Born Today February 5: Giovanni Capurro

1859-1920

Italian poet, playwright, and lyricist Giovanni Capurro was born on this day in Naples, Italy.  Though he primarily made his living writing plays, he is most famous for providing the lyrics to "O Sole mio"--which he wrote with singer/composer Eduardo Di Capua.  For thirty years, he worked at the newspaper Rome in various capacities: reporter, drama critic and, later on, in the administrative department.  Quite the character, Capurro loved the lounge scene; he frequented many late night establishments where he would sing and play piano, and on occasion, perform comical imitations of people.  In movie terms, the song was featured in 4 films in the late 1920's; the first being the only silent of the lot.  The music for "O Sole mio" was used in the all silent Italian documentary short When Naples Sings (1926) (Napoli che canta).  The first time the full song was used in a full sound production came the following year, with the Warner Bros. short A Program Of Concert Favorites, presented in Vitaphone mono.  The song, of course, would go on to be world famous with many Italian opera singers belting it out through the decades.  The most recent use of it in film/television medium came just last month in an episode of an Italian talk show. There is some confusion has to where Capurro died, many sources say his native Naples, others cite Mexico City.  The date of his death is not in question however: 18 January 1920.  He was just shy of his 61st. birthday.

IMDb

Wikipedia

Born Today February 4: Marivaux

1688-1763

French writer Pierre de Marivaux, more popularly known simply as Marivaux, was born Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux on this day in Paris.  His father was a Norman financier whose actual surname was Carlet; he assumed both the surnames of Chamblain and Marivaux, was the director of the royal mint in Auvergne--the family lived in two towns in that region.  Young Pierre produced his first play at age of 18 (it was actually published several years later), and it would be that medium that he became the most prolific in, though he was also an essayist and he wrote in the novel form, though none of those works were actually finished.  The plays he produced were mostly in the French-Comedy or Italian-Comedy genre (my translation); and he would, in fact, become one of the important and influential playwrights of the 18th century.  Only one film was made from his work during the silent era; that came in 1914 with I nostri figli, a short Italian film based on one of his plays.  It would not be until 1940 that another film would be produced based on his writing.  Over the decades, many films have made use of his writings as source material, with the most recent coming last year with a made for television film Les fausses confidenses (2016); produced in his native France.  He died on 12 February 1763, just 8 days after turning 75.  He is buried in Paris' Catholic Church of Saint-Eustache.  To read more about his remarkable life, follow links below.

Wikipedia

Britannica

IMDb

Born Today February 3: Tsuzuya Moroguchi

1891-1960

Japanese silent actor Moroguchi was born on this date in the prefecture of Fukui.  Not a great deal of biographical material is available about his life or how he got into acting; what is known is that almost all the films appeared in were silent or partial silents.  Right up through the 1930's most Japanese films meant for popular consumption were silents with just sound effects.  Part of the reason for this was the culture of the Benshi performers.  It is well remembered here in the U.S. and elsewhere, that most silent films were accompanied by a live organist employed by individual theaters.  In Japan, a practice of have a live actor to the side of the screen to introduce the film and provide narration when needed sprung up instead of musical accompaniment.  This held true whether the film was Japanese or western.  For his part, the first film that Moroguchi is listed to have appeared in was Shinsei in 1920, produced by Shochiku Kamata company; Moroguchi appears to have been the star.  Between 1920 and 1924 he appeared in dozens of films, but appears to have slowed his film career in 1925.  Between 1925 and 1938, he appeared in just 10 films.  In 1938 he apparently retired from film acting, perhaps acting altogether.  He passed away on 17 April 1960 at the age of 69.  

