1968 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

Theater: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Jay Allen (who has adapted the novel by Muriel Spark) 1/16 at New York's Helen Hayes Theater, with Australian actress Zoë Caldwell, 34, 378 perfs.; The Indian Wants the Bronx by Wakefield, Mass.-born playwright Israel Horovitz, 28, 1/17 at New York's Astor Place Theater, with John Cazale, Al Pacino, Matthew Coles; I Never Sang for my Father by Robert Anderson 1/25 at New York's Longacre Theater, with Hal Holbrook, Lillian Gish, Matt Crowley, Teresa Wright, 124 perfs.; The Price by Arthur Miller 2/7 at New York's Morosco Theater, with Pat Hingle, Kate Reid, Arthur Kennedy, 429 perfs.; Plaza Suite by Neil Simon 2/14 at New York's Plymouth Theater, with George C. Scott, Maureen Stapleton, Elizabeth Wilson, 1,097 perfs.; Hadrian VII by English playwright Peter Luke, 48, (who has adapted the 1904 novel) 4/18 at London's Mermaid Theatre (to the Haymarket 3/18/1969), with Alec McCowen, 988 perfs.; The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley 4/18 at New York's off-Broadway Theater Four, with Cliff Gorman, 1,000 perfs.; Kaspar by Austrian playwright Peter Handke, 25, 5/11 at Frankurt's Frankfurter Theatre am Turm and Stockholm's Städtischen Bühnen Obverghausen; The Man Most Likely To . . . by English playwright Joyce Rayburne 7/4 at London's Vaudeville Theatre, with Leslie Phillips, 44, Diane Hart, 41, 768 perfs.; Indians by Arthur Kopit 7/4 at London's Aldwych Theatre, with Barrie Ingham as "Buffalo Bill" Cody; The Sisters-in-law (Les Belles-Soeurs) by Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay, 26, 8/28 at Montreal's Théâtre du Rideau-Vert; The Great White Hope by New York-born playwright Howard (Oliver) Sackler, 39, 10/3 at New York's Alvin Theater, with Mississippi-born actor James Earl Jones, 37, Boston-born actress Jane Alexander (née Quigley), 28, 276 perfs.; The Death and Resurrection of Mister Roche by Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy 10/7 at Dublin's Olympia Theatre; Forty Years On by Leeds-born actor-playwright Alan Bennett, 34, 10/31 at London's Apollo Theatre, with John Gielgud, Paul Eddington, Bennett, 444 perfs.; The Ruling Class by English playwright Peter Barnes, 37, 11/6 at the Nottingham Playhouse. The comedy creates an uproar by flailing not only the upper classes but also the Church of England, Parliament, and the British Empire; Forty Carats by Jay Allen (who has adapted a French play) 12/26 at New York's Morosco Theater, with Julie Harris, Glenda Farrell, 780 perfs.

Playwright Howard Lindsay dies of leukemia at New York February 11 at age 78; Laurence Stallings of a heart attack at Los Angeles February 28 at age 73; Philip Dunning at Westport, Conn., July 20 at age 77; Paul Vincent Carroll at Bromley, England, October 20 at age 68; actress Mary Servoss of heart disease at Los Angeles November 20 at age 87; actor Philip Lord at Chicago November 25 at age 89.

The Theatres Act adopted by Parliament September 26 effectively abolishes the Lord Chamberlain's powers of censorship in Britain (see 1737).

Television: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In 1/22 on NBC, replacing The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with stand-up comedians Dan Rowan, 45, and Dick Martin, 44, whose irreverent and ribald humor will ridicule the Ku Klux Klan, National Rifle Association, Pentagon, and other targets, celebrity cameos, regulars who will include Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne, and Jo Anne Worley, blackouts, sight gags, and lines that viewers will repeat ad infinitum (e.g., "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls," "Sock it to me," "Very interesting," "You bet your bippy," and "Heah come de judge") (to 3/12/1973, 130 shows); Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in February (daytime) on PBS, with TV veteran Fred Rogers, 40, who has consulted since the early 1960s with University of Pittsburgh psychologist Margaret McFarland and began the show 5/25/1967 on Pittsburgh's WQED (the first federally-funded public TV station). Starting each morning's show with the song, "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," Rogers dons a sweater, interacts with his Land-of-Make-Believe puppets, and will continue for 33 years to entertain young children (in competition with cartoon shows); Dad's Army on BBC-1 with Arthur Lowe, Ian Lavendar, Clive Dunn in a 30-minute comedy series that makes fun of the Home Guard in the early years of World War II (64 episodes, to 1977); One Life to Live 7/15 (daytime) on ABC with an ethnically, socially, and racially mixed cast that includes Jacquie Courney, Amy Levitt, Anthony Ponzini, Michael Storm, Ernest Graves, Gillian Spencer, and others in a soap opera created by Philadelphia homemaker Agnes Nixon, 47, whose half-hour show will expand to 45 minutes and then (in 1976) to a full hour as she pushes the envelope to deal with subjects that include drug abuse, homophobia, S&M sex, and teenage homosexuality; Adam 12 9/21 on NBC with Martin Milner, Kent McCord (to 8/26/1975); The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 9/21 on NBC with Hope Lange, Edward Mulhare (to 9/19/1970); Mayberry R.F.D. 9/23 on CBS with Ken Berry, Arlene Golonka (to 9/6/1971); The Doris Day Show 9/24 on CBS with actress Day as widow Doris Martin (to 9/10/1973, 128 episodes); Mod Squad 9/25 on ABC with Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton as undercover agents for the Los Angeles Police Dept. (to 3/1/1973); Hawaii Five-O 9/26 on CBS with Brooklyn-born actor Jack Lord, 47, as Detective Steve McGarrett, Khigh Dhiegh (to 4/5/1980).

