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Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. It was directed by Alan Schneider. Subsequent cast members included Henderson Forsythe, Eileen Fulton, Mercedes McCambridge and Arthur Hill. Starting in 2004, and continuing into 2005, there is a new production of this play on Broadway. The new production is directed by Anthony Page and it stars Kathleen Turner as Martha and Bill Irwin as George. Irwin won the 2005 Tony award for best actor for his role in Anthony Page's production. In the play, Martha and George, a bitter erudite couple, invite a new professor and his wife to their house after a party and then continue drinking and engage in relentless, scathing verbal and sometimes physical abuse in front of them. Martha is the daughter of the president of the university where George works as a history professor; Nick is the biology professor who Martha insists teaches math, and Honey is his mousy, brandy-abusing wife. Nick and his wife are fascinated and embarrassed, and stay even though the abuse turns periodically towards them as well.

Plot summary

Throughout the play, there are lots of darker veins running through the dialogue, with recurring themes suggesting the border between created fiction and reality is continually challenged. The play involves the two couples playing "games," which are not exactly games in the conventional sense but are, in a sense, savage verbal acts against one or two of the others at the party. These games are referred to with sarcastically alliterative names, "Humiliate the Host," "Get the Guests," and so on. Martha, in the first act, "Fun and Games," taunts George in stressing his failures, in an almost brutal fashion, even after George exhibits violence: :Martha: ...In fact, he was sort of a ... a FLOP! A great...big...FLOP! : [CRASH! Immediately after FLOP! George breaks a bottle against the portable bar...] : George [almost crying]: I said stop, Martha : Martha: I hope that was an empty bottle, George. You don't want to waste good liquor...not on your salary In Walpurgisnacht, the next act, Nick and George are alone, talking. Nick talks about his wife Honey and her hysterical pregnancy - and: : George [To Nick]: While she was up, you married her. : Nick: And then she went down. Later, George tells a story about a boy who shot his mother (by accident), who was driving in the countryside, who "swerved the car, to avoid a porcupine, and drove straight into a large tree...when they told him that his father was dead...he was put in an asylum" This theme is important, as it recurs later in the play. Martha begins to describe a novel that George wrote recently: "a novel about a naughty boychild...who killed his mother and his father dead." Martha continues: "Georgie said...but Sir, it isn't a novel at all...this really happened...TO ME!". George and Martha physically fight: George grabs Martha by the throat. But Nick is the only one who has a spark of realization to the matter. Albee only suggests : Nick [remembering something related]: Hey...wait a minute... Is the "boy who shot his mother" in fact George and he was lying to Nick about the asylum, is the asylum something metaphoric, or is Martha lying about the book, or is something else afoot? The immediate truth is not in fact clearly evident. This brutal event consists of the game "Humiliate the Host." George is quick off the mark in an indirect retort, however (the next game, "Get the Guests"). While Nick and George were talking, Nick described the story about how they ended up in New Carthage and their marriage. Honey, thoroughly drunk, does not realize that George's story about the "Mousie's father" and Honey, who "tooted brandy immodestly and spent half of her time in the upchuck", with her hysterical pregnancy is in fact about her. She feels as she is about to be sick and runs to the bathroom. At the end of this act, Martha starts to seduce Nick blatantly in front of George. George however, sits calmly, quietly, even reading a book: :Martha: ...I said I was necking with one of the guests... :George: Yes, good...good for you. Which one? :Martha: Oh, I see what you're up to, you lousy little... :George: I'm up to page a hundred and... At the end of the act, Honey comes out, hearing Martha and Nick brush against the doorchimes, wondering who rang. This gives George an idea, and leads into the next, crucial act of the play. In the third act, Martha comes out with no one on stage, speaking in soliloquy. Nick joins her after a while, recalling Honey in the bathroom winking at him. The doorbell rings: It is George, with a bunch of snapdragons in his hand, calling out "Flores par los muertes" (flowers for the dead, in a reference to A Streetcar Named Desire). Martha and George argue about whether the moon is up or down: George insists it is up while Martha says she saw no moon from the bedroom. George then continues to say how he was in the Mediterranean when the moon went down and came up again: Nick asks whether it was after George killed his parents: : George [defiantly]: Maybe. : Martha: Yeah; maybe not, too. : ... : George [to Nick]: Truth and illusion. Who knows the difference...? George calls Nick to bring back his wife for the final game, "bringing up baby". George and Martha supposedly have a son, which George has instructed Martha to keep quiet about to which she failed. George starts to talk about this son, how "Martha...climbing all over the poor bastard, trying to break the bathroom door down to wash him in the tub when he's sixteen," then George prompting Martha for her "recitation", in which they describe their son's upbringing in an almost duet-like fashion: :Martha: It was an easy birth... :George: Oh, Martha; no. You laboured...how you laboured. :Martha: It was an easy birth...once it had been...accepted, relaxed into As this progresses, George begins to recite sections of the Dies Irae (part of the Requiem, the Latin mass for the dead), and in the end: :George: Martha...our son is...dead. ::[Silence.] ::He was...killed...late in the afternoon... ::[Silence.] ::[A tiny chuckle] on a country road, with his learner's permit in his pocket, he swerved, to avoid a porcupine, and drove straight into a ... :Martha [rigid fury]: YOU...CAN'T...DO...THAT! But - if their son was real, what has George supposed to have done? The circumstances of their son's death was touched on before, though in a different context. "Truth and illusion...Who knows the difference?" George and Martha in fact have created their son; he does not exist as George and Martha could not have children. George says that he "killed" their son because Martha broke their rule that she could not speak of their son to others - but George also says that "it was...time". The play ends on a slightly less dark note, with George singing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" to Martha, whereupon she replies, "I am, George... I am".

