From the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, many lavish Broadway musicals were successfully adapted to film, from “The King and I” to “West Side Story” to “Cabaret.” One of the most successful and enduring of all time premiered on October 21, 1964, when “My Fair Lady” hit the theaters after much anticipation, drawing people to the box office in droves despite its lengthy near-three-hour run time. Read on for more about the “My Fair Lady” 60th anniversary.

The origin of “My Fair Lady” dates back farther than the 1956 Tony-winning play. Music collaborators Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe were inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play “Pygmalion,” the tale of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins in order to pass as a “proper lady.” The two men thought it would be “loverly” to turn the story into a musical, and wrote the book for “My Fair Lady,...