June 05--In 1933 Marilyn Pauline Novak was born in Chicago to a mother and father, Blanche and Joseph Novak, of Czech descent.
Next weekend the Hollywood legend better known as Kim Novak, made famous in the 1950s by "Picnic" and "Pal Joey," returns to town for Prague Days, commemorating the 25th sister-cities anniversary of Prague and Chicago.
On June 14, Novak will host a screening of two of her finest movie hours: the deathlessly perverse mystery "Vertigo." Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film, starring James Stewart, currently stands atop the bell tower of the international Sight and Sound critics' poll of cinema's greatest achievements.
The 5:30 p.m. screening will be held at Columbia College's Film Row Cinema, on the eighth floor of 1104 S. Wabash Ave. downtown.
Admission's free; email ticket requests to film@praguedayschicago.com.
"Nobody's going to want to see a girl with a Polack name," sneered Columbia Pictures studio boss Harry Cohn to Novak early in her Columbia years. Cohn wanted to change her moniker to Kit Marlowe. Novak fought back. Her resistance was a personal victory over a mogul's slur, which wasn't even ethnically correct to begin with.
Here's a 2010 interview with Novak, one of the few phoners I've done that felt more like an in-person experience, entirely to the frank and easygoing star's credit. The photo you see above is a 1954 Tribune staff picture of Novak, 21 at the time, with her parents, around the time of her breakout role opposite Fred MacMurray in "Pushover."
mjphillips@tribpub.com
