On Sunday May 25th one of the most celebrated movies of 1969 opened- Midnight Cowboy. The movie- a drama starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman was based on a 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy of the same name. The movie was directed by John Schlesinger. The movie is set in New York City with Voight playing a prostitute named Joe Buck [ the sportscaster Joe Buck was born earlier in May 1969} and Hoffman as an ailing con man Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo. Midnight Cowboy which was rated X- would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture- the only X rated movie to ever do so. The movie also won for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The movie with a budget of 3.2 million endd up making 44.8 million and was the second biggest money making movie of 1969 behind Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
Other movie openings in the moth of May 1969-
May 7- “Where’s It At”- a drama starring David Janssen, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Drivas, Brenda Vaccaro and that old hockey puck Don Rickles.
May 7 “Sinful Davey”- An adventure/ crime/comedy film directed by John Huston and starring John Hurt and Pamela Franklin.
May 10 “MacKenna’s Gold” A western with an all-star cast- Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Ted Cassidy and Julie Newmar. Music- Quincy Jones.
May 14 “Nightmare In Wax”- A thriller starring Cameron Mitchell and Anne Helm.
May 15 “Midas Run”- A comedy starring Richard Crenna, Anne Heywood and the great Fred Astaire.
May 22 “Winning”- a racing movie with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Robert Wagner.
May 27 “Popi”- A comedy/drama starring Alan Arkin and Rita Moreno.
May 27 “The Grasshopper”- Drama starring Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown and Joseph Cotten.
May 28 “The April Fools”- Romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve.
May 29 “”Che!”- Biographical movie about Che Guevara with Omar Sharif.
May 29 ” Once Upon A Time In The West” Spaghetti western starring Hank Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards.
slicethelife 
Well, looks like sex was busting out all over that year.
OMG that Paul Newman one was the movie they made at the same time (~ the same time) as Le Mans that Steve McQueen got all bent out of shape about. I didn’t understand Midnight Cowboy as a kid. You sure can see who Anjelina gets her looks from. And Jon’s brother is a famous songwriter?? I’m sure I’ve seen that last movie also.
I didn’t know Voight’s brother was Chip Taylor… he was also in the news today- Voight was- saying DJT is the greatest POTUS since Lincoln.. I didn’t realize he was a presidential historian! lol
I think I know why Chip changed his name. lmao
I watched Once Upon A Time In The West in the past year when I was watching a lot of Spaghetti Westerns…I liked it a lot.
I saw it too- the ones on that list I’ve seen Midnight Cowboy- Winning and Once Upon A Time In The West .
Enjoyed watching both Midnight Cowboy and Once Upon a Time in the West..
Midnight Cowboy made today would probably be rated PG
This is true i remember the first time I saw it- in the early 80’s- I was puzzled- this was rated X?