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.

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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.

November 8, 1956: "The Ten Commandments" Premieres

November 8, 1956: The Ten Commandments premieres, produced, directed and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, in big, splashy color, and with over-the-top dialogue.

DeMille had previously made a film with that title in 1923, in black-and-white, and silent. This was his last film (he died in 1959, age 77), and he got lucky on the timing: He got to film at the actual locations (in Egypt, including Mount Sinai) before the Suez Canal crisis began later in the year, at which point filming on location would have been harder than parting the Red Sea.

It was, up to that point, the most expensive movie ever made, costing $13 million -- about $141 million in today's money, which doesn't sound like the big deal it would have been even at the turn of the 21st Century. It made more money than any movie released that year, including My Fair Lady, Around the World In 80 Days and The King and I.

ABC has aired it in connection with the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian Easter season, every year since 1973, except in 1999. In theaters, it ran 3 hours and 40 minutes. With commercials, it runs 4 hours and 44 minutes, so it has to begin at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, and pushes back the local 11:00 news. It was usually aired on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday, but since 2006 has aired on Easter Saturday.

The film tells the story of the Bible's book of Exodus, from the birth to the death of Moses, played as an adult by Charlton Heston. Yul Brynner (who also starred in The King and I) plays the main antagonist, the Pharoah Rameses II (as his name was spelled in the film's credits). The real Ramesses II (as it's usually spelled in English) reigned 66 years, 1279 to 1213 BC, and may not have been as vindictive as Brynner's portrayal; and the Exodus, if it happened at all, may have preceded him.

(An estimated date of 1300 BC has been suggested. This would put it at about 100 years before the Trojan War is said to have been fought, and about 300 years before the time of King David. However, it has been suggested that the loss of hundreds of thousands of people would have been noted in Egyptian records, and the surviving records make no such mention.)

The film is star-studded: Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, Judith Anderson and Vincent Price.

In the 1980s, Billy Crystal, himself Jewish, developed a comedy routine about the film, based largely on the campy dialogue, including his belief that Robinson, best known for his gangster roles in the 1930s, should never be in a biblical movie.

I guess he forgot that Robinson was Jewish, born Emanuel Goldenberg. (And, like Price, he was an amateur painter and a major art collector.) What's more, Robinson had been not quite blacklisted, but "graylisted" for alleged Communist activities. The virulently anti-Communist DeMille's casting of him restored his career.

In the years to come, Heston would become a gun rights activist, and it was said by his detractors that he acted as if he thought he really was Moses, bringing the Word of God, and treating the 2nd Amendment like it was one of the Commandments.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Santa Claus, with "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played 3 different elves, against rapper Snoop Dogg as Moses.

A movie like The Ten Commandments could not be made today. Not because it would cost so much, or because it reminds us that the Jews were oppressed, but because it reminds us that people believing the lies of a demagogue and worshiping a golden idol look like the bad guys.

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November 8, 1956 was a Thursday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. Although the NBA season had begun, there were no games scheduled for this day.

But the NHL's entire "Original Six" was in action.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum. 

* The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

April 19, 1973: "Soylent Green" Premieres

April 19, 1973: Soylent Green premieres, directed by Richard Fleischer. It was based on the 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison -- not to be confused with the New York disc jockey of the same name.

The dystopian thriller stars Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson. It was Robinson's last film, who died 3 months before its release, and is dedicated to his memory.

Set in what was then well into the future, in the year 2022, overpopulation and pollution have let to food shortages. The Soylent Corporation, a large food processing firm, produces highly processed food wafers, made from plankton. Their most popular varieties are Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow. Soylent Green is introduced, and it proves even more popular.

A member of Soylent's board is murdered, and so is the last man known to have spoken to him, a priest, who couldn't reveal the man's confession. Heston plays a detective who investigates. Robinson plays a former cop turned police researcher, who discovers that the oceans are dying, and can't produce sufficient plankton, and that the ingredients include human remains. The board killed their increasingly guilty-feeling member to keep him quiet.

The detective soon discovers proof of the claim, but is shot. As paramedics tend to him, he tells his chief to spread the truth. In case the chief doesn't, the detective yells out, "It's people! Soylent Green is people!"

Reaction, from critics and moviegoers alike, was mixed. Heston had done dystopian films before -- Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man -- and he seemed more tired than the dying Robinson. Even the novel's author, Harrison, wasn't crazy about the final result.