His IMDb Page

Japanese Silents Listed On Wikipedia

Learn More About Benshi

Born Today February 2: William J. Gaynor

1848-1913

Judge and New York City Mayor William Jay Gaynor was born on this date in Oriskany, New York into a devoutly Catholic Irish family on a farmstead.  He grew up there with his brother and his parents.  From an early age, he developed a keen fascination with the natural world, reportedly spent hours roaming the countryside attempting to understand and figure how various things worked the way that they did.  This curiosity lead him to be an excellent student from the very start of his education.  His parents pushed him toward a vocation in church, but while studying toward this goal, he became intensely interested in Stoic philosophy.  This lead him to lose his faith in the Christian religion all-together and as a result he left religious studies to move back in with his family in Utica, where they had since relocated.  His father then managed to procure for him a position with a local law firm, with the goal of him actually taking the bar exam and becoming a full fledged practicing lawyer.  It, instead, lead to a interest and career in politics.  Gaynor was first a judge on the New York Supreme court, before becoming Mayor of New York.  Amongst a lot of other things Gaynor did as mayor, one big move was to remove any lasting opposition to the finishing of the New York subway system.  He also, to the chagrin of the city coffers, removed tolls on the Williamsburg Bridge.  To read more about his life and his politics, follow links below.  For the purposes of film, all the shorts he appeared in (many of them in Pathe's Weekly's) were in newsreels in the capacity of mayor, save one--the very first one.  He appeared in 1909 in Vitagraph's Judge Gaynor and Hon. John McCooey.  In all, he was in 12 known newsreels between 1909 and 1913, the year of his death.  Very early in his term as mayor, Gaynor survived an assassination attempt by a disgruntled ex-city employee.  He was struck in the neck and the bullet was never removed.  He died on board the RMS Baltic on his way to Europe on September 10, 1913.  Doctors determined that he most likely died of a massive heart attack while lounging in a deck chair.  It was also determined that his old wound likely played no role in his passing.  His remains were returned to the U.S., where he was buried in Brooklyn's famed Green-Wood Cemetery (family burial located in Section 7, Lot 7051).  As a matter of film and television related trivia, one of his granddaughters Jean "Foxy" Rennard was actor Fred Gwynne's (Herman of "Munsters" fame) first wife; together they had 5 children.  

The is the marker for the entire Gaynor family in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York.

Wikipedia

City Room Blog (NYTimes)

IMDb

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Born Today February 1: Germaine Delavigne

1790-1868

French poet and librettist Louis Marie Germaine Delavigne was born on this date in Giveny (Eure) France.  He was the son of a Royal forest surveyor and was the brother of Casimir Delavigne a famed theatrical figure of his time, who was also a poet.  After his studies at the Napoleon High School, he went to the court of Louis-Phillipe I, as keeper of the furniture.  Inspired by his brother's poetry, he began a dramatic career of his own.  He became a frequent collaborator of Eugéne Scribe (page in French, can be translated), who was a class mate of Delavigne's in Paris.  The partnership produced a number of opera libretto's (or libretti) and a quantity of plays.  Only one film has ever been produced from his work; coming in 1916 The Dumb Girl Of Portici is actually a fairly important film by historical standards.  Based on one of Delavigne's libretto's, the film was co-directed by Lois Weber, one of the earliest female film directors, together with her husband of the time Phillips Smalley--the film was made through Universal.  It stars the premiere Russian ballerina of the time: Anna Pavlova. The film survives in two prints: one, a 16 mm print housed at the New York Public Library and the second, a 35 mm print by the BFI.  The later of the two dates from 1920.  Material from both sources were used in a restoration in 2015 that runs 112 minutes.  Delavigne died on 30 November in 1868 at the age of 78 in Montmorency, France.  

Family plot/crypt in Paris' Pére Lachaise

Still from the film showing Palova as "Fenella" (1916)

Wikipedia

Wikipedia France (can be translated)

