September 18, 1963: The Patty Duke Show premieres on ABC. It runs for 3 seasons. Patty Duke, 16 years old at the time the show begins, and an Academy Award winner for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, plays "identical cousins" who grew up in Brooklyn Heights and London, respectively. This is eventually explained by William Schallert playing twin brothers, one who came to America and one who stayed behind, and became the fathers of the respective girls.
Martin Lane, father of Patty, is the managing editor of a newspaper, the New York Daily Chronicle. His identical twin brother, Kenneth Lane, Cathy's father, is a foreign correspondent for the Chronicle. Since Kenneth is widowed and often away on assignment, and Patty's parents (including her mother, Natalie, played by Jean Byron) are both still alive, and she also has a brother at home, Ross (Paul O'Keefe), Cathy is sent to live with Patty and her family.
Together, Patty, Cathy, Ross, and Patty's regular boyfriend, Richard (Eddie Applegate) attend Brooklyn Heights High School. (It didn't exist in real life, and still doesn't: Students in Brooklyn Heights, unless they qualified for another, would attend Brooklyn Prospect High School.)
The show's theme song, "Cousins," which has since been parodied many times over in pop culture, illustrates the two girls' differences: The sophisticated Londoner "Cathy adores the minuet, the Ballet Russe and Crêpes Suzette; our Patty loves her rock 'n' roll, a hot dog makes her lose control." Of course, being identical, sometimes one pretends to be the other to gain an advantage.
Child actress Rita McLaughlin was used as Duke's double, almost always seen only from behind. To differentiate the two characters to the viewing public, the character Patty wore a flip-fall hairpiece, while Cathy's character wore a more conservative turn-under hairstyle. In addition to the American Patty Lane and the English Cathy Lane, Patty Duke would, one time, play a 3rd cousin, the Southerner Betsy Lane.
Patty Duke later became a semi-regular panelist on Match Game. Whenever regular panelist Brett Somers would overact, Charles Nelson Reilly, a great admirer of Patty's, would say, "It's a good thing Patty Duke isn't here to see such lousy acting!" Or he would upbraid Brett for it if Patty was there.
In 1999, a reunion movie aired on CBS, with Duke again playing both Patty and Cathy. In 2009, the cast reunited again, for public-service ads for the Social Security Administration.
Duke eventually married and divorced Addams Family actor John Astin, and became the mother of actors Sean and Mackenzie Astin. In 1979, NBC remade The Miracle Worker, and Duke played Annie Sullivan to Melissa Gilbert's Helen Keller. She starred in a couple of more sitcoms, wrote a memoir about overcoming mental illness and the troubles of Hollywood, and died in 2016.
Schallert outlived her by a few weeks, and Eddie Applegate by a few months. Jean Byron died in 2006. Rita McLaughlin later used her married name, Rita Walter, and starred on the soap opera As the World Turns. As of September 18, 2022, she is still alive, as is Paul O'Keefe.
UPDATE: Walter died on Christmas Day, December 25, 2022.
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September 18, 1963 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that the last competitive baseball game was played at the Polo Grounds. I have a separate entry for that event.
These baseball games were played:
* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1. It was the last competitive baseball game played at the Polo Grounds. I have a separate entry for this event.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 5-4 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Billy Cowan hit a 2-run home run in the top of the 9th inning, to turn a Buccos lead into a Cubbies win. Ernie Banks did not play. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4.
* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. John Weekly went 3-for-5 with a home run and 4 RBIs. Frank Robinson did not play. Rookie Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with a walk. In 1965, the Colt .45s became the Houston Astros.
* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 and 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Pete Ward hit a home run in each game. Gene Stephens went 4-for-6 with a walk and an RBI. For the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-5 with an RBI in the 1st game, but didn't play in the 2nd game.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Eddie Mathews went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Willie Mays went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Willie McCovey went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Camilo Pascual pitched a 2-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run. Al Kaline did not play.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. In the top of the 13th inning, a Maury Wills groundout got Willie Davis home with the winning run. Ron Perranoski was the winning pitcher, in relief of Pete Richert. Lew Burdette was the losing pitcher, in relief of Bob Gibson. Stan Musial, in his last month as a player, went 2-for-3 with a walk.
* And the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Since the Yankees had already clinched the American League Pennant, the game wa snot made up.
* The Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader with the Los Angeles Angels, 3-1 and 7-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing until their Anaheim stadium could be built. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 0-for-6 with a walk.
* And the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Since the Yankees had already clinched the American League Pennant, the game was not made up.
