September 28, 1966: The film The Bible: In the Beginning… premieres. Give the scope of the Bible, covering the whole thing would work better as a TV series. This film covers the 1st 22 out of the 50 chapters in the opening book, Genesis, and still runs 6 minutes short of 3 hours.
20th Century Fox released it, Dino De Laurentiis produced it, and John Huston directed it, narrated it, provided the voice of God, and played Noah.
Michael Parks played Adam, and, when the film was shown on television, provided American TV viewers one of their earliest glimpses of a bare butt. Ulla Bergryd played Eve. It was her 1st film. She made just 1 more, and returned to her native Sweden, becoming a professor of sociology.
The film was mostly filmed in Italy, and aside from the biggest stars, most of the actors were Italian. The Garden of Eden was filmed at, as Bergryd put it, "an old botanical garden on the outskirts of Rome." Mount Vesuvius, the volcano outside Naples, whose eruption in AD 79 had famously destroyed the city of Pompeii, was also used as a filming location, as were the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
Richard Harris played Cain, and Franco Nero played Abel. This foreshadowed their subsequent casting as Arthur and Lancelot, respectively, in the film version of the musical Camelot. George C. Scott played Abraham. Ava Gardner played his wife, Sarah. Stephen Boyd played Nimrod, an opponent of Abraham's. Peter O'Toole played The Three Angels.
Five reproductions of Noah's Ark were built, the largest being 200 feet long, 64 feet wide, and 50 feet high -- as opposed to Genesis' description of it being, according to God's order, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. In modern terms, this comes to about 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, 51 feet high, and a volume of roughly 1.88 million cubic feet, equal to about 450 semi-truck trailers.
It still seems like hardly enough to have a male and female of every animal on Earth, going in "by twosies-twosies" according to the children's song, to say nothing of going out "by threesies-threesies, all because of birds and beesies-beesies" -- which confused the hell out of me as a kid. How did the birds and bees on board the Ark result in a 3rd of each animal? It wasn't until I was 12 that the term "the birds and the bees" was explained to me. (I was 11 when I learned that "The Facts of Life" wasn't just the title of a sitcom.)
The Bible: In the Beginning… was America's highest-grossing film of 1966. But putting it together was so expensive that it still lost money. "Historical epics" were already on their way out, due to their huge cost, and this film was one reason why. In other words, for historical epics, The Bible: In the Beginning… was pretty much the end.
The film ends with God letting Abraham out of his promise to sacrifice Isaac. It doesn't discuss the later adventures of Isaac, his sons Jacob and Esau, Jacob's 12 sons including Joseph who founded the Twelve Tribes of Israel, or anything after Genesis.
The Ten Commandments, in 1956, had already told the story of the Exodus, which, if it happened at all, probably happened in the 13th Century BC, during the reign of Pharoah Ramesses II in Egypt, the Mycenean Age in Greece, and the Shang Dynasty in China.
A few films have been made about King David, and a few have been made about his son, King Solomon, both of whom are said to have lived in the 10th Century BC, when Egypt was in its 21st Dynasty, Greece was in its Dark Age, and China was in its Western Zhou Dynasty. A few have been made about the Babylonian Exile of 597-537 BC, during the Saite Dynasty in Egypt, the early Athenian Democracy in Greece, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in China.
And, of course, many movies have been made about Jesus, including The Greatest Story Ever Told, a year before this in 1965. But the New Testament after Jesus' Ascension has not been a popular topic. There aren't many films about the Apostles as a whole, or any of them in particular, including Paul and John. And The Revelation of John, the last book in the Bible -- or, as a few really dumb Americans call it "The Book of Revelations" -- defies description to the point of possibly being unfilmable, so films about the idea tend to be present-day allegories.
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September 28, 1966 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:
* A doubleheader was split at Shea Stadium. The Chicago Cubs won the opener, 4-1. Dick Ellsworth outpitched Dennis Ribant, and went 2-for-4 with an RBI in his own cause. The New York Mets won the nightcap, 1-0. Bob Shaw pitched a 6-hit shutout, outpitching Rich Nye. Cleon Jones singled Jerry Grote home with the only run in the bottom of the 7th inning. On the day, Jones went 3-for-7 with a walk, and both Met RBIs.
For the Cubs, over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 1-for-3 with a walk, Ron Santo went 4-for-7 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs, and Billy Williams went 0-for-7 with a walk.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 and 4-2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Blass outpitched Jim Bunning in the 1st game, and Bob Veale outpitched Larry Jansen in the 2nd game.
Willie Stargell did not play in either game. Over the 2 games, Roberto Clemente went 2-for-8 with an RBI, and Dick Allen went 3-for-7 with a walk.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Gaylord Perry outpitched Tony Cloninger. Willie Mays went 0-for-5. Willie McCovey went 2-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.
* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 7-1. The Houston Astros won the 2nd game, 4-3. After not playing in the 1st game, Pete Rose went 0-for-4 in the 2nd game.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of
Bloomington, Minnesota. Luis Tiant pitched a 6-hit shutout, outpitching Jim Kaat. Tony Oliva got 3 of those hits. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4. Joe Azcue hit a home run for the Tribe.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Larry Jaster pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching rookie Don Sutton. Lou Brock went 0-for-2 with 2 walks and a stolen base.
The Dodgers now led the National League by a game and a half over the Pirates, and 3 over the Giants, with 4 games to play. They hung on to beat the Giants by a game and a half, and the Pirates by 3.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 5-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). The Angels scored 2 runs in the 8th and 1 in the 9th to send the game to extra innings, but Al Kaline hit his 2nd home run of the game, for 2 runs, in the top of the 10th, and the Angels could only pull 1 run back in the bottom of the 10th.
* And the New York Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Kansas City Athletics and the Washington Senators were not scheduled. The Orioles ran away with the American League Pennant, beating the defending Champion Twins by 9 games.
