November 18, 1959: "Ben-Hur" Premieres

Stephen Boyd (left) and Charlton Heston

November 18, 1959: Ben-Hur premieres, directed by William Wyler, based on the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace. It had previously been filmed in 1925, starring Mexican actor Ramon Navarro in the title role, and Francis X. Bushman as the villain.

That was in black & white, and silent. This was in Technicolor, in full sound, and filmed in Italy with the largest budget ($15.175 million -- about $152 million in 2022 money), and the largest sets built, of any film produced at the time.

The story takes place in Jerusalem, in the early 1st Century AD, in the years immediately before, during, and after the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Heston, already the preeminent performer of "historical epics," is a wealthy Jewish prince and merchant.

A childhood friend, Messala, played by Stephen Boyd, becomes commander of the nearby Roman fortress. While Judah has remained Jewish, Messala has totally bought into the Roman Empire's way of doing things. One thing leads to another, and Messala throws Judah into slavery, leading to the famous rowing scene.

After 3 years as a galley slave, Judah is assigned to Roman Consul Quintus Arrius' flagship. Arrius (Jack Hawkins) notices Judah's determination and self-discipline, and, after Judah saves his life in a battle with Macedonian pirates, Arrius petitions Emperor Tiberius to free him.

In Rome, Judah becomes a champion charioteer, driving the horses of Sheik Ilderrim (Hugh Griffith), and reunites with former girlfriend Esther (Israeli actress Haya Harareet). He enters a chariot race against Messala, in front of the new Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate (Frank Thring), resulting in one of the most spectacular scenes ever filmed. Messala attempts to cheat, but, in response, a move by Judah results in Messala's method resulting in his own wreck and death. With his dying breath, Messala tells his friendy-turned-enemy that his mother, Miriam (Martha Scott), and his sister, Tirzah (Cathy O'Donnell), are alive, and where to find them.

Judah hears about a prophet he seeks who preaches love and forgiveness and urges Judah to cast off his consuming hate and vengeance. Judah and Esther attend the Sermon on the Mount. Soon afterward, Judah meets Pilate, who warns him against using his victory to lead a rebellion against Roman rule. Judah renounces his Roman citizenship. He finds out Tirzah is dying, and seeks Jesus to heal her.

But he is too late, and is a witness to the walk down the Via Dolorosa. History repeats itself: He recognizes Jesus (Claude Heater, uncredited) as a man who once tried to give him water as a galley slave, and tries to return the favor; but, as in the earlier incident, the gift is prevented by a Roman soldier (not the same one). After witnessing the Crucifixion, Judah walks through a storm to the cave where Miriam Tirzah and Esther are hiding. As the storm ends, he sees his mother and sister cured of their maladies, and accepts the miracle and forgives his enemies.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spent $14.7 million, almost as much as it cost to make the film in the first place, to market it. It worked: Ben-Hur became the highest-grossing film premiering in 1959, and the 2nd-highest grossing film in history to that point, behind Gone with the Wind (also an MGM film). It became the 1st film to win 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Wyler, Best Actor for Heston, and Best Supporting Actor for Griffith.

Cathy O'Donnell (Tirzah) married Robert Wyler, brother of Ben-Hur director William Wyler. She died of cancer in 1970. Haya Harareet (Esther) died in 2021, and was the last surviving credited member of the film's cast.

Also premiering on this date was A Summer Place, based on the previous year's novel by Sloan Wilson. It starred Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire as lovers reunited after 20 years, with Sandra Dee as the former's daughter and Troy Donahue as the latter's son, who begin their own affair.

The film was pretty steamy by the standards of the time. But now, it’s best known for its theme song, conducted by Percy Faith, which held the Number 1 spot on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart for 9 weeks in the Winter and Spring of 1960.

*

November 18, 1959 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. No games were scheduled in the NHL. There were 3 games scheduled for the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 106-105 at the Minneapolis Armory.

* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Boston Celtics, 138-103 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.

* And the Detroit Pistons beat the Cincinnati Royals, 110-93 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

October 12, 1971: "Jesus Christ Superstar" Premieres

October 12, 1971: Jesus Christ Superstar premieres on Broadway, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, having not yet done so in Britain, home of its composers, Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics). However, the concept album had already been released nearly a year earlier, on October 16, 1970.

Jeff Fenholt has the title role. Controversially, a black man, Ben Vereen, was cast as Judas. The show is nominated for 5 Tony Awards, but wins none.

The Mark Hellinger Theatre was at 237 West 51st Street. In 1989, the building was converted, or so to speak, into The Times Square Church, and is still in use as such today.

The play was filmed in 1973, with Ted Neeley playing Jesus. Again, a black actor was cast as Judas, Carl Anderson, and he recalled receiving lots of hate mail, more than the producer, the director and the casting director did for casting him. Josh Mostel, son of Broadway legend Zero Mostel, played King Herod. He did not receive hate mail for his role, a mass murderer of Jews. Nor did Barry Dennen get any for playing Pontius Pilate.

