendy Scherl shares anecdotes and song about the numerous hats she wears every single day as a wife, a mother of two boys and two dogs, a short order cook, a daughter, a house manager, a chauffeur and Cabaret Singer! Her show is both touching and real, theatrical and funny!
This show WILL sell out! So reserve today and be a part of his star studded audience!
You will truly be amazed by what this full-time executive director of a family of four accomplishes every day!
Wendy will wow you with both her choice of material and her talent!
After graduating from Northwestern University with a BA in Theatre, Wendy performed in numerous regional theatre productions around the country, including some of her favorite productions: Hair (Theofficial 20th Anniversary Production in Chicago), Grease (numerous roles), Annie (Grace), The Pajama Game (Babe), and Godspell.  

$20.00 Cover/Two Drink Minimum Cash Only Reserve at 212-757-0788 (after 4PM or through me)

$5.00 OFF COVER OF ALL MAC MEMBERS
Richard Skipper Celebrates is the publicist for Wendy Scherl and What Do You Do All Day? at NYC's Don't Tell Mama. For press reservations, interview requests, or more information, contact Richard Skipper at Richard@RichardSkipper.com or 845-365-0720