Film

A film adaptation of the play was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was released in 1966. The film version differs slightly from the play. The play features only the four characters listed above while in the film there are two other minor characters, the host of a roadhouse who appears briefly and says a few lines, and his wife, who serves a tray of drinks and leaves silently. (They were played by the gaffer on the film, Frank Flanagan, and his wife.) In the play, each scene takes place in Martha and George's house, while in the film, a few scenes take place at the roadhouse and outside George and Martha's house, as well as in their car. Despite these minor variatons, however, the film is extremely faithful to the play. The filmmakers used the original play as the screenplay and, aside from toning down some of the profanity a slight bit -- Martha's "screw you!" becomes "damn you!" -- virtually all of the original dialogue remains intact. Richard BurtonEach of the four main actors was nominated for an Oscar (the first instance where the actors of a movie were nominated for all the acting honors) but only Taylor and Sandy Dennis (playing the mousy wife) won for Best Actress and Supporting Actress, respectively. The film also won for Black and White Cinematography for Haskell Wexler's stark, black and white camera work, and is consistently on the top 250 films list at the Internet Movie Database. According to Edward Albee, he had been told that Bette Davis and James Mason were going to play "Martha" and "George", and was surprised by the Burton/Taylor casting, but stated that Taylor was quite good, and Burton was incredible. The film is considered groundbreaking for having a level of profanity and sexual implication unheard of at that time. At the time, Jack Valenti, who had just taken over as president of the MPAA in 1966, had just thrown out the old Breen Office Code. In order for the film to be released with the MPAA approval, the releasing studio Warner Brothers agreed to minor deletions of certain profanities and to have a special warning placed on all advertisement indicating adult content in the film. It was this film and another groundbreaking film, Blowup, that led Jack Valenti to begin work on the MPAA film rating system that went into effect in 1968. The choice of Taylor – at the time regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world – to play the frumpy, fifty-ish Martha surprised many, but the actress gained thirty pounds for the role, and her performance (along with the those of Burton, Siegel and Dennis) was ultimately praised.

Trivia


- There is a strong belief that the main characters' names are based on the first names of U.S. President George Washington and his wife Martha.
- Because of the dark, unflattering glimpse of heterosexual married life, many critics at the time suggested the play was a thinly veiled portrait of two gay male couples. Albee (who himself is openly gay) has adamantly denied this, stating to a number of interviewers over the years, "If I'd wanted to write a play about two gay couples, I would have done so."
- Albee was not initially pleased with the choices of Taylor and Burton in the lead roles. His stated preference was for Bette Davis and James Mason. However, he subsequently praised Taylor and Burton, once the film was completed.
- Nick is never addressed or introduced by name. (Viewers would not know the character's name, were it not cited in the credits.) He is, however the recipient of a number of derogatory and/or unflattering nicknames from George (e.g. "stud", "houseboy", "blondie").
- The movie version was spoofed on The Benny Hill Show with Hill playing both Burton's and Taylor's parts.

External links


- Category:U.S. plays Category:1966 films Category:Best Picture Oscar Nominee Category:Best Actor Oscar Nominee (film) Category:Best Actress Oscar (film) Category:Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nominee (film) Category:Best Supporting Actress Oscar (film) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Category:Broadway plays Category:Films based on plays Category:Warner Bros. films

Edward Albee

Edward Franklin Albee III (born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright known for works including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, and The Sandbox. His works are considered well-crafted and often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Absurdism that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugene Ionesco. Younger American playwrights, such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel, credit Albee's daring mix of theatricalism and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent the post-war American theatre in the early 1960s. Albee's dedication to continuing to evolve his voice--as evidenced in later productions such as The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (2000) -- also routinely marks him as distinct from other American playwrights of his era. Edward Albee was born in Washington, DC and was adopted two weeks later and taken to Westchester County, New York. Albee's adoptive father, himself the son of vaudeville magnate E.F. Albee, owned several theatres, where Edward first gained familiarity with the theatre as a child. Albee left home when he was in his late teens, later saying in an interview, "They weren't very good at being parents, and I wasn't very good at being a son." He subsequently graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania in 1945 at the age of 17. He graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall and attended Trinity College (Connecticut) for a year and a half before being expelled for skipping classes and refusing to attend compulsory chapel. Perhaps ironically, the less than diligent student later dedicated much of his time to promoting American university theatre, frequently speaking at campuses and serving as a distinguished professor at the University of Houston from 1989 to 2003. A member of the Dramatists Guild Council, Albee has received three Pulitzer Prizes for drama — for A Delicate Balance (1966), Seascape (1974), Three Tall Women (1990-1991); a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (2005); the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1980); as well as the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts (both in 1996). Albee is the President of the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc., which maintains the William Flanagan Creative Persons Center (a writers and artists colony in Montauk, NY). Albee's longtime partner, Jonathan Thomas, a sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, the result of a two year-long battle with bladder cancer.

