Hitchcock Chronology: Month of January

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology for the month of January...

1910

• 1st - Hitchcock's brother-in-law Harry Lee, husband of Ellen Kathleen Hitchcock, enlists and joins the Navy. Within a few days he is transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service at Roehampton where he most likely works as a member of the ground crew.

1920

• 25th - The company John Hitchcock Ltd, established by Hitchcock's uncle John Silvester Hitchcock, is registered with Companies House in London.

1923

• Director Hugh Croise leases space at the Islington Studios to film Always Tell Your Wife. When Croise falls ill, Seymour Hicks asks Hitchcock up to complete the film.

1926

• 5th - The Times carries a report that Gainsborough Pictures are planning to make six films during 1926, including The Pleasure Garden, The Mountain Eagle and an adaptation of Marie Belloc Lowndes' The Lodger.
• Eliot Stannard begins writing the script for The Lodger, which he completes by February 1926.
• 30th - The press begin reporting Gainsborough Pictures' announcement that Ivor Novello will star in The Lodger.

1927

• Upon returning to the UK from their honeymoon in St. Moritz, Alma and Alfred Hitchcock move into their their new house, 153 Cromwell Road, Kensington, London, where they occupy the top two floors.
• Gainsborough Pictures announces that Alfred Hitchcock will direct Downhill.
• 17th - Pre-production begins on Downhill.
• 17th - The Lodger premiers to the public at the Marble Arch Cinema on Oxford Street. Partly due to Ivor Novello's sizeable fan base, the film is a success and is carried over into a second week.
• 18th - The Times reviews The Lodger and complains that "the spirit of a good tale must perish so that the camera be not denied its close-up kisses."
• 24th - The Pleasure Garden is finally released.
• 29th - Eden Phillpotts' comic play The Farmer's Wife ends it's highly successful run at the Court Theatre in London after 1,329 performances. The press reports that box office takings for the run were in excess of £200,000.

1928

• British International Pictures announces that Alfred Hitchcock will direct Champagne, starring Betty Balfour.
• 16th - The Ring premiers at the Astoria, Charing Cross Road, London.

1929

• 21st - The Manxman is screened for the trade at the London Hippodrome at 3pm.

1931

• Filming of The Skin Game is completed.
• Script work begins on Rich and Strange and continues until June.
• 21st - The Times reports that Rich and Strange will be Hitchcock's next film for British International Pictures.

1933

• 4th - The Times reports that Hitchcock is planning to adapt Bulldog Drummond for British International Pictures.

1935

• 11th - Principal photography begins on The 39 Steps, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll.
• 23rd - The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers award a gold medal of merit to Hitchcock at luncheon at the Savoy for the "finest film of the year made in Britain", The Man Who Knew Too Much.

1937

• 21st - Blackmail is screened as part of the Association of Cine-Technicians' Winter Programme of lectures and film shows (1936-37).

1938

• 1st - BBC Television broadcasts an adaptation of J.M. Barrie's play "Mary Rose". Amongst the cast are Dame May Whitty, Esmond Knight and John Laurie.
• 24th - BBC Radio broadcasts an episode of the 30-minute "The Cinema: The Director's Job" series in which Hitchcock talks about his work. The Yorkshire Post description reads, "The third of the talks on The Cinema (National, 8) is to be given by Alfred Hitchcock, the producer, who will speak about his work. Hitchcock has become outstanding among producers by reason of such successes as Blackmail some years ago, and later The Thirty Nine Steps, Secret Agent and Sabotage."

1939

• 8th - The New York Film Critics' award for Best Director of the Year goes to Hitchcock for The Lady Vanishes. Unable to attend in person, Hitchcock takes his family to BBC Broadcasting House where his acceptance speech is relayed to New York.

1940

• 7th - The Los Angeles Times reports that Hitchcock is amongst those helping organise the Franco-British War Relief Dinner-Dance, which is due to be held at the Ambassador on 17 January.
• Hitchcock is briefly involved with the production of Walter Wanger's film The House Across the Bay

1941

• Mr and Mrs Smith opens across America to largely positive reviews.

1942

• 27th - The John Van Druten play Solitaire opens on Broadway in New York, marking Patricia Hitchcock's stage debut. Unfortunately the events surrounding Pearl Harbor contribute to a shortened run of just three weeks and it closes on 14th February.

