“Roman Holiday,” the Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck classic, had its world premiere in New York City at Radio City Music Hall on August 27, 1953, followed by the Los Angeles opening on September 30.
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A special premiere was held on September 14, with the proceeds going to the Santa Monica Hospital’s building fund. It was appropriate for Shirley to attend (with her handsome husband Charles) as she was born there in 1928:
The Los Angeles Times announced on the morning of the premiere:
A charity premiere of the film “Roman Holiday” will be held tonight at the Village Theater in Westwood with funds from ticket sales and donations expected to add $75,000 to the Santa Monica Hospital’s building fund. The hospital is planning a new wing in a $1,000,000 expansion program. The institution is a voluntary, nonprofit organization and is the only emergency service for a large portion of West Los Angeles and the beach area. The film costars Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn and was contributed for showing by Paramount studios at the theater by Charles P. Skouras, head of National Theaters. Voluntary contributions for the epansion already have netted $325,000 and $600,000 has been donated by the Lutheran Hospital Society of Southern California, according to actress Esther Williams, general chairman.
Audrey’s arrival, surrounded by music legends Cole Porter and Irving Berlin:
Shirley and Charles arrive:
The theater seen in the background of both photos is The Bruin, which I photographed in 1986:
The premiere was held at the nearby Fox Westwood Village:
How it looked, Summer 1989:
It is wonderful to see the love in Charles’ eyes as he proudly looks at his gorgeous wife:
In their seats for the screening:
On the back of the three photos in my collection of Shirley and Charles at the back is stamped the name and address of Darlene Hammond:
This is what I was able to dig up about who she was when I found a Bonham's auction of her photos:
From the 1950s through the early 1980s, there was rarely a Hollywood event at which photographer Darlene Hammond was not present, capturing the glamorous yet candid moments of the Golden Age of Hollywood and witnessing with her lens the changes that took over Hollywood in the late 1960s and beyond. A woman ahead of her time, Darlene was one of the few female photographers during these formative years in the film industry. Darlene's work appeared in national magazines such as Life, People, The National Enquirer, and in hundreds of movie magazines from the 1950s through the '70s. Her ability to catch just the right moments in both the private and public lives of her celebrity subjects, which included Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and every other major star of the Golden Age, makes Darlene Hammond's photographs some of the most unique and vibrant in Hollywood history.
In 2017, Christie's auction house sold a number of shots from the premiere that were from Audrey Hepburn’s personal collection:
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Another shot of Audrey with Porter and Berlin. In the background is a poster for James Stewart’s film, “Thunder Bay,” which had been released a few months before on May 20.
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How did the event go? According to the Evening Vanguard:
Hundreds upon hundreds had a real “Roman Holiday” Monday night when they attended a gala benefit premiere of the picture in Westwood…Among the first nighters were cute Audrey Hepburn, who plays the lead in the film with Gregory Peck…She made a personal appearance…Leo Carrillo and Duncan Renaldo were there in their Pancho and Cisco costumes…Had just come in from working on the Cisco films…MGM’s Esther Williams was chairman of the show and presented silver spoons to five proud papas who became fathers of wee ones (they were all girls) at S. M. Hospital that day…Then an added celebration…Every man in the theater (thousands of them) got a cigar with the familiar band “it’s a girl”…It was a big night…Searchlights, red carpets, grandstands and a welcoming committee of dinner-jacketed men were on hand to greet the first nighters…The theater was jammed…
Also in attendance were Jan Sterling, Paul Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Barry, Macdonald Carey, Wendell Corey, Ann Miller, Ann Robinson, Mercedes McCambridge, Rex Allen, Anne Francis, Terry Moore and Keenan Wynn.
See more Shirley Temple Black photos at my main website.
