June 12, 1963: Liz & Dick's "Cleopatra" Premieres

June 12, 1963: The film Cleopatra premieres. It is the biggest entertainment spectacle of the 1960s.

Notice I said, "biggest," not "best"; and "spectacle," not "success." The distinctions do matter.

NOTE: This was the same day that Medgar Evers was assassinated.

Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last Pharoah of Egypt, mistress of Julius Caesar and later of Marc Antony, who life began in 69 BC, whose reign began in 51 BC, both ended in 30 BC, and by far the most famous woman to live BC (Before Christ), had been portrayed on film many times before, including by Theda Bara in 1917, Claudette Colbert in 1934, Vivien Leigh in 1945, Rhonda Fleming in 1953, and a young Sophia Loren in 1954.

The 1963 version was based on the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra, by Carlo Maria Franzero. It was produced by Walter Wanger, who had long wanted to make a film about her, and when he saw Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun in 1951, he knew he had his Queen of Egypt. He went on to produce the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and I Want to Live! So he had the studio credibility.

Taylor was approached to play the title role, and accepted. Twentieth Century Fox agreed to film it. Alfred Hitchcock was asked to direct, but he turned it down. Instead, Armenian-American director Rouben Mamoulian was hired. He had previously directed the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Queen Christina and the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro, but had directed only 2 films since 1942.

But Taylor was not finalized as Cleopatra. Among those considered were Joan Collins (yes, later from Dynasty), Susan Hayward (who won on Oscar for Wanger's I Want to Live!), and, at Mamoulian's suggestion, black actress Dorothy Dandridge. (For the record: The last several Pharoahs, including Cleopatra, were ethnically Greek, not black Africans as some want to believe.) Dandridge declined, telling Mamoulian there would be no way the studio would approve of her kissing a white Caesar or a white Antony.

So they want back to Taylor, and she asked for the biggest film contract ever: $1 million (about $10 million in 2022), plus 10 percent of the box office gross. She got it. Peter Finch (later in Network) was cast as Caesar, and Stephen Boyd as Antony.

In 1960, sets were built, and the film was already becoming a boondoggle. In November, filming had to stop for weeks because Taylor developed meningitis. The script kept getting rewritten. On January 18, 1961, Mamoulian quit as director.

Taylor had previously worked with George Stevens for A Place in the Sun, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Suddenly, Last Summer, and said either one would be good. Fox chose Mankiewicz. That did not settle things, and, finally, production at Pinewood Studios outside London shut down. It cost $600,000 just to dismantle the sets. Mankiewicz ordered them moved to Cinecittà in Rome -- which had not initially been available, due to the 1960 Olympics being held in the Eternal City. But now that the Olympics were over, "Cinema City" was available. As Caesar, Finch was out, and Rex Harrison was in.

And then Taylor went to New York, and saw Richard Burton play King Arthur in the musical Camelot, opposite Julie Andrews, who had starred with Harrison in My Fair Lady. Burton was already a huge star, particularly in period pieces like The Robe.

He was married to actress Sybil Williams. Taylor was married to singer Eddie Fisher, whom she had stolen from his wife, actress Debbie Reynolds. Previously, Taylor had married and divorced hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. and stage producer Michael Wilding. The true love of her life had been her 3rd husband, Mike Todd, and they still argued like crazy, until his death in a plane crash.

But Burton was hired to play Antony, and on January 22, 1962, both the filming of his scenes and his affair with Taylor started. Wanger observed in his journal: "There comes a time during the making of a movie when the actors become the characters they play... It was quiet, and you could almost feel the electricity between Liz and Burton."

It began the greatest "Couldn't live with each other, couldn't live without each other" story in the history of show business. By late February, word had reached the outside world. Laurence Olivier, whom Burton had started to rival for the title of the greatest living British actor, sent Burton a telegram: "Make up your mind, dear heart. Do you want to be a great actor or a household word?" Burton's response: "Both."

