Saturday, February 12, 2011

If they were still alive...




...today, the following notables would be celebrating their birthday:




























I didn't know that Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were both born on the very same day, 202 years ago....












Alice Roosevelt Longworth, half-length portrait, wearing hat and fur, seated, facing left


Alice Roosevelt Longworth would be 127.  She was the mouthy, very entertaining daughter of Teddy Roosevelt, famed for her shocking quips, such as, "If you don't have anything nice to say about someone, come, sit next to me".

File:Anna Pavlova in costume for the Dying Swan, Buenos Aires, ca 1928, by Frans van Riel.jpg


Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova would have been 130 today.  She is widely considered to be one of, if not the greatest ballet classical danseuses of all time.  Below is a very rare film of her performing with the Kirov Ballet--in 1907!  She is dancing "The Dying Swan".





Todd Duncan, noted baritone would be 108.  He starred in the first Broadway production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess as "Porgy". 


Singer/saxophonist Tex Beneke, 97.  Performing with the Glen Miller Orchestra, he was one of the most popular male singers of the WWII era.  His greatest hits were "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo".







And I have a brother in Kalamazoo, my fine brother Jeff, who turns 47 today...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRO!

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