The year 1953 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1953.
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination. The plot is an adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa, with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty, assisted by Lev Ivanov. Although the complete and staged The Nutcracker ballet was not as successful as had been the 20-minute Nutcracker Suite that Tchaikovsky had premiered nine months earlier, The Nutcracker soon became popular.
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He subsequently became a noted dance director.
June Lockhart is an American retired actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in such films as A Christmas Carol and Meet Me in St. Louis. She primarily acted in 1950s and 1960s television, and with performances on stage and in film. On two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, she played mother roles. She also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70). She is a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years, she is one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Zina Bianca Bethune was an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. She was the daughter of actress Ivy Bethune.
Ib Andersen is a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, and painter.
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s usually were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual: a weekly series of hour-and-a-half-long dramas rather than 60-minute plays.
Bonnie Bedelia is an American actress. After beginning her career in theatre in the 1960s, Bedelia starred in the CBS daytime soap opera Love of Life and made her film debut in The Gypsy Moths. Bedelia subsequently appeared in the films They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Lovers and Other Strangers, Heart Like a Wheel, The Prince of Pennsylvania, Die Hard, Presumed Innocent, and Needful Things.
Melissa Hayden was a Canadian ballerina at the New York City Ballet.
Edward Villella is an American ballet dancer and choreographer. He is frequently cited as America's most celebrated male dancer of ballet at the time. He has won numerous awards, including the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Special, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the National Medal of Arts.
Allegra Kent is an American ballet dancer, actress, children's book author and columnist.
Martin Ellyot Manulis was an American television, film, and theatre producer. Manulis was best known for his work in the 1950s producing the CBS Television programs Suspense, Studio One Summer Theatre, Climax!, The Best of Broadway and Playhouse 90. He was the sole producer of the award-winning drama series, Playhouse 90, during its first two seasons from 1956 to 1958.
Robert Augustine Irving, DFC*, was a British conductor whose reputation was mainly as a ballet conductor.
Gregory Lucas Malek-Jones known professionally as Gregori Lukas is an American recording artist, singer, dancer and actor. Gregori released his debut single "Stay", in March 2013, to rave reviews. He has appeared with the New York City Ballet in numerous productions and is best known for playing the title role in George Balanchine's Nutcracker at the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center.
Choreographer George Balanchine's production of Peptipa and Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker is a broadly popular version of the ballet often performed in the United States. Conceived for the New York City Ballet, its premiere took place on February 2, 1954, at City Center, New York, with costumes by Karinska, sets by Horace Armistead and lighting and production by Jean Rosenthal.
The Nutcracker, also known as George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, is a 1993 American Christmas ballet film based on Peter Martins's stage production and directed by Emile Ardolino. It stars Darci Kistler, Damian Woetzel, Kyra Nichols, Bart Robinson Cook, Macaulay Culkin, Jessica Lynn Cohen, Wendy Whelan, Margaret Tracey, Gen Horiuchi, Tom Gold, and the New York City Ballet.
"Child of Our Time" was an American television play broadcast on February 5, 1959 as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. The cast included Robert L. Crawford Jr., Liliane Montevecchi, and Maximillian Schell. George Roy Hill was the director. The teleplay was written by Irving Gaynor Neiman as an adaptation of the book by Michel del Castillo.
"The Great Gatsby" is an American television play broadcast live on June 26, 1958, as part of the second season of the CBS television series Playhouse 90. David Shaw wrote the teleplay, adapted from the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Franklin Schaffner directed. Jeanne Crain, Robert Ryan, and Rod Taylor starred, and Rod Serling was the host.
La Valse is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Maurice Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales and La Valse. It premiered on February 20, 1951, at the City Center of Music and Drama, performed by the New York City Ballet. The ballet depicts dancers waltzing in a ballroom, during which a woman becomes attracted to a figure of death, and ultimately dies.