1943

• Ernest Hemingway turns down Hitchcock's offer to write Lifeboat — "THANK HITCHCOCK FOR ASKING ME [STOP] PERHAPS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER ANOTHER TIME BEST REGARDS"
• 4th - Hitchcock's older brother William John dies of a cardiac arrest aggrevated by the drug paraldehyde. William leaves effects worth £110 7s. 6d. to his widow, Lilian. Shocked by his brother's early death, Hitchcock begins a strict diet in an attempt to lose 100 pounds in weight — this would lead to his memorable cameo appearance in the film Lifeboat (1944).
• Hitchcock and Kenneth Macgowen meet with John Steinbeck at Twentieth Century-Fox to discuss the possibility of the author writing a treatment of Lifeboat.
• 12th - The New York première of Shadow of a Doubt takes place.
• 22nd - Hitchcock is a panelist on the US radio quiz show Information Please, moderated by Clifton Fadiman.
• 24th - Hitchcock is a guest on the Texaco Star Theatre show, hosted by Fred Allen.
• 25th - LIFE magazine carries a 7-page article about the location shooting of Shadow of a Doubt in Santa Rosa.
• Shadow of a Doubt opens in cinemas across the US.

1944

• 20th - Hitchcock begins filming Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache at British International Pictures' Welwyn Studios in Hertfordshire, UK.
• Lifeboat opens in American theatres.

1948

• Patricia Hitchcock travels to London from New York aboard the Queen Mary to start studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She stays in Golders Green with two of her father's elderly cousins, Mary and Teresa Hitchcock.
• 12th - With the construction of the Rope studio set completed on Warner Stage 12, cast rehearsals begin.
• 22nd - Principal photography begins on Rope, Hitchcock's first film for Transatlantic Pictures, starring James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger. Although filming is completed within 8 days, Hitchcock is unhappy with the studio sunset and decides to reshoot the final 5 reels of the film, which takes a further 9 days.

1949

• The Hitchcocks start the year with a vacation at the Racquet Club in Palm Springs, a resort founded by actors Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamy — Farrell is married to retired actress Virginia Valli who starred in The Pleasure Garden (1925).
• The Hitchcocks and Whitfield Cook begin regular script conferences for Stage Fright.
• 30th - The Screen Directors' Playhouse broadcasts a radio adaptation of Mr and Mrs Smith, starring Robert Montgomery and Mary Jane Croft. Hitchcock provide an introduction and closing remarks to the adaptation.

1950

• 15th - The Hitchcocks fly from Paris, France, to New York aboard TWA flight 971/15. The flight lands in New York on the 16th.

1951

• 25th - The Screen Directors' Playhouse broadcasts a radio adaptation of Spellbound, starring Joseph Cotten and Mercedes McCambridge. Hitchcock provides an introduction and linking narration.
• 29th - Scottish writer James Bridie, who worked with Hitchcock on The Paradine Case, Under Capricorn, and Stage Fright dies aged 63.

1952

• 3rd - Hitchcock signs a $999,000 contract with Warner Brothers to produce and direct 4 films over the next 7 years.
• 17th - Patricia Hitchcock marries Joseph E. O'Connell at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.

1953

• 14th - New York musician Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero is arrested and charged with a robbery he didn't commit. His story will later be told in the Hitchcock film The Wrong Man.

1954

• François Truffaut's controversial article "Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français" is published in the January edition of Cahiers du cinéma. Truffaut criticises the current state of French film and argues the case for auteurs de films — filmmakers who are responsible for all aspects and stages of the film — being the future of cinema. The article opens up the ongoing discussion about auteur theory and anticipates the French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague) style of filmmaking. Truffaut himself will be in the vanguard of the New Wave, along with fellow Cahiers contributors Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol.
• 5th - John Michael Hayes submits a new ending for Rear Window, which is the one used in the released film.
• 9th - BBC Radio broadcasts an adaptation of Josephine Tey's novel A Shilling for Candles.
• 13th - Principal photography on Rear Window is completed, 15 days behind schedule. One of the final scenes to be filmed is Hitchcock's cameo appearance in the songwriter's apartment.
• 24th - At the 3rd annual Screen Director's Guild awards dinner-dance, Hitchcock presented an award to director Charles Walters and assistant director James Jennings for Lili (1953).

1955

• Returning for their Christmas holiday in St. Moritz, the Hitchcocks travel to Paris in early January to oversee the French dubbing of To Catch a Thief. Whilst there, Hitchcock meets with François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol for a Cahiers du Cinéma interview. After Truffaut and Chabrol manage to accidentally fall into an icy pond on their way to meet Hitchcock, damaging their tape recorder in the process, they reschedule and meet that evening at the Plaza-Athénée Hotel.
• The Hitchcocks return to Bel-Air from Paris, where work commences on the script for The Man Who Knew Too Much with Angus MacPhail.
• 11th - The Hitchcocks depart from Southampton aboard the SS Liberte, bound for New York.
• 17th - The Hitchcocks arrive into New York aboard the SS Liberte.
• 18th - Actor John Williams spends a day redubbing some of his lines in To Catch a Thief.
• Hitchcock meets with composer Bernard Herrmann to discuss the score for The Trouble with Harry.

1956

• 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.

1957

• 9th-11th - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "One More Mile to Go".
• 12th - Feeling unwell, Hitchcock is confined to bed.
• 17th - Still in pain, Hitchcock is admitted to the Cedars of Lebanon hospital where he undergoes surgery for a navel hernia. He is also diagnosed as suffering from colitis.
• 17th-19th - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Perfect Crime".