Plays


- The Zoo Story (1958)
- The Death of Bessie Smith (1959)
- The Sandbox (1959)
- Fam and Yam (1959)
- The American Dream (1960)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award)
- The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1963) (adapted from the novel by Carson McCullers)
- Tiny Alice (1964)
- Malcolm (1965) (adapted from the novel by James Purdy)
- A Delicate Balance (1966)
- Everything in the Garden (1967) (adapted from a play by British playwright Giles Cooper)
- Box (play) and Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (1968)
- All Over (1971)
- Seascape (1974)
- Listening (play) (1975)
- Counting the Ways (1976)
- The Lady From Dubuque (1977-79)
- Lolita (adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov)
- The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981)
- Finding the Sun (1982)
- Marriage Play (1986-87)
- Three Tall Women (1990-91)
- The Lorca Play (1992)
- Fragments (1993)
- The Play About the Baby (1996)
- The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (2000, Tony Award)
- Occupant (play) (2001)
- Peter & Jerry (Act One: Homelife. Act Two: The Zoo Story) (2004)

Non Dramatic Writings


- Stretching My Mind: Essays 1960-2005 (Avalon Publishing, 2005) Albee, Edward Albee, Edward Albee, Edward Albee, Edward Albee, Edward Albee, Edward Albee, Edward Albee, Edward

Billy Rose

Billy Rose (September 6, 1899–February 10, 1966) was an Jewish-American theatrical showman. Born William Samuel Rosenberg in New York City, he began his career as a lyricist, best known writing or cowriting the lyrics to "Me and My Shadow", "Great Day" (with Edward Eliscu), "Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight" (with Marty Bloom), "I Found a Million Dollar Baby" (with Mort Dixon) and "It's Only a Paper Moon" (with E. Y. Harburg). Most of his Rose's lyrics credits were collaborations. Biographer Earl Conrad says "Nobody clearly knew what he wrote or didn't write...Publisher tend to credit him with writing the songs known to bear his name as a lyricist...But tales rumble on...that Billy could feed and toss in a remark and monkey around, but that others did most of the writing." Lyricists might have been willing to tolerate a Rose credit grab because Rose was very successful at promoting "his" songs. He went on to become a Broadway producer, and a theatre/nightclub owner. He produced "Jumbo," starring Jimmy Durante at the New York Hippodrome Theatre. For Fort Worth Frontier Days, he constructed the huge elaborate dinner theatre, "Casa Manana," featuring stripper Sally Rand and the world's largest revolving stage. He presented a show at the Great Lakes Exhibition in Cleveland, Ohio in 1936. Diminutive in stature, whenever he wanted to attend a show Rose's practice was to book two pairs of tickets: one for himself and a female companion, and the two seats directly in front, which were left vacant to ensure his unobstructed view. In 1938 he opened "Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe" nightclub in New York, in the basement of the Paramount Hotel off Times Square. It initially opened with a version of his Fort Worth show. At the 1939 New York World's Fair, "Billy Rose's Aquacade" starred Olympian Eleanor Holm in what the fair program called "a brilliant 'girl' show of spectacular size and content." He married Holm shortly thereafter, divorcing his first wife, comedienne Fanny Brice. Future MGM star Esther Williams and future Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller were both Aquacade stars. Following the Fair, Rose asked John Murray Anderson, who had staged the Aquacade, to recommend a choreographer for a new show at the Horseshoe. Anderson recommended Gene Kelly, then performing in William Saroyan's One for the Money. Rose objected that he wanted someone who could choreograph "tits and asses, not soft-soap from a crazy Armenian" (Yudkoff, 2001). But after seeing Kelly's performance he gave Kelly the job, an important step in Kelly's career. The Diamond Horseshoe operated under that name until 1951. In 1943, he produced Carmen Jones with an all-black cast. An adaptation of George Bizet's opera Carmen, the story was transplanted to World War II America by lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. It was an instant hit. The Telegraph called it "far and away the best show in New York," the Times said it was "beautifully done...just call it wonderful" and the Herald Tribune said that Oscar Hammerstein II "must be considered one of the greatest librettists of our day" and that Carmen Jones was "a masterly tour de force." It was made into a motion picture in 1954, for which Dorothy Dandridge received an Academy Award nomination. Billy Rose founded the Billy Rose Sculpture Garden in Jerusalem.

Work on Broadway


- Charlot Revue (1925) - revue - featured co-lyricist for "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You" with Al Dubin, music by Joseph Meyer
- Padlocks of 1927 (1927) - revue - lyricist
- Harry Delmar's Revels (1927) - revue - co-lyricist
- Sweet and Low (1930) - revue - composer, lyricist, and producer
- Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt (1931) - revue - producer, bookwriter, and director
- The Great Magoo (1932) - play - producer
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 (1934) - revue - featured lyricist for "Soul Saving Sadie", "Suddenly", "Countess Dubinsky", and "Sarah, the Sunshine Girl"
- Jumbo (1935) - musical - producer
- Clash by Night (1941) - play - producer
- Carmen Jones (1943) - musical - producer
- Seven Lively Arts (1944) - revue - producer
- Concert Varieties (1945) - vaudeville - producer
- Interplay (1945) - ballet - producer
- The Immoralist (1954) - play - producer
- The Wall (1960) - play - co-producer Posthumous Credits
- Ain't Misbehavin' (1978) - revue - featured lyricist for "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" from Applause
- Big Deal (1986) - musical - featured lyricist for "Me and My Shadow"
- Fosse (1999) - revue - featured lyricist for "Dancin' Dan (Me and My Shadow)" From 1949 until 1955 Rose was the owner/operator of the Ziegfeld Theatre. During that time, the theater housed four musicals and five plays. From 1959 until his death in 1966, he was also the owner/operator of the Billy Rose Theater, named after him. During that time the theater housed four plays, one musical, one revue, three ballets, and twenty-nine concert performances. After his death, the theater retained its name and remained in the ownership if his estate until 1978, when it was renamed. Today it is the Nederlander Theater, currently housing Rent.

