Psycho - Shower Scene (may not be suitable for younger audience) [YouTube Link]

Motion picture decency standards in the 1960 didn't allow for things like nude women being stabbed to death in showers. Consequently, Hitchcock was forced to create the impression of nudity and violence without actually showing a breast, a buttock, or a knife puncturing skin. The result is a terrifying masterpiece of a montage. And even though it's probably the most analyzed (and parodied) 45 seconds in film history, we're willing to bet the following tidbits slipped past you.

Forget the bloody corpse in the bathtub: what really got "Psycho" censors worked up was the toilet. Just before stepping into that fateful shower, Marion tears up an incriminating note and flushes it. Hitchcock's close-up of the swirling commode water was the first ever allowed in an American film.

What looks like blood funneling down the drain is actually Bosco chocolate syrup. Hitchcock thought it looked more real in black-and-white than the fake stuff. Tastier, too.

The scene is composed of more than 90 shots seen in 70 different camera angles. It took Hitchcock and his crew an entire week to film it. To put that into perspective: The entire film took only six weeks.

The woman who played Janet Leigh's body double in about half of the shower-scene shots was named Myra Jones. In a sad case of life imitating art, Jones was stabbed to death in 1988. Her killer? A mentally disturbed handyman who targeted older women. He'd murdered at least one other before her - that police know about.

After the release of "Psycho," Hitchcock received an irate letter from a man whose daughter had refused to take baths after seeing the French thriller "Les Diaboliques" (in which a man is drowned in a tub). After seeing "Psycho," she refused to take showers as well. Hitchcock's reply? "Send her to the dry cleaners."

Although popular with most audiences, "Psycho" was reviled by ophthalmologists. Eye doctors everywhere pointed out that a corpse's pupil dilate, yet - in a stark close-up of her face after her supposedly deadly shower - Janet Leigh's eyes remain contracted. Ever the obsessed technician, Hitchcock listened, using dilating eyedrops for stiffs in all future films.

The article above was written by Ransom Riggs, as part of a longer article Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in the Nov-Dec 2006 issue of mental_floss, published here with permission. Visit mental_floss for more fun stuff everyday!

7. Next time you’re in Cleveland, you can visit the original
house from the movie for only $7.50. It was sold on eBay in 2004 for $150,000. Collector Brian Jones bought the house and restored it to its movie glory and stocked it up with some of the original props from the film, including Randy’s snowsuit.

8. Director Bob Clark got the idea for the movie when he was driving in the car with a date. He heard Jean Shepherd on the radio doing a reading of his short story collection, “In God We Trust… All Others Pay Cash,” which included some bits that eventually ended up in A Christmas Story. Clark said he drove around the block for an hour until the program ended, which his date was not too happy about.

My favorite bit from the movie is when the family ended up at a Chinese restaurant (fra ra ra ra ra) on Christmas day because that’s where we always end up as well!

Link – via i met a possum

So, you think you know Walt Disney. But did you know that "Disney" wasn't his family's ancestral surname? That he drove an ambulance? That his first studio went bankrupt in just one year? Or that he was a train nut and had a miniature railroad put in his backyard? To celebrate the 107th anniversary of his birthday, here are Neatorama's 10 Fun Facts About Walt Disney:

Origin of the "Disney" Name: d'Isigny
Walt's ancestors were named d'Isigny, and came from Isigny-sur-Mer in Normandy, France. They moved to a village in Lincolnshire, England now named Norton Disney.

Disney Tried to Join the Army, but was Rejected
In 1917, Walt tried to join the Army to fight in World War I and was rejected ... because he was too young! He was 16 at the time, so he joined The Red Cross instead. His first job there? Driving an ambulance.

Walt Disney as an ambulance driver in France - photo via Croce Rossa Italiana

Laugh-O-Gram: Disney's First Venture Went Bank-O-Rupt
In 1922, Disney founded an animation company called Laugh-O-Gram. The company immediately ran into financial troubles (Disney had to live in the office and take baths once a week at a neighboring train station). In just about one year, the studio declared bankruptcy. Disney sold his movie camera for a one-way ticket to Hollywood, California.

The studio produced only a few animations, including one called Tommy Tucker's Tooth, which was commissioned by a local dentist about the merits of brushing your teeth. (More on Laugh-O-Grams at The Animation Empire)

Before Mickey Mouse, There was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Walt and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who looked suspiciously similar to Mickey) for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios. In 1928, with the popular cartoon series going strong, Disney asked Mintz for an increase in budget. Instead, Mintz took over his current employees and demanded that Walt take a budget cut!

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - via Los comienzos de Walt

Mintz thought that he had Disney cornered - instead, Walt went on to start anew with Iwerks and a loyal apprentice named Les Clark. They tried sketches of various animals, including dog, cat, cow, frog and horse before settling on a mouse (based on Disney's pet mouse Mortimer).

They were going to call the character Mortimer Mouse, but Walt's wife Lilian convinced him to change the name to Mickey Mouse (she thought "Mortimer" sounded pompous) (Source).

Disney's Folly: Snow White
In 1934, Disney embarked on his most ambitious project yet: a full-length animated feature called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Both his brother Roy and wife Lilian tried to talk him out of it, saying that it would be too difficult and too expensive (Lilian said: "No one's ever going to pay a dime to see a dwarf picture.") The Hollywood movie industry mocked it as "Disney's Folly."

Two years later, while still in mid-production, Walt ran out of money. The initial production cost of $250,000 (already 10 times the average budget of his other animations) ballooned to over $1.5 million. (today's value: $21 million) He had to mortgage his house and get a loan to finish the movie.

Walt in the trailer of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - via Wikipedia

In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarf was released and became an instant success. The movie won an honorary Oscar (see this post on Neatorama: Oscars Fun Facts) and grossed over $66 million domestically. Over its lifetime, the movie grossed over $184 million. Not bad for a "folly."

