Sid Caesar
Caesar in 1980
Born	Isaac Sidney Caesar (1922-09-08) September 8, 1922 (age 89) Yonkers, New York
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, musician
Years active	1946-2008
Spouse	Florence Levy (m.1943-2010; her death)

Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar (born September 8, 1922) is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known for the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.

Early life[link]

Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York, the youngest son of Max Caesar and his wife Ida (née Raphael), Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who ran a restaurant.^[1][2][3] Caesar would wait on tables and learned to mimic the accents, something he would use throughout his career. He first tried his double-talk with a group of Italians, his head barely reaching above the table. They enjoyed it so much that they sent him over to a group of Poles to repeat it in Polish, and so on with Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Bulgarians. Despite his apparent fluency in many languages, Caesar can actually speak only English and Yiddish. Sid's older brother David was his comic mentor and "one-man cheering section." They created their earliest family sketches from then current movies like Test Pilot and Wings.

At fourteen, Caesar went to the Catskills as a saxophonist with Mike Cifichello's Swingtime Six and would also occasionally perform in sketches in the Borscht Belt. When he graduated from high school, he left home, intent on a musical career. He arrived in New York City penniless and tried to join the musician's union (later he attended classes at the Juilliard School of Music). He found work at the Vacationland Hotel in Swan Lake in the Catskills. Under the tutelage of Don Appel, the resort's social director, Caesar played in the band and learned to perform comedy, doing three shows a week. In 1939, when World War II was just starting, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, and was assigned to play in military revues and shows in Brooklyn, New York.^[4] Vernon Duke, the famous composer of Autumn in New York, April in Paris, and Taking a Chance on Love, was also at the same base and collaborated with Caesar in musical revues.

During the summer of 1942, Caesar met his future wife Florence Levy at the Avon Lodge. After joining the musician's union, he briefly played with Shep Fields, Claude Thornhill, Charlie Spivak, and Benny Goodman.^[5] Caesar's comedy, however, got bigger applause than the musical numbers, and the show's producer asked him to do stand-up between his numbers. While still in the service, Caesar was ordered to Palm Beach, Florida, where Vernon Duke and Howard Dietz were putting together a service revue, Tars and Spars. There he met the civilian director of the show, Max Liebman, later the producer of his first hit television series. Tars and Spars toured nationally, and then a film version was made at Columbia Pictures. He also got a part in The Guilt of Janet Ames. He married Florence Levy on July 17, 1943, and has three children, Michele, Rick, and Karen.

Career[link]

After the war, Caesar and his wife stayed in Hollywood, but despite a few offers to play sidekick roles, Caesar decided to go back to New York, where he got a club date as the opening act for Joe E. Lewis at the Copacabana nightclub. He reunited with Max Liebman, who guided his stage material and presentation. That appearance led to a contract with the William Morris Agency and a nationwide tour. Caesar also performed in a Broadway revue Make Mine Manhattan, which featured The Five Dollar Date, one of his first original pieces in which he sang, acted, double-talked, pantomimed, and wrote the music.

Caesar began his television career when he made an appearance on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater. In early 1949, Sid and Max met with Pat Weaver, vice president of television at NBC (and father of Sigourney Weaver), which led to Caesar's appearance in his first series The Admiral Broadway Revue with Imogene Coca. The Friday show, simultaneously broadcast on NBC and the DuMont network (in order for the show to be carried on the only TV station then operating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — DuMont's WDTV — the sponsor had to agree to a simulcast) was an immediate success, but its sponsor, Admiral, an appliance company, could not keep up with the demand for its new television sets, so the show was cancelled after 26 weeks on account of its runaway success. According to Caesar, an Admiral executive later told him the company had the choice of building a new factory or continuing their sponsorship of the Revue for another season.

On February 23, 1950, Caesar appeared in the first episode of Your Show of Shows, a Saturday night 90-minute variety program produced by Max Liebman (who had previously produced The Admiral Broadway Revue). The premiere featured Burgess Meredith as guest host, and other musical guests Gertrude Lawrence, Lily Pons, and Robert Merrill. The show launched Caesar into instant stardom and was a mix of scripted and improvised comedy, movie and television satires, Caesar's inimitable double-talk monologues, top musical guests, and large production numbers. The impressive guest list included: Jackie Cooper, Robert Preston, Rex Harrison, Eddie Albert, Michael Redgrave, Basil Rathbone, Charlton Heston, Geraldine Page, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Pearl Bailey, Fred Allen, Benny Goodman, Lena Horne and many other big stars of the time. It was also responsible for bringing together one of the best comedy teams in television history: Caesar, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and Imogene Coca. Many prominent writers, denizens of the 'Writer's Room', also got their break creating the show's madcap sketches, including Lucille Kallen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Michael Stewart, Mel Tolkin, Sheldon Keller and Larry Gelbart. Sid Caesar won his first Emmy in 1952. In 1951 and 1952, he was voted the United States' Best Comedian by Motion Picture Daily's TV poll. The show ended after 160 episodes on June 5, 1954. The movie My Favorite Year was a fictional comedic account of a show similar to Your Show of Shows — and the favorite year was 1954.