References


- Yudkoff, Alvin (2001): Gene Kelly p. 65 Watson-Guptill, ISBN 0823088197

Links


- [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=16019 Billy Rose] at the Internet Broadway Database

Bibliography


- Billy Rose, Manhattan Primitive, Earl Conrad; World Publishing Company, 1968
- Billy Rose Presents Casa Mañana, Jan Jones; TCU Press, 1999 Rose, Billy Rose, Billy

1962

1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). In Chinese Zodiac, the "year" of the Ox ended on February 4, 1962 and the "year" of the Tiger began on February 5, 1962.

Events

January


- January 1 - Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand
- January 3 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro
- January 4 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board
- January 5 - The first record by The Beatles is released by Deutsche Grammophon
- January 8 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC)
- January 9 - Trade pact between Cuba and the Soviet Union
- January 10 - Avalanche on Nevado Huascarán in Peru; 4000 deaths
- January 11 - Volcano erupts in the Peruvian Andes and causes an avalanche that buries 3000
- January 12 - Indonesian army confirms that it has began operations in West Irian
- January 13 - Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China
- January 16 - Military coup in the Dominican Republic
- January 19 - Counter-coup in the Dominican Republic - old government returns except for the new president Rafael Bonnely
- January 22 - The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba's membership
- January 24 - East German goverment readopts conscription
- January 24 - OAS bomb in French foreign ministry
- January 26 - Mafioso Lucky Luciano dies at the Naples Airport
- January 26 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles
- January 27 - Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgi Malenkov
- January 30 - Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, Michigan

February


- February 2 - For the first time in 400 years Neptune and Pluto align
- February 3 - US announces its trade embargo with Cuba
- February 4 - The Sunday Times becomes the first paper to print a colour supplement
- February 4 - Latin American Gnostic master Samael Aun Weor declares the advent of the New Age of Aquarius
- February 5 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation
- February 7 - The United States Government bans all US-related Cuban imports and exports
- February 9 - Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation opens
- February 10 - February 10 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin
- February 12 - Six members of the Committee of 100 of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament are found guilty of a breach of the Official Secrets Act
- February 14 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House
- February 15 - Urho Kekkonen re-elected president of Finland
- February 16/February 17 - Heavy storm flood on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg, more than 300 people die, thousands losing their homes
- February 17 - Flooding in North Sea coasts
- February 20 - Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes becoming the first American to orbit the Earth
- February 23 - 12 European countries form European Space Agency

March-April


- March 1 - An American Airlines Boeing 707 crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport after its rudder separates from the tail, with loss of all life on board
- March 2 - Military coup in Burma
- March 8-12 - In Geneva, France and Algerian FLN begin negotiations
- March 15 - Katangan prime minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin Congo
- March 19 - Armistice begins in Algeria
- March 18 - France and Algeria sign an agreement in Evian ending the Algerian War. See Évian Accords.
- March 19 - Armistice in Algeria - however, Organisation de l'armée secrète continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians
- March 23 - Scandinavian States of Nordic Council sign Helsinki Convention on Nordic Co-operation
- March 24 - OAS leader Edmond Jouahud arrested in Oran
- March 26 - France shortens the term for military service from 26 months to 18
- April 3 - Nehru elected de facto prime minister of India
- April 4 - James Hanratty is hanged in Bedford Gaol for A6 murder - many believe he was innocent
- April 6 - Belgium reforms diplomatic relations with Congo
- April 7 - Author Milovan Djilas arrested in Yugoslavia
- April 8 - In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum with a majority of 90%.
- April 10 - In Los Angeles, the first game is played at Dodger Stadium.
- April 13 - OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud sentenced to death in France
- April 14 - Cuban military tribunal convicts 1179 Bay of Pigs attackers
- April 18 - Commonweath Immigration Bill in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the British Commonwealth
- April 20 - OAS leader Raoul Salan arrested in Algiers
- April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon

May-June


- May 2 - OAS bomb explodes in Algeria - this and other attacks kill 110 and injure 147
- May 31 - Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel
- May 5 - 12 East Germans escape via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall
- May 14 - Juan Carlos marries the Greek Princess Sophia in Athens
- May 14 - Milovan Djilas, former vice-president of Yugoslavia, is given further sentence for publishing Conversations with Stalin
- May 23 - Drilling for new Montreal, Quebec subway commences
- May 23 - Founder of the French terrorist Organisation de l'armée secrète, Raoul Salan, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France
- May 24 - In Olima, Peru, unpopular referee ruling in a Peru-Argentina soccer match leads to riot and panic - 300 dead, over 500 injured
- May 24 - Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule
- May 25 - Consecration of the new Coventry cathedral
- May 29 - Negotiations between OAS ja FLA lead to real armistice
- May 31 - Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel
- June 3 - An air crash at Orly Airport in Paris - 130 dead, two stewardesses survive
- June 11 - President John F. Kennedy, gives commencement address at Yale University.
- June 11 - Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to apparently successfully escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. There is no conclusive evidence that they survived the attempt.
- June 15 - Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement
- June 17 – OAS signs a truce with FLN in Algeria but a day later announces that it will continue the fight for French Algeria
- June 17 - Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 to win the 1962 World Cup
- June 25 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Engel v. Vitale that prayers in public schools are unconstitutional
- June 26 - Two-day steel strike begins in Italy in support of increased wages and 5-day working week
- June 30 - Last soldiers of the French Foreign Legion leave Algeria

