Entertainment News and Highlights

Celebrity Marriages

Poet T. S. Eliot and his former private secretary Valerie Fischer return to London, England, after a honeymoon following their marriage on January 10.

Film producer Mike Todd and actress Elizabeth Taylor were married in Acapulco, Mexico, on February 2. It was the third marriage for both.

Actress Susan Hayward married attorney Floyd Eaton Chalkley in Phoenix, Arizona, on February 8.

Singer Harry Belafonte and dancer Julie Robinson were married in Tecate, Mexico, on March 8.

Actor Henry Fonda married Italian Contessa Afdera Franchetti in New York City, New York, on March 9.

U.S. Olympic hammer-throwing champion Harold Connolly and Czech Olympic women's discus champion Olga Fiktova were married in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on March 27.

Actress Nanette Fabray and screenwriter Ranald MacDougall were married in New York City, New York, on April 24.

Actor Rex Harrison and actress Kay Kendall were married in New York City, New York, on June 23.

Eighty-year-old cellist Pablo Casals married Marta Montanez, a 21-year-old student, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on August 3.

Actor Marlon Brando married actress Anna Kashfi in Eagle Rock, California, on October 11.

Singer-actor Bing Crosby and actress Kathy Grant arrive at Palm Springs, California, for their honeymoon. The two were married in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 24.

Singers Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence were married in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 29.

Celebrity Deaths

Bandleader Jimmy Dorsey died in New York City, New York, on June 12.

Motion picture producer Louis B. Mayer died in Hollywood, California, on October 29.

Silent movie actress Norma Talmadge died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 24.

Dance

Ted Shawn won the sixth annual Capezio Award for service to the dance profession. The 1957 program marked the 25th anniversary of his Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, the longest, largest, and most varied dance festival in the United States.

The Royal Danish Ballet performs Bergensiana at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

The San Francisco (California) Ballet, directed by Lew Christensen, made a round-the-world tour January 17 through March 13.

Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes of the Royal Ballet (formerly Sadler's Wells) appeared on a U.S. television production of Cinderella, April 29.

The Tenth American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in August climazed the modern dance season. A major attraction was the first American appearance of German dancer Dore Hoyer.

David Blair and Svetlana Beriosova created the roles of the Frog-Prince and Princess Belle Rose for the Royal Ballet of Covent Garden's production of The Prince of the Pagodas, a 3-act production choreographed by John Cranko.

Motion Pictures

Around the World in Eighty Days, produced by Michael Todd, won the Academy Award for the Best Picture made in 1956.

[All Motion Picture News and Highlights]

Music

The musical directors of five leading American symphony orchestras announced their resignations in November and December of 1957.

The first presentation of the Casals Festival at San Juan, Puerto Rico, was considered a success, even though cellist and festival founder Pablo Casals suffered a heart attack just before the first concert.

[All Music News and Highlights]

Opera

The Lyric Opera of Chicago began its season (October 11) with a performance of Verdi's Otello. Mario del Monaco sang the part of Otello, Tito Gobbi the part of Iago, and Renata Tebaldi of Desdemona.

Television

On September 3 a wired-television system called Tele-movies was set up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The system fed films from motuin picture theaters to individual homes via coaxial cable attached to the television receivers' antennae. Run by Video Independent Theaters, it charged the subscriber a flat $9.50 a month to see 16 movies -- 13 first runs and 13 reruns.

Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Robert Young, and Loretta Young were some of the winners of Emmy Awards.

[All Television News and Highlights]

Theater

From mid-1956 to mid-1957 there were 83 plays staged on Broadway and 75 productions "off Broadway."

Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night," starring Frederich March and Florence Eldridge, won the Pulitzer Prize, theDrama Critics Circle Award, and the Antoinette Perry Award, all in 1957.

My Fair Lady, starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, continued its run at the Mark Hellinger Theater through 1957, with great success.

Morris Carnovsky and Audrey Hepburn starred in an American Shakespeare Festival production of The Merchant of Venice at Stratford, Connecticut, in the summer of 1957.

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This page was last updated on December 29, 2017.