1960s Timeline

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Jan 15

Jack Warner Details Production Plans for 1963

Jan. 15, 1963 - The president of Warner Brothers Studios predicted today that “exceptional production and release plans” in the next year will make the studio Hollywood’s center of activity. Jack L. Warner said his optimism is reflected by numerous movies ready for release or that are being lined up for production. Warners has led off the new season with the release of “Gypsy,” starring Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood (pictured), and Karl Malden. Heading the spring release sch

Dec 17, 2022

Dec. 17, 1962 - Richard Burton Interview

Dec. 17, 1962 - Richard Burton was interviewed today by Emrys Walters for the program "Wales Today." The actor is currently making "The V.I.P.s," a British comedy-drama film produced by MGM. #hollywood #movies #classicmovies

Dec 9, 2022

Actor Dick Powell Has Cancer

Dec. 9, 1962 - Actor Dick Powell (pictured with his wife June Allyson) has canceled his television appearances for the remainder of the 1962-63 season on his doctors’ orders. For several months, Mr. Powell has been undergoing cobalt treatment for cancer of the throat and lymph glands. A spokesman for Mr. Powell, who acts as host of Four-Star Productions’“Dick Powell Show” and sometimes takes the leading role in it, said today the actor’s physician had not ordered the 57-year-

Nov 20, 2022

Nov. 20, 1962 - Marlon Brando Interviewed in Australia

Nov. 20, 1962 - At the Mascot Airport in Sydney, Australia today, 38-year-old Marlon Brando gave a brief press conference before changing planes. The actor is traveling to Japan to attend the premiere of “Mutiny on the Bounty" in that country. #movies #classicmovies #japan #australia

Oct 31, 2022

Movies: “Girls! Girls! Girls!” with Elvis Presley

Oct. 31, 1962 - Opening today is “Girls! Girls! Girls!” a musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley as a penniless Hawaiian who loves his life on the sea and dreams of owning his own boat. The song “Return to Sender,” released earlier this month and steadily rising on the pop charts, is featured in the film. #classicmovies #1960s #OTD #movies

Oct 29, 2022

Movies: “The Birds”

Oct. 29, 1962 - Universal Pictures will release “The Birds,” the suspense drama produced and directed independently by Alfred Hitchcock. The company also will release “additional pictures” to be made by Mr. Hitchcock, according to Milton R. Rackmil, president of Universal. “The Birds,” tentatively slated for release in April, was adapted by Evan Hunter from the novella of the same name by Daphne Du Maurier. It was filmed on location at Bodega Bay near San Francisco and at the

Oct 26, 2022

Actress Louise Beavers Dead at 60

Oct. 26, 1962 - Louise Beavers (pictured left with Mary Pickford in 1929), who starred in the “Beulah” comedy series on television, died today at the age of 60. Miss Beavers, who suffered from diabetes, entered a Hollywood hospital last night. She had been in films, radio, television, and the theater for 30 years. Her first major movie role was in “Imitation of Life” (1934). In the “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950), she played the mother of the baseball star, who played hims

Oct 25, 2022

Rex Harrison Signed for Film Version of “My Fair Lady”

Oct. 25, 1962 - Rex Harrison (left) has been signed to recreate his original role of Professor Higgins in the film version of “My Fair Lady.” He will play opposite Audrey Hepburn in the Warner Brothers musical, which starts production in London early next year under the direction of George Cukor. In the story, snobbish phonetics professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make crude flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, presentable in high society. #classicmovies #1960s #OT

Oct 24, 2022

Movies: “The Manchurian Candidate”

Oct. 24, 1962 - Opening today is “The Manchurian Candidate,” a political thriller about Communist sleeper agents. The film was directed and produced by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay is by George Axelrod, based on the 1959 novel of the same name. The film’s leading actors are Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey (right), Janet Leigh, and Angela Lansbury. The plot centers on Korean War veteran Raymond Shaw (Harvey), part of a prominent political family. Shaw is brainwashed by Co

Oct 23, 2022

Mankiewicz Fired from “Cleopatra,” Taylor and Burton Outraged

Oct. 23, 1962 - Writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz (center) has been dismissed by Darryl F. Zanuck, the new president of Twentieth Century-Fox. He will not be allowed any hand in the editing and cutting of “Cleopatra,” a film that he wrote and directed. Mr. Mankiewicz said today that he intended “by every means available to regain the right to finish my work and hopefully to prevent ‘Cleopatra’ from becoming ‘The Longest Night.’” The remark was a barb at Mr. Zanuck’s recently

Oct 17, 2022

Movies: “McLintock!”