July


- July 1 - Independence of Rwanda and Burundi
- July 1 – Supporters of Algerian independence win 99% majority in referendum
- July 1 - Another heavy smog over London
- July 2 - Charles De Gaulle accepts Algerian independence - France recognizes it the next day
- July 5 - Algeria becomes independent from France.
- July 6 - Irish broadcaster, Gay Byrne, presents his first edition of The Late Late Show. Byrne would go on to present the show for 37 years making it the longest running talk show in the world
- July 10 - AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit - it is activated the next day
- July 12 - The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, number 165 Oxford Street, opening for Long John Baldry
- July 13 - in what the press dubs "the Night of the Long Knives" United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third of his Cabinet
- July 17 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site
- July 20 - French and Tunisia reform diplomatic relations
- July 22 - Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed
- July 23 - Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal
- July 28 - Locust swarm threatens Delhi
- July 31 - Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President
- July 31 - Crowd assaults the rally of the right-wing Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley in London

August-September


- August 5 - Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills
- August 6 - Jamaica becomes independent
- August 5 - South African government arrests Nelson Mandela in Howick and charges him with incinement to rebellion
- August 15 - Netherlands recognizes that Irian Java is part of Indonesia
- August 16 - Algeria joins the Arab League
- August 17 - East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin
- August 22 - Failed assassination attempt against Charles De Gaulle
- August 23 - John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell
- August 24 - Group of armed Cuban refugee fire at hotel in Havana from a speedboat
- August 27 - NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe
- August 31 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent
- September 1 - Referendum in Singapore supports Malayan Federation
- September 1 - Typhoon Wanda strikes Hong Kong, at least 130 died and more than 600 were wounded.
- September 2 - Soviet Union agrees to send arms to Cuba
- September 8 - Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.
- September 12 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade
- September 16 - Malaysia formed with Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, and North Borneo
- September 21 - Border conflict between China and India erupts into fighting
- September 21 - New Musical Express, a British music magazine, publishes a story about two 13 year old schoolgirls, Sue and Mary, releasing a disc on Decca, adding, “A Liverpool group, The Beatles, have recorded 'Love Me Do' for Parlophone, set for October 5 release.”
- September 26 - Civil war erupts in Yemen
- September 27 - Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement
- September 28 - Prime minister Ahmed Ben Bella founds the first government in Algeria
- September 29 - The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg AFB in California

October

Vandenberg AFB
- October 1 - The first black student James Meredith registers in University of Mississippi escorted by Federal marshals
- October 5 - French National Assembly censures the proposed referendum to sanction presidential elections by popular mandate; prime minister Georges Pompidou resigns, but President de Gaulle asks him to stay in office
- October 8 - German Der Spiegel magazine publishes an article about Bundeswehr's bad preparedness - Spiegel scandal erupts
- October 8 - Algeria is accepted into United Nations
- October 9 - Uganda becomes independent within the British Commonwealth
- October 10 - Der Spiegel publishes an article on a NATO exercise criticizing the weakness of the West German army (the offices of the paper are occupied by the police on the 16th)
- October 11 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years
- October 12 - Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U. S. Pacific Northwest with wind gusts up to 170 mph (270 km/h); 46 dead, 11 billion board feet (26 million m³) of timber blown down, $230 million U.S. in damages
- October 13 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway.
- October 14 - Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed. A stand-off then ensues the next day between the United States and the Soviet Union, putting the entire world under threat of a nuclear war
- October 26 - Spiegel scandal - German police occupies Der Spiegel offices in Hamburg
- October 28 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba
- October 28 - a referendum in France favours the election of the president by universal suffrage
- October 31 - the UN General Assembly requests the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but the constitution comes into effect on November 1

November


- November 1 – Soviets begins dismantling their missiles in Cuba
- November 5 - Franz Josef Strauß, the West German defence minister, is relieved of his duties over the Spiegel affair because it is alleged that he was involved in police action against the magazine
- November 5 - Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic relations with Egypt following a period of unrest partly caused by the defection of several Saudi princes to Egypt
- November 5 - A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund kills 21 people. The Norwegian government is forced to resign in the aftermath of this accident in August, 1963
- November 6 - Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation
- November 7 - Richard M. Nixon loses the California governor's race. In his concession speech, he states that this is his "last press conference" and that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more"
- November 17 - In Washington, DC, US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport
- November 20 - Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, US President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
- November 26 - Spiegel scandal - German police ends its occupation of Der Spiegel offices
- November 27 - Charles De Gaulle tells Georges Pompidou to form a government
- November 29 - An agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner
- November 30 - The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General

December


- December 2 - Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress
- December 7 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his formerly autocratic power to several advisory and legislative councils.
- December 8 - Closing of first period of Second Vatican Council
- December 8 - In Brunei sheik Azaharin rebels - it lasts only one day
- December 8 - North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei – first stirrings of Indonesian Confrontation
- December 9 - Tanganyika (now Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president
- December 11 - Formation in West Germany of coalition government of Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Free Democrats
- December 14 - US spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet
- December 19 - Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation
- December 19 - The last foreign-occupied territory of India, Daman and Diu integrated into India
- December 22 - "Big Freeze" in Britain - no frost-free nights until March 5 1963
- December 24 - Cuba releases last of the 1113 participants of the Bay of Pigs Invasion to USA in exchange of food worth $53 million
- December 30 - United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia

Unknown dates


- Pantyhose becomes available for sale in U.S. department stores
- American ad man Martin K. Speckter invents the interrobang, a new English-language punctuation mark
- Sino-Indian War border dispute involving two of the world's largest nations (between India and the People's Republic of China)
- University of Szeged assumed the name of the great Hungarian poet, Attila József, who was a student here in the 1920s.