IMDb

Born Today January 31: Felice Romani

1788-1865

Famed Italian poet and librettist Romani, was born on this date to a bourgeois (in the original sense of the word) family in the then independent Republic of Genoa.  His birth name was Guiseppe Felice Romani.  He studied both law and literature at Pisa and Genoa.  His studies lead him to become an expert on French literature, which would figure largely in his future work as an opera librettist for famed Italian composers like Bellini and Donisetti, amongst many others.  After turning down a position at the University of Genoa, he chose instead to travel extensively in Europe, returning to Milan in either 1812 or 1813.  There he made friends in both the worlds of literature and music.  After he turned down the role of court poet in Vienna and embarked instead on a career as librettist.  This eventually lead to an appointment of librettist for the famed La Scala.  He would go on to be one of the highest regarded opera librettist of his age; a reputation that continues to this day.  In addition to writing lyrics for operas and poetry, he also prepared a six volume history of mythology and antiquities, focusing on the history of Celts in Italy. In 1834 he additionally became the editor of a newspaper, to which he contributed literary criticism.  Of all musical compositional works that actually lent themselves to silent film treatment, the opera is the most accessible.  In 1909 short Italian film was made using Romani's work, entitled L'elisir d'amore: 'Una furtive lacrima'.  His work would not be used in film again until 1941.  His libretto's have been used in filmed performance many times since then; with most of them coming after the year 2000.  The most recent came in 2014 with the filming of the San Francisco Opera's co-production of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, a re-telling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  Romani died on the 28th of January in 1865, just three days shy of his 77th birthday.  He is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno, in Genoa, Liguria--which by the time of his death had become a formal part of Italy.

Wikipedia

His Page @ The Royal Opera House

IMDb

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Born Today January 30: (François) Félix Faure (Slightly Sorted Edition!)

1841-1899

France's future president Faure was born Félix François on this date in Paris.  He was the son of a furniture maker. He worked as a tanner and later as a merchant at France's second largest port in Le Havre (where he was also initiated into Freemasonry); managing to acquire a significant amount wealth along the way.  He entered politics, and in August of 1881 he was elected to the National Assembly.  From this seat, he worked his way up the political ranks, until reaching the office of President in 1895.  He would remain President until his untimely death in 1899. For the purposes of silent film, Faure was the subject of numerous short documentaries (or early newsreels) detailing some his presidential activities starting in 1896--most of them were produced by Lumiere. The first was Fêtes franco-russes: Cherbourg, Entrée des Souverains russes et du président de la Republique sous le hall (with a title like that, who needs to watch the 1 minute film??).  The last film featuring his appearance as President of France came posthumously in a German reel entitled Leichenbergräbnis des verstorbenen französischen Präsidenten Félix Faure, and was released in April 1899 following his death in February of the same year.  Faure died under a cloud of scandal on the 16th of February while engaging in some type of sexual activity with his 30 year old mistress, Marguerite Steinhall; he is reported to have had a "bout of apoplexy" which caused his death several hours later--his was 58 years old.  Famed French trickster filmmaker Meliese was reported to have filmed his funeral, but it doesn't seem to have survived.  During his presidency the infamous and shameful Dreyfus Affair came to a head; it remains a stain on his reputation to this day. Faure is buried (like so many other famous Frenchmen) in the huge Parisian burial ground of Pére Lachaise Cemetery in very melodramatic sculpted tomb.

Wikipedia

IMDb

Born Today January 29: Daniel-François Auber

1782-1871

French operatic composer Daniel François Esprit Auber was born on this day in Caen, Normandy.  He was the son of a Parisian print-seller.  His father expected him to continue in the family business, but while he was young, he was permitted to learn several instruments.  He eventually studied music under composer Josef Alois Ladurner.  By the time he turned 20, he had already taken up musical composition.  He produced a concerto for violin that was well received, and he was encouraged by a conductor at the Paris Conservatoire to refresh, if you will, an old comic opera.  That work was complete in 1811, around the time that he began to study with the famed Italian composer Luigi Cherubini, who was living in France.  By the early 1820's he found success, after years of penning operatic works that weren't so well received.  Though he also composed works for the church and even a few ballets, he is best remembered for his opera's. He became one the most successful and prolific comic opera composers of his time and would go on to work with the likes of Donizetti.  In 1842, he succeeded his old teacher Cherubini as the director of the Conservatoire; and in 1857 Napoleon III made him his Imperial Maître de Chapelle.  One of his most famous earlier works is Fra Diavolo, and it is this work that was first to serve as an inspiration for films in the early 1920's. A short film of the same name premiered in 1922; it is the eleventh release in the British series "Tense Moments From Opera" (the IMDb page for the film can be found here).  In the silent era, two of his other opera's served as inspiration for films.  The first was from Italy, based on his work La muta di Portici, and was released in 1924.  The second was a film from Germany, Der schwarze Domino, and was released in 1929.  The first time that his work was used in a sound film came in 1931 with Dantes mysterier, as Swedish film.  It wouldn't be until 1962 that his work was used again in a movie.  Over the decades, his comedic operas have shown up in the variety of films, with the most recent coming in 2011 in Jane Eyre.  Details of his death are sketchy; many reports have him dying of a heart attack on the 12th of May, but that cannot be confirmed.  What is known, is that he lived through the 1870-71 siege of Paris by the Prussians/Germans and that he died (somehow) on the 12th or 13th of May, during the Paris Commune.  He was 89 years of age.  Today the Rue Auber in Paris leads up to the Paris Opera House.  He buried in the wonderfully famous Pére Lachaise Cemetery (Plot Division 4, #2).

