Pipe Dream is the seventh musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II. Premiering on Broadway on November 30, 1955, it
was a flop and a financial disaster. It is based on John Steinbeck's
short novel Sweet Thursday, which he wrote in the hope of having it
adapted into a musical. Set in Monterey, California, the musical tells
the story of the romance between Doc, a marine biologist, and Suzy, who
in the novel is a prostitute; her profession is only alluded to in the
stage work. Rodgers and Hammerstein signed operatic diva Helen Traubel
to play Fauna, the house madam. They had concerns about featuring a
prostitute as female lead and setting part of the musical in a bordello
and as the show progressed through tryouts, Hammerstein repeatedly
revised it, obscuring Suzy's profession and the nature of Fauna's house.
Pipe Dream met with poor reviews, and rapidly closed once it exhausted
its advance sale. It had no national tour or London production, and has
rarely been presented since. There was no film at the time; the Rodgers
& Hammerstein Organization once hoped for a film version featuring the
Muppets with Fauna played by Miss Piggy.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Dream_(musical)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1572:
Nineteen Catholic friars and clerics were hanged in Gorkum
during the 16th century religious wars in the Low Countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_Gorkum>
1745:
War of the Austrian Succession: The French victory in the
Battle of Melle made their subsequent capture of Ghent possible.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Melle>
1868:
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
including the Citizenship Clause and the Equal Protection Clause, was
ratified by the minimum required twenty-eight U.S. states.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution>
1943:
World War II: The Allies began their invasion of Sicily, a
large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of
land combat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_invasion_of_Sicily>
1981:
Nintendo released the arcade game Donkey Kong (pictured), which
featured the debut of Mario, one of the most famous characters in video
game history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
penitent:
1. Feeling pain or sorrow on account of sins or offenses; repentant;
contrite; sincerely affected by a sense of guilt, and resolved on
amendment of life.
2. Doing penance.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/penitent>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The way we see things is constantly changing. At the moment the
way we see things has been left a lot to the camera. That shouldn't
necessarily be.
--David Hockney
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hockney>