Births

January-February


- January 5 - Joe Monzo, American composer
- January 14 - Michael McCaul, American politician
- January 17 - Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
- January 18 - Jeff Yagher, American actor
- January 21 - Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
- February 1 - Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese guitarist
- February 4 - Clint Black, American musician
- February 5 - Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress
- February 6 - Axl Rose, American singer (Guns N'Roses)
- February 7 - Garth Brooks, American musician
- February 7 - Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
- February 8 - Malorie Blackman, Chilldrens' author
- February 10 - Bobby Czyz, American boxer
- February 10 - Cliff Burton, American bassist (Metallica) (d. 1986)
- February 11 - Sheryl Crow, American singer
- February 11 - Scott Kolden, actor
- February 12 - Jimmy Kirkwood, Irish-born field hockey player
- February 12 - Nana Ioseliani, Georgian chess player
- February 13 - Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, American politician
- February 17 - Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor
- February 21 - Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
- February 21 - Chuck Palahniuk, American author
- February 21 - David Foster Wallace, American writer
- February 22 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist and television personality
- February 24 - Michelle Shocked, American musician

March


- March 2 - Jon Bon Jovi, American singer, songwriter, and actor
- March 3 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American athlete
- March 3 - Herschel Walker, American football player
- March 8 - Michael Graham, American singer, entertainer
- March 7 - Taylor Dayne, American singer
- March 12 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player
- March 15 - Terence Trent D'Arby, American-born singer
- March 17 - Clare Grogan, Scottish actress and singer
- March 18 - Thomas Ian Griffith, American actor
- March 19 - Ivan Calderón, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (d. 2003)
- March 20 - Stephen Sommers, American film director
- March 21 - Matthew Broderick, American actor
- March 21 - Rosie O'Donnell, American comedian, actress, talk show host, and publisher
- March 23 - Steve Redgrave, English rower
- March 26 - John Stockton, American basketball player
- March 30 - MC Hammer, American rapper

April-May


- April 2 - Mark Shulman, American children's author
- April 9 - Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
- April 10 - Steve Tasker, American football player
- April 11 - Vincent Gallo, American actor
- April 12 - Art Alexakis, American singer and musician (Everclear)
- April 15 - Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan hurdler
- April 16 - Ian MacKaye, American musician
- April 19 - Al Unser, Jr., American race car driver
- April 23 - John Hannah, Scottish actor
- May 3 - Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
- May 9 - David Gahan, English singer (Depeche Mode)
- May 10 - David Fincher, American film director
- May 12 - Emilio Estevez, American actor
- May 13 - Eduardo Palomo, Mexican actor (d. 2003)
- May 17 - Lise Lyng Falkenberg, Danish writer
- May 20 - Mike Jeffries, American soccer coach
- May 24 - Gene Anthony Ray, American actor (d. 2003)
- May 26 - Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor and comedian
- May 27 - Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer

June-August


- June 2 - Clyde Drexler, American basketball player
- June 5 - Jeff Garlin, American comedian
- June 8 - Nick Rhodes, English musician (Duran Duran)
- June 10 - Gina Gershon, American actress
- June 13 - Ally Sheedy, American actress
- June 19 - Paula Abdul, American dancer, choreographer, and singer
- June 29 - Amanda Donohoe, English actress
- June 30 - Tony Fernandez, baseball player
- July 3 - Tom Cruise, American actor
- July 5 - Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Indonesian terrorist
- July 19 - Anthony Edwards, American actor
- July 31 - Wesley Snipes, American actor
- August 1 - Robert Clift, British field hockey player
- August 4 - Roger Clemens, baseball player
- August 5 - Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-born basketball player
- August 6 - Michelle Yeoh, Hong Kong actress
- August 9 - Kevin Mack, American football player
- August 20 - Sophie Aldred, British actress and television presenter
- August 24 - Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
- August 25 - David Packer, American actor
- August 29 - Rebecca De Mornay, American actress

September-October


- September 1 - Ruud Gullit, Dutch footballer
- September 5 - Peter Wingfield, Welsh actor
- September 11 - Elizabeth Daily, American actress
- September 15 - Earnest Byner, American football player
- September 17 - Baz Luhrmann, Australian film director
- September 24 - Jack Dee, British comedian
- September 25 - Aida Turturro, American actress
- September 26 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress
- September 26 - Tracey Thorn, British singer
- September 28 - Grant Fuhr, Canadian hockey player
- September 30 - Frank Rijkaard, Dutch football player and manager
- October 1 - Esai Morales, American actor
- October 11 - Joan Cusack, American actress and comedienne
- October 11 - Nicola Bryant, British actress
- October 13 - T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, American actress and comedian
- October 13 - Kelly Preston, American actress
- October 13 - Jerry Rice, American football player
- October 16 - Flea, Australian actor and bassist (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- October 16 - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian baritone
- October 19 - Evander Holyfield, American boxer
- October 23 - Doug Flutie, American football player
- October 23 - Mike Tomczak, American football player
- October 25 - Nick Hancock, British actor and television presenter
- October 26 - Cary Elwes, British actor
- October 27 - Ang Peng Siong, Singapore Sportsman
- October 30 - Courtney Walsh, Welsh cricketer

November-December


- November 1 - Magne Furuholmen, Norwegian keyboardist (a-ha)
- November 3 - Marilyn, British musician
- November 4 - Jeff Probst, American television personality
- November 11 - Demi Moore, American actress
- November 19 - Jodie Foster, American actress and director
- November 21 - Steven Curtis Chapman, American musician
- November 24 - John Kovalic, Anglo-American cartoonist
- November 27 - Samantha Bond, British actress
- November 28 - Jon Stewart, American actor and comedian
- November 29 - Andrew McCarthy, American actor
- November 30 - Bo Jackson, American football and baseball player
- November 30 - Daniel Keys Moran, American writer
- December 5 - José Cura, Argentine tenor
- December 8 -