Oct. 17, 1962 - Final details have been announced for John Wayne’s forthcoming production, “McLintock!” a Western drama in color, which United Artists will release. Mr. Wayne will head a cast that includes Maureen O’Hara, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Kruschen, Stephanie Powers, and Patrick Wayne. The project will go before the cameras next Thursday in Tucson, Ariz. Michael Wayne, the actor-producer’s son, is directing from a screenplay by James Edward Grant. Wealthy rancher G.W. McL

Oct 14, 2022

Movies: “Man’s Favorite Sport?”

Oct. 14, 1962 - Rock Hudson has been set to star in “Man’s Favorite Sport,” described as a comedy dealing with the adventures of a playboy sportsman and a public relations girl. Mr. Hudson’s co-star will be Paula Prentiss. The property will be produced and directed by Howard Hawks for release by Universal. It is slated to be filmed at Universal and nearby California locations, starting next month. #classicmovies #1960s #OTD #movies

Oct 9, 2022

Otto Preminger to Produce “Harm’s Way”

Oct. 9, 1962 - Now that Darryl F. Zanuck has definitively documented the Army’s European campaign on D-Day, Otto Preminger (right) combat has decided to assume command of naval operations in the Pacific. The filmmaker has bought the rights to a forthcoming novel by Patrick Dennis (left) called “Harm’s Way,” a 510-page chronicle of the U.S. Navy during the first year of war after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He plans to give it an elaborate production in Hawaii early in 19

Oct 9, 2022

“Dracula” Director Tod Browning Dead at 80

Oct. 9, 1962 - Tod Browning (pictured right with Helen Chandler and Bela Lugosi in 1930), who directed scores of Hollywood movies for many years until 1939, died Saturday. He was 80 years old. Mr. Browning directed the late Lon Chaney in his masterpiece, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and other films of strange character portrayal. He was credited with having been the man who first recognized Chaney’s genius as a contortionist and master of bizarre makeup. Mr. Browning was bo

Oct 5, 2022

Movies: “Dr. No”

Oct. 5, 1962 - Opening today is “Dr. No,” a spy film directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Featured in the cast are Sean Connery (right) as special agent James Bond, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, and Jack Lord (left). In the film, Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. No (Wiseman), who is plotting to disrupt an American space l

Oct 5, 2022

Movies: “The Chapman Report”

Oct. 5, 1962 - Opening today is “The Chapman Report,” a Technicolor drama starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Shelley Winters, Jane Fonda, Claire Bloom, and Andrew Duggan. Noted psychologist Dr. George C. Chapman (Duggan), his assistant Paul Radford (Zimbalist Jr.), and their staff fly around the country conducting an anonymous sex survey of American women. #classicmovies #1960s #OTD #movies

Oct 4, 2022

Movies: “The Longest Day”

Oct. 4, 1962 - Twentieth Century-Fox’s “The Longest Day,” Darryl F. Zanuck’s version of the Cornelius Ryan novel about the D-Day landings at Normandy, opened last night at New York’s Warner Theater. Proceeds went go to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Many cast members were present, including Sal Mineo (pictured signing autographs outside the theater). #classicmovies #1960s #OTD #movies

Oct 1, 2022

Schell Demands Privacy for Hollywood Celebrities

Oct. 1, 1962 - Actor Maximilian Schell (pictured with Sophia Loren) assailed today photographers and reporters who invade the privacy of actors or other public figures. The Oscar-winning star declared that the laws of Europe and the U.S. were inadequate to preserve even a minimum of privacy. Mr. Schell told of a party in the Hollywood home of one American star that was photographed from a nearby hill with telescopic lenses. In Italy, he observed photographers sitting in trees

Sep 27, 2022

Dick Powell Suffering from Cancer

Sept. 27, 1962 - Dick Powell (pictured), a highly successful singer and actor before becoming one of television’s major producers, is suffering from cancer. Mr. Powell, 57, said today he was being treated for cancer in his neck and chest. The president of Four Star Television entered St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., Sept. 13 and was under treatment there 7 days. He left the hospital to convalesce at his home, planning to resume work on six more shows for NBC. “I h

Sep 27, 2022

Movies: “The Fall of the Roman Empire”

Sept. 27, 1962 - Sophia Loren (left) will join Alec Guinness, Richard Harris, and Stephen Boyd (right) in the color spectacle, “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” which Anthony Mann will direct for producer Samuel Bronston starting January in Madrid. When filming for “El Cid” had finished, Mr. Mann saw a copy of Edward Gibbon’s 1776–1789 six-volume series “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” inside a bookshop. He pitched a film adaptation of the book to Samue