He got his wish. Bennifer? Brangelina? Kimye? In that era, before "ship names" -- no one ever called them "BurTay," or anything like that -- they became known as "Liz and Dick," and they were the biggest couple of all time, generating more press than any in history. More even than Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, mainly because, unlike DiMaggio, who was 2 years retired from baseball before he married Monroe, Burton and Taylor were both still in their prime.

Interestingly, this film had an actress named Jacqui Chan. Not "Jackie": Instead of the Hong Kong martial-arts star, this Jacqui Chan was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad to Chinese parents, and made her name dancing on Broadway. She played a character named Lotus.

Jacqui Chan as Lotus, with Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar

The cost of filming, including some scenes actually in Egypt, continued to rise. It almost brought the Fox studio down. On July 28, 1962, filming was finally finished. There was 5 hours and 20 minutes' worth of footage. This was going to make Gone with the Wind look like a short subject. By February 1963, Cleopatra had been cut down to 3 hours and 4 minutes, still over twice as long as most movies released in those days. Even historical epics tended to stay close to the 2-hour mark.

Total cost: $31.1 million, easily a record to that point. In 2022 money, a little over $300 million. It would take until 1978, when the 1st Christopher Reeve Superman move was released, for a movie to cost more in straight dollars: $55 million. The current record, in both straight and constant dollars, is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: When released in 2011, $378.5 million; with inflation, in 2022, $491.8 million.

Cleopatra premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York on June 12, 1963, with an estimated audience of 10,000 spectators congregated outside. Burton and Taylor were not in attendance: They were in London, where Burton was filming Becket, another historical epic. Ticket price: $5.50, a new record. (About $52.50 today. For a movie. A very long movie with very big stars, but a movie, not a live play.)

Reviews were mixed. Some greatly praised the film, others ripped it. A common complaint was that it was too big, that the huge sets and the huge cast dwarfed even those big performers. Perhaps the harshest criticism was this: "They had cut out the heart, the essence, the motivations, the very core, and tacked on all those battle scenes. It should have been about three large people, but it lacked reality and passion. I found it vulgar." The person who made this pronouncement? None other than Elizabeth Taylor.

Having obtained divorces from their respective spouses, Liz and Dick were married on March 15, 1964, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal. They made 11 films together. Other than Cleopatra, the most notable was a 1966 studio version of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Their schedules, their egos (in each case, sometimes strong, sometimes fragile), and their copious drinking led to lots of fights. They divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975 -- making Burton both Taylor's 5th and her 6th husband -- and divorced again in 1976, always in the tabloids.

Burton married twice more, to British model Suzy Miller and British author Sally Hay, who is still alive as of June 12, 2022, and still calls herself Sally Burton. Dick died in 1984, only 58 years old, and Sally kept Taylor and his other ex-wives away from the funeral.

Taylor also married twice more, to Senator John Warner and construction worker Larry Fortensky, and lived until 2011, having won over a new generation of fans through her massive fundraising for research into AIDS treatment and her friendship with singer Michael Jackson -- whom, despite all her health difficulties, she outlived.

Warner died in 2021, the last survivor among Taylor's 8 husbands. Of her children: Michael Wilding Jr. became an actor, specializing in soap operas; Christopher Wilding became a film editor; and Liza Todd and Maria Burton, whom she adopted with Dick, have largely stayed out of the spotlight. Elizabeth Taylor had 10 grandchildren, some of whom have gone into show business.

Cleopatra made more money than any other film that was released in 1963. But it did not quite earn enough to make a profit. So it is widely considered a "bust." It, and the next year's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, helped end the era of historical epics "with a cast of thousands."

And while Cleopatra continues to be a subject explored in historical TV shows with smaller budgets, few films about her have been made since. Chilean actress Leonor Varela starred in an ABC TV-movie in 1999, and Italian superstar Monica Bellucci in a 2002 feature film.

In 1997, Gina Torres, a black New Yorker of Cuban descent, played Cleopatra in an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, before joining the starring cast of a show produced by the same people, the sci-fi dystopia Cleopatra 2525, but she did not play the character named Cleopatra, who shared a name with the ancient Egyptian queen, and little else.

