'Dr. Zhivago' Premiere to Benefit Area Heart Fund
Salt Lake Tribune, 6 March 1966, page 14W
The Intermountain Premiere of "Doctor Zhivago," epic film which has has received 10 Academy Award nominations, will be held at the Uptown Theatre March 30 at 8 p.m. as a benefit for the Heart Fund, it was announced Saturday.
The movie is based on the Nobel Prize novel by Russian Boris Pasternak and is directed by David Lean. Lean, noted as the director who never has turned out a bad film, also directed "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia," both of which won "Oscars" as best picture of the year and also brought Lean two "Oscars" for their direction.
Richard Y. Bennion, chairman of the Salt Lake County Heart fund, is coordinator of the Heart Fund committee in charge of the premiere, assisted by L. Ralph Mecham, Mrs. Herman L. Wood, Judy Di Enes and Jackie Resenblatt.
Proceeds from the benefit will be utilized in the Heart Assn.'s program to support vital heart research and education. A copy of the novel by Pasternak will be given to each couple attending the premiere. Reserved seat tickets are available on a contribution basis from the Heart Association office, 250 E. 1st South.
"Doctor Zhivago," acclaimed by literary critics as one of the foremost literary achievements of the century, written with extraordinary perception and poetic sensitivity, details, through its characters, the environment and lives of the Russian people during the first half of the 20th Century.
It is set against the revolutionary uprising of a suppressed people and evokes the complex twists and turns of their lives, the utter human-ness of their needs, in a society over which they have little control.
The film stars Omar Sharif, in the title role, and Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Alec Guinness, Shiobhan McKenna, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger and Rita Tushingham.
It was nominated for best picture of the year in recent Academy voting, plus nominations for Tom Courtenay as best supporting actor, and for best art direction, cinematograpny, costume design, directing, film editing, music score, sound and screenplay.