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The Studio’s Academy Award exploitation plan for
Dr. Dolittle
was highly successful. Despite mediocre reviews and lukewarm box office returns, the picture garnered nine Academy nominations, including one for Best Picture, and in the final balloting won two Oscars, for Best Song (“Talk to the Animals”) and Best Special Visual Effects. Arthur Jacobs was only momentarily dispirited by
Dr. Dolittle
’s reception. In the spring of 1968, his production of
Planet of the Apes
was released and quickly became one of the biggest non-roadshow successes in the Studio’s history. Fortunately for Jacobs,
Planet of the Apes
and
Dr. Dolittle
were not “crossed,” or cross-collateralized, a common industry practice in which the profits of one picture are used by the studio to offset the losses of another. So great in fact
was the success of
Planet of the Apes
that the Studio and Jacobs announced plans to film a sequel. And in London, late in May, Jacobs and Natalie Trundy were married. Less than two hours after the ceremony, according to a report in one of the trade papers, Jacobs was in a business meeting about his musical version of
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
.

With the completion of
The Sweet Ride
, the Studio was unable to find any new properties for Joe Pasternak to produce and he checked off the lot. The film received bad notices and was saturation-booked into drive-ins and neighborhood theaters across the country. A press release said that Pasternak was “reading scripts” and would soon announce a new studio affiliation. In July, 1968,
Star!
opened at a Command Performance in London and received enthusiastic reviews. But when the picture opened in New York, the reviews were, at best, bad. None of the denunciations, however, affected the Studio as much as the quiet, unemotional review by Renata Adler in
The New York Times
, who coolly dismissed
Star!
in less space than she would ordinarily give to a second-feature beach movie. Shooting ended on
The Boston Strangler
and the Studio, having shelved the Malcolm X story, assigned Richard Fleischer to direct
Che!
, a film biography of the late Ernesto “Che” Guevara. (“No one had ever heard of Che Guevara until he died,” Fleischer was quoted as saying in
The New York Times Magazine
.) The Studio closed the New Talent School, keeping only a handful of the young actors and actresses, including Linda Harrison, under contract. The Studio also paid $400,000 for an original screenplay called
The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy
.
Paul Newman was signed to play Butch Cassidy and the picture was retitled
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
. The film was assigned to the slate of Paul Monash, who was also keeping busy as executive producer of the television series
Judd
and
Peyton Place
. At Monash’s instigation, a Negro family was written into
Peyton Place
’s continuing cast of characters for the first time. “I’m writing a great deal in this area,” he told
Daily Variety
. “It’s very important—and important also for the future of this show.” A Negro writer named Gene Boland was hired to help with the dramatization of the black characters and was very shortly fired after complaining that white writers were rewriting his work. “Boland did not succeed, in our opinion, as a writer for
Peyton Place
,” Monash said.

Late in the spring of 1968, Richard Zanuck announced that over the next year, the Studio would spend $115 million on twenty-three pictures. This figure was up 15 per cent over the amount spent in 1967. Nearly 80 per cent of this total, Zanuck said, would be spent in the U.S., most of it in Hollywood. “One, the best technicians are in Hollywood,” he explained. “Two, we are not stopping overseas production, but are cutting down on it because the subject matter of the stories involved can be made here and better. This doesn’t mean that if we have a foreign locale we won’t go abroad to make a film. It is all based on subject matter.”

But all that was later. On December 21, 1967, at the Paramount Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the Studio showed
Dr. Dolittle
for the first time in Los Angeles at a $125-a-ticket premiere to benefit the Motion Picture
and Television Relief Fund. I went to the premiere, and I did not go back to the Studio after that, for the point of the Studio is the Product, and during the months I had spent there, the major Product, the $18 million Product, was
Dr. Dolittle
. Limousines were strung out along Hollywood Boulevard and a police line held back a crowd of hundreds straining to see the 1,400 guests who swept into the theater in jewels and evening dress. Governor and Mrs. Ronald Reagan were there as the guests of Richard Zanuck, and Sophie the Seal disembarked from her limousine wearing a diamond necklace. She was accompanied by Jip the Dog, who was wearing a jeweled collar. Gub-Gub the Pig wore a sequined harness and Chee-Chee the Chimp was in white tie and tails with a top hat and white carnation.

Tony Curtis was there and Gregory Peck and Steve McQueen, and in the lobby of the Paramount, Joey Bishop, who had been prevailed upon to tape the premiere for his late-night talk show, interviewed them all.

“This is a real Hollywood premiere,” Bishop said. “It’s all furs and jewels and delicate hair styles, and that’s just the ushers.” There was a roar of laughter. “Here’s Hank Fonda, Henry Fonda, ladies and gentlemen, Hank, I hear this is a marvelous picture, a wonderful picture.”

“A wonderful picture, Joey,” Henry Fonda said.

“Thank you very much, Henry Fonda, ladies and gentlemen,” Bishop said. “And here’s Carol Channing. Look at those jewels.”

Carol Channing laughed and waved at the crowd.

“It’s a wonderful picture, you’re going to see a wonderful picture,” Bishop said.

“It’s going to be a wonderful picture, Joey,” Carol Channing said.

And Rex Harrison said it was a wonderful picture and Samantha Eggar said it was a wonderful picture and Gregory Peck, who was chairman of the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund, said he was proud that the Fund was the beneficiary of such a wonderful picture.

“And here comes Sonny and Cher, ladies and gentlemen,” Bishop said.

“Wow, look at those outfits. Sonny, Cher, come on over here.” Sonny and Cher eased their way to the microphone next to Bishop. Sonny was wearing a pale blue brocade ensemble and Cher a floor-length Russian broadtail dress.

“Those clothes are something, really something,” Bishop said. “And I hear this picture is something, a really wonderful picture. Everyone’s talking about it, and I know you’re going to have a wonderful time.”

“It’s going to be a wonderful picture, Joey,” Sonny said.

“So let’s see the picture,” Cher said.