As of 2022, Patty Jenkins, who directed Israeli actress Gal Gadot in the Wonder Woman films, is trying to put together a new Cleopatra film, to star Gadot.

UPDATE: In an August 2023 interview, Gadot said the project was still in the planning stage, with Jenkins to produce and Kari Skogland to direct: "It’s a beautiful script. We're not rushing ourselves, because you have to be responsible when you deal with such an incredible, iconic, legendary woman."

In March 2025, Universal Pictures announced that the film was still something they wanted to produce. Given everything that goes into making a film, don't expect filming to being prior to 2026, or a release before 2028. Gadot is already older than the real Cleopatra lived to be.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Angela Trimbur played Cleopatra, against Kimmy Gatewood playing Marilyn Monroe. A 2015 episode featured "Nice" Peter Shukoff as Julius Caesar, against early 19th Century South African Chief Shaka Zulu, played by DeStorm Power. The Cleopatra episode mentioned Caesar, and vice versa.

*

June 12, 1963 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Roger Maris singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, making Marshall Bridges a winner in relief of Ralph Terry. Mickey Mantle was injured, and did not play. Yogi Berra, in his last season with the Yankees, only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 9-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Lew Burdette pitched a 3-hit shutout. Hank Aaron and Del Crandall hit home runs. Duke Snider, playing out the string with the Mets, went 0-for-3, although he did draw a walk.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a solo home run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Jim O'Toole pitched a 3-hit shutout. Frank Robinson went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Rookie Pete Rose went 2-for-4. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 12-6 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs, but it wasn't enough.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the opener, 3-1. The Los Angeles Angels won the nightcap, 5-0. Former Yankee Cy Young Award winner Bob Turley allowed only 1 hit, a 6th-inning single by Pete Ward.

* A doubleheader was split at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. As Harmon Killebrew went, so went the Minnesota Twins: In the 1st game, he went 0-for-4, and the Kansas City Athletics beat the Twins, 12-4; in the 2nd game, he went 1-for-3 with a home run, 2 walks and 2 RBIs, and the Twins won, 8-1.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. (It had been known as Sportsman's Park from 1909 to 1953.) Stan Musial went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Colt .45s, 9-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. (The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.)

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie McCovey hit 2 home runs, Willie Mays went 1-for-4, and Ernie Banks went 0-for-3.

June 3, 1953: Marlon Brando Stars In "William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar"

If you've seen the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, you've seen Robin Williams, as 1959 New Hampshire prep-school English teacher John Keating, imitating Marlon Brando and John Wayne doing Shakespeare.

The John Wayne as Macbeth part was a joke, perhaps to suggest it as the conclusion to the slippery slope of Brando reciting Marc Antony's funeral oration for the title character in William Shakespeare's 1599 play Julius Caesar. But Keating wasn't joking about Brando doing that: It happened:

June 3, 1953: The film William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar premieres. As with Shakespeare's other historical plays, it is titled after who was ruling the country at the time. But Caesar, played in this film by Louis Calhern, dies right in the middle of the story, right after telling the Senate, "I am constant as the Northern Star!"

The film is mostly faithful to the play, if not to actual history. It begins with Caesar in his victory parade after defeating his former ally Pompey the Great, being warned to "Beware the Ides of March," and ignoring it. Cassius (Gaius Cassius Longinus, played by John Gielgud) realizes that Caesar has grown too powerful, and entices Marcus Junius Brutus (James Mason) to join him in a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar, which is done on the Senate floor on the Ides of March: On the calendar used today, March 15, 44 BC.

Cassius recruited Brutus because he was believed by many, including Caesar himself, to be Caesar's most loyal ally. So he is the last to plunge the knife in. At least he did it while facing Caesar, as the others all stabbed him from behind or to the side, the source of the expression. "stab in the back."

Before Brutus does it, a shocked Caesar says, "Et tu, Brute?" Latin for, "You, too, Brutus?" The historian Suetonius had suggested that Caesar had said this, but another, Plutarch, wrote that Caesar said nothing. They are often mistaken for Caesar's last words. In the play, in which Caesar, like many rulers, refers to himself in the third person, he follows being stabbed by Brutus with, "Then, fall, Caesar." And he does.

