1960s MOVIE TRIVIA
Here are a few behind-the-scenes facts about some 1960s Hollywood classics.
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
The all-star cast of this madcap comedy includes dozens of cameos from old movie stars such as Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys, the Three Stooges, Buster Keaton, and Jack Benny. But Benny, it turns out, wasn’t the producers’ first choice for his small role. It had been offered to Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy fame), but he turned it down. Reason: when his partner, Oliver Hardy, died in 1957, Laurel said he’d never perform again. And he never did.
Cleopatra (1963)
This epic movie was over four hours long. But director Joseph L. Mankiewicz wanted it to be even longer. His original plan (nixed by Twentieth Century Fox) was to release it in two parts—Caesar and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra, with a combined running time of six hours.
The Graduate (1967)
It’s got one of the most famous (and frequently parodied) endings in movie history. Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) interrupts the wedding of his former girlfriend Elaine (Katharine Ross), and they run off and hop onto a bus to escape her enraged friends and family. Then, they just sit there silently…not really sure how to start their lives together. That final scene was an accident. Director Mike Nichols wasn’t around that day, so film editor Sam O’Steen was in charge. Only problem: he was a novice director, and didn’t know when he was supposed to say “Cut.” Result: the film kept rolling… and captured something magical.
The Sound of Music (1965)
Julie Andrews started shooting this movie right after she’d finished filming Mary Poppins. To entertain the kids playing the Von Trapp children between takes, Andrews sang them “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Mary Poppins hadn’t been released yet, so the kids thought Andrews had written the song on the spot, just for them.
In 1969 Jefferson Airplane performed “We Can Be Together” on The Dick Cavett Show…
Disney’s previous animated feature, Sleeping Beauty, was a box office flop and left the company in debt. If 101 Dalmatians hadn’t been a hit, the company had plans in place to cease making cartoons altogether, and instead focus on live-action movies and theme parks. But 101 Dalmatians wound up being a smash, so it was business as usual for Disney.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
It went on to become one of the top-grossing movies of the year (and all time), but for its first few weeks of release, theaters playing the epic Russian love story were mostly empty. Then Maurice Jarre’s theme song from the film, “Lara’s Theme,” became an unlikely radio hit—so much so that it made people want to go see the movie.
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Franco Zeffirelli’s blockbuster take on the classic Shakespeare play cast unknowns Leonard Whiting and Olivia Henry in the title roles. The movie’s biggest star, however, appeared anonymously. Sir Laurence Olivier, who won a Best Actor Oscar for Hamlet in 1948, loved Zeffirelli’s work at England’s National Theatre, and agreed to appear in his film purely out of his love for Shakespeare. Olivier served as the film’s narrator, provided the voices for several background characters, and dubbed in the voice of Lord Montague because actor Antonio Pierfederici’s thick Italian accent made his lines (in English) too difficult for audiences to understand.
Easy Rider (1969)
While the cocaine and LSD used by the drug-taking bikers in this movie weren’t real, all the marijuana that Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Fonda smoked on-screen was. During the pivotal campfire scene, which took several days to film, the trio reportedly went through more than 100 joints.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
One memorable part of the classic buddy Western is when Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) showboats on his bicycle to impress Etta Place (Katharine Ross). Newman did the stunts himself. Reason: the stuntman hired to do the scenes kept falling off the bike.
….and singer Grace Slick became the first person to say the F-word on American TV.