Saturday, July 20, 2019

What was playing while men walked on the moon 50 years ago?

First, from a few years earlier, a couple of movies that imagined moon voyages: 1958's From the Earth to the Moon, based on a fanciful Jules Verne novel. It had big names (Joseph Cotten, George Sanders) but was rather boring (and it imagined a 19th century trip, not a more realistic modern one) and there's not even a moon landing scene.



Then my personal favorite, 12 to the Moon (1960) with the beefcakey Ken Clark as the commander of a multicultural crew. It's not a great movie, but it's schlocky fun. It played on a double feature with Battle in Outer Space, as the black & white newspaper ad shows.



Of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is more known for its cosmic psychedelic sequence set near Jupiter, but an important part of the film is set while going to, and on, the moon. This ad is for its premiere in Columbus on June 12, 1968.

What was playing in Columbus during the week of the moon landing (July 20, 1969)? Nothing much to do with the moon: True Grit, The Wild Bunch, Funny Girl, Doctor Zhivago, Sweet Charity, and a soft-porn movie called Meeting on 69th Street.


 



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