Calling All Stars is a 1934 musical revue with music by Harry Akst, lyrics by Lew Brown, and orchestrations by Hans Spialek and Conrad Salinger. [1] Featuring separate segments of sketch comedy rather than a unified plot, the dialogue of the musical was written by Lew Brown, A. Dorian Otvos, Alan Baxter, Home Fickett, William K. Wells and H.I. Philips. [2] Al Goodman served as the original production's music director which was produced and directed by Lew Brown. Sara Mildred Strauss and Maurice L. Kussel choreographed the show, Nat Karson designed the sets, Billi Livingston designed the costumes, and Abe Feder designed the lighting. [2]
The musical premiered at the Boston Opera House on November 23, 1934 for tryout performances before moving to Broadway. [1] The production opened on Broadway at the Hollywood Theatre on December 13, 1934 with a cast led by Lou Holtz, Phil Baker, Mitzi Mayfair, Everett Marshall, Sara Mildred Strauss, Patricia Bowman, Judy Canova, Peggy Taylor, Martha Raye, Jack Whiting, Estelle Jayne, Harry McNaughton., [2] and Ella Logan in her American debut. [3] The production closed after 36 performances on January 12, 1935. [4]
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1928.
Ray Henderson was an American songwriter.
Lew Brown was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States. During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, especially Albert Von Tilzer. Brown was one third of a successful songwriting and music publishing team with Buddy DeSylva and Ray Henderson from 1925 until 1931. Brown also wrote or co-wrote many Broadway shows and Hollywood films. Among his most-popular songs are "Button Up Your Overcoat", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", "That Old Feeling", and "The Birth of the Blues".
Harry Warren was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". He wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, choreographed by Busby Berkeley, with whom he would collaborate on many musical films.
Alexander Dubin was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren.
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Originally designed by architect William Albert Swasey, it opened in 1911. The Winter Garden's current design dates to 1922, when it was completely remodeled by Herbert J. Krapp. Due to the size of its auditorium, stage, and backstage facilities, it is favored for large musical productions. It has 1,600 seats and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The auditorium interior is a New York City landmark.
The Mark Hellinger Theatre is a church building at 237 West 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, which formerly operated as a cinema and Broadway theater. Opened in 1930, the Hellinger Theatre is named after journalist Mark Hellinger and was developed by Warner Bros. as a movie palace. It was designed by Thomas W. Lamb with a modern facade and a Baroque interior. It has 1,605 seats across two levels and has been a house of worship for the Times Square Church since 1989. Both the exterior and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks.
Harry Akst was an American songwriter, who started out his career as a pianist in vaudeville accompanying singers such as Nora Bayes, Frank Fay and Al Jolson.
June Clyde was an American actress, singer and dancer known for roles in such pre-Code films as A Strange Adventure (1932) and A Study in Scarlet (1933).
New Faces of 1937 is a 1937 American musical film directed by Leigh Jason and starring Joe Penner, Milton Berle and Harriet Hilliard. Its plot is similar to The Producers (1968). Intended as the first film of an annual RKO Pictures revue series, poor reception ended plans for future productions.
Bertha Belmore was an English stage and film actress. Part of the Belmore family of British actors through her marriage to actor Herbert Belmore, she began her career as a child actress in British pantomimes and music hall variety acts. As a young adult she was one of the Belmore Sisters in variety entertainment before beginning a more serious acting career performing in classic plays by William Shakespeare with Ben Greet's Pastoral Players in a 1911 tour of the United States. She made her Broadway debut as Portia in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in 1912. She returned to Broadway numerous times in mainly comedic character roles over the next 40 years, notably creating parts in the original Broadway productions of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers's By Jupiter (1942) and Anita Loos's Gigi (1951). She worked in several productions mounted by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., including appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925 with W.C. Fields and Will Rogers, and starring as Parthy Ann Hawks in the 1929 Australian tour and 1932 Broadway revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1934.
John Lionel Golden was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for "Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films.
Everett Marshall was an American singer and actor who performed at the Metropolitan Opera, in Broadway revues, and in early musical films.
The Cotton Club Boys were African American chorus line entertainers who, from 1934, performed class act dance routines in musical revues produced by the Cotton Club until 1940, when the club closed, then as part of Cab Calloway's revue on tour through 1942.
Sara Mildred Strauss was an American dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer.
Sara Mazo Kuniyoshi was an American dancer and actress. She was married to Japanese-born artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Later in life she worked at the Museum of Modern Art, as assistant curator of museum collections.
Effie Atherton, was a British singer, dancer, film actress, and musical comedy performer, known initially for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York, before moving into prime musical shows on British radio in the 1930s, where she captivated her audiences with her sophisticated songs and monologues, many of which were her own compositions.
Patricia Bowman was an American ballerina, ballroom dancer, musical theatre actress, television personality, and dance teacher.
Nancy McCord was an American soprano and actress who had an active career in opera, musical theatre, and vaudeville during the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s. She appeared in operettas and musicals on Broadway and in operas with several American companies, including the St. Louis Municipal Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Her repertoire consisted mainly of roles from light opera and operettas. She is best remembered for creating the roles of Marie-Baroness von Schlewitz in the original production of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sigmund Romberg's May Wine (1935); and Mary Stone in the world premiere of Douglas Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1939). She also performed leading roles in the United States premieres of two operettas: Franz Lehár's The Land of Smiles and Robert Stolz's Venus in Seide.