Just a few months later, Sid Caesar returned with Caesar's Hour, a one-hour sketch/variety show with Morris, Reiner, a young Bea Arthur, and much of the seasoned crew. Nanette Fabray replaced Imogene Coca who left to star in her own short-lived series. Ultimate creative and technical control was now totally in Caesar's hands. The show moved to the larger Century Theater, which allowed longer, more sophisticated productions and the weekly budget doubled to $125,000. The premier on September 27, 1954 featured Gina Lollobrigida.

Contemporary movies, foreign movies, theater, television shows and even opera all became targets of satire by the writing team, whose frenetic and competitive spirit produced some of the best comedy in television history. Often the publicity generated by the sketches boosted the box office of the original productions. Some notable sketches included: "From Here to Obscurity" (From Here to Eternity), "Aggravation Boulevard" (Sunset Boulevard), "Hat Basterson" (Bat Masterson), and "No West For the Wicked" (Stagecoach). Even silent movies were parodied, which showed off the impressive pantomime skills of the entire ensemble. They also performed some recurring sketches. "The Hickenloopers" were television's first bickering couple, predating The Honeymooners. As "The Professor", Caesar was the daffy expert who bluffed his way through his interviews with earnest roving reporter Carl Reiner. In its various incarnations, "The Professor" could be Gut von Fraidykat (mountain-climbing expert), Ludwig von Spacebrain (space expert), or Ludwig von Henpecked (marriage expert). Later, "The Professor" evolved into Mel Brooks' "The Two Thousand Year Old Man". The most prominent recurring sketch on the show was "The Commuters", featuring Caesar, Reiner and Morris involved with everyday working and suburban life situations. Years later the sketch "Sneaking through the Sound Barrier", a parodyof the British film, The Sound Barrier, was run continuously as part of a display on supersonic flight at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Everything was performed live, including the commercials, which only took up seven minutes of the one-hour show, as compared to today's shows, which average about 22 minutes of commercials per hour. Prominent Hollywood movie stars (or their agents) clamored to be on the show, but in reality doing a sketch in one shot with no cue cards and minimal rehearsal time was a challenge for many of the stars used to languid preparation and numerous retakes.

In his book Caesar's Hours, Caesar describes the essence of his comedy as 'working both sides of the street', the deliberate blending of comedy and pathos in the tradition of the great comedians of the 1920s and 1930s — his idols Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, and W. C. Fields. His sympathetic portrayal of the follies and foibles of his characters resonated with a weekly live audience of over 60 million Americans. He was a master of impeccable timing, careful preparation, and quick-witted flexibility, relying heavily on an endless variety of rapidly changing facial expressions and a strong physical presence. Though by nature shy, Caesar reveled in his characters. The most difficult moment of the show for Caesar was the opening, when he had to say 'good evening ladies and gentlemen'.

Caesar's Hour was followed by Sid Caesar Invites You, briefly reuniting Caesar and Coca in 1958, and in 1963 with several As Caesar Sees It specials, which evolved into the 1963-'64 Sid Caesar Show, which alternated with Edie Adams in Here's Edie. Caesar also teamed up with Edie Adams in the Broadway show Little Me, a successful Neil Simon play, with choreography by Bob Fosse and music by Cy Coleman in which Sid played eight parts with 32 costume changes. Caesar and Edie Adams played a husband and wife drawn into a mad race to find buried money in the mega-movie-comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

Later years[link]

