1.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
2.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
3.
Marx Brothers
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The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute as among the top 100 comedy films and they are widely considered by critics, scholars, and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFIs 100 Years.100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood cinema, the group are almost universally known today by their stage names, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo Marx. The core of the act was the three brothers, Chico, Harpo, and Groucho. Each developed a highly distinctive stage persona, Harpo and Chico more or less retired after 1949, while Groucho went on to begin a second career in television. The two younger brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, did not develop their characters to the same extent. The two eventually left the act to pursue careers at which they were successful, as well as a large theatrical agency for a time. Gummo was not in any of the movies, Zeppo appeared in the first five films in relatively straight roles, the performing lives of the brothers were brought about by their mother Minnie Marx, who also acted as their manager. The Marx Brothers were five brothers born to U. S. immigrants Miene Minnie Schoenberg, the brothers are best known by their stage names, Another brother, Manfred, the first-born son of Sam and Minnie, was born in 1886 and died in infancy. Family lore told privately of the son, Manny, born in 1886. Even some members of the Marx family wondered if he was pure myth. A death certificate of the Borough of Manhattan reveals that he died, aged seven months, on 17 July 1886, of enterocolitis, with asthenia contributing, i. e. probably a victim of influenza. He is buried at New Yorks Washington Cemetery, beside his grandmother, Fanny Sophie Schönberg, the Marx Brothers also had an older sister, actually a cousin, born in January 1885 who had been adopted by Minnie and Frenchie. Her name was Pauline, or Polly, Groucho talked about her in his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert. Minnie Marx came from a family of performers and her mother was a yodeling harpist and her father a ventriloquist, both were funfair entertainers. Around 1880, the family emigrated to New York City, where Minnie married Sam in 1884, Minnie also acted as the brothers manager, using the name Minnie Palmer so that agents did not realize that she was also their mother. Gummo and Zeppo both became successful businessmen, Gummo gained success through his activities and a raincoat business. The Marx Brothers were born in New York City, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and their mother Minnie Schönberg was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Simon Marx was a native of Alsace and worked as a tailor
4.
Hermes Pan
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Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaires choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Pan was born Hermes Panagiotopoulos in 1909 in Memphis, Tennessee and his father, the Greek consul in Memphis, Tennessee was from Aigio in Peloponnese, where his family had opened the first theatre. Following the death of Pans father, his uncle held Pan, his sister and mother at gunpoint and burned all their shares and money on the grounds if he could not have them. Hermes and his sister Vasso were eventually raised Catholic by his mother, penniless, they moved to the poorest area of New York where Hermes learned his first tap dancing steps on the streets from local black children. At their lowest ebb, the family had only some potatoes and they vowed to commemorate that day and every year on June 13, they wrote down what they did and ate that day in a journal. The date became a family celebration, eventually the family headed West with Sammy, a black boy they met at a gas station, to Los Angeles, California. Pans career began with an appearance as a boy in 1928 in the Marx Brothers Broadway production of Animal Crackers. He also danced in partnership with his sister Vasso, who appeared in the chorus of many of the Astaire-Rogers pictures. He first met Ginger Rogers in 1930, when he appeared as a singer in the Broadway musical Top Speed. He retained links with his relatives in Greece and made a visit in the 1970s to meet them. He met Fred Astaire, whom he resembled, on the set of Flying Down to Rio. While Astaire was trying to out a series of steps for The Carioca number, it was suggested to him that Pan had a few ideas. Hermes Pan demonstrated a brief break he had picked up from his days in New York. He had previously received Academy Award nominations for the Top Hat and The Piccolino numbers from Top Hat, given Astaires obsessive rehearsal habits, this was no mean task. In addition, he recorded Gingers taps in post production in some numbers, Pan continued to collaborate with Astaire right up until the latters last musical picture, Finians Rainbow, which was a disaster on a number of fronts, not least for Pan himself. Eventually, Coppola fired Pan, who had a small part in the film. He appeared with Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami and Coney Island and his longest filmed dance routine is a complex tap duet with Grable in Footlight Serenade that echoes his work with Astaire and Rogers in which his similarity to Astaire is striking. He also appeared with Rita Hayworth in My Gal Sal and with Betty Grable again in Pin Up Girl, in these films he had non-speaking dancing roles and acted as choreographer
5.