Arthur Hill (actor)

Arthur Hill (born August 1, 1922 in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada) is an actor in British and American theater, movies and TV. He attended the University of British Columbia and continued his acting studies in Seattle, Washington. In 1963, Hill won the Tony Award as Best Dramatic Actor for his role as George, the weary husband married to loudmouthed Martha (Uta Hagen) in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? His film work included roles in Harper (1966), The Chairman (1969), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and Futureworld (1976). He played the lead role in the 1971-1974 TV series Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law. Hill, Arthur Hill, Arthur Hill, Arthur Hill, Arthur

Melinda Dillon

Melinda Dillon (born October 13, 1939 in Hope, Arkansas), is an American actress and comedienne. Though best known for her supporting performances in films, Dillon got her start as an improvisational comedienne and stage actress. Her first major role was as Honey in a 1962 Broadway production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress (Dramatic) Tony Award. She followed her early Broadway success with her first film, The April Fools, in 1969. Playing "Memphis Sue" opposite David Carradine, she was nominated for the Best Female Acting Debut Golden Globe for the 1976 Woodie Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role of a mother whose young child is abducted by aliens in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. Four years later she was once again nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as a suicidal teacher in 1981's Absence of Malice, opposite Paul Newman and Sally Field. As a comedienne, she is perhaps best known for her role as the compassionate mother of Ralphie in Bob Clark's 1983 film A Christmas Story. The film was based on a series of short stories and novels written by Jean Shepherd, and follows young Ralphie Parker (played by Peter Billingsley) on his quest for a rifle from Santa Claus. Five years later she appeared opposite John Lithgow in the Bigfoot comedy Harry and the Hendersons. She continued to be active in stage and film throughout the 1990s, taking minor roles in the Barbra Streisand drama The Prince of Tides, the low-budget Lou Diamond Phillips thriller Sioux City, and the drama How to Make an American Quilt. She has remained a private person, and information about her personal life is largely unknown. She was married briefly to character actor Richard Libertini, with whom she had one child. In recent years her career has waned, but she has taken notable roles in the 1999 ensemble drama Magnolia and the TV adaptation of John Grisham's A Painted House in 2003.

External links


- Dillon, Melinda Dillon, Melinda Dillon, Melinda Dillon, Melinda Dillon, Melinda Dillon, Melinda

Eileen Fulton

Eileen Fulton (born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty on September 13, 1933 in Asheville, North Carolina) is an American actress. Among other roles (including the Broadway productions of The Fantasticks and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), she is most famous for her role as Lisa Miller Grimaldi on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role she has played almost continually (with two notable interruptions) since May 16, 1960. She left the show in 1965 to bring her Lisa character to her own primetime soap spinoff, "Our Private World" (CBS's attempt to mimmick the success of ABC's "Peyton Place"). "Our Private World" lasted less than a season, and Fulton took several months off before returning to "As the World Turns" in early 1966. She left in 1983 after a contract dispute with executive producer Mary-Ellis Bunim, returning the next year. During Fulton's 1983-84 absence, the role of Lisa was played by Betsy von Furstenberg. (Carmen Duncan also filled in for a few days in late 2004, when Fulton was out due to illness.) A vixen in her earlier years, Lisa has been married eight times (divorced three times, widowed four times, her most recent marriage annulled), making her full name Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Coleman McColl Mitchell Grimaldi Chedwyn. During the early 1970s, Fulton was noted for insisting it be written into her contract that her character could not become a grandmother. (She feared it would impede the glamorous, fast-paced storylines in which she was involved at the time.) As a result, the actress received enormous amounts of "hate mail" when Fulton's contractual demands necessitated that Lisa's onscreen daughter-in-law have a miscarriage. (Now in her 70s, Fulton no longer has the "granny clause", as it came to be known, in her contract; her character has two sons -- a third son died a number of years ago -- and four grandchildren.) She has written two memoirs, How My World Turns and As My World Still Turns. She also wrote a mystery novel, called Soap Opera, loosely based on her experiences at As the World Turns. She is also a singer, and performs a number of cabaret and nightclub acts, in addition to her acting. Fulton is a 1955 graduate of Greensboro College and was granted an honorary doctorate in 2005, on the fiftieth anniversary of her college graduation. She was the commencement speaker at Greensboro's graduation ceremony in 2005. Fulton, Eileen Fulton, Eileen

Arthur Hill (actor)

Arthur Hill (born August 1, 1922 in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada) is an actor in British and American theater, movies and TV. He attended the University of British Columbia and continued his acting studies in Seattle, Washington. In 1963, Hill won the Tony Award as Best Dramatic Actor for his role as George, the weary husband married to loudmouthed Martha (Uta Hagen) in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? His film work included roles in Harper (1966), The Chairman (1969), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and Futureworld (1976). He played the lead role in the 1971-1974 TV series Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law. Hill, Arthur Hill, Arthur Hill, Arthur Hill, Arthur

