I hardly knew which of the arts to highlight in the title of this post, as the man we’re remembering today had roles in so many facets of the performing arts, hence the blanket term used. On January 30, 1982, Stanley Holloway died in Littlehampton, England. He was best known for his role as Alfred…
It seems more than simple “chance” that the events I discovered when researching this date in the history of the arts follow on so perfectly from my post about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday. Today in music history was a significant day for two prominent African American musicians. On January 23, 1976, singer,…
Today we’re looking back to 1890, to the premiere performance of Tchaikovsky’s brilliant ballet The Sleeping Beauty. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the Mariinsky Theatre on January 16, 1890 (some sources said January 15). Although by his own admission it took Tchaikovsky a while to actually get to the writing of…
On January 9, 1894, Fred Ott sneezed. That rather ordinary event was made extraordinary because Thomas Edison captured the achoo! on film, or rather, kinetoscope. It was one of a series of short films he made in that time period, but this one has gone down in film history as the first film copyrighted in…
We’re visiting the theatre again today for our trip into the history of the arts. On January 2, 1983, the musical Annie closed on Broadway after an amazing 2,377 performances (it opened on April 21, 1977). Over those years, there were many cast changes and the play moved to a different theatre 3 times after…
Welcome to the first of a new series on my blog — This Day in the Arts. Each Wednesday, I hope to bring you some vignette of theatre, music, dance, or visual arts history, with a few personal reflections. I know I will find this an interesting subject to delve into — I hope you…