West End theatre
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West End theatre is a common term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of Theatreland in and near the West End of London. Along with New York Citys Broadway theatre, West End theatre is considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London, in 2013, ticket sales reached a record 14.4 million, making West End the largest English speaking audience in the world. Famous screen actors frequently appear on the London stage, helen Mirren received an award for her performance as the Queen on the West End stage, and then stated, theatre is such an important part of British history and British culture. Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation, the first permanent public playhouse, known simply as The Theatre, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain, both are known to have been used by William Shakespeares company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark and these theatres were closed in 1642 due to the Puritans who would later influence the interregnum of 1649. After the Restoration, two companies were licensed to perform, the Dukes Company and the Kings Company, performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisles Tennis Court. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal and it opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new designed by Christopher Wren and renamed the Theatre Royal. Outside the West End, Sadlers Wells Theatre opened in Islington on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder Richard Sadler and monastic springs that were discovered on the property, it operated as a Musick House, with performances of opera, as it was not licensed for plays. In the West End, the Theatre Royal Haymarket opened on 29 December 1720 on a site north of its current location. The Patent theatre companies retained their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, by the early 19th century, however, music hall entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of melodrama. Melodrama did not break the Patent Acts, as it was accompanied by music, initially, these entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses, but purpose-built theatres began to appear in the East End at Shoreditch and Whitechapel. The West End theatre district became established with the opening of small theatres and halls. South of the River Thames, the Old Vic, Waterloo Road, the next few decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End. It abbreviated its name three years later, the theatre building boom continued until about World War I
6.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
7.
Vaudeville
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Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
8.
Astoria, Queens
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Astoria is a middle-class and commercial neighborhood with a population of 78,793 in the northwestern corner of the New York City borough of Queens. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods, Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Woodside, Astoria is patrolled by the New York City Police Departments 114th Precinct. The area now known as Astoria was originally called Halletts Cove, after its first landowner William Hallett, beginning in the early 19th century, affluent New Yorkers constructed large residences around 12th and 14th streets, an area that later became known as Astoria Village. Halletts Cove, incorporated on April 12,1839 and previously founded by fur merchant Stephen A. Halsey, was a recreational destination. The area was renamed for John Jacob Astor, then the wealthiest man in America with a net worth of over $40 million and he only invested $500, but the name stayed nonetheless, as a bitter battle over naming the village finally was won by Astors supporters and friends. From Astors summer home in Hell Gate, Manhattan—on what is now East 87th Street near York Avenue—he could see across the East River the new Long Island village named in his honor, Astor, however, never actually set foot in Astoria. During the second half of the 19th century, economic and commercial growth brought increased immigration from German settlers, mostly furniture and cabinet makers. One such settler was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, patriarch of the Steinway family who founded the piano company Steinway & Sons in 1853, later on the Steinways built a sawmill and foundry, as well as a streetcar line. The family eventually established Steinway Village for their workers, a town that provided school instruction in German as well as English. Astoria and several surrounding villages, including Steinway, were incorporated into Long Island City in 1870. Long Island City remained an independent municipality until it was incorporated into New York City in 1898, the areas farms were turned into housing tracts and street grids to accommodate the growing number of residents. Astoria also figured prominently in early American filmmaking as one of its initial centers and that heritage is preserved today by the Museum of the Moving Image and Kaufman Astoria Studios. Today, much of the Astoria waterfront is being redeveloped and underutilized industrial sites in historic neighborhoods are being revived. The development will include new waterfront parks, a supermarket, retail shops and restaurants. These waterfront projects were designed by a New York architectural firm, in conjunction with private developers, city agencies and landscape architects. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Astoria was 78,793, covering an area of 902.94 acres, the neighborhood had a population density of 87.3 inhabitants per acre. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 49. 2% White,4. 5% African American,0. 2% Native American,16. 2% Asian,0. 0% Pacific Islander,1. 2% from other races, and 2. 2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26. 5% of the population, Astoria was first settled by the Dutch and Germans in the 17th century
9.