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Caesar continued to make occasional television and night club appearances and starred in several movies including Silent Movie, History of the World, Part I, Airport 1975 and as Coach Calhoun in Grease and its sequel, Grease 2, in 1982. In 1971 he starred opposite Carol Channing and a young Tommy Lee Jones in the Broadway show Four on a Garden. In 1973, Sid and Max Liebman mined their own personal kinescopes from Your Show of Shows (NBC had 'lost' the studio copies) and they produced a feature film Ten From Your Show of Shows, a compilation of some of their best sketches. In 1974, Caesar said, "I'd like to be back every week" on TV and appeared in the NBC skit-based comedy television pilot called, Hamburgers.^[6] In 1977, after blanking out during a stage performance of Neil Simon's The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Sid gave up alcohol 'cold turkey'. His autobiography, Where Have I Been, published in 1983 and his second book, Caesar's Hours, both chronicle his struggle to overcome alcoholism and barbiturates. In 1983, Sid hosted Season 8, episode 12 of Saturday Night Live where he received a standing ovation to start the show and was awarded with a plaque that declared him as an honorary member to conclude the show (He is the only host to receive this honor). In 1986, Caesar appeared as Frosh the Jailer in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.^{[citation needed]}

Although advancing in age, Caesar has remained active by appearing in movies, television shows, at award shows and autograph signings. In 1995 he appeared in the movie The Great Mom Swap. In 1996 the Writers Guild of America, West reunited Caesar with nine of his writers from Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour for a special, two-hour panel discussion featuring head writer Mel Tolkin, Caesar, Carl Reiner, Aaron Ruben, Larry Gelbart, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Sheldon Keller, and Gary Belkin. The event was taped, and later broadcast on PBS in the United States and the BBC in the UK. It has since been made available on DVD.^[7] In 1997, he made a guest appearance in Vegas Vacation and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit in 1998 based on a Ray Bradbury novel. Also that year, Caesar joined fellow television icons Bob Hope and Milton Berle at the 50th anniversary of the Primetime Emmy Awards, where the three were greeted with a long standing ovation. He reprised his famous foreign dub skit on the November 21, 2001 episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, to which he was received with an extended standing ovation by the crowd, as well as a surprise birthday cake from the cast and crew. In 2003, he joined Edie Adams and Marvin Kaplan at a 40th anniversary celebration for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.^[8] In 2004, Caesar's second autobiography, Caesar's Hours, was published, and in March 2006, Caesar was presented with the 'Pioneer Award' at the 2006 TV Land Awards. Caesar performed his famous double-talk for over five minutes.^[9]

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• Wayne Lamb, dancer in the Make Mine Manhattan

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sid Caesar and Eddy Friedfeld, Caesar's Hours: My Life in Comedy, with Love and Laughter, January 30, 2005.

External links[link]

• Official Sid Caesar Website
• Sid Caesar at the Internet Movie Database
• Sid Caesar at the Internet Broadway Database
• Sid Caesar at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Sid Caesar at AllRovi
• Sid Caesar Biography from Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Sid Caesar Biography from New York Times

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Carl Reiner
Reiner in 1976
Born	(1922-03-20) March 20, 1922 (age 90) Bronx, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, director, producer, writer
Years active	1948–present
Spouse	Estelle Reiner (1914-2008; deceased)

Carl Reiner (born March 20, 1922)^[1] is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during his career.

Early life[link]

Reiner was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Bessie (née Mathias) and Irving Reiner, who was a watchmaker.^[2] His parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Romania and his mother from Austria.^[3] When he was sixteen, his older brother Charlie read in the New York Daily News about a free dramatic workshop being put on by the Works Progress Administration and told him about it. He had been working as a machinist fixing sewing machines. He credits Charlie with changing his career plans.^[4]

Career[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Reiner at the Emmy Awards, September 1989

Reiner performed in several Broadway musicals, including Inside U.S.A., and Alive and Kicking, and had the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he was cast by producer Max Leibman in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, appearing on air in skits while also working alongside writers such as Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. He also worked on Caesar's Hour with Brooks, Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Mike Stewart, Aaron Ruben, Sheldon Keller and Gary Belkin.

Starting in 1960, on the Steve Allen Show, Reiner teamed with Mel Brooks as a comedy duo. Their performances on stage and television included Reiner playing the straight man to Brooks' 2000 Year Old Man character. The routine eventually expanded into a series of five comedy albums and a 1975 animated TV special.

In 1959, Reiner developed a television pilot, Head of the Family, based on his experience on the Caesar shows. However, the network didn't like Reiner in the lead role. In 1961, it was recast and retitled The Dick Van Dyke Show, and became an iconic series, making stars of his lead actors Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. In addition to writing many of the episodes, Reiner occasionally appeared as temperamental show host "Alan Brady", who ruthlessly browbeats his brother-in-law (played by Richard Deacon). The show ran from 1961 to 1966. In 1966, he co-starred in the Norman Jewison film The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.