At Caesar's funeral, Brutus delivers an oration defending his actions, and for the moment, the crowd is on his side. But Antony, Caesar's ally, speaks next. At first, he seems to agree, but he uses sarcasm and innuendo to turn the crowd:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

It works: The common people drive the conspirators out of Rome, weakening their forces. In the resulting civil war, Antony's forces triumph. Following defeat at the Battle of Philippi, in what is now northeastern Greece, on October 23, 42 BC, Cassius has an aide stab him, while Brutus commits suicide the classic Roman way, "Falling on his sword." Antony takes no joy in this, calling Brutus "the noblest Roman of all."

Also of note in the film: Greer Garson as Calpurnia, Caesar's wife; Deborah Kerr as Portia, Brutus' wife; Alan Napier, eventually the butler Alfred on the 1966-68 Batman series, as noted Roman Senator Cicero; John Hoyt as Decius Brutus (an misspelling of Decimus Brutus), a Roman general and a cousin of Marcus Junius Brutus; Ian Wolfe, who specialized in Roman roles, including Septimus in the Star Trek episode "Bread and Circuses," as Ligarius, one of the conspiring Senators; Michael Ansara as Pindarus, another conspirator; and Douglas Watson as Octavius Caesar, a.k.a. Octavian, who initially helps Antony, but later turns against him, and becomes Caesar Augustus, the 1st Emperor of Rome.

The film won just 1 Academy Award, for Best Art Direction. For the 3rd of 4 straight years, Brando was nominated for Best Actor, although he wouldn't win this one, as he did in 1951 for A Streetcar Named Desire and in 1954 for On the Waterfront.

That 1953 Best Actor race was as good as it gets: William Holden won for the World War II film Stalag 17. He defeated Brando; Richard Burton, for another film set in Ancient Rome, The Robe; and Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift, each nominated for their roles in From Here to Eternity.

Julius Caesar is a masculine-heavy play, and none of the actresses in this film version was nominated for Best Actress, although Kerr was nominated for her role in From Here to Eternity, losing to Audrey Hepburn of Roman Holiday -- which took place in present-day Rome. From Here to Eternity won Best Picture, defeating William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday, and the Western Shane.

In 1321, in his Divine Comedy, Dante Aligheri imagined a man being taken through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. At the bottom of Hell, in its 9th circle, are traitors, as Dante considered betrayal to be the worst sin of all. At the bottom of that, the Devil is eternally chewing on the forms Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus; and Brutus and Cassius, the betrayers of Caesar.

The Booth brothers, the leading American stage actors of the 19th Century, made their only appearance onstage together in a benefit performance of Julius Caesar on November 25, 1864, at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. Junius Brutus Booth Jr. (1821-1883, named for his father, himself named for an even earlier Brutus in Rome), played Cassius. Edwin Thomas Booth (1833-1893, considered the greatest Hamlet of his time) played Brutus. John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) played Mark Antony. Ironically, it would be John who became a famous assassin.

On May 29, 1916, commemorating the 300th Anniversary of Shakespeare's death, a production was shown in a natural bowl in Beachwood Canyon in Los Angeles, not far from where the Hollywood Bowl would be built. A crowd of 40,000 people saw Tyrone Power Sr. play Brutus, and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. play Mark Antony. Each man had a namesake son who became a legendary actor as well, and Power Sr. would be surpassed in fame by his son.

In 1937, the Mercury Theatre staged the play on Broadway. Orson Welles directed, and played Brutus. Joseph Holland played Caesar, Greek-English actor George Coulouris played Antony, Joseph Cotten played Publius, Martin Gabel (later better known as the husband of actress Arlene Francis) played Cassius; and Norman Lloyd played Cinna the poet, whose murder scene, rather than Caesar's murder scene or Coulouris' recitation of Antony's eulogy for Caesar, was considered the play's show-stopper. Ironically, Holland outlived most of his castmates, though Lloyd lived to be 106 years old. In 1938, Welles trimmed the play for a one-hour radio broadcast on CBS, with the same cast.