A side effect of the show was that English soccer fans adapted the title song. When Charlie George, the long-haired star of North London team Arsenal, celebrated his winning goal in the 1971 FA Cup Final by lying on the grass with his arms extended, someone thought he was posing like Jesus on the Cross, and the song developed: "Charlie George, superstar, how many goals have you scored so far?" But people who hated Arsenal noted his hair, and sang, "Charlie George, superstar, looks like a woman and he wears a bra!"

Although that song is the most familiar one from the show, a different song became the only hit song: Yvonne Elliman, who played Mary Magdalene in the original production, had a Top 10 hit with "I Don't Know How to Love Him." She reprised the role in the film. Helen Reddy would also have a Top 40 hit with it.

The play was revived on Broadway in 1977, with William Daniel Grey as Jesus; 2000, with Glenn Carter; and 2012, with Paul Alexander Nolan. In a 2012 British arena tour, Jesus was played by Ben Forster, and Mary Magdalene by Melanie Chisholm, formerly Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls. Her version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" became a hit in Britain. In 2018, NBC staged a live concert version of the show, with black singer John Legend as Jesus, black actor Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas, and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene.

*

October 12, 1971 was a Tuesday. Game 3 of the World Series was played at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-1. Steve Blass outpitched Mike Cuellar. Bob Robertson hit a home run for the Bucs, while Frank Robinson hit one for the O's. The Pirates won the Series in 7 games.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season began that night, with 4 games:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 91-84 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Buffalo Braves, 123-90 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Atlanta Hawks, 127-113 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Tom Van Arsdale scored 34 points. This was the beginning of the Royals' last season in Cincy: The next season, they became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, and are now the Sacramento Kings.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 114-100 at the Chicago Stadium. Bob Love scored 34 in defeat for the Bulls.

The ABA season began the following night. There were 2 games in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

February 25, 2004: “The Passion of the Christ” Premieres

Mel Gibson (left) and Jim Caviezel (right).

I cannot identify the man in the middle.

February 25, 2004: The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson, premieres. The film stars not Gibson but Jim Caviezel as Jesus. Even Gibson didn't have the ego to cast himself.

Gibson intended to show the last day in the earthly life of Jesus, whose suffering became known as "the Passion" long before the term "passion" came to mean anything romantic or sexual. "Passion Plays," depicting the last days of Jesus, were common in Europe as early as the Middle Ages.

Gibson concluded with the empty tomb, rather than the reappearing after the Resurrection. In other words, in his effort to show the sufferings of the Crucifixion, he totally missed the point: Not that Jesus lost, but that he won. And that is an offense even worse than Gibson injecting blatant anti-Semitism into the film. It's like ending the Star Wars saga with Luke and Vader both getting blown up on the Death Star, or 300 without mentioning that, enabled and inspired by the Spartan sacrifice, the Greeks went on to kick the Persians out.

Also, what would Jesus say about Caviezel wearing that cap,

advertising the movie? Does that count as making a graven image?

Gibson's director of photography was Caleb Deschanel, one of the best in the business. He is also the husband of actress Mary Jo Deschanel, and they are the parents of actresses Emily Deschanel and Zooey Deschanel, neither of whom was in the movie.

Most of the actors in the movie, shot in Italy, were Italian. As a result, few were known to American audiences, although Gibson cast the fabulous Monica Bellucci, definitely known to U.S. moviegoers, as Mary Magdalene. Jesus' mother Mary was played by Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern, the Apostle Peter by Francesco De Vito, the disloyal Judas Iscariot by Luca Lionello, and Governor Pontius Pilate by Bulgarian actor Hristo Shopov.

Another thing holding the movie back was Gibson's insistence on the actors speaking the languages that their characters would have spoken at the time: Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin. To make matters worse, he didn't want subtitles, but Newmarket Films, not willing to go bankrupt, insisted on them.

On a budget of $30 million, the film made over $600 million, especially appealing to American evangelicals. As Billy Crystal, Jewish, joked while hosting the Oscars a few weeks later, "It opened on Ash Wednesday. It had a Good Friday."

Other notable films about Jesus include King of Kings, made with H.B. Warner in 1927 and again with Jeffrey Hunter in 1961; The Greatest Story Ever Told, with Max von Sydow, 1965; Jesus of Nazareth, with Robert Powell, a TV miniseries first broadcast on Italy's RAI, Britain's ITV, and America's NBC in 1977; The Last Temptation of Christ, with Willem Dafoe, 1988; Jesus, with Jeremy Sisto, 1999; and Mary, Mother of Jesus, with future Batman Christian Bale, also in 1999. As with Gibson's film, the Powell and Sisto versions were produced and filmed in Italy.

