In 1972, Up the Sandbox was previewed. Streisand was nervous, there were things she knew would need to be changed, and she was unsure of how an audience would react. They were confused as to what scenes were reality and what was fantasy. The film was edited so that fantasies were introduced to the audience using the score. Still, the film was a flop. Despite most audiences dislike of the film, Streisand still claims this is one of her favorite films. 

 When it came time to film the African fantasy sequence for the film, Streisand became worried. She asked director, Irvin Kershner where they would shoot it. He replied that they had planned to shoot it at the MGM studios where they had a nice jungle set. Streisand expressed concern that it wouldn’t be realistic enough, and asked if they could go to Africa to shoot the scene so that it would be more realistic. “The next thing I knew,” remembers Kershner, “a few days later, we’re going to Africa.”

 After accepting his job as director of Up the Sanbox, Irvin Kershner was warned about working with Barbra Streisand, “She’ll kill you! She’s a murderess!” She had been known for butting heads with many in the industry, but Kershner recalled, “Of course, they were wrong. Because I discovered, working with her that I had the most joyous time of my career.”

 Barbra Streisand had only made five films, but immediately wanted control of her work. “I had wanted a little more input into the films I was making,” she recalls, “So becoming a producer, a production entity, one does have some say in what the movie looks like, what it sounds like, what it’s about and so forth.” She formed a production company called Barwood Films, Limited (a mix of her name and the street on which she lived at the time). She wanted to make a film that was unique in it’s story and style. She chose an interesting novel by Anne Roiphe called Up the Sandbox. 

 Streisand had been playing charming, and likable characters since her debut in Funny Girl in 1968. “The female I play,” explained Streisand, “has no obvious charm. I hardly smile.” The character was very unique, which was something Streisand was looking for. 

 20th Century Fox was nervous about what the public’s reaction would be to the Planet of the Apes. The science fiction genre was still rather new, and the failure of the film would mean the loss of millions. To their relief audiences and critics loved the film. Some considered it the best film of 1968, and the studio immediately began looking for a sequel. This was the start of one of the first sci-fi film series. 

 There was a team of over eighty make-up artists working on Planet of the Apes. The head of this team was John Chambers. Before filming began, he trained every make-up artists how to specially do the make-up for the apes. Because there were so many extras and actors who needed to have the ape make-up on, and because the make-up took such an extremely long time to apply, none of the actors or extras were allowed to remove the make-up until the shooting day was over. 

 20th Century Fox agreed to make a test of some concept make-up to see if the film could possibly be made. They gave Arthur P. Jacobs $5000 to make the test, and if they were successful, he would get the approval to make the film. The test featured Charlton Heston as Thomas (who would become Taylor), Edward G. Robinson as Zaius, James Brolin as Cornelius and Linda Harrison as Zira. The test proved to the studio that the make-up could in fact be made to look believable and the studio agreed to make the film. 

 When Arthur P. Jacobs was given the green light to make Planet of the Apes, he approached Rod Serling, famous creator of The Twilight Zone, to write the screenplay. He would write numerous drafts, creating the basic structure for the film we know today, including the famous ending. Unfortunately, his drafts were never realized because 20th Century Fox put the film on hold due to the difficulty and costs to make the film. 

 The rights to the novel, Planète des Singes, by Pierre Boulle were bought before the 1963 publication by Arthur P. Jacobs. He thought it would be a terrific film, and immediately began pitching the idea to all the major studios. None were willing to make the film due to the high cost, and the bizarre story. 20th Century Fox was uninterested in the project, but did allow Jacobs to produce another film called, What a Way to Go! in 1964. The film was deemed a success, and Jacobs was already to work on Dr. Dolittle for the studio. He once again approached them with the Planet of the Apes idea. This time they agreed, but the project was delayed for years due to issues with script, budget, and special effects. It seemed as if the film was impossible to make, but Jacobs persisted.

 West Side Story was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning ten. This makes it the musical film with the most Academy Awards. It was also the first film with two directors to win the Best Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins) award. In 1997 the film was deemed culturally significant by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. 

 Marni Nixon was used often in film musicals during the 1960s. She provided the singing voice for actresses who didn’t have the vocal capability to sing for themselves. She was hired to be the singing voice of Maria in West Side Story. But, not only did she sing for Maria, but she actually ended up singing a song for Rita Moreno who did not have the high vocal register required for one of the songs. Because of all the work she did singing in the film, she believed she deserved a cut of the soundtrack profits of the film. Both the movie and record producers were not willing to hand over a piece of their profits. Leonard Bernstein decided that since the producers were not willing to give up a piece of the profits, he would offer Nixon a quarter of one percent of his royalties to her (which in fact was a generous amount). 

 Many changes had to be made for the film to be approved by the censorship boards. In the original Broadway show Riff and Tony’s oath is: “womb to tomb” (Riff), “sperm to worm” (Tony), in the film Tony’s reply is changed to “birth to earth”. Probably the biggest change was to the song Gee, Officer Krupke. The lyrics were originally “My father is a bastard, my ma’s an s.o.b., my grandpa’s always plastered”, but were changed to “My daddy beats my mommy, my mommy clobbers me, my grandpa is a commie”. Then another change was, “Dear kindly social worker, they say go earn a buck, like be a soda jerker, which means like be a schmuck” to “Dear kindly social worker, they say go get a job, like be a soda jerker, which means I’d be a slob”. 

 At the time of production Larry Kert, who had originated the role of Tony, was 30 and producers wanted the audiences to believe the characters were teenagers and not adults. Director Robert Wise’s original choice to play Tony was superstar and teen sensation, Elvis Presley. According to some Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told him it wouldn’t be good for him to be associated with gang wars, or knife crime. Several other stars at the time auditioned for the role including Warren Beatty, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Perkins, and Troy Donahue. Many were given the role, but due to other commitments, had to leave production. Ultimately the most unlike of all actors was chosen, former child star Richard Beymer.