Reiner began his directing career on the Van Dyke show. After that show ended its run, Reiner's first film feature was an adaptation of Joseph Stein's play Enter Laughing (1967), which in turn was based on Reiner's semi-autobiographical 1958 novel of the same name. Balancing writing, directing, producing, and acting, Reiner has worked on a wide range of films and television programs. Probably the best-known films of his early directing career were the cult comedy Where's Poppa? (1970), starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon, Oh, God! (1977) with George Burns and The Jerk (1979) with Steve Martin.

Reiner played a large role in the early career of Steve Martin, by directing and co-writing four films for the comedian: The Jerk in 1979, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, The Man with Two Brains in 1983, and All of Me in 1984. Reiner also appeared in both The Jerk and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

In 1989, he directed Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. In 2000, Reiner was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. A year later, he played thief and con man Saul Bloom in Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven and has reprised that role in its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. In 2004 he voiced the lion Sarmoti in the animated TV series Father of the Pride.

Reiner is the author of several books, including his 2004 memoir, My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir, and novels such as 2006's NNNNN: A Novel. In American Film, Reiner expressed his philosophy on writing comedy: "You have to imagine yourself as not somebody very special but somebody very ordinary. If you imagine yourself as somebody really normal and if it makes you laugh, it's going to make everybody laugh. If you think of yourself as something very special, you'll end up a pedant and a bore. If you start thinking about what's funny, you won't be funny, actually. It's like walking. How do you walk? If you start thinking about it, you'll trip."

In May 2009, Reiner guest starred as a clinic patient on the season finale of the Fox series House. He also lent his voice to the character of Santa Claus in the NBC Christmas special Merry Madagascar in November 2009, and reprised his role as Santa in The Penguins of Madagascar holiday special "The All Nighter Before Christmas. In December 2009, Reiner guest-starred as a television prodcuer on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. In June 2010, Reiner guest starred in TV Land's new series "Hot in Cleveland" as Elka Ostrovsky's date and reprised the role in July 2010. Reiner also made appearances on The Cleveland Show as Murray and wrote the story for the episode "Your Show of Shows", named after the program that started his career.

Reiner has the distinction of being the only person to appear on The Tonight Show with each of its five hosts.

Personal life[link]

Reiner in April 2011

On December 24, 1943, Reiner married singer Estelle Lebost. The two were married 64 years until her death in 2008. At the time of the marriage, he was 21 and she was 29. Estelle is probably best remembered for her line "I'll have what she's having" in the deli scene of their son Rob's 1989 film When Harry Met Sally.^[1] She died on October 25, 2008, at age 94.^[5]

Reiner is the father of actor-turned-director Rob Reiner (b. 1947), poet, playwright and author Sylvia Anne (Annie) Reiner (b. 1957), and painter,^[6] actor, and director Lucas Reiner (b. 1960).^[1][7]

Reiner, who is Jewish, has described himself as a Jewish atheist.^[3] He says, "I have a very different take on who God is. Man invented God because he needed him. God is us."^[8]

Bibliography[link]

• Enter Laughing (1958)
• 2000 Years With: Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks (with Mel Brooks, 1960)
• All Kinds of Love (1993)
• Continue Laughing (1995)
• How Paul Robeson Saved My Life (and Other Mostly Happy Stories) (1999)
• The 2000 Year-Old Man in the Year 2000: The Book (1999)
• My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir (2003)
• NNNNN: A Novel (2006)
• Tell Me Another Scary Story... But Not Too Scary! (with James Bennett) (2009)
• Just Desserts: A Novellelah (2009)
• Tell Me a Silly Story (with James Bennett) (2010)

As screenwriter[link]

• The Thrill of It All (1963)
• The Art of Love (1965)
• Enter Laughing (with Joseph Stein, 1967)
• The Comic (with Aaron Ruben, 1968)
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (with Steve Martin and George Gipe, 1982)
• The Man with Two Brains (with Steve Martin and George Gipe, 1983)
• Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989)

As director[link]

• Enter Laughing (1967)
• The Comic (1969)
• Where's Poppa? (1970)
• Oh, God! (1977)
• The One and Only (1978)
• The Jerk (1979)
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
• The Man with Two Brains (1983)
• All of Me (1984)
• Summer Rental (1985)
• Summer School (1987)
• Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989)
• Sibling Rivalry (1990)
• Fatal Instinct (1992)
• That Old Feeling (1997)

Plays[link]

• Something Different (1967)

Television[link]

