December 20, 1967: “The Graduate” Premieres

December 20, 1967: The Graduate premieres, directed by Mike Nichols. It might have been the first movie not for teenagers that had rock and roll performers do the soundtrack: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

But despite this, and its year of release -- that of the Summer of Love, with the Vietnam War ramping up ever higher -- with a few Hays Code-minded edits in mind, it could have been made in the 1950s.

Dustin Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock, newly graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, who returns to the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California, not sure of what he wants to do with the rest of his life. His parents (William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson) are worried.

During his graduation party, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father's law partner, asks him to drive her home. Once there, she tries to seduce him. At first he resists her advances but later changes his mind. He ends up chastely dating her daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), while maintaining his affair with the mother. Elaine finds out, dumps Benjamin, and returns to the University of California in Berkeley.

Benjamin follows her there, and finds out she's dating a medical student, Carl Smith (Brian Avery). Elaine is conflicted about her feelings for both men. Her father (Murray Hamilton) shows up, says he and Mrs. Robinson are getting a divorce, and threatens Benjamin with jail if he sees Elaine again. Mr. Robinson forces Elaine to leave college to marry Carl.

On the day of the wedding, Benjamin runs to the church, arriving just as the ceremony is ending: He's too late. His desperate appearance in the glass church gallery stirs Elaine into defying her mother and fleeing the sanctuary. Benjamin fights off Mr. Robinson and repels the wedding guests by swinging a large cross, which he uses to barricade the church doors, trapping everyone inside. Benjamin and Elaine escape aboard a bus and sit among the startled passengers, with Elaine still in her wedding gown.

As the bus drives on, their ecstatic smiles slowly change into neutral expressions as they begin to ponder their uncertain future together. After all, she's still married to Carl.

For the record, Dustin Hoffman was already 30 years old – only 6 years younger than Anne Bancroft. Who was married to Mel Brooks. Well, at least now, we know she had a type.

Richard Dreyfuss and Mike Farrell each had uncredited roles in the film.

Murray Hamilton, who played Mr. Robinson, but is better remembered as Mayor Larry Vaughn in Jaws, died in 1986, shortly after playing Blanche's father, Curtis "Big Daddy" Hollingsworth, on The Golden Girls. That same year, Walter Brooke, who famously told Benjamin that the future was one word, "Plastics," died. Anne Bancroft died in 2005, Mike Nichols in 2014, Elizabeth Wilson in 2015. As of December 20, 2022, Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross are still alive.

*

December 20, 1967 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 138-131 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Willis Reed scored 33 points. The Lakers moved into the brand-new Forum in Inglewood 10 days later.

* The Boston Celtics beat the expansion San Diego Rockets, 126-116 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

* The San Francisco Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons, 113-109 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the expansion Seattle SuperSonics, 160-122 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. An opportunity for Wilt Chamberlain to feast, and he scored 53 points and grabbed 38 rebounds.

There were 3 games in the brand-new American Basketball Association:

* The Minnesota Muskies beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 100-93 at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, technically a home game for the Bucs.

* The Houston Mavericks beat the Kentucky Colonels, 99-98 at the Sam Houston Coliseum.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Anaheim Amigos, 144-142 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

And there were 4 games in the newly-expanded NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0 at the old Madison Square Garden. The Rangers moved into the new Garden 53 days later.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 6-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Oakland Seals, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Minnesota North Stars and the Los Angeles Kings were not scheduled,

September 23, 1969: "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" Premieres

September 23, 1969: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid premieres, with Paul Newman as Robert Leroy Parker, a.k.a. Butch Cassidy; Robert Redford as Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, a.k.a. the Sundance Kid; and Katharine Ross as Etta Place, a.k.a. "The Sundance Woman." It was one of the earliest "revisionist Westerns," telling the story of the Wild West more like how it actually was, than the traditional, far simpler story.

Scriptwriter William Goldman and director George Roy Hill knew that the 1960s were changing things, so they made a Western for the times. They had the vision. Or, as Goldman had Newman/Cassidy say, "I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals."

The real Butch and Sundance were active in the Rocky Mountains, especially Utah and Wyoming, in the 1890s. Targeted by local sheriffs and -- "Who are those guys?" As it turned out, the Pinkerton detective agency -- in 1901, they fled to South America, and became farmers in Bolivia. In 1908, when that stopped panning out, they went back to robbery.

The story that we've all heard is that, on November 3, 1908, the Bolivian Army cornered them in a piazza, and beat them in a shootout. It's been said that Butch was an expert robber, but never killed anyone in his life, until the end, when he used his last 2 bullets on an already-wounded Sundance, and then on himself.

But it's also been said that the army caught someone else, and that Butch and Sundance survived, got away, and went back to America, and lived a while longer. Director George Roy Hill finished the last scene with them frozen and still fighting, with the sound of gunfire all around them, giving the illusion that, maybe, just maybe, they pulled off the million-to-one escape.

Lessons to be learned from this movie:

1. Nothing lasts forever, not even the Wild West.
2. Use enough dynamite, no more.
3. There are no rules in a knife fight.
4. The man who is the best at something might not be the best man at it for you.

5. Don't worry about being unable to swim when the fall will probably kill you.

6. Life, especially a life of crime, is harder in a foreign country, especially when the dominant language is not your first language.

7. If you got a woman who looks like a young Katharine Ross, and she says we should go home because it's too dangerous to stay where we are, go home.

8. Western movies rarely tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

*

September 23, 1969 was a Tuesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski hit 2 home runs, and American League Comeback Player of the Year Tony Conigliaro hit 1, knocking Mel Stottlemyre out of the box after 4 innings.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Bud Harrelson singled home the winning run against Bob Gibson in the bottom of the 11th inning. Tug McGraw was the winning pitcher, with 4 innings of relief of Jim McAndrew. Lou Brock went 2-for-6 in defeat. The next night, the Mets beat the Cards, 6-0, and clinched the National League Eastern Division title.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Willie Stargell went 0-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Orioles' only run came on a homer by Frank Robinson. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. But the O's, already having clinched the AL Eastern Division title, were doomed in this game by back-to-back bases-loaded walks of Ken Harrelson and Tony Horton by Tom Phoebus in the 3rd inning. Sam McDowell went the distance for the win.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 and 5-2. Over the 2 games, Pete Rose went 6-for-10 with a home run and 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench went 1-for-6 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with a walk. Rod Carew went 2-for-5.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 10-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk. The night before, he hit his 600th career home run against Mike Corkins of the Padres.

* The California Angels beat the Seattle Pilots, 5-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Following a home run by Don Mincher in the 4th inning, the Pilots took a 4-2 lead in the top of the 6th, but, if you read Ball Four by the since-traded Jim Bouton, you can probably guess what happened: The bullpen blew it in the bottom of the 6th.

* The Oakland Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox at the Oakland Coliseum, 4-3 and 5-3. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4 in the opener, but in the nightcap, he went 1-for-2 with 3 walks, his hit being his 47th home run of the season. In spite of his illustrious career, 47 would remain his career high.

* And the Detroit Tigers and the Washington Senators were rained out at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Senators swept, 8-4 and 7-4. Jim Hannan outpitched Denny McLain, and then the Senators beat Mickey Lolich. Al Kaline did not play in the 1st game, and went 1-for-5 in the 2nd game.