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Spain (more detail & list of his works, can be translated by Google)

IMDb

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Born Today January 28 (Not So Silent Edition): Louis Joseph Hérold AKA Ferdinand Hérold

1791-1833

Composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold was born was on this date in France, he was of Alsatian descent, and came from a family of well known musicians.  His paternal grandfather was on organist, and his father--François-Joseph Hérold was a pianist and a composer in his own right.  At the age of six, he was already in enrolled in the prominent Hix Institute, and while there, studied music theory with Belgian composer and musicologist François-Joseph Fétis.  By the age of seven, he could play the piano well enough to actually compose some pieces for the instrument.  He became most well known as a operatic composer, though he also composed ballets as well.  His music was used for the first time in a motion picture in 1929, with the Fox Film produced Happy Days--a riverboat revue, which they billed as an extravaganza--emblazoning it with the all-caps tagline THE ALL STAR...ALL TALKING...MUSICAL ROMANCE!  The sound was MovieTone and the special black and white "widescreen" film stock was by Grandeur.  The piece of music used in the soundtrack was his Zampa Overture.  That same piece was used again the following year a short film simply entitled Zampa.  In fact, this is the only of his compositions to be used in film, with the only other use coming in the 1957 comedy musical Les Girls, directed by George Cukor. Hérold had long suffered from tuberculosis, and succumbed to the disease on January 18th, just ten days shy of is 42nd birthday.  He was laid to rest in the very famous Pére Lachaise Cemetery in Paris--it is located in Division 13.

His the tomb to the right. The bottom of the tomb has since been modernized.

 

[Source: David Conway (Find a Grave)]

 

 

LINKS:

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Born Today January 9: Luis Coloma

1851-1915

Spanish writer Luis Coloma was born on this date in Jerez de la Frontera.  He would go on to study at the University of Seville, where he focused on law.  He eventually graduated from there with a master's in law, though he never actually practiced.  He began writing in the 1880's, starting with a well known political satire of Madrid high society prior to the Bourbon Restoration for a newspaper in Madrid. Despite being widely criticized at the time of it's publication, and pronounced to have no lasting importance, it remains one of his most well known works.  He would go on to be a prolific writer of short stories, and longer complete works in the fields of history and biography.  Ironically, Coloma had a dislike for the novel form, believing them to be overly sentimental on the subject of religion and a medium through which human life was idealized; ironic because it was one of his few novels that was first used for source material in the world of the motion picture.  His novel, simply entitled Boy, was first adapted for the screen in 1926.  The film was directed by Benito Perojo, a Spanish director and producer, who also personally adapted the work into the screenplay for the film.  The film is sadly amongst many from the 1920's that is lost.  The Internet Movie Database page can be found here.  His story, "Pequenecas" was made into a television series in Mexico in 1971.  The last adaption (so far) came in a Spanish television series entitled  Novela, which adapted famous Spanish works into television films; in 1976 they adapted that same story into a made to TV film.  Coloma died in his adopted city of Madrid in 1915 at the age of 64.  He is buried in Madrid's Sacramental de San Justa cemetery.

Poster for Boy lost film from 1926 Spain.

IMDb

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Wikipedia (English language bio)

Biografia page (in Spanish, can be translated by Google)