• Your Show of Shows (1950-54)
• Caesar's Hour (1954-1957)
• Sid Caesar Invites You (1958)
• The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1959-1960)
• The Comedy Spot (1960)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66, also Creator)
• The Judy Garland Show (1963)
• The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967)
• The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971-1974)
• Lotsa Luck (1973) (also Creator)
• The Alan Brady Show (2003)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited (2004)
• The Bernie Mac Show (2001-2006)
• Two and a Half Men (2009-2010)- 3 Episodes
• Hot In Cleveland (2010-present)
• Parks and Recreation (2012)

Acting credits[link]

• Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) (TV)
• Caesar's Hour (1954-1957) (TV)
• The Sid Caesar Show (1958) (TV)
• The Gazebo (1959)
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) (TV)
• The 2000 Year Old Man (1975)
• Good Heavens (1976) (TV)
• The End (1978)
• The Jerk (1979)
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
• The Spirit of '76 (1990)
• Mad About You (1995) (TV)
• King of the Hill (1997-2000) (TV)
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)
• Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
• The Bernie Mac Show (2002) (TV)
• Ally McBeal (2002) (TV)
• Crossing Jordan (2002) (TV) - Episode 1x19 - Harry Macy
• Ocean's Twelve (2004)
• Father of the Pride (2004) (TV)
• Boston Legal (2005) (TV)
• Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
• House M.D. (2008) (TV)
• Two and a Half Men (2009) (TV)
• Merry Madagascar (2009) (TV)
• The Penguins of Madagascar (2010) (TV)
• Hot in Cleveland (2010) (TV)

Other[link]

• Carl Reiner: An American Film Institute Seminar on His Work, Microfilming Corporation of America, (1977)*
• Faerie Tale Theatre Pinocchio (1984) - Geppetto
• World War Z - Max Brooks (2007)

Awards[link]

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6421 Hollywood Blvd.

• Emmy Award, 1957, Best supporting actor in a comedy series (Caesar's Hour)
• Emmy Award, 1958, Best supporting actor in a comedy series (Sid Caesar Invites You)
• Outstanding writing achievement in comedy, 1962, 1963, and 1964 (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
• Outstanding program achievement in entertainment, 1965 (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
• Outstanding writing achievement in a variety, 1967 (The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special)
• Grammy Award nomination, 1960, (2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks)
• Grammy Award (The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000)
• Elected to Emmy Award Hall of Fame
• Grammy nomination for best spoken word album, 2001 (Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings from Mark Twain)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, (2007).

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carl Reiner

• Carl Reiner at the Internet Movie Database
• Carl Reiner at the Internet Broadway Database
• Carl Reiner at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Carl Reiner collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• See Carl Reiner's interview for the Archive of American Television
• "Remembering the Dick Van Dyke Show" (Carl Reiner)
• Profile of Carl Reiner at Jewish Times

Nanette Fabray
In 1939
Born	Ruby Bernadette Nanette Fabares (1920-10-27) October 27, 1920 (age 91) San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1924–1994
Spouse	Dave Tebet (1947-1951) Ranald MacDougall (1957-1973)

Nanette Fabray (born October 27, 1920) is an American actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, and activist. She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and became a musical theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. In the mid-1950s, she served as Sid Caesar's comedic partner on Caesar's Hour, for which she won three Emmy Awards. From 1979-1984, she appeared as Grandma Katherine Romano on One Day at a Time.

Fabray overcame a significant hearing impairment and has been a long-time advocate for the rights of the deaf and hard of hearing. Her honors representing the handicapped include the President's Distinguished Service Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award.

Early life, education, and work as a child actor[link]

Fabray was born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Fabares in San Diego, California, to Raul Bernard Fabares, a train conductor, and Lily Agnes McGovern, a housewife. The family resided in Los Angeles and Fabray's mother was instrumental in getting her daughter involved in show business as a child. At a young age, she studied tap dancing with, among others, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. She made her professional stage debut as "Miss New Years Eve 1923" at the Million Dollar Theater at the age of three. The following year, she made her first film appearance as an extra in the Our Gang short Cradle Robbers. She spent much of her childhood appearing in vaudeville productions as a dancer and singer. She appeared with stars such as Ben Turpin.

Fabray's parents divorced when she was nine, but continued living together for financial reasons. During the Great Depression, her mother turned their home into a boarding house, which Fabray and her siblings helped run. In her early teenage years, Fabray attended the Max Reinhardt School of the Theatre on a scholarship. She then attended Hollywood High School, where she graduated in 1939. She entered Los Angeles Junior College in the fall of 1939, but withdrew a few months later. She had always had difficulty in school due to an undiagnosed hearing impairment, which made learning difficult. She eventually was diagnosed with a hearing loss in her 20s after an acting teacher encouraged her to get her hearing tested. Fabray said of the experience, "It was a revelation to me. All these years I had thought I was stupid, but in reality I just had a hearing problem."