Bill Irwin

:William Irwin was also the name of a Californian politician Bill Irwin (born April 11, 1950, Santa Monica, California) is an American clown and actor noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, and has made a number of appearances on film and television. Bill Irwin graduated from from Oberlin College in 1973 with a degree in theater arts, and from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College the following year. In 1975, he helped found the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, California. He left the company in 1979 to create a run of highly regarded stage shows including The Regard of Flight (1982), Largely New York (1989), Fool Moon (1993), The Harlequin Studies (2003), and Mr. Fox: A Rumination (2004). Mr. Fox is a production that Irwin has worked on for years, a biography of 19th century clown George Washington Lafayette Fox that also has autobiographical elements. In 1981, Irwin was a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowship in 1981 and 1983. In 1984 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow and awarded a 5-year MacArthur Fellowship. He appeared in an occasional recurring role on the television series Northern Exposure and in the music video for 1988's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin (along with McFerrin and Robin Williams), as well as occasionally appearing as "Mr. Noodle" in the "Elmo's World" segment of the PBS children's show Sesame Street. He has been in about two dozen films, though most appearances have been brief. He got a fair amount of screen time in My Blue Heaven, a 1990 movie featuring Steve Martin and Rick Moranis. Irwin also appeared on stage with Martin and Williams for a production of Waiting for Godot around that time. He played Lucky, in which he spoke at length in a famous 500-word-long monologue (most of his performances are silent). In 2005 he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in the role of George in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

External links


-

References


- (2004). [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/billirwin/ Bill Irwin, Clown Prince]. Great Performances (PBS). Irwin, Bill Irwin, Bill Irwin, Bill Irwin, Bill Irwin, Bill

Phantom pregnancy

False pregnancy, also known as pseudopregnancy or pseudocyesis, is a condition that mimics pregnancy. According to the U.S. NIH CRISP thesaurus, false pregnancy is the absence of menses accompanied by other signs of pregnancy without conception, and may be due to psychogenic factors, abdominal neoplasia, or a hormonal disorder. It may be accompanied by an enlarged uterus, cessation of menstrual periods, morning sickness, and lactation.

External links


- Paul M. Paulman, Abdul Sadat. [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0689/is_n5_v30/ai_9147671 Pseudocyesis.] Journal of Family Practice, May, 1990

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is a play by Tennessee Williams describing a culture clash between Blanche DuBois—a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South—and Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, inner-city immigrant class. Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948 for the play. The movie on the play won several awards too. Streetcar came shortly after Williams's first big success, The Glass Menagerie of 1945. While Williams kept writing plays and fiction into the 1980s, none of his later works lived up to the critical reputation of his first hits.

Plot

The play presents Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her nymphomania and alcoholism. Blanche arrives at the house of her sister Stella Kowalski in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where the seamy, multicultural ambience is a shock to Blanche's nerves. Explaining that her ancestral southern plantation has been "lost" due to the "epic fornications" of her ancestors, Blanche is welcomed to stay by a trepidatious Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband Stanley. She explains to them how her supervisor told her she could taketime off from her job as an English teacher because of her upset nerves. In contrast to both the self-effacing Stella and the studied refinement of Blanche, Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, is a force of nature — primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual. He dominates Stella in every way, and she tolerates his offensive crudeness and lack of gentility largely because of her sexual need for him. The interjection of Blanche upsets her sister and brother-in-law's system of mutual dependence. Stella is swept aside as the magnetic attraction between the oppositely-charged Stanley and Blanche overwhelms the household. Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor Mitch is similarly trampled along Blanche and Stanley's collision course. Their final, inevitable confrontation results in Blanche's mental annihilation. Blanche and Stanley, together with Arthur Miller's Willy Loman, are among the most recognizable characters in American drama. The reference to the streetcar (tram) called Desire is ironic, as well as an accurate piece of New Orleans geography. Blanche has to travel on it to reach Stella's home, the idea being that she has already indulged in desire before she arrives. Her sorrow is that the pleasure brought from desire is only short, just like the streetcar journey. It does not give her security. Still, she cannot return on the streetcar named Desire because she has only a one-way ticket.

Film adaption

In 1951, Elia Kazan directed a movie based on the play; see A Streetcar Named Desire (film)

Performances

The first stage version was produced by Irene Mayer Selznick with Marlon Brando starring as Stanley, Jessica Tandy as Blanche, Kim Hunter as Stella, and Karl Malden as Mitch. Brando portrayed Stanley with an overt sexuality that made him, the character of Stanley, and Tennessee Williams into cultural touchstones. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947. Brando's magnetic performance caused audiences to sympathize with Stanley in the opening scenes of the play, effectively implicating them in Stanley's eventual brutality towards Blanche. Tandy's performance won her a Tony Award.

Comparison with other works

Williams' Streetcar explores a similar situation to the works of Chekov, who explored the parallel fall of the upper class in turn of the century Russia. Stanley may represent the proletariat (working class) which desires to overthrow the bourgeoisie.

Streetcar revival in New Orleans

Over 50 years after the play opened, the revival of the streetcar system in New Orleans is credited by many to the worldwide fame gained by the streetcars made by the Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. which were operating on the Desire route in the play, and have been carefully restored and continue to operate there in 2004 (though not on the Desire route.) All streetcars are currently out of service because of Hurricane Katrina [http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/20/katrina.streetcars.ap/].

Oh! Streetcar!

The Simpsons parodied the play with a "musical version" in the episode entitled "A Streetcar Named Marge." The musical presented by the characters in the show humorously misses Williams' point entirely, ending with a song featuring the lyrics "You can always depend on the kindness of strangers."

See also


- Streetcar
- Tennessee Williams
- A Streetcar Named Desire has an important role in the Spanish film All About My Mother Streetcar Named Desire, A ja:欲望という名の電車

Requiem

The Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church and its Eastern Rite. Its theme is a prayer for the salvation of the souls of the departed, and it is used both at services immediately preceding a burial, and on occasions of more general remembrance. It is sometimes observed by other denominations of Christianity such as the Anglican Communion and Eastern Orthodoxy. "Requiem" is also the title of various musical compositions used in such liturgical services or