Welles intended the play to be an analogy to the current leader of Italy, the Fascist Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, who was the subject of, among other biographies, one written in 1935 by a friend he had betrayed, the American journalist George Seldes, who titled his book Sawdust Caesar. Likewise, in 1978, historian William Manchester titled his biography of Douglas MacArthur, also a general whose genius was exceeded by his ego, American Caesar.

In 1954, on See It Now, CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow would close his televised exposé of Senator Joseph McCarthy by quoting Cassius' line to Brutus, about how the people of Rome had already let Caesar go too far: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." In 2012, John Green would write a novel for young adult audiences, titled The Fault In Our Stars. It was filmed in 2014.

The 1960 film An Honourable Murder is a reworking of the play, set in present-day London in the world of business, with John Longden (not the American horse-racing jockey) as corporate titan Julian Caesar. The 1963 film Cleopatra fictionalizes the romance between the titular Queen of Egypt (Elizabeth Taylor) and Caesar (Rex Harrison), and the later one between Cleopatra and Mark Antony (Richard Button, whom Taylor soon married). In the film, Cleopatra has a nightmare about Caesar's assassination, and is then told that it has happened. However, she is not mentioned in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.

Ted Sorensen, one of President John F. Kennedy's speechwriters, recalled a conversation with JFK's brother and Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, after JFK's assassination. Bobby was worried that Jack would be forgotten by history, since he had been President less than 3 full years. Sorensen reminded RFK that Julius Caesar had ruled Rome for only 3 years, and was still remembered. RFK reminded Sorensen that Caesar had Shakespeare writing about him. This led Sorensen to write a biography of JFK, and it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Of course, the real Caesar had an earlier writer to tell his story: Himself. His own writings, about his escapades in war, have survived. They reveal his genius, but also his massive ego.

The Star Trek franchise is loaded with Shakespearean references, and the 1966 original series episode "The Conscience of the King" is about a traveling company of actors, specializing in Shakespeare's works, led by a man who hides his identity as a politician who, many years earlier, had committed a massacre. His daughter tries to protect him, and, threatening Captain Kirk, says, "Caesar, beware the Ides of March!" But her father, tired of it all, steps in between Kirk and her phaser beam, driving her into the last part of madness.

The 1991 film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country takes its title from a line from Hamlet, and the Klingon General Chang is played by Christopher Plummer, who got his start in Shakespearean roles in Montreal, alongside his fellow native of that city, Kirk portrayer William Shatner. Chang quotes Shakespeare throughout, including Caesar's line, "I am constant as the Northern Star," and Antony's line, "Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!"

In a 1970 film version of Julius Caesar, Gielgud played Caesar, with Charlton Heston as Antony and Jason Robards as Brutus. In 1977, Gielgud played Caesar at the Royal National Theatre in London, in what turned out to be his last Shakespearean stage appearance.

In a 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, "A Night to Dismember," Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) is hypnotized, with a post-hypnotic suggestion: When he hears, "The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves," he is to stop being messy as usual, and become as neat as he thinks Felix is -- but it goes too far. In 1973, the BBC aired the TV-play Heil Caesar, set in a present-day Britain that is teetering on the verge of a dictatorship. The BBC did the play straight in 1978, and again in 2012, with an all-black cast led by Paterson Joseph as Brutus and Ray Fearon as Antony. A 1984 Charles Bronson film was titled The Evil That Men Do.

"The Dogs of War" would be used as the titles of a 1974 novel by Frederick Forsyth, a 2017 novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a 1999 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and a 2003 episode of The West Wing.

The expression "It's Greek to me," to mean a lack of understanding of something, dates back to the play, as Casca tells Cassius of a speech that Cicero made. "Et tu?" has been used by many people, including in popular culture, to suggest that someone has been let down by the last person they expected to do so.