Career as a musical theatre actress[link]

At the age of 19, Fabray made her feature film debut as one of Bette Davis' ladies-in-waiting in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). She appeared in two additional motion pictures that year for Warner Brothers, The Monroe Doctrine and A Child Is Born, but failed to gain a long-term studio contract. She next appeared in the stage production Meet the People in Los Angeles in 1940, which then toured the United States in 1940-1941. In the show, she sang the opera aria "Caro nome" from Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto while tap dancing. During the show's New York run, Fabray was invited to perform the "Caro nome" number for a benefit at Madison Square Garden with Eleanor Roosevelt as the main speaker. Ed Sullivan was the Master of Ceremonies for the event and the famed host, reading a cue card, mispronounced her name as "Nanette Fa-bare-ass." After this embarrassing faux pas, the actress changed the spelling of her name from Fabares to Fabray.^[1]

Artur Rodziński, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, saw Fabray's performance in Meet the People and offered to sponsor operatic vocal training for her at the Juilliard School. She studied opera at Juilliard during the latter half of 1941 while performing in her first Broadway musical, Let's Face It!, with Danny Kaye and Eve Arden. She decided that she preferred musical theatre over opera and withdrew from the school after five months. She became a successful musical theatre actress in New York during the 1940s and early 1950s, starring in such productions as By Jupiter (1942), My Dear Public (1943), Jackpot (1944), Bloomer Girl (1946), High Button Shoes (1947), Arms and the Girl (1950), and Make a Wish (1951). In 1949, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Susan Cooper in the Kurt Weill/Alan Jay Lerner musical Love Life. She received a Tony nomination for her role as Nell Henderson in 1963 for Mr. President 1963 after an eleven-year absence from the New York stage.^[1]. Fabray continued to tour in musicals for many years, appearing in such shows as Wonderful Town and No No Nanette.

Television and film[link]

In the mid-1940s, Fabray worked regularly for David Sarnoff and NBC on a variety of programs in the Los Angeles area. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she made her first high-profile national television appearances performing on a number of variety programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, Texaco Star Theater, and The Arthur Murray Party. She also appeared on Your Show of Shows as a guest star opposite Sid Caesar. She appeared as a regular on Caesar's Hour from 1954–1956, winning three Emmys. Fabray left the show after a misunderstanding when her business manager, unbeknown to her, made unreasonable demands for her third season contract. Fabray and Caesar did not reconcile until years later.

Fabray appeared as the mother of the main character on television series such as One Day at a Time, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Coach, where she played mother to real-life niece Shelley Fabares. She also made appearances on The Carol Burnett Show, Burke's Law, Love, American Style, Maude, The Love Boat, What's My Line?, and Murder, She Wrote. Her brief, eponymously-titled 1961 comedy series was cancelled after 13 episodes. On the PBS program Pioneers of Television: Sitcoms, Mary Tyler Moore credited Fabray with inspiring her trademark comedic crying technique.

In 1953, Fabray played her most well-known screen role as a Betty Comden-like playwright in MGM's The Band Wagon with Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan. The film featured Fabray, Astaire, and Buchanan performing the classic musical number "Triplets", which was included in That's Entertainment Part II. Additional film credits include The Subterraneans (1960), The Happy Ending (1969), Amy (1981), and Teresa's Tattoo (1994).

Fabray's most recent work was in 2007, when she appeared in The Damsel Dialogues, an original revue by composer Dick de Benedictus, with direction/choreography by Miriam Nelson. The show, which was performed at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California, focused on women's' issues with life, love, loss, and the workplace.

Personal life[link]

Fabray's first husband, Dave Tebet, was a Vice-President of NBC. Her second husband was screenwriter Ranald MacDougall, who numbered Mildred Pierce and Cleopatra among his credits, and who served as President of the Writers Guild of America in the early 1970s. The couple was married from 1957 until his death in 1973. They had one child.

Fabray is a resident of Pacific Palisades, California.

