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1958 Popular songs: "Diana" by Canadian
rock singer-composer Paul Anka, 15, who begins a meteoric rise to
stardom (he will have made his first $1 million by age 17); "Come
On, Let's Go," "Donna," and "La Bamba" by California-born
singer-songwriter Richie Valens (Richard Stephen Valenzuela); "Satin
Doll" by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Johnny Mercer; "Volare"
("Nel Blue, Disinto di Blu") by Italian composer Dominico
Modugno, English lyrics by Mitchell Parish; "Splish Splash" by Bobby
Darin and Jean Murray; "Everybody Loves a Lover" by U.S. composer
Robert Allen, lyrics by Richard Adler; "The Ballad of Johnny B.
Goode," "Sweet Little Sixteen," and "Reelin' and Rockin'" by Chuck
Berry; "Sugartime" by Charlie Phillips and Odis Echols; the Kingston
Trio records "Tom Dooley" and scores a smashing success; "Twilight
Time" by Morty Lewis, lyrics by Buck Ram; "Catch a Falling Star" by
Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss; "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be
Late)" by Ross Bagdasarian; "Jingle Bell Rock" by U.S. songwriters
Joe Beal and Jim Boothe.
Sports 1958: Sugar Ray Robinson wins the
middleweight boxing title for a record fifth time March 25 at
Chicago Stadium in a 15-round decision over Carmen Basilio.
Ashley John Cooper, 21, (Australia) wins in men's
singles at Wimbledon and
Forest Hills, Althea Gibson in women's singles.
Pennsylvania-born golfer Arnold Palmer wins his
first
Masters Tournament title at Augusta, Ga., plus two other golf
championships and earns an impressive $42,000. Now 28, Palmer won
the U.S. amateur title 4 years ago, turned professional soon after,
and will be the most popular golfer since Bobby Jones.
The U.S. ocean yacht Columbia designed by
Olin J. Stephens, 50,
fends off the British challenger Sceptre in the first
America's Cup competition since 1937. The 12-meter yachts are much
smaller than the
prewar "J"-class boats that nobody can now afford to build.
The New York Giants become the San Francisco
Giants and play their first season at Candlestick Park.
The Brooklyn Dodgers become the
Los Angeles Dodgers and play their first season at Chavez
Ravine.
The New York Yankees win the
World Series, defeating the Milwaukee Braves 4 games to 3.
Brazil wins her first
World Cup in football (soccer), defeating Sweden 5 to 2 at
Stockholm. Pele scores two of the Brazilian goals (see
1956).
U.S. intercollegiate football rules change to
give teams the option of trying for a two-point conversion after
touchdown by running the ball or passing it from the three-yard
line. A kick between the goal posts from the two-yard line is still
worth only one point.
Baltimore Colts fullback Alan Ameche blasts one
yard over his right tackle into the end zone at Yankee Stadium
December 28 to defeat the New York Giants in a 23-to-17 overtime
victory that ends the first championship game to be televised
nationally (it is also the first sudden-death overtime game in NFL
history).
1958 Films: Stanley Kramer's The
Defiant Ones with Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier; Jacques Tati's
Mon Oncle with Tati; Roy Baker's A Night to Remember with
Kenneth More; Jack Clayton's Room at the Top with Laurence
Harvey, Simone Signoret; Delbert Mann's Separate Tables with
Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Wendy Hiller, Burt
Lancaster, Gladys Cooper; Orson Welles's Touch of Evil with
Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh; Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
with James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes. Also: Andrzej
Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds with Zbigniew Cybulski; Richard
Brooks's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Elizabeth Taylor, Paul
Newman, Burl Ives; Jacques Tourneur's Curse of the Demon with
Dana Andrews; Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress with
Toshiro Mifune; Ronald Neame's The Horse's Mouth with Alec
Guinness; Melville Shavelson's Houseboat with Cary Grant,
Sophia Loren; Robert Wise's I Want to Live! with Susan
Hayward; John Guillermin's I Was Monty's Double with M. E.
Clifton-James, John Mills; John Ford's The Last Hurrah with
Spencer Tracy; Tanji Yabushita's Legend of the White Serpent
(animated) introduces a new style of "anime" animation that will
have far-reaching influence; Tony Richardson's Look Back in Anger
with Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Edith Evans; Satyajit Ray's
The Music Room; Douglas Sirk's The Tarnished Angels with
Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack; George Pal's tom thumb
with Russ Tamblyn, June Thornton, London-born comedian Terry-Thomas
(Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens), 47; Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions
with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope Lange.