1959

• Hitchcock spends January and February editing North by Northwest.

1960

• Filming on Psycho is completed.

1961

• Sensing that it had cinematic possibilities, Hitchcock instructs Paramount to try and secure the rights to Daphne du Maurier's short story The Birds. After nearly six month of negotiations, the rights are secured for $25,000.

1962

• 4th - Returning from Christmas in St. Moritz, Hitchcock stops off in New York to discuss the screenplay of The Birds with Evan Hunter.
• 17th - Evan Hunter completes his final draft of The Birds screenplay. After telephone discussions with Hitchcock, a small number of further amendments are made.

1963

• 6th - The Hitchcocks arrive back in New York after their Christmas vacation in St. Moritz.
• 8th - Hitchcock arrives back in Los Angeles.
• 11th - Peggy Robertson sends a memo detailing Hitchcock's requirements for The Birds end title card. The lack of a "THE END" title had proved to be contentious, with some preview audience members incorrectly assuming the film had broken down rather than ended.
• 28th - The American Humane Association gives their seal of approval to The Birds after watching a screening of the film.

1965

• 4th - Hitchcock meets with Italian writers Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli in Hollywood to discuss developing a script for the R.R.R.R. project. The project is eventually abandoned as Hitchcock decides to concentrate his energy on the pre-production of Torn Curtain.

1966

• 22nd - Actor Herbert Marshall, who starred in Murder! and Foreign Correspondent, dies aged 75.

1968

• 18th - Hitchcock attends the funeral of his longtime physician, Dr. Ralph Tandowsky.
• 21th - Hitchcock meets with author Leon Uris to discuss developing a screenplay for Topaz.

1970

• 30th - Actor Malcolm Keen, who starred in The Mountain Eagle, The Lodger and The Manxman, dies aged 82.

1971

• Anthony Shaffer meets with the Hitchcocks in London to discuss Frenzy and to scout potential locations for the film.
• 14th - The French government makes Hitchcock a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour at a ceremony in Paris. The medal is awarded by Henri Langlois, co-founder of the Cinémathèque Français. Following the ceremony, the Hitchcocks return to America.
• 15th - Actor John Dall, who starred in Rope, dies aged 52.
• 21st - Anthony Shaffer arrives in California to begin regular Frenzy script meetings with Hitchcock.

1972

• 1st - The Hitchcocks return to London from their Christmas holidays in Marrakesh to continue post-production work on Frenzy.
• 3rd - Hitchcock films portions of the trailer for Frenzy at London County Hall. Stuntwoman Roberta Gibbs plays the role of the corpse in the River Thames.
• 15th - The Hitchcocks leave London for New York.
• 19th - The Hitchcocks arrive back in Los Angeles after visiting New York.
• 31st - Studio recordings begin for Ron Goodwin's replacement Frenzy score, with evening sessions on January 31st and February 1st, followed by an all-day session on February 4th.

1973

• Hitchcock spends two weeks in hospital recovering from gout.

1975

• Having recovered from his bout of ill health in 1974, Hitchcock begins gathering the crew and selecting the cast for Family Plot (at that point still titled Alfred Hitchcock's Deceit).

1976

• 12-14th - Composer John Williams spends 3 days recording his score for Family Plot. Hitchcock, apparently unwell after returning from St. Moritz, briefly attends one of the sessions.

1977

• 8th - Charles Frend, who edited four of Hitchcock's films in the 1930s, dies aged 67.

1979

• 4th - New York's WNYC radio station broadcasts an interview with Hitchcock as part of their "International Literary Report" series.
• 30th - Hitchcock's older sister Ellen Kathleen dies.

1980

• Too infirm to travel to London to receive his honourary knighthood directly from Queen Elizabeth II, the British Consuls-General of the United Kingdom to Los Angeles, Thomas Aston, makes a formal presentation to Hitchcock at his office at Universal in front of the press. When asked, "What does a knight do?", the director replies, "The first obvious thing he does, is go out into the night."

1985

• 14th - Actress June Tripp, who starred opposite Ivor Novello in The Lodger (1927), dies aged 83.

1992

• 3rd - Actress Judith Anderson, who memorably played Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, dies aged 94.

2003

• 8th - Composer Ron Goodwin, who worked on Frenzy, dies aged 77.

2006

• 6th - Cinematographer Leonard J. South, who worked on 14 Hitchcock films between 1951 and 1976, dies aged 92.

2015

• 7th - Australian actor Rod Taylor, who starred in the The Birds, suffers a fatal heart attack and dies, aged 84.

References

Hitchcock Chronology
1890s	1890	1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899
1900s	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
1910s	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919
1920s	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
1930s	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
1940s	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
1950s	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
1960s	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
1970s	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
1980s	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
1990s	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
months	-	-	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	-	-
months	-	-	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	-	-