‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ premieres in Coral Gables, Florida 50 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Jun 29 1971)


Video: 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' trailer

(Tuesday, June 29, 1971, 7:30 p.m. EDT)Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, an American musical fantasy film adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, premiered tonight at Loew’s Riviera in Coral Gables, Florida, to benefit the Miami Herald‘s Send-a-Kid-to-Camp fund.

Directed by Mel Stuart, the film tells the story of Charlie Bucket as he receives a golden ticket and visits Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with four other children from around the world.

Starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, the movie also featured Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Leonard Stone, Denise Nickerson, Dodo Denney and Paris Themmen.