The name "Caesar" was applied to the Emperors of Rome, some of whom adopted it as part of their legal names. The German title for Emperor, "Kaiser," and the Russian title, "Czar" or "Tsar," both come from "Caesar."

I once saw a T-shirt (sadly, I could find no picture of it online) showing a Roman soldier cutting a steak with his sword, saying, "Caesar did not have a salad." But the Caesar salad has nothing to do with the historic Roman. It was created in 1924 by Caesar Cardini, who ran Caesar's restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. He also created the salad dressing that goes with it, which eventually led to this meme. Note that the bottle has been stabbed in the back:

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Angela Trimbur played Cleopatra, against Kimmy Gatewood playing Marilyn Monroe. A 2015 episode featured "Nice" Peter Shukoff as Julius Caesar, against early 19th Century South African Chief Shaka Zulu, played by DeStorm Power. The Cleopatra episode mentioned Caesar, and vice versa.

*

June 3, 1953 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 18-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. This was the 6th straight win for the Yankees, in a winning streak that would eventually reach 18. Whitey Ford was the winning pitcher for the Bronx Bombers, while Bob Keegan didn't get out of the 2nd inning for the South Siders.

The Yankees got 19 hits, but only 1 was a home run, by Irv Noren. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4, but had 4 RBIs: On a single, a groundout, and 2 bases-loaded walks. Joe Collins went 4-for-5 with a walk and an RBI. Gene Woodling went 2-for-5 with a walk and 3 RBIs. Charlie Silvera, filling in at catcher for the injured Yogi Berra, went 3-for-6 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-3 at the Polo Grounds. Larry Jansen went the distance for the win. Daryl Spencer hit 2 home runs and had 5 RBIs. Davey Williams went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs. Willie Mays was unavailable for the Giants, as he was serving in the Korean War.

The next day, the Giants won by the exact same score as they scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 8th to come from behind and win. 

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 14-9 at Ebbets Field. Vern Bickford didn't get out of the 3rd inning for the Braves, but Carl Erskine didn't get out of the 5th for Dem Bums. Eddie Mathews, Jim Pendleton, and former Dodger Andy Pafko hit home runs for the Braves. Jackie Robinson only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.

* A doubleheader was split at the former Shibe Park, newly renamed Connie Mack Stadium, in Philadelphia. The St. Louis Cardinals won the opener, 5-3. The Philadelphia Phillies won the nightcap, 6-5. Over the 2 games, Stan Musial went 1-for-6 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs. The next day, the Phils again beat the Cards, 6-5.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Paul LePalme pitched a 7-hit shutout, outpitching Warren Hacker. The only run came in the bottom of the 4th, when Pete Castiglione singled Ralph Kiner home.

The very next day, in a blockbuster deal with the Cubs, Pirate general manager Branch Rickey traded Kiner, Joe Garagiola, George "Catfish" Metkovich and Howie Pollet, for Bob Addis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward, and $150,000. Rickey was so cheap (How cheap was he?),  it was once said of him, "He has players and he has money, and he does not like to see the two of them mix." So he valued the cash he was getting from Cubs owner and chewing gum magnate Philip K. Wrigley more than the 6 players he was getting, or the 4 players he was giving up.

One of those players, Kiner, was on his way to the Hall of Fame. But he was also making $75,000, a cut from $90,000 the season before. The Pirates were coming off an atrocious season in which they went 42-112, despite Kiner leading the National League in home runs for a record 7th season in a row. Rickey told Kiner, "We finished 8th with you, and we can finish 8th without you" -- meaning, "...and keep a lot of the money we're paying you."

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Red Sox scored 3 runs off Early Wynn in the top of the 9th inning to come from behind, to make Ellis Kinder a winning pitcher in relief of Sid Hudson. Ted Williams was unavailable for the Red Sox, as he was serving in the Korean War.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-7 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Gus Zernial had 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.

* And the Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 3-2 at what had been the last ballpark in St. Louis known as Sportsman's Park, but had just been renamed as the first Busch Stadium. Wayne Terwilliger singled Eddie Yost home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.