If they were still alive....

...these folks would be celebrating their birthday today:



Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen would be 183.  Considered by many to on a par with none other than William Shakespeare as one of history's greatest dramatists, he is referred to as "the father of modern theatre".  His plays are still among the most-performed dramas around the world, performed in many languages.  Some of the more popular are Peer Gynt, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler.


March 20, 1890 was certainly a great day for operatic tenors!  Benjamino Gigli, who is considered to be one of Enrico Caruso's only real rivals as far as the great Italian tenors of the early 20th century went (he was known as "Caruso Secondo"), was born in Recanati, Italy.  And the great heldentenor ("heroic tenor"), Lauritz Melchior was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on the very same day.  Melchior's enormous voice made him the "go-to" tenor for many of the great Wagnerian tenor roles in the mid-20th century.  He became an unlikely film star in the 1940's, too, as MGM valiantly tried to shoe-horn him into some of their fluffier musical films, with varying degrees of success.  Here are clips of both of them...which do you prefer?








Abe Beame would be 105.  Some say he merely had the misfortune of ruling as New York's mayor during the city's worst economic downfall in history.  Others say that his misguided policies and poor management are what led New York down that path in the first place.  Perhaps it's a little of both?  But Beame (who was, surprisingly, born in London, England--I never knew that!) served during the "colorful" years of 1974-77, years that encompassed not only the fiscal crisis and near civic bankruptcy, but also the Great Blackout and riots of '77 and The Son of Sam spree of terror.  Old-time New Yorkers don't look back on his mayorship with much fondness.





Ozzie Nelson would be 103.  Perhaps only remembered today as half of TV's idyllic "Ozzie and Harriett" of the 1950's (and father of David and Ricky Nelson), he was actually a pretty great singer, heading up his own dance orchestra in the 1930's, one of the best bands of the era, in my opinion.  He was remarkably handsome, too, in his day--something else most people don't know.


Sir Michael Redgrave, the English actor would also be 103.  He was one of the most notable Shakespearean actors of his generation, but is perhaps most well-known today as the father of actresses Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave.


Vaughn Meader would be 75.  There has never been a career that skidded to such an instant crash as did his in November of 1963.  A talented satiric comedian, writer and impressionist, his album, The First Family, was an enormous success in 1962, selling over 7.5 million copies.  He was the proverbial "overnight success," earning huge sums for live appearances and concerts.  Almost every household, it seemed, had a copy of his album next to their hi-fi.  It was a good-natured send-up of the Kennedy family, with Meader performing a dead-on impression of JFK's broad Bostonian accent.  But when Kennedy was assassinated, Meader's career came to a screeching halt.  He was almost instantly considered poison and became something of a hapless pariah.  He slid into a long battle with drug and alcohol abuse and, forgotten and depressed, he finally died in 2004.



Pamela Harriman would be 91.  One of her many famous lovers, CBS founder William Paley said of her, "She is the greatest courtesan of the century," having married--or carried on long-term affairs--with many of the richest, most powerful men of the 20th century, including Randolph Churchill (Winston's son, her first husband), famed Broadway/Hollywood agent, Leland Hayward (her second husband) and industrialist/politician Averell Harriman, her last husband. Sprinkled in between were liaisons with Prince Aly Khan, Gianni Agnelli, Stavros Niarchos, as well as Paley (among others).  She found long-sought respectability late in life, as one of the leading lights of the Democratic Party in Washington in the 1990's.  She died in the most perfectly glamourous way for the century's greatest courtesan:  In 1997, she had a cerebral hemorrhage while swimming in the private pool of the Ritz Hotel in Paris.