Chico Marx
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Leonard Marx, known professionally as Chico Marx, was an American comedian, musician, bandleader, actor and film star. He was a member of the Marx Brothers and his persona in the act was that of a charming, dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. In virtually every film that includes the trio of the Marx Brothers, Chico is seen working with Harpo Marx. Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood, in addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years. He was born on March 22,1887 in Manhattan, New York City, billing himself as Chico, he used an Italian persona for his onstage character, stereotyped ethnic characters were common with vaudevillians. His non-Italian-ness was specifically referred to three times on film, in Duck Soup, when Chico impersonates Groucho but retains his accent, Margaret Dumont asks what happened to his voice. Chico replies, Well, maybe sometime I go to Italy, to which Dumont replies, Your dialect is perfect. Fiorello, Well, I wouldnt know about that, Im a stranger here myself. Quentin Quayle, Can you talk Indian. Joe Panello, I was born in Indianapolis, hammer asks him if he knew what an auction was, in which he responds I come from Italy on the Atlantic Auction. He originally started playing only his right hand and fake playing with his left. Chico eventually acquired a better teacher and learned to play the piano correctly, as a young boy, he gained jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes Chico even worked playing in two places at the same time and he would acquire the first job with his piano-playing skills, work for a few nights, and then substitute Harpo on one of the jobs. In the brothers last film, Love Happy, Chico plays a piano, Lyons plays some ornate riffs on the violin, Chico comments, Look-a, Mister Lyons, I know you wanna make a good impression, but please dont-a play better than me. In a record album about the Marx Brothers, narrator Gary Owens stated that although Chicos technique was limited, the opposite was true of Harpo, who reportedly could play only two tunes on the piano, which typically thwarted Chicos scam and resulted in both brothers being fired. Groucho Marx once said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played, instead, before performances he soaked his fingers in hot water. He was known for shooting the keys of the piano and he played passages with his thumb up and index finger straight, like a gun, as part of the act. Chico became the manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother, Minnie. As manager, he cut a deal to get the brothers a percentage of a films gross receipts—the first of its kind in Hollywood, for a while in the 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Tormé began his career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra
10.
Harpo Marx
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Arthur Marx, known professionally as Harpo Marx, was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho and Chico, Harpos comic style was visual and he wore a curly reddish blonde wig, and never spoke during performances. He frequently used such as a horn cane, made up of a lead pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn. Harpo was born on November 23,1888 in Manhattan, New York City and he grew up in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue. The turn-of-the-century building that Harpo called the first real home they ever knew was populated with European immigrants, just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people like David L. Loew and William Orth. Harpos parents were Sam Marx and his wife, Minnie Schoenberg Marx and his mother was from East Frisia in Germany, and his father was a native of Alsace in France and worked as a tailor. Harpo received little education and left grade school at age eight during his second attempt to pass the second grade. In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius and Milton, to form The Three Nightingales, later changed to simply The Marx Brothers, multiple stories—most unsubstantiated—exist to explain Harpos evolution as the silent character in the brothers act. Harpo gained his name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg. The dealer called him Harpo because he played the harp and he learned how to hold it properly from a picture of an angel playing a harp that he saw in a five-and-dime. No one in town knew how to play the harp, so Harpo tuned it as best he could, starting with one basic note and tuning it from there. Three years later he found out he had tuned it incorrectly, but he could not have tuned it properly, if he had, Harpos method placed much less tension on the strings. Although he played this way for the rest of his life, he did try to learn how to play correctly and they spent their time listening to him, fascinated by the way he played. In the autobiography Harpo Speaks, he recounts how Chico found him playing piano to accompany silent movies. Harpo had changed his name from Adolph to Arthur by 1911 and this was due primarily to his dislike for the name Adolph. The name change may have happened because of the similarity between Harpos name and Adolph Marks, a prominent show business attorney in Chicago. His first screen appearance was in the film Humor Risk, with his brothers, although according to Groucho, it was screened once. Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers in Too Many Kisses, four years before the brothers first released film, in Too Many Kisses, Harpo spoke the only line he would ever speak on-camera in a movie, You sure you cant move
11.
