Significant Events this month: French voters ratify the Evian Accords in a referendum (8th), with 90% of voters approving independence for Algeria. Walter Cronkite succeeds Douglas Edwards as the anchor of the CBS Evening News, a post he will hold (becoming “the most trusted man in America”), until his retirement in 1981 (16th). The Century 21 World’s Exposition opens in Seattle (21st), with its landmark Space Needle (still standing). The Seattle Expo would be the setting for the Elvis Presley movie, It Happened at the World’s Fair, released in 1963.
President and Mrs. Kennedy host 173 world scientists, educators, writers, and artists, including 49 Nobel Prize laureates, at a White House state dinner that is the largest gathering there in the modern era (29th). JFK observed “this is the most extraordinary collection of human talent, of human knowledge, ever gathered in the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” That grand occasion would be detailed in the 2018 book, “Dinner at Camelot.”
The Academy Awards for 1961 are bestowed on April 9 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, miles from Hollywood in the sun-splashed beach city. West Side Story is the big winner of the night, amassing 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director(s) for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, Best Supporting Actor for former chorus boy George Chakiris, and Best Supporting Actress Rita Moreno, a future EGOT winner. Best Actor is Maximilian Schell for Judgement at Nuremberg. The award was presented by Joan Crawford, and the two are destined to meet again on stage one year later at the 1962 awards. Best Actress is the absent Sophia Loren, for her performance in Vittorio DeSica’s Two Women. Loren decided not to attend because she, as related in her autobiography, would have fainted whether she won or lost, so she decided to “faint at home.” The international sex symbol was now recognized as a legitimate actress, and her victory makes the first time ever any male or female actor won in a foreign-language role,
In Sports, highlights showcase the beginning of the baseball season, and the championship series for both professional basketball and hockey. The first MLB game is played at the newly opened Dodger stadium (10th) in Los Angeles, with the home team losing to the Cincinnati Reds; same date sees the first game ever played by the Houston Colts (now Astros), an expansion team. The next day (11th) has the New York Mets, another expansion team, taking the field for the first time, visiting the St. Louis Cardinals. Both new teams lose. The Boston Celtics win the NBA championship in their seven game series against the Los Angeles Lakers (18th), and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Chicago Blackhawks to take the NHL Stanley Cup (22nd).
On the pop charts, the most successful records include Johnny Angel by Shelley Fabares, #1 for the month, staying at the top for two weeks and nine weeks total in the top ten; Good Luck Charm by Elvis Presley also tops the chart for two weeks, lingering in the top ten for seven weeks. Other hits and their chart peaks during the month include Slow Twistin’ by Chubby Checker (#3), Love Letters by Ketty Lester (#5), Young World by Rick Nelson (#6), and Lover Please by Clyde McPhatter (#7). The best-selling album of the month is the original movie soundtrack for Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Henry Mancini. The album first topped the charts in February, then gets a big boost when the film cops two Oscars, for best score and song (Moon River with lyrics by Johnny Mercer). Mancini’s version would peak at #11 on the pop singles chart, win the Grammy for both Song and Record of the Year, and become an enduring standard.
At the movies, Best Picture West Side Story is the April box-office champion, followed by prior champ Lover Come Back, and other hits include Disney’s Moon Pilot, the remake of 1945’s State Fair, with Pat Boone, Ann Margaret, Bobby Darin, and Golden Age star Alice Faye, coming out of a 17 year retirement; also Sweet Bird of Youth, Cape Fear, The Counterfeit Traitor, Experiment in Terror, and art-house entries Two Women and Through a Glass Darkly.
Milestone: Director Michael Curtiz dies on April 10th at the age of 75. The Hungarian emigre and Oscar winner ends a five decade career with Hollywood classics The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mildred Pierce, and Casablanca among his many credits. He also directed an underrated boxing melodrama, Kid Galahad (aka Battling Bellhop, 1937), starring Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart. That movie was remade in 1962 with the original title, this time starring Elvis Presley in the title role.
