Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.
Although his early film roles were partly the result of his good looks, by the later half of the 1950s he became a notable and strong screen presence. He began proving himself to be a “fine dramatic actor,” having the range to act in numerous dramatic and comedy roles. In his earliest parts he acted in a string of "mediocre" films, including swashbucklers, westerns, light comedies, sports films, and a musical. However, by the time he starred in Houdini (1953) with his wife Janet Leigh, "his first clear success," notes critic David Thomson, his acting had progressed immensely.
He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, The Defiant Ones (1958). Curtis then gave what many believe was his best acting, in a completely different role, the comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). Thomson calls it an "outrageous film," and it was voted the number 1 funniest film in history from a survey done by the American Film Institute. It costarred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder. That was followed by Blake Edwards’ comedy Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant. They were both “frantic comedies,” and displayed "his impeccable comic timing." He often collaborated with Edwards on later films.
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris (born December 2, 1925) is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She also received the 2002 Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
Harris's screen debut was in 1952, repeating her Broadway success as the monumentally lonely teenage girl Frankie in Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. That film also preserves the original Broadway cast performances of Ethel Waters and Brandon DeWilde. That same year, she won her first Best Actress Tony for originating the role of insouciant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (later musicalized as Cabaret on Broadway in 1966 and, in the 1972 film, with Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles.) Harris repeated her stage role in the 1955 film version of I Am a Camera. She also appeared in such films as East of Eden (1955), with James Dean (with whom she became close friends), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), with Paul Newman in the private-detective film Harper in 1966, and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960), known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh. His performance earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor; he won for It Happened One Night (1934) and was also nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Later movies included Run Silent, Run Deep, a submarine war film, and his final film, The Misfits (1961), which paired Gable with Marilyn Monroe, also in her last screen appearance. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time. He was nicknamed 'The King of Hollywood.'
Gable appeared opposite some of the most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with, was partnered with Gable in eight films, Myrna Loy worked with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer and Ava Gardner in three each. In the mid-1930s, Gable was often named the top male movie star, and second only to the top box-office draw of all, Shirley Temple.
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 - February 28, 2011) was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.
Russell moved from the Midwest to California, where she had her first film role in 1943 with The Outlaw. In 1947, Russell delved into music before returning to films. After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in more than 20 films throughout her career.
Russell married three times and adopted three children and, in 1955, founded the World Adoption International Fund. For her achievements in film, she received several accolades including having her hand and foot prints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Born in Bemidji, Russell was the eldest child and only daughter of the five children of Roy William Russell (January 5, 1890 – July 18, 1937) and Geraldine Jacobi (January 2, 1891 – December 26, 1986). Her brothers are Thomas (born 1924), Kenneth (born 1925), Jamie (born 1927) and Wallace (born 1929).
The time was 1955 a meal was 40 cents
A Cadillac was the car to drive and Ike was president
Revivals set whole towns ablaze while mom, the dad and kids
Were Holy Ghost electrified by wild evangelists
But nothing could compare
Or none took you quite as high
As being at the tent and hearing people testify
(they'd say)
I want to give honor unto God, bishops, pastors, elders, praise God I'm in my right mind too
I woke up determined to go 100% with Jesus 'cause 99 1/2 just won't do
I ask the saints please pray I'll be the one God's callin' for in these last and evil days
He's been better to me than I've been to myself and I give God all the praise!
Once all this had ended up to the microphone
Stepped the man of God himself, strong, alone and prone
With a furnace in his eyes and no time left to play
This human locomotive right there began to say
CHORUS
I believe in a God that sets the captives free
I believe in the blood that flows from Calvary
Does anyone love Jesus, does anyone hate sin?
Does anyone believe that Christ is coming back again?
But what God wants me to ask you, what He needs to know most
Are you saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost?
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
Oral Roberts, William Branham, Jack Coe and Billy Graham
Healed body, soul and spirit as they thundered 'cross the land
While Howdy Doody held the nation captive on TV
The power of God was on these men to set those captives free.
But nothing could compare
Or none took you quite as high
As being at the tent and hearing people testify
(and they'd say)
I want to give honor unto God, mothers, missionaries, saints, and all my friends
I thank the Lord I've been saved all day livin' free and separated from sin
I've got life, health, strength, wouldn't take nothin' for my journey pray the Lord keep me strong
Woke up with my mind stayed on Jesus and I've been praising Him all day long
Once all this had ended up to the microphone
Stepped the man of God himself, strong, alone and prone
With a furnace in his eyes, and no time left to play,
This human locomotive right there began to say
CHORUS
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
If it had not been for Jesus,
Where would I be?
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me.
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
Well, if it had not been for Jesus,
Where would I be?
I'm so glad that the Lord saved me
He saved me, He saved me, He saved me, He saved me
Well, if it had not been for Jesus,
Where would I be?
I saw your eyes and I didn't know what happened, but it stole my heart.
I buried myself underneath the stars.
Looking towards the open sky for a familiar face to answer my cry.
I couldn't move or breath, so I held on to everything.
And made it worse when it was ove,
Fifty five tears fell in silence.
This happened every time I saw you,
So i would walk away,
Hoping you wouldn't follow me.
But you did.
And I screamed with confusion,
and screamed with anger.
Until you held my hurting heart,
and the nights with violence move ever so fast
Because I see your face when my eyes close with the deepest pain.
I'll pray that you'll hold my,
and I'll pray that I can feel your arms around me,
And when fifty-five tears fall in silence