Joan Diener and Richard Kiley
November 22, 1965: The musical Man of La Mancha premieres on Broadway. It's a story within a story: In 1959, Dale Wasserman wrote a play for television, I, Don Quixote, inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 1615 novel Don Quixote. La Mancha is a region of central Spain.
The play, and the musical told the story of a mad knight, as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners, as he awaited a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition, having been charged with foreclosing on a monastery.
Richard Kiley played both Cervantes and his creation, Alonso Quijano, an old man who, in his senility, imagines himself to be Don Quixote de La Mancha, a knight of centuries past, aiming his lance at dragons that turn out to be windmills. Irving Jacobson plays Cervantes' servant who, in Cervantes' play, becomes Quixote's squire, Sancho Panza. Joan Diener plays Aldonza, the serving wench at an inn, whom Quixote believes to be Dulcinea, the lady to whom he has sworn allegiance.
Quijano appears cured of his delusions, but is dying. Aldonza goes to see him, calls herself Dulcinea, and allows Quijano to return to his Quixote person, and to die happy. Cervantes' story ends, and the Inquisition acquits him of the charge, returning to him the manuscript that becomes the novel Don Quixote.
The show opened at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre, at 40 West 4th Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, before moving to the Martin Beck Theatre in 1968, the Eden Theatre in 1971, and to the Mark Hellinger Theatre later that year, before closing shortly thereafter. It was the last show stated at the ANTA. New York University built Tisch Hall on the site.
The show was nominated for 7 Tony Awards, winning 5, including Best Musical, and Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Kiley.
The show, with music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion, is best known for one song: "The Impossible Dream." Kiley sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 20, 1966. Later that year, it was recorded by Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones and Ed Ames.
In 1967, Jones' version hit Number 35 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, but Number 1 on their Adult Contemporary Chart. The Boston Red Sox adopted it as their theme song in their run to that year's American League Pennant; and it is still known as "The Impossible Dream Season."
Jim Nabors, switching from his regular high-pitched Alabama twang to a basso profundo voice, sang it on the CBS sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. on November 3, 1967. On December 2, 1968, NBC aired Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations, and the 2 groups closed the special with the song. It had become, and remains, one of the most popular non-rock songs of the 1960s.
The musical was filmed in 1972, with Peter O'Toole as Cervantes/Quixote, Simon Gilbert overdubbing his singing, James Coco as the servant/Sancho, and Sophia Loren as Aldonza/Dulcinea.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is believed to have been born on September 29, 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, outside Madrid. He served in the Spanish Navy, and, on October 7, 1571, he was wounded in the Battle of Lepanto, in which a coalition of Catholic nations called the Holy League won a tremendous victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras, off the west coast of Greece. Cervantes lost the use of his left arm and hand. He was later captured by Barbary pirates, and released.
He worked as a purchasing agent and a government tax collector, but was publishing novels by 1585, starting with La Galatea. He published Part One of Don Quixote in 1605, and Part Two in 1615. It is often considered the 1st modern novel, so influential that the Spanish language is often called "the Language of Cervantes," as English is for William Shakespeare, French is for Molière, and Italian is for Dante Alighieri.
Cervantes died in Madrid, at the age of 68, on April 22, 1616 -- according to the Gregorian Calendar, which Spain, like much of the Catholic world, had adopted in 1582, on the order of its namesake, Pope Gregory XIII. He was buried the next day, April 23. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, leading many people to think that the 2 literary icons died on the exact same day, and so, to this day, April 23 is celebrated as World Book Day. But England was still using the previous calendar, the Julian Calendar, established by Julius Caesar for Roman lands in 46 BC. On the Gregorian Calendar, Shakespeare's death occurred on May 3, 1616, 13 days after the death of Cervantes. Britain and its territories, including America, did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until 1752.
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November 22, 1965 was a Monday. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was born.
Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek -- there would be no Monday Night Football for another 5 years. The NHL had no games scheduled.
There was 1 game in the NBA: The San Francisco Warriors beat the St. Louis Hawks, 112-108 -- at a neutral site, the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee. Guy Rodgers scored 39 points for the Warriors.