In 2001, she wrote to advice columnist Dear Abby to decry the loud background music used on television programs.^[2]

Fabray is the aunt of singer/actress Shelley Fabares.^[3]

Hollywood Walk of Fame[link]

Nanette Fabray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Partial filmography[link]

Film[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nanette Fabray at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nanette Fabray at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Nanette Fabray at the Internet Movie Database

Edvard Grieg (1876)

Edvard Grieg (1891)
portrait by Eilif Peterssen

Edvard Grieg and Nina Hagerup. (1899)

Edvard Hagerup Grieg /ˈɛdʋɑɖ ˈhɑːgəɾʉːp gɾiːg/ (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.^[1]

Biography[link]

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on 15 June 1843. His parents were Alexander Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and vice consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup (1814–1875), a music teacher and daughter of Edvard Hagerup.^[2][3] The family name, originally spelled Greig, has Scottish origins. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Grieg's great-grandfather traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen.

Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical area. His mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of 6. Grieg studied in several schools,^{[clarification needed]} including Tank's School.^[4] He often brought in samples of his music to class.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull,^[5] who was a family friend; Bull's brother was married to Grieg's aunt.^[6] Bull recognized the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory,^[5] then directed by Ignaz Moscheles.^{[citation needed]}

Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and recitals given in Leipzig. He disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study, but he achieved very good grades in most areas. An exception was the organ, which was mandatory for piano students. In the spring of 1860, he survived a life-threatening lung disease. The following year he made his debut as a concert pianist, in Karlshamn, Sweden. In 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig and held his first concert in his home town, where his programme included Beethoven's Pathétique sonata. (Grieg's own recording of his Piano Sonata, made late in his life, confirms that he was an excellent pianist).

In 1863, Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years. He met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He also met his fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak (composer of the Norwegian national anthem), who became a good friend and source of great inspiration. Nordraak died in 1866, and Grieg composed a funeral march in his honor.

On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin, Nina Hagerup. The next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born. She died in 1869 from meningitis. In the summer of 1868, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its premiere performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Grieg himself was unable to be there due to conducting commitments in Christiania (as Oslo was then named). ^[7]

In 1868, Franz Liszt, who had not yet met Grieg, wrote a testimonial for him to the Norwegian Ministry of Education, which led to Grieg's obtaining a travel grant. The two men met in Rome in 1870. On Grieg's first visit, they went over Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 1, which pleased Liszt greatly. On his second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto, which Liszt proceeded to sightread (including the orchestral arrangement). Liszt's rendition greatly impressed his audience, although Grieg gently pointed out to him that he played the first movement too quickly. Liszt also gave Grieg some advice on orchestration, (for example, to give the melody of the second theme in the first movement to a solo trumpet).

In 1874–76, Grieg composed incidental music for the premiere of Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, at the request of the author. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular in the orchestral suites or piano and piano-duet arrangements.

Grieg had close ties with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Harmonien), and later became Music Director of the orchestra from 1880–1882. In 1888, Grieg met Tchaikovsky in Leipzig. Grieg was struck by the sadness in Tchaikovsky.^[8] Tchaikovsky thought very highly of Grieg's music, praising its beauty, originality and warmth.^[9]

Later years[link]

Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen

Grieg's later life brought him fame. The Norwegian government awarded him a pension. In the spring 1903, Grieg made nine 78-rpm gramophone recordings of his piano music in Paris; all of these historic discs have been reissued on both LPs and CDs and, despite limited fidelity, show his artistry as a pianist. Grieg also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Welte-Mignon reproducing system, all of which survive today and can be heard.

In 1906, he met the composer and pianist Percy Grainger in London. Grainger was a great admirer of Grieg's music and a strong empathy was quickly established. In a 1907 interview, Grieg stated: “I have written Norwegian Peasant Dances that no one in my country can play, and here comes this Australian who plays them as they ought to be played! He is a genius that we Scandinavians cannot do other than love.”^[10]

Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. His final words were "Well, if it must be so." The funeral drew between 30,000 and 40,000 people out on the streets of his home town to honor him. Following his wish, his own Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak was played in an orchestration by his friend Johan Halvorsen, who had married Grieg's niece. In addition, the Funeral March movement from Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 was played. His and his wife's ashes are entombed in a mountain crypt near his house, Troldhaugen.

Music[link]

Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata.^[2] His many short pieces for piano – often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances – led some to call him the "Chopin of the North".^{[who?][citation needed]}

Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Notturno, Op. 54, No. 4 Performed live by Mark Gasser Grieg plays his butterfly. Recorded 1906 Grieg plays his Wedding day. Recorded 1903

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The Piano Concerto is his most popular work. Its champions have included the pianist and composer Percy Grainger, a personal friend of Grieg who played the concerto frequently during his long career. An arrangement of part of the work made an iconic television comedy appearance in the Christmas 1971 Morecambe and Wise Show, conducted by André Previn.

