TITANIC AT 100
A century may have gone by, but interest in the legendary tale of the Titanic, like the heart, goes on and continues to fascinate. Longtime resident and acclaimed director James Cameron brought the story to the big screen in 1997, making it the biggest blockbuster of all time. It sailed on to gross $1.8 billion at screens around the world (a record that would only be surpassed by Cameron’s 3-D fantasy “Avatar”).
The epic won a whopping 11 Oscar awards, with the jubilant creator proclaiming, “I’m king of the world!”
His tale put a sentimental spin on the sinking of the grand 46,000-ton ship, which hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage. The luxury liner sank to the bottom of the ocean in frigid waters on April 15, 1912, taking 1,514 passengers down with it.
Cameron’s retelling of the story made a superstar out of local Leonardo DiCaprio, and eventually turned young Kate Winslet into an Oscar winner. But in the beginning, Kate played an upper-class gal on the upper deck who fell for a lower-class guy on the bottom. Their love story unfolds amid the unforeseen events of the doomed vessel.
To mark the anniversary, Cameron has re-released the film, this time in 3-D. There are also special books, National Geographic specials and magazines, a four-part miniseries on ABC, as well as a series of Titanic tales on PBS. “In a lot of ways, the Titanic disaster was the 9/11 of its day,” PBS vice president of programming Beth Hoppe has said.
But the biggest draw on this historic anniversary may be Cameron’s re-release, which will let movie fans relive the gasps and tears. Youthful Kate looks very recognizable, but Leo looks like a teenager. How do the years go by?
MIKE WAS THE MAN
When I started out as a news writer for CBS news, I was too young to remember Edward R. Morrow. But growing up, I remember everyone gathered around the television set to watch “60 Minutes.” When I got to CBS, there were two legendary names: Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace. The stellar journalist died on Sunday at the age of 93, shortly after his longtime friend Andy Rooney did his last broadcast. There’s an old saying that the scariest thing you could ever image was hearing “Mike Wallace from ‘60 Minutes’ is here.” We watched as he went after bad guys when they had ‘splainin’ to do. But he was always fair. He was always enlightening. We will miss you, Mike. You were the best of the best.