Fleischer died in 2006, Heston in 2008, Harrison in 2012. As of April 19, 2022, Taylor-Young is still alive.

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April 19, 1973 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Bobby Murcer went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs. Fritz Peterson outpitched Jim Palmer. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets split a doubleheader with the Chicago Cubs at Shea Stadium. The Mets won the opener, 3-1. Jerry Koosman outpitched Rick Reuschel. John Milner hit a home run. Willie Mays, in his final season, went 0-for-4. The Cubs won the nightcap, 7-0. Burt Hooton outpitched Jim McAndrew. Mays sat this game out.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Ken Singleton hit a home run for the Expos.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 11-7 at Fenway Park in Boston. Mickey Stanley went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Bill Freehan went 4-for-5 with a walk and an RBI. Al Kaline went 2-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs. The Red Sox got home runs from Orlando Cepeda and Dwight Evans. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 16-8 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-2 with a walk, then left the game with a minor injury.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Jim Willoughby outpitched Claude Osteen. Bobby Bonds went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 3 RBIs. Willie McCovey went 0-for-4. For the Dodgers, Willie Davis hit 2 home runs and had 5 RBIs.

There was 1 game in the NBA Playoffs: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 104-93 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jerry West scored 36 points. Wilt Chamberlain had only 5 points, but 30 rebounds.

There was 1 game in the ABA Playoffs: The Indiana Pacers beat the Utah Stars, 104-102 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Willie Wise scored 34 in defeat for the Stars.

There were 2 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

There was 1 game in the World Hockey Association Playoffs: The New England Whalers beat the Cleveland Crusaders, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.

April 3, 1968: "Planet of the Apes" Premieres

April 3, 1968: The film Planet of the Apes premieres, based on the 1963 novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle, who had also written Bridge over the River Kwai. Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame and Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay, and Franklin J. Schaffner, later to win the Oscar for Best Director for Patton, directed.

This was also the day that 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered. I have a separate entry for that.

Charlton Heston plays Colonel George Taylor, the only survivor of an Earth ship that crash-lands on a planet where intelligent apes are the dominant civilization, and humans are their slaves. He is captured, and utters the 1st of 2 legendary lines from the film: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" The Hays Code had recently fallen, allowing the line to be used in a mainstream film.

As with so many of Serling's stories, there's a twist ending. Linda Harrison plays Nova, a young human female, whom Taylor frees along with himself. They manage to make their way to an island, where they see the remains of the Statue of Liberty. As it turned out, Taylor was on Earth all along: He and his crew were in suspended animation, and had traveled for 2,000 years but hadn't aged.

Upon seeing the damaged Lady Liberty, Taylor yells, to men long dead, "You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to Hell!" Again, no more Hays Code.

I'm a bit surprised that the film did so well, because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated the next day, depressing film turnout for the next few days. It led to 4 sequels and a short-lived TV series.

Tim Burton remade the original in 2001 -- or, rather, as he said, he "re-imagined" it -- with Mark Wahlberg as astronaut Leo Davidson, and Estella Warren as Daena, the Nova equivalent. In one of his last films, Heston was cast against type, as an elderly ape. As he dies, he refers to the origin of the apes' dominance, and says, "Damn them. Damn them. Damn them all to hell!" And Linda Harrison also cameoed, as a woman in a cart.

The ending has baffled people, as Taylor lands in Washington, D.C., and sees the Lincoln Memorial, with Abraham Lincoln having a chimpanzee's face: An "Ape Lincoln." The people who were baffled by this clearly never read the original novel: When the human astronauts returned to Earth, they found Paris intact, including the Eiffel Tower, but populated by apes.

A rebooted series began in 2011, and has now led to 3 films, with a 4th planned.

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April 3, 1968 was a Wednesday. British actress Charlotte Coleman, known for playing Scarlett in Four Weddings and a Funeral, was born.

Baseball season began a week later. Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were between rounds. And the NHL was between the end of its regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There was an ABA Playoff game: The New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Denver Rockets, 102-97 at the Loyola Field House, at Loyola University in New Orleans. The Bucs went on to lose the ABA Finals to the Pittsburgh Pipers, moved to Memphis in 1970, and folded in 1975. The Rockets changed their name to the Denver Nuggets in 1974, and joined the NBA in 1976.