By Robert Viagas
and Ernio Hernandez and Anne Bradley
26 May 2009

1913 One hundred and twelve actors gather at the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel near Columbus Circle in New York City and vote to form Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing American stage performers. Comedian Francis Wilson is elected Equity’s first president.

1919 La, La, Lucille is notable more for being George Gershwin's first full Broadway score than its plot of a young dentist setting up an adulterous scene so he can divorce his wife. The New York Times will call it "The incarnation of jazz." There will be 104 performances at Broadway's Henry Miller Theatre.

1924 American composer and conductor Victor Herbert died in New York today. He is best known for his operettas Babes in Toyland and Naughty Marietta.

1964 Following on the success of her Once Upon a Mattress, Carol Burnett stars Fade Out -- Fade In, an original musical written for her, and ever so slightly inspried by an incident in her early life , by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The show will run just 271 performances and Burnett will not appear in another Broadway show for more than 30 years.

1971 Cliff Gorman embodies comedian Lenny Bruce on stage in Lenny, on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Tom O'Horgan directs the production with his music and Julian Barry's words. The cast also features Joe Silver and Erica Yohn.

1983 Sam Shepard directs his Fool For Love, about a chance meeting between two former lovers at a seedy motel near the Mojave Desert. The Circle Repertory Company production opens Off Broadway and wins the 5 Obie Awards for the Best New American Play, for stars Ed Harris, Kathy Baker and Will Patton, as well as Shepard's direction.

2004 Ten Chimneys, the Genesee Depot, Wisconsin estate of the late great acting couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, which in 2003 opened to the public as a museum and arts center, is declared a National Historic Landmark.

Today's Birthdays: Joseph Urban 1872. Charles Winninger 1884. Norma Talmadge 1893. Robert Morley 1908. Peggy Lee 1920. Alex McCowen 1925. Ron Holgate 1937. Teresa Stratas 1938. Carole Demas 1940. Margaret Colin 1957.