1 9 6 5 - '55 days at Peking' / 'The Pink Panther'

17 January 1965 - Trumpeted as 'O filme do seculo' (the film of the century) '55 days at Peking' was almost 2 years late. Samuel Bronston's production was released on 29 May 1963 in the USA but it took almost 2 years to reach these shores. Even Bronston's next epic 'The fall of the Roman Empire' (premiered in the USA on 26 March 1964) had already been released in Brazil. According to Wikipedia the flick was a commercial failure and that may explain why it took so long for it to be released in 3rd World-country markets.

17 January 1965 - These were some of the more recent productions '55 days at Peking' was competing with: Jerry Lewis' 'The nutty professor' (Professor aloprado) was really popular with the populace while Blake Edwards' 'The pink panther' was a real delight to everyone else (note that David Niven were on both '55 days at Peking' and 'A pantera cor-de-rosa').

17 January 1965 - This is what Rio de Janeiro's 'Correio da Manhã' columnist wrote about '55 days at Peking': Uma das fitas mais reacionárias, mais cretinas, mais sensaboronas de todos os tempos. Pobre Ava Gardner! ... '55 days at Peking' is one of the most reactionary, most abnoxious, most tasteless films of all time. Poor Ava Gardner!...'

17 January 1965 - Livio Bruni network of cinemas (Cine Jussara was one of their houses) decided it was time to rerun Ava Gardner's vehicle 'Lone star' (Estrêla do destino)... obviously prodded by the premiere of '55 days at Peking'.

17 January 1965 - North-American columnist Mary Wynne in her daily report at OESP tells about night-life entrepreuner Paulo Cotrim the owner of Juão Sebastião Bar plus singer Djalma Dias, who was 'discovered' by US pianist Freddy Feld; see singer Marcia at the Cambridge Bar accompanied by the Manfred Fest Trio.

17 January 1965 -  Sao Paulo had 5 TV channels: Channel 2 (TV Cultura) and  Channel 4 (TV Tupi) belonged to media-baron Assis Chateaubriand; Channel 5 (TV Paulista) was part of Victor Costa Organization; Channel 7 (TV Record) belonged to radio-station-owner Paulo Machado de Carvalho and Channel 9 (TV Excelsior) was the newest station and the most dynamic of all. Channel 9 had the highest ratings followed closely by Channel 7.

7 February 1965 - Maria Della Costa performed at packed houses the tragedy of Marilyn Monroe in her former husband Arthur Miller's ouvre 'After the fall' (Depois da queda); Rumanian actress Jacqueline Myrna who had been Brazilian TV's darling for a couple of years acts in 'Uma cama para três' (A bed for three) with Fulvio Stefanini...; Otelo Zeloni was the life of the party in 'Os ossos do barão' at Teatro Brasileiro de Comedia.

7 February 1965 - Festival of Operetas was back in early 1965; the musical movies were beamed only on Wednesdays so the Festival lasted until 24 March 1965.

7 February 1965 - 'La cumparsita' didn't even need translation into Portuguese because everyone and his dog knew it to be the title of a famous tango... OESP columnist wasn't much help to enlighten the readers about this Spanish-Argentine production. Actually he should have said (if he only knew it) there was an Argentine 1947 production called 'La cumparsita' having Hudo del Carril as its star. Wikipedia says: 'Canción de arrabal' was directed by Enrique Carreras that premiered on 26 October 1961. It has been known also under the title of 'La cumparsita'. Like 'La violetera' the story is set in 1900 and it was shot in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Madrid and Sevilla. Marujita Diaz plays a girl who migrated to Buenos Aires as a kid and grew up in La Boca. She travels to Europe and wins a competition, becomes famous and marries an Argentine man.

7 February 1965 - If it weren't for Wikipedia we wouldn't know 'El derecho de nacer' (O direito de nascer) was a Mexican film released in 1951, based on a Cuban radio-novela (radio-play) of the same name by Felix B. Caignet. Well, the OESP columnist was good enough to say it premiered in Sao Paulo by the 2nd trimester of 1953 (what a queer way to divide the year!) at Cines Opera and Broadway. The columnist actually tries to be funny comparing Desi Arnaz with Fidel Castro.

Jose Parisi, Amilton Fernandes, Guy Lupe & Nathalia Timberg.

'O direito de nascer' had been the most successful radio-novela in the history of Brazilian radio-drama. Then, TV Tupi televised the drama in 1964-1965 and it was madness all over again. This time Albertinho Limonta (the boy who had been on the verge of being aborted) was played by Amilton Fernandes, Maria Elena, his mother-turned-into-a-nun was Nathalia Timberg and Albertinho's Black-step-mother was played by Isaura Bruno. Before I forget the great villain is Don Rafael, Maria Elena's father who insisted on her having an abortion but settled for a 'hidden pregnancy' and immediate rejection of the 'product-of-conception' after its due delivery.