In 1973, country singer Johnny Cash produced and narrated Gospel Road, filming it on location in Israel and Jordan were the events are said to have happened. He had the guts to cast his wife, country singer June Carter Cash, as the not-really-a-prostitute Mary Magdalene. Robert Elfstrom played Jesus, and his son Robert Jr. played him as a boy.

Dafoe later made a Mercedes-Benz commercial where he played the Devil. This made him, as far as I know, the only actor ever to play both Jesus and the Devil. George Burns played God in the 3 Oh, God! films, and also played the Devil in the last of them, Oh, God! You Devil in 1984.

*

February 25, 2004 was, as stated a Wednesday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Phoenis Suns, 113-95 at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Minnoesta Timberwolves, 81-68 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 106-104 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Toronto Raptors, 76-74 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Golden state Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 99-92 at the Memphis Pyramid.

* The New Orleans Hornets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 99-93 at the New Orleans Arena (now the Smoothie King Center).

* The Detroit Pistons beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bulls, 107-88 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 90-84 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets, 112-111 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony each scored 35 points.

* And the Utah Jazz beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 93-92 in overtime at the Key Arena in Seattle. Ray Allen led all scorers on the night with 40 points.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres, 8-2 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. Patrik Eliáš had 2 goals and 3 assists.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 2-1 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-2 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-0 at the Office Depot Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Dallas Stars and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 1-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3 at the Glendale Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. Ric Jackman scored the winning goal with 3:12 left in overtime.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

February 15, 1980: "Caligula" Premieres

Malcolm McDowell

February 15, 1980: Cruising premieres, directed by William Friedkin, and starring Al Pacino as an undercover cop. It is loosely based on the 1970 novel of the same title, by The New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, about a serial killer targeting gay men. The title is a double entendre, because "cruising" can describe both police officers on patrol and men who are "cruising for sex" -- for women or men.

The film was poorly received by critics when released. The shooting and promotion were dogged by gay rights protesters, who believed that the film stigmatized them. Pacino subsequently called the film "exploitative." 

Despite its theme, it is not the most controversial film released in America on this day. That would be Caligula, with Malcolm McDowell playing the mad Roman Emperor, in a film that would have made even his earlier Alex DeLarge of A Clockwork Orange say, "Blimey, you've gone too far!"

In real life, Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus became Emperor of Rome at age 25, in AD 37, about 4 years after the execution (and resurrection?) of Jesus of Nazareth, upon the death of his great uncle, Emperor Tiberius. He was known as Caligula, meaning "Little Boots," for the uniform he was given as boy while on campaigns with his father.

At first, he was popular. But after an illness that nearly killed him, he seemed to change. Perhaps the wilder stories about him were made up after the fact by his enemies, but those stories included having an affair with his own sister, raping the wives of captive Senators in front of them, and naming his horse a proconsul and himself a god. In AD 41, his own Praetorian Guard, having had enough of him, assassinated him.

The film was directed by Tinto Brass, written by none other than novelist Gore Vidal, and financed by Bob Guccione, publisher of the pornographic magazine Penthouse. With that in mind, it is not surprising that the film is loaded with sex scenes and outright sadism, reflecting what had been widely believed about not only Caligula, but Tiberius, whose depravity was often forgotten due to being allegedly surpassed by that of Caligula, whose name has become synonymous with depraved national leaders.

Teresa Ann Savoy played Drusilla, Caligula's sister/lover. Peter O'Toole played Tiberius, John Gielgud played his aide Nerva, Giancarlo Badessi played Claudius, Guido Mannari played Prateorian Guard leader Macro, and Helen Mirren played Milonia Caesonia, Caligula's 4th and last wife.

With the death of Caligula, his uncle, Claudius, was supported as the new Emperor. The BBC had already done a single-season series I, Claudius about that era of Rome, including Caligula's reign. In that series, which went about as far as the BBC's censors would allow -- and, in America, could then be shown only on PBS -- Caligula was played by John Hurt.

*

February 15, 1980 was a Friday. Singer Conor Oberst was born.

The Winter Olympics were underway in Lake Placid, New York. The U.S. hockey team was between Group Stage games: The day before, they beat Czechoslovakia, 7-3; and the day after, they beat Norway, 5-1. Seven days later, they would enter the Medal Round, and play the Soviet Union.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Detroit Pistons, 114-104 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Indiana Pacers, 118-107 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Sonny Parker of the Warriors led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Houston Rockets, 114-103 at The Summit in Houston. It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Chicago Bulls, 131-124 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 111-98 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Washington Bullets, 116-104 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Kansas City Kings, 114-100 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 106-91 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The Hartford Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-4 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena). And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Washington Capitals, 8-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. The hero for the Oilers wasn't Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier or any other Hall-of-Famer: It was Blair MacDonald, with 3 goals and an assist.