Hitchcock Chronology: 1956

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Month by Month

January

• 2nd - Actress Vera Miles begins a 5 year, 3 picture exclusive contract to Hitchcock.
• Hitchcock meets with Maxwell Anderson to discuss The Wrong Man screenplay. Hitchcock is increasinly unhappy with the dialogue and hires Angus MacPhail to work on the script.
• 13th-16th - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Back for Christmas".
• Hitchcock, Henry Fonda and Vera Miles travel to Florida to meet the Balestrero family, to help prepare the actors for The Wrong Man.
• Angus MacPhail and Herbert Coleman travel to New York to research locations for The Wrong Man.

February

• Hitchcock travels to New York, to scout locations for The Wrong Man and to talk to those involved with the Balestrero trial.

March

• 4th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Back for Christmas", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
• 7th - Prior to filming on The Wrong Man commencing, Hitchcock hosts a "Ghost-Haunted House Party" on East 80th Street. The menu contains such delights as "corpse croquettes, barbecued banshee, ghoulish goulash and formaldehyde frappe."
• 8th - Hitchcock meets Vera Miles at Newart Airport.
• 25th - Actor Robert Newton, who starred in Jamaica Inn, dies of a heart attack, aged 50.
• 26th - Filming commences on The Wrong Man, starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles.

April

• 15th - Filming on The Wrong Man is halted to allow Vera Miles to marry Tarzan actor Gordon Scott.
• 18th - Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. Although Hitchcock was invited to the ceremony, he declined.

May

• 22nd - Paramount hosts a charity gala permiere for The Man Who Knew Too Much in California. Hitchcock attends, along with James Stewart and Doris Day.

June

• The filming of The Wrong Man is completed by the start of June.
• 18th - The Hitchcocks arrive into Southampton from New York aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth and book into Claridge's hotel in London.
• 19th - The Hitchcocks meet up in London with Robert Burks, Herbert Coleman and Angus MacPhail in order to talk with staff from the British Colonial Office to discuss plans for the director's next project, Flamingo Feather. From there, they travel on to Europe and then South Africa to scout locations and to visit Hitch's aunt Emma Mary Rhodes (who dies in September). It soon becomes obvious that the logistics of shooting a film in southern Africa will be too much and Hitchcock decides to abandon the project.

July

• 26th - The Hitchcocks depart from Southampton aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth, bound for New York. With them are Herbert Coleman, C.O. "Doc" Erickson and Alfred's sister, Ellen Kathleen. They arrive into New York on the 31st.

August

• 22nd - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Wet Saturday".

September

• 1st - Hitchcock's aunt Emma Mary Rhodes dies in Durban, South Africa, aged 87.
• 30th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Wet Saturday", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.

October

• With plans to film Flamingo Feather abandoned, Hitchcock turns his attention to the French novel D'Entre Les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, which will eventually be filmed as Vertigo. Maxwell Anderson is charged with adapting the book, and James Stewart and Vera Miles are expected to star.
• Maxwell Anderson submits his adaption of D'Entre Les Morts, entitled "Darkling I Listen". Hitchcock finds it deeply unsatisfactory, and two other writers will work on the screenplay before Vertigo is ready to be filmed.
• 18th-22nd - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Mr. Blanchard's Secret".

December

• The first issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is published.
• 22nd - The Wrong Man premiers in New York. On the 27th, a pipe bomb planted by the "Mad Bomber" explodes during a presentation of the film. Asked for a comment, Hitchcock replies that the bomber must be "a man with a diabolical sense of humor."
• 23rd - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Mr. Blanchard's Secret", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.

See Also...

• articles from 1956
• births in 1956
• deaths in 1956

Notes & References

Hitchcock Chronology
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