Showbiz History: Pal Joey, Taye Diggs, Maria Callas
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:00AM 5 random things that happened on this day, January 2nd, in history...
1788 Georgia becomes the fourth state in the modern US. We're counting on Georgians to save our democracy by giving the Democrats control of the Senate in 2021. Volunteer or donate to Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof to make this happen. We just did again despite a frighteningly empty bank account.
1952 A revival of the Rodgers & Hart musical Pal Joey opens on Broadway...
This is important because for some reason the original production -- which had starred Gene Kelly, June Havoc, Van Johnson, and Stanley Donen before they were major powers in Hollywood -- had only been a minor success and the songs had been banned from the radio! Like the Kander & Ebb musical Chicago, it was arguably the revival, not the original production, which gave the property it's lasting cultural impact (and led to a Frank Sinatra film version in 1957).
1958 Opera superstar Maria Callas walks out of a gala performance of Norma claiming illness, enraging Rome's high society. The press played up her temperament but she really did have bronchitis. The 50s and 60s were filled with scandals for the diva. Fanny Ardant played her in 2002's Callas Forever. Six years ago it was announced that Meryl Streep was going to play her in Master Class based on the hit play about Callas's last years but that project obviously dematerialized after Mike Nichol's death a few months later.
1980 A major milestone in female empowerment on this day in Hollywood when then 35 year-old Sherry Lansing was named the studio production head of 20th Century Fox. It was the first time a major studio had ever hired a woman for that position. The contract was for $300,000 a year plus bonuses based on box office making her one of the highest-paid female executives in any industry at the time. Her tenure was a success and she later hit even greater heights running Paramount Pictures during very lucrative years for the studio in the mid to late 90s. She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars in the Aughts.
1981 Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe (who recently died of COVID-19) known as "The Yorshire Ripper" was apprehended by the police after 13 murders and several attempted murders. He's the subject of Netflix's current docuseries "Ripper"
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy half century to the talented Taye Diggs, pictured here in The Wood (1999) and in a guest spot on The New Girl (2013) and just being his ridiculously handsome self. Can someone please give him a movie musical role that's bigger and better than "Bandleader" in Chicago or "Benny" in Rent before he's too old for it?
Other showbiz people celebrating birthdays today: Awesome auteur Todd Haynes (Carol, Safe), Tony winner Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, Waves), Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr (Jerry Maguire, Boyz n the Hood), Almodóvar regular Julieta Serrano (Pain and Glory, Women on the Verge), Ben Hardy (Bohemian Rhapsody, X-Men Apocalypse), Tia Carrere (Wayne's World, True Lies), Paz Vega (Sex & Lucia, Spanglish), Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush, 21), Dax Shepard (Parenthood, Hit and Run), David Gyasi (Interstellar, Cloud Atlas), Dutch hottie Gijs Blom (The Letter for the King, Boys), Filipino star Alden Richards (Imagine You and Me, Hello Love Goodbye), former SAG president Gabrielle Carteris (Beverly Hills 90210), Tony nominee Beth Malone (Fun Home, Angels in America), James Marshall (Twin Peaks, A Few Good Men), sci-fi author Isaac Asimov, and supermodel Christy Turlington
Reader Comments (3)
Master Class with Meryl and Mike Nichols directing would have been pure heaven.
So strange that the original Pal Joey wasn't a barn burner of a hit considering that cast. But it was enough of one to make a star of Kelly and led Havoc, Johnson and he to Hollywood.
Taye Diggs...oh my.