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IT HAPPENED HERE: In this occasional series, Dave Bidini unearths Toronto’s forgotten history: In 1964, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor announced they would be mounting a pre-Broadway run of Burton’s “Hamlet” at the O’Keefe Centre. Back then, this was all-consuming news, reflecting a place and a time still virgin to celebrity, and unsure how to behave in a time of star mania.

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It was a big deal because they chose Toronto, which, back in 1964 — and maybe even now, at least sometimes — counted for lots. They were Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, parked in a five-room suite on the eighth floor of the King Edward hotel for a pre-Broadway run of Burton’s Hamlet, directed by Sir John Gielgud. The play would be staged at the O’Keefe Centre, now called the Sony Centre, and before that, the Hummingbird. But it used to be the O’Keefe. The Clash played there with The Undertones and The B Girls. Still, before that: Burton and Taylor. Hollywood marriage. British acting royalty. Star power. Screen power. And they were coming here. To our town. Just up the street from Sid Ceaser, doing Little Me and eating at the Steak Pit.