Timelines for year 1956
Cady McClain
Her status with "As the World Turns" was considered somewhat unusual. When she joined the show in 2002, the role of Rosanna Cabot was a recurring one. However, she became so popular with fans that "ATWT" tried to get her to sign a contract. She refused, but the show still continued to feature her prominently, which is usually not the case for recurring characters. She even won the 2004 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress. Shortly before that, she finally agreed to sign a one-year contract with "ATWT". When the deal expired she went back to recurring status with the show for awhile before she ultimately left, soon rejoining "All My Children" in her popular role of Dixie Cooney Martin.
Charlton Heston
Has two films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are The Ten Commandments at #79 and Ben-Hur at #56.
Was chosen to portray Moses in The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille because he bore an uncanny resemblance to the statue of Moses carved by Michelangelo.
Was the original choice to star in Alexander the Great , but declined so he could play Moses in The Ten Commandments . The part eventually went to Richard Burton.
Doris Day
In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by Rosetta Calavetta. She was occasionally dubbed by Dhia Cristiani, Rina Morelli and once by Lidia Simoneschi in The Man Who Knew Too Much .
Has a fear of flying that stemmed from tours with Bob Hope in the 1940s that resulted in some close calls in impenetrable winter weather. She almost turned down her role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much because it was to be filmed in London and Marrakesh. Her husband and manager, Martin Melcher talked her into accepting it.
It was during the location filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much , when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.
Walter Matthau
Had two children, Jenny (b. 2 August 1956) and David (b. 2 November 1953), by his first wife, Grace Geraldine Johnson, and a son, Charles Matthau (b. 10 December 1962), by his second wife, Carol Marcus.
Walter Cronkite
On the day of the Kennedy assassination, he said the he had just come back from lunch and was standing at the teletype machine when rang a rare five bells - a bulletin. He shouted "Let's get on the air!" but getting on the air wasn't possible because the cameras had to be placed and then warmed up (after this, the networks always had a camera ready in the newsroom). He went to an audio booth just off the newsroom floor and, interrupting "As the World Turns" , made an audio announcement over a CBS logo. It took another 20 minutes to get on camera.
Elizabeth Taylor
Organized "A Commitment to Life", a celebrity event to benefit AIDS research after her Giant co-star Rock Hudson became ill in 1985. The event featured former First Lady Betty Ford, Burt Lancaster, Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Davis Jr., and Burt Reynolds. More than $1.3 million was raised.
In Italy she was exclusively dubbed until the mid-1950s by Germana Calderini. As she matured, she was dubbed by Fiorella Betti. For two of her most celebrated roles--Leslie Lynnton Benedict in Giant and Catherine Holly in Suddenly, Last Summer --Taylor was dubbed respectively by Micaela Giustiniani and Lidia Simoneschi, the only time either actress lent their voice to her.
Gary Cooper
At first Cooper didn't want to make Friendly Persuasion , not just because he felt the audience wouldn't accept him as a devout Quaker, but also because he did not want to play a father figure. This was despite the fact that he was now 55. On the set he arranged for his daughter Maria Cooper to date Anthony Perkins, not seeming to realize that the young actor was gay.
It was testament to Cooper's durability that Charlton Heston, already a major star following The Ten Commandments , was prepared to play a supporting role in The Wreck of the Mary Deare . Heston was impressed that the veteran actor, fifty-eight years old and in declining health, was still able to perform his own stunts, including being submerged underwater for long periods of time. In his book "The Actor's Life", Heston recalled he sensed early on it would be Cooper's picture but he didn't mind, because of all Cooper himself had meant to Heston, even as a child.
Elvis Presley
His favorite actors were Marlon Brando and James Dean, the latter Elvis considered an acting genius (in a 1956 interview).
Helped to support an All-Negro Day at the Memphis Zoo in 1956.
He was allegedly offered roles in The Rainmaker , The Defiant Ones , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , West Side Story , Sweet Bird of Youth , The Fastest Guitar Alive , Midnight Cowboy , True Grit , Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory , A Star Is Born and Grease .
Had 18 Billboard #1 Songs, the first "Heartbreak Hotel" in March, 1956; the last, "Suspicious Minds" in Sept. 1969.
"Heartbreak Hotel", which spent 17 weeks at #1 on Billboard's country chart (and 10 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100) was the #1 country song of 1956.