Some of the Lyric Pieces (for piano) are also well-known, as is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, a play that Grieg found to be an arduous work to score properly. In a 1874 letter to his friend Frants Beyer, Grieg expressed his unhappiness with what is now considered one of his most popular compositions from Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King: "I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King – something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible."^[11]

Grieg's popular Holberg Suite was originally written for the piano, and later arranged by the composer for string orchestra. Grieg wrote songs, in which he set lyrics by poets Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Rudyard Kipling and others. Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky used a theme by Grieg for the variations with which he closed his Third String Quartet. Norwegian pianist Eva Knardahl recorded the composer's complete piano music during 1978 and 1980. The recordings were reissued in 2006 on 12 compact discs by BIS Records.

List of selected works[link]

• Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
• Violin Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8
• Concert Overture In Autumn, Op. 11
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 13
• Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
• Incidental music to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's play Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 22
• Incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, Op. 23
• Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song in G minor, Op. 24
• String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27
• Album for Male Chorus, Op. 30
• Two Elegiac Melodies for Strings, Op. 34
• Four Norwegian Dances for piano four hands, Op. 35 (later orchestrated)
• Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36
• Holberg Suite for piano, later arr. for string orchestra, Op. 40
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46
• Lyric Suite for orchestra, Op. 54 (orchestration of four Lyric Pieces)
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55
• Suite from Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56
• Four Symphonic Dances for piano, later arr. for orchestra, Op. 64
• Haugtussa Song Cycle after Arne Garborg, Op. 67
• Slåtter (Peasant Dances) for piano, Op. 72
• Sixty-six Lyric Pieces for piano in ten books, Opp. 12, 38, 43, 47, 54, 57, 62, 65, 68 and 71, including: Arietta, To the Spring, Little Bird, Butterfly, Notturno, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, At Your Feet, Longing For Home, March of the Dwarfs, Poème érotique and Gone.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Grieg's music in popular culture
• Song of Norway the operetta.

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Benestad, Finn; Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (1990) [1980] (in Norwegian). Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren (2 ed.). Oslo: Aschehoug. ISBN 82-03-16373-4. 

Further reading[link]

English[link]

• Grieg The Writer ed. by Bjarne Kortsen. Vol I: Essays and Articles, vol II: Letters to Frants Beyer (editio norvegica, Bergen/Norway 1972)
• Edvard Grieg in England by Lionel Carley (The Boydell Press 2006) ISBN 1-84383-207-0
• Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Cultural Identity by Daniel Grimley (The Boydell Press 2006) ISBN 1-84383-210-0
• Songs of Edvard Grieg by Beryl Foster (The Boydell Press new edition 2007) ISBN 1-84383-343-3
• Edvard Grieg by Henry Theophilius Finck (Bastian Books new edition 2008) ISBN 978-0-554-96326-6
• Grieg by John Horton (London 1950)

Norwegian[link]

• Benestad, Finn/Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (2007): Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren. H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), Oslo. ISBN 978-82-03-23459-0
• Bredal, Dag/Strøm-Olsen, Terje (1992): Edvard Grieg – Musikken er en kampplass. Aventura Forlag A/S, Oslo. ISBN 82-588-0890-7
• Johansen, David Monrad (1956): Edvard Grieg. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo.
• Bøe, Finn (1949): Trekk av Edvard Griegs personlighet. Oslo.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edvard Grieg

• Grieg 2007. Official Site for 100th year commemoration of Edvard Grieg
• The Grieg archives at Bergen Public Library
• Troldhaugen Museum, Grieg's home
• Biography of Grieg by prof. Harald Herresthal
• Works by Edvard Grieg on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Edvard Grieg statue by Sigvald Asbjornsen Prospect Park (Brooklyn)
• Films about Grieg's life: What Price Immortality? (1999), Song of Norway (1970)
• Edvard Grieg picture collection at flickr commons

Recordings by Edvard Grieg[link]

• Papillon – Lyric Piece, Op. 43, no. 1 as recorded by Grieg on piano roll, 17 April 1906, Leipzig (Info)
• Legendary Piano Recordings: The Complete Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Pugno, and Diémer (Marston Records)
• Edvard Grieg: The Piano Music In Historic Interpretations (SIMAX Classics – PSC1809)
• Grieg and his Circle (Pearl, GEMM 9933 CD)
• Grieg spiller Grieg (Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen)
• Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)

Music scores[link]

• Free scores by Edvard Grieg at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Edvard Grieg in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Edvard Grieg in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores at the Mutopia Project

polski:Edvard Grieg