Clocking in at three hours and 32 minutes, William Wyler’s
Technicolor epic Ben-Hur was the behemoth entry at the
32nd annual Academy Awards ceremony, held on this day
in 1960, at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.

Setting an Oscar record, the film sweeps 11 of the 12
categories in which it was nominated, including Best
Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Charlton Heston).

Wyler’s 1959 film was the latest dramatic adaptation of the
mega-bestselling novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ,
published in 1880 by Lew Wallace. Wallace, a former
general in the American Civil War, wrote his most
successful novel after experiencing a new awakening
of his Christian faith.

Then and now location from the 1978 film starring Donald
Sutherland. 

Johnny Cash, backed by an all-star ensemble of talent, stepped
on stage at California State Prison in Folsom on this day in
history, Jan. 13, 1968. 

The concert and the subsequent live album launched him back
into the charts and re-defined his career.

The Man in Black recorded a landmark album that included
a song written by inmate Glen Sherley (right).

On October 24, 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as a team of bank
robbers in the Old West, opened in theaters around the United
States.

The film was a commercial and critical success, receiving seven
Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director)
and winning in the categories of Best Screenplay (William
Goldman), Best Song (Burt Bacharach’s “Raindrops Keep
Falling on My Head”), Best Score and Best Cinematography.