Daily Archives: October 2, 2015

In 1953:

In further warfare against television and rival 3-D movies, Hollywood developed wide-screen processes such as 20th Century Fox’s anamorphic CinemaScope, first seen in Henry Koster’s Biblical sword-and-sandal epic The Robe.  Warner Bros’ first 3-D film, the horror classic House of Wax was the first full-length color 3-D film produced and released by a major US studio – it was also the first 3-D film with a stereo soundtrack.  The feature also launched the horror film career of Vincent Price with his first major starring horror role.

Otto Preminger’s The Moon Is Blue used the then-forbidden word “virgin” (and others such as “seduce” and “pregnant”).   This deliberately violated the Motion Picture Production Code and led to picket lines. It was the first studio-produced film from Hollywood that was released without an approved code seal from the Production Code Administration. It proved to be a major hit film despite its lack of a seal of approval.

The Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time.

First H-Bomb test

On January 7 President Harry S. Truman announced the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.  The Soviet Union announced it had the H-bomb on August 8.

Francis Crick and James Watson published “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid”, their description of the double helix structure of DNA. Jonas Salk announced his polio vaccine.

Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy magazine, selling for 50 cents. It featured emerging starlet Marilyn Monroe on the cover and as the first centerfold model (although her picture had been taken specifically for a calendar in 1949 and not for the magazine).  Earl Warren was appointed Chief Justice of the United States by U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and t
William Inge won the prize for Drama with his play Picnic.  Once again, the number one song was an instrumental, “Theme from Moulin Rouge” by Percy Faith, which spent ten weeks on top of the charts.

Hillary and Tenzing

On May 29,  Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest just in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.  Later in the year, sugar rationing ended in the UK.

The North Sea flood killed 1,836 people in the southwestern Netherlands, 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea.  Joseph Stalin died on March 5.  Marshal Josip Broz Tito became president of Yugoslavia. Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. 

The Korean War ended with the Korean Armistice Agreement: United Nations Command (Korea) (United States), People’s Republic of China, North Korea sign an armistice agreement at Panmunjom, establishing the uneasy border between the communist north and the democratic south.  The CIA helped to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran, and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne.

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The 1953 movies I will select from are listed here.  I have previously reviewed the following 1953 films on this blog:  ; ; ; ; ; and .

Montage of stills set to “Secret Love”