Born on this day – Alice Ernestine Prin:

Alice Ernestine Prin

aka Queen of Montparnasse & Kiki de Montparnasse

Writer

Actress

Singer

Model

Painter

October 2, 1901 – April 29, 1953

Born on this day – Groucho Marx:

Groucho Marx

Actor

Comedian

Writer

Singer

October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977

Born on this day – Bud Abbott:

Bud Abbott

Actor

Comedian

Producer

October 2, 1897 – April 24, 1974

Credits:

Abbott & Costello (1967); General Electric Theater (1961); Dance with Me, Henry (1956); Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955); Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955); Fireman Save My Child (1954); The Abbott and Costello Show (1952–1954); Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953); Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953); Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952); Lost in Alaska (1952); Jack and the Beanstalk (1952); Comin' Round the Mountain (1951); Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951); Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950); Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949); Africa Screams (1949); Mexican Hayride (1948); 10,000 Kids and a Cop (1948); Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948); The Noose Hangs High (1948); The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947); Buck Privates Come Home (1947); The Time of Their Lives (1946); Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Little Giant (1946); Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945); The Naughty Nineties (1945); Here Come the Co-eds (1945); Lost in a Harem (1944); In Society (1944); Hit the Ice (1943); It Ain't Hay (1943); Who Done It? (1942); Pardon My Sarong (1942); Rio Rita (1942); Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942); Keep 'Em Flying (1941); Hold That Ghost (1941); In the Navy (1941); The Andrews Sisters in Buck Privates (1941); One Night in the Tropics (1940).

Born on this day – Wallace Stevens:

Wallace Stevens

Writer

October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955

Credits:

Books:

A High-Toned Old Christian Woman; Anecdote of the Jar; Collected poetry and prose; Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock; Earthy Anecdote; Frogs Eat Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs; Gubbinal; Harmonium; How to Live, what to Do; Idées de l'ordre; Infanta Marina; Last Looks at the Lilacs; Letters of Wallace Stevens; Life Is Motion; Lunar Paraphrase; Nomad Exquisite; Of Modern Poetry; Opus posthumous; Palace of the Babies; Peter Quince at the Clavier; Ploughing on Sunday; Poems; Secretaries of the Moon: The Letters of Wallace Stevens & José Rodríguez Feo; Selected Poems; Souvenirs and Prophecies: The Young Wallace Stevens; Sunday Morning; The Auroras of Autumn; The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens; The Collected Poems: The Corrected Edition; The Comedian as the Letter C; The Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician; The Emperor of Ice-Cream; The emperor of ice-cream, and other poems; The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad; The man with the blue guitar; The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination; The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play; The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage; The Place of the Solitaires; The Plot Against the Giant; The Poetry of Wallace Stevens; The Revolutionists Stop for Orangeade; The Worms at Heaven's Gate; Theory; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird; Transport to summer; Wallace Stevens Reads; Wallace Stevens: Poems.

Movies and television:

The Emperor of Ice Cream (2015); The Extravagant Shadows (2012); Thirteen Ways... (2001).

Recommended reading - The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1973):

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

By John Godey.

First published 1973.

Published by Penguin Publishing Group.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0425253309

ISBN-13: 978-0425253304

Description:

"Chillingly real." – Houston Chronicle.

"A cliff-hanger." – The New Yorker.

"Harrowing, terrifying, and so, so good." – Business Week.

THIS AFTERNOON IN NEW YORK CITY, AFTER A SUBWAY TRAIN LEFT THE PELHAM STATION AT 1:23 P.M., THE EVENTS OF THE DAY TOOK A TERRIFYING DETOUR…

“You will all remain seated. Anyone who tries to get up, or even moves, will be shot. There will be no further warning. If you move you will be killed…”

Four men, armed with submachine guns, have seized a New York City subway train, holding all seventeen passengers – and the entire city – hostage.

The identities of the hijackers are unknown.

Their demands seem impossible.

Their threats are real.

Their escape seems inconceivable.

Only one thing is certain: they aren’t stopping for anything.

Recommended reading - Glengarry Glen Ross: A Play (1983):

Glengarry Glen Ross: A Play

By David Mamet.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1984.

Published by Grove Press.

First published 1983.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0802130917

ISBN-13: 978-0802130914

Description:

Comic Drama Characters: 7 males.

2 interior sets.

“Who needs caffeine when you’ve got Glengarry Glen Ross? … David Mamet’s play about a dog-eat-dog real estate office in Chicago feels like having espresso pumped directly into your bloodstream…. Mr. Mamet hears American scheming with an exactitude and delight still surpassed by any other dramatist.” – New York Times.

Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award for Best American Play and the Drama Desk and Tony Awards for Best American Play and the Drama Desk and Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play, Glengarry Glen Ross is one of the most celebrated and widely performed plays of recent years. It is a scalding comedy is about small-time, cutthroat real esate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land onto reluctant buyers in a never-ending scramble for their fair share of the American dream. Here, Mamet is at his very best, writing with brutal power about the tough life of tough people who cajole, connive, wheel and deal for a piece of the action an existence where closing a sale can mean a brand-new Cadillac, but losing one can mean losing it everything.

“Wonderfully funny … a play to see, remember and cherish.” – New York Post.

Julia Alvarez, on books:

A book does not discriminate against any reader.

All are welcome at the table of literature.

– Julia Alvarez.