The Royal Family (play)
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The Royal Family is a play written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Its premiere on Broadway was at the Selwyn Theatre on 28 December 1927 and it was included in Burns Mantles The Best Plays of 1927–1928. The character Tony Cavendish, a womanizer, represents John Barrymore. Julie Cavendish is the prima donna Broadway star Ethel Barrymore, in England, Noël Coward directed the West End version of the play in 1934, with a cast that included Laurence Olivier as Tony. Before moving to Broadway, the play had successful out-of-town try-outs in Newark, the Royal Family opened one day after the revolutionary musical Show Boat, based on Ferbers novel of the same title. Directed by Ellis Rabb, it starred Rosemary Harris as Julie Cavendish, George Grizzard as Tony, Rabb received the 1976 Tony Award for best director. The production was telecast on the PBS series Great Performances on November 9,1977 and this version was released on DVD. The play was revived as part of Chicagos Steppenwolf Theatres 2001–02 season with Amy Morton, another revival ran from September to December 2009 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. It starred Rosemary Harris as Fanny, Jan Maxwell as Julie Cavendish, in 2001, Emily Blunt made her debut opposite Judi Dench in Sir Peter Halls production of the play. The play was adapted in 1930 by Herman Mankiewicz for the film The Royal Family of Broadway released by Paramount Pictures, the film was directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner and stars Ina Claire and Fredric March. Awards 1975 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play 2010 Nominated for Best Revival of a Play Kaufman, George S. Ferber, the Royal Family, A Comedy in Three Acts. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc
12.
Groucho Marx
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Julius Henry Marx, known professionally as Groucho Marx, was an American comedian, stage, film and television star. He was known as a master of quick wit and is considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid-fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators and he made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a solo career, most notably as the host of the radio. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar. Julius Marx was born on October 2,1890, in Manhattan, New York City. Marx stated that he was born in a room above a shop on East 78th Street in Manhattan, New York City, Between Lexington & 3rd. The Marx children grew up on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The turn-of-the-century building that his brother Harpo called the first real home they ever knew was populated with European immigrants, just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people such as the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. The Marx family lived at this location for about 14 years, Grouchos mother was Miene Minnie Schoenberg, whose family came from Dornum in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. His father was Simon Sam Marx, who changed his name from Marrix, minnies brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his name to Al Shean when he went into show business as half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville act of the early 20th century. According to Groucho, when Shean visited he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans, Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them. Minnie Marx did not have an entertainment industry career but had ambition for her sons to go on the stage like their uncle. While pushing her eldest son Leonard in piano lessons she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice, juliuss early career goal was to become a doctor, but the familys need for income forced him out of school at the age of twelve. By that time young Julius had become a reader, particularly fond of Horatio Alger. Marx would continue to overcome his lack of education by becoming very well-read. Marx reputedly claimed that he was hopelessly average as a vaudevillian, by 1909 Minnie Marx had assembled her sons into a forgettable-quality vaudeville singing group billed as The Four Nightingales. The brothers Julius, Milton and Arthur and another boy singer, Lou Levy, after exhausting their prospects in the East the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest
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