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Leonard Sillman (May 9, 1908 - January 23, 1982) was an American Broadway producer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 9, 1908, he was the brother of June Carroll, the brother-in-law of Sidney Carroll and the uncle of Steve Reich and Jonathan Carroll. [1] He produced a series of musical revues, Leonard Sillman's New Faces, which introduced many major stars to Broadway audiences, such as Henry Fonda, Eartha Kitt, Imogene Coca, Inga Swenson, John Lund, Van Johnson, Carol Lawrence, Madeline Kahn, Paul Lynde and Maggie Smith. Versions of New Faces were produced in 1934, [2] 1936 (made into the film New Faces of 1937 ), 1943, 1952 (made into the film New Faces ), 1956, 1962 and 1968. The very first New Faces in 1934 included actors Henry Fonda, Imogene Coca and Frances Dewey Wormser. [2]
Songwriter Arthur Siegel, who contributed many songs to the New Faces series and radio show, described Sillman's philosophy: "He believed that a revue should be a potpourri, a bouillabaisse, in which there was something for everyone. Pace was very important. He didn't want to give an audience a chance to think about what it just saw. The music had to be nonstop." [3] Sillman also produced many other plays from the 1930s into the late 1960s, including All in Fun (1940), Mask and Gown (1957) and the Family Way (1965). His autobiography Here Lies Leonard Sillman: Straightened Out at Last was published by the Citadel Press in 1959.
Sillman died on January 23, 1982, in New York City. [4]
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Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that was broadcast weekly in the United States on NBC from February 25, 1950, through June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Bill Hayes, baritone singer Jack Russell, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the series.
Imogene Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and wished to have a serious career in music and dance, graduating to decades of stage musical revues, cabaret and summer stock. In her 40s, she began a celebrated career as a comedian on television, starring in six series and guest starring on successful television programs from the 1940s to the 1990s.
New Faces of 1952 is a musical revue with songs and comedy skits. It ran on Broadway for nearly a year in 1952 and was then made into a motion picture in 1954. It helped launch the careers of several young performers including Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Carol Lawrence, Ronny Graham, performer/writer Mel Brooks, and lyricist Sheldon Harnick.
Ben Bagley was an American musical producer and record producer.
Charles Powell Walters was an American Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Arthur Siegel was an American songwriter.
"Monotonous" is a popular song written by June Carroll and Arthur Siegel for Leonard Sillman's Broadway revue New Faces of 1952. The song was written based on the experiences of its singer Eartha Kitt. It was performed, at the insistence of Kitt, on three chaise longues, crawling cat-like from one to the other, demonstrating her flexibility and her dance training from the Katherine Dunham Company. The song also includes references to many well-known people of the 1950s. People referenced in the song include:
Mel Tolkin was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the live sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Danny Simon. The writers' room inspired the film My Favorite Year (1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993), written by Neil Simon.
"Guess Who I Saw Today" is a popular jazz song written by Murray Grand with lyrics by Elisse Boyd. The song was originally composed for Leonard Sillman's Broadway musical revue, New Faces of 1952, in which it was sung by June Carroll.
Frances Dewey Wormser was an American stage actress, entertainer and vaudeville performer.
June Carroll was an American lyricist, singer and actress.
Thomas Craig "T. C." Jones was an American female impersonator, actor, and dancer who from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s performed on stage, in nightclubs, films, and on television. He was known chiefly in the entertainment industry for his imitations in full costume of many famous actresses and other women, including Tallulah Bankhead, Mae West, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Édith Piaf, and Carmen Miranda. In 1959, the American magazine Time described Jones as "probably the best female impersonator since vaudeville's late famed Julian Eltinge".
Nancy Hamilton was an American actress, playwright, lyricist, director and producer.
New Faces is a 1954 American film adaptation of the musical revue New Faces of 1952 directed by Harry Horner with sketches directed by John Beal. Filmed in Cinemascope and Eastmancolor it was released by 20th Century Fox on March 6, 1954.
Robert Van Scoyk was an American television writer, producer and story editor active during the Golden Age of Television from the late 1940s until the late 1990s.
Max Liebman was a Broadway theater and TV producer-director sometimes called the "Ziegfeld of TV", who helped establish early television's comedy vocabulary with Your Show of Shows. He additionally helped bring improvisational comedy into the mainstream with his 1961 Broadway revue From the Second City.
Gustave Schirmer IV (1918–1992), better known as Gus Schirmer Jr., was a director, producer, and talent agent in film and theatre. Schirmer directed and produced plays that ran On Broadway and Off Broadway. He also helped launch the careers of several actors.
Viola Brothers Shore was an American author who worked in a variety of mediums from the 1910s through the 1930s.
James Shelton was an American Broadway actor, composer, and writer. He is best known for being the songwriter of "Lilac Wine" (1950), which has been covered by numerous artists.
The Straw Hat Revue is a musical comedy revue with sketches mostly by Max Liebman and Samuel Locke, and music and lyrics by Sylvia Fine and James Shelton.
