1925 Merchants of Glory have made an industry out of the memory of a local dead hero. When that hero turns up suffering from amnesia, they convince him to disappear again. This Theatre Guild performance of Marcel Pagnol and Paul Nivoix's play will earn 42 showings.

1932 Birthday of George Furth, author of librettos to musicals Company, The Act, Hot Spot and Merrily We Roll Along, and of his own plays, including Twigs.

1936 Kaufman and Hart prove You Can't Take It With You at the Booth Theatre. Henry Travers, Josephine Hull and Mitzi Hajos are among the zany household that will keep laughs rolling for 837 performances.

1945 Betty Field stars as Dream Girl at the Coronet Theatre. Elmer Rice, married to Field, stages his own work which will run for 348 performances.

1950 The gap in social classes always comes down to the Lace on Her Petticoat. This Aimee Stuart play set in turn-of-the-century Scotland will run 190 performances at London's Ambassadors' Theatre.

1976 George C. Scott plays a con man in Larrry Gelbart's Gold Rush-era comedy Sly Fox, based on Ben Jonson's Volpone. The supporting cast includes Jack Gilford, Bob Dishy, Hector Elizondo and Scott's wife, Trish Van Devere. It stays 495 performances at the Broadhurst Theatre.

1978 Dorothy Loudon plays a middle-aged woman who finds a second life on the dance floor in Michael Bennett's musical Ballroom, based on "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom." It runs 116 performances at the Majestic Theatre.

1980 Much was hoped from Onward Victoria, a musical about suffragist Victoria Woodhull (Jill Eikenberry). But it closed on opening night at the Martin Beck Theatre.

1982 Karen Allen plays a grown-up Helen Keller in William Gibson's The Monday After the Miracle, a sequel to his hit, The Miracle Worker. Jane Alexander plays her teacher in the drama, which shutters after just 7 performances at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

1989 Jay Allen's Tru, which recounts the life of Truman Capote in his own words, opens tonight at the Booth Theatre. The writer is played Robert Morse, who will win a Tony Award. This production will run 295 performances.

1999 Julie Andrews, the legendary stage and screen star of My Fair Lady, Camelot, "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins," files a medical malpractice lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. She underwent an allegedly botched throat surgery in 1997 and, as a result, says she is no longer able to sing.

2008 DreamWorks Pictures makes its first foray into Broadway producing as the stage adaptation of its popular animated film "Shrek" opens at the Broadway Theatre. Shrek The Musical stars Brian d’Arcy James as the green ogre of the title, Sutton Foster as the princess he saves, and Daniel Breaker as his donkey sidekick. Jason Moore directs the show, which has music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire.

More of Today's Birthdays: Jane Cowl 1884. Dan Dailey 1913. Lee Remick 1935. Marilyn Cooper 1936. Patty Duke 1946. John Du Prez 1946. Alice Ripley 1963. Tammy Blanchard 1976.