TV comedy writer Nat Hiken dies of a heart attack at Brentwood, Calif., December 7 at age 54.

Films: Anthony Harvey's The Lion in Winter with Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn; Richard Lester's Petulia with Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Beverly Hills-born actor Richard Chamberlain, 33; Jacques Tati's Playtime with Tati; Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby with Mia Farrow, now 23, John Cassavetes; Ingmar Bergman's Shame with Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow; François Truffaut's Stolen Kisses with Jean-Pierre Leaud; Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with Keir Dullea in a plot based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel." Also: François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black with Jeanne Moreau, Claude Rich, Jean-Claude Brialy; Peter Yates's Bullitt with Steve McQueen, Robert (Francis) Vaughn, 35, English-born actress Jacqueline Bisset, 21; Robert Altman's Countdown with Robert Duvall, New York-born actor James Caan, 29; John Cassavetes's Faces with John Marley, Wisconsin-born actress Gena Rowlands, 32; Donald Siegel's Madigan with Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore; George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead with Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea; Jack Smight's No Way to Treat a Lady with Rod Steiger, George Segal, Lee Remick; Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter; Mel Brooks's The Producers with Zero Mostel, Milwaukee-born comedian Gene Wilder (originally Jerry Silberman), 33; Paul Newman's Rachel, Rachel with Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward (based on the 1966 Margaret Laurence novel A Jest of God); Franco Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet with Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey; Joseph Losey's Secret Ceremony with Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum; Frank and Eleanor Perry's The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster, Janice Rule, Kim Hunter; Peter Bogdanovich's Targets with Boris Karloff; Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend with Mireille Dare; Tom Gries's Will Penny with Charlton Heston.

The American Cinema 1929-1968 by Brooklyn-born New York critic Andrew (George) Sarris, 39, is a comprehensive index and categorization of virtually every film director.

Actress Mae Marsh dies at Hermosa Beach, Calif., February 13 at age 72; director Anthony Asquith at London February 20 at age 65; director Carl Theodor Dreyer at Copenhagen March 9 at age 79; actress Helen Walker of cancer at Hollywood March 10 at age 47; pioneer silent-film director Alice Guy-Blaché at Mahwah, N.J., March 24 at age 94; Fay Bainter at Los Angeles April 13 at age 74; Albert Dekker at Hollywood May 5 at age 62 of suffocation by hanging; Finlay Currie at Gerrard's Cross, England, May 9 at age 90; Dorothy Gish of bronchial pneumonia at Rapallo, Italy, June 4 at age 70; Dan Duryea of cancer at Hollywood June 7 at age 61; director Alexander C. Hall at San Francisco July 30 at age 74; actress Kay Francis of cancer at her New York apartment August 26 at age 63; director Robert Z. Leonard of an aneurism at Beverly Hills August 27 at age 78; Franchot Tone of lung cancer at New York September 18 at age 62; Lee Tracy dies of cancer at Long Beach, Calif., October 18 at age 70; Ramon Novarro is found dead at his Hollywood Hills home October 31 at age 69, apparently a murder victim; Wendell Corey dies of a liver ailment at Woodland Hills, Calif., November 8 at age 54; producer Walter Wanger (originally Feuchtwanger) of a heart attack at New York November 18 at age 74; Tallulah Bankhead of pneumonia and emphysema at New York December 12 at age 66.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) introduces a movie ratings code November 1. Theater owners agree to bar children under 17 from X-rated films and from R-rated films unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. G- and M- (later changed to PG-13-) rated films have no such restrictions. Jack Valenti, 47, left the Johnson White House 2 years ago to head the MPAA and has helped draw up the code to stave off government regulation; parents concerned about children's exposure to sex and violence generally applaud it, although some say that having the industry rate its own films is like letting the fox guard the henhouse, and some predict (accurately) that X-rated films will attract youngsters who would not otherwise be interested.