Disney Goes to War
In 1942, a naval officer wrote a letter to Walt asking for a design for an emblem of the Navy's new fleet of torpedo boats nicknamed "mosquito boats." Disney obliged with a drawing of a mosquito riding a torpedo (the insignia was such a hit that every torpedo boat in the fleet soon had it).

Words spread, and Disney was bombarded with requests for insignias for tanks, minesweepers, bombers, and figher planes. Skylighters.org has a neat article about Disney's artistic contribution to the Great War: Link (text from LIFE Magazine)

Walt Disney was a Train Lover
Disney loved trains. He even built a miniature railroad in his backyard called the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. It was named after the street on which his home was located.

Walt's railroad had 2,615 feet of track, including trestles, loops, overpasses, and even a tunnel (after his wife vetoed the train going through her flower beds).

Disney's backyard railroad became an inspiration for the Disneyland theme park.

Walt's Disneyland Tribute to His Father

Photo: David Ball [Wikipedia]

Elias Disney, Walt's father, was a carpenter who earned about $1 a day. In 1895, Elias began a modest home construction business that ultimately failed. He continued to work odd jobs afterwards, including farming, running a newspaper delivery business, and working in a jelly factory.

Elias didn't live long enough to see Disneyland, but the lamp in his window is always lit in his honor. (Source: Disneyland Detective: An Independent Guide to Discovering Disney's Legend, Lore, and Magic by K. Trahan, D. Hawkins, and B. McKim)

Cigarettes Killed Disney
Walt Disney was a chain smoker. In 1966, he was scheduled to undergo a neck surgery for an old polo injury, but a pre-surgery X-ray showed a large tumor in his left lung. Doctors ultimately removed the lung, but Disney died later that year.

[YouTube Clip]

In 1951, Disney produced a short clip titled "No Smoking" of Goofy trying to quit smoking. The company banned the cartoon from TV broadcast.

Disney's Mysterious Tie Clip
The Walt Disney bronze statue in Disneyland has a weird tie clip that looks like a symbol from an alien language.

Photo: Zesmerelda [Flickr]

It turns out the symbol is made of the letters S, T, and R, which stands for "Smoke Tree Ranch," Disney's ranch in Palm Springs, California. Nearby Walt's ranch lives a good friend of his, who became the inspiration of the character "Jacques" the Mouse in Cinderella! (Source: Hidden Mickeys, with a lot more fun facts of Disney)

Everyone knows about Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection, but did you know that he once ate an owl, just for kicks? Or that he almost didn't make it aboard HMS Beagle because of the shape of his nose? Behold Neatorama's 10 Fun Facts About Charles Darwin:

1. Darwin Once Ate an Owl

Darwin was an inquisitive man. Sure he was curious about nature and all that science stuff, but he's also a guy. So when he saw strange animals, he often wondered what they would taste like. The difference between Darwin and the rest of us is that he actually ate 'em!

While he was at Cambridge University, Darwin joined the "Gourmet Club," which met once a week to eat animals not often found in menus, like hawk and bittern (a type of wading bird in the heron family). His zeal for weird food, however, broke down when he tried an old brown owl, which he found "indescribable."

But that one episode didn't end Darwin's weird gastronomic proclivities. During the voyage of the Beagle, he ate armadillos and agoutis (the rodents were "best meat I ever tasted," he said).

In Patagonia, South America, Darwin ate a puma (it tasted like veal) and an ostrich-like bird called a Rhea. Actually, Darwin had been looking for this particular species of Rhea, only to find that he had been eating one all along. He sent back the uneaten parts to the Zoological Society in London, which named the bird Rhea darwinii after him!

In the Galapagos, Darwin ate iguanas and giant tortoises. He liked it so much he loaded up 48 of them aboard the Beagle, to be eaten on the journey back!

Sources: Darwin's Dinner at Quite Interesting | The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin by Charles and Francis Darwin

2. Darwin Wanted to Be a Doctor, But He Couldn't Stand the Sight of Blood

Darwin attended Edinburgh University in hopes of becoming a physician like his father, but soon abandoned the idea because he couldn't stand the sight of blood. So he decided to study divinity instead and become a rural cleric, which would fit his hobby of being a naturalist just fine (Source).

3. Darwin's Nose Almost Cost Him The Voyage on the Beagle

The Captain of HMS Beagle, Robert FitzRoy, was about to embark on a survey expedition to South America, but he was afraid of the stress and loneliness of such a voyage (indeed, they have driven the previous captain of the ship to commit suicide). So FitzRoy asked his superiors for a well-educated and scientific gentleman companion to come along as an unpaid naturalist whom he could treat as an equal. The professors at Cambridge recommended then 22-years old Charles Darwin for the trip.

At first, Charles' father Robert objected to the appointment - after all, such a voyage would take years and would get in the way of him being a clergyman. But Darwin's uncle was able to persuade him not only to let his son go, but also support him financially.

Darwin and FitzRoy got together well, but later Darwin found out that he almost didn't get picked for the voyage ... on account of the shape of his nose!

"Afterwards on becoming very intimate with Fitz-Roy, I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being rejected [as the Beagle's naturalist], on account of the shape of my nose! He was an ardent desciple of Lavater, and was convinced that he could judge a man's character by the outline of his features; and he doubted wheather anyone with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage. But I think he was afterwards well-satisfied that my nose had spoken falsely." (Source: Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters, by Charles Darwin - 1902)

4. Best Birthday Gift Ever: a Mountain!

Mount Darwin in Tierra del Fuego, Photo: Victory Adventure Expeditions

For Darwin's 25th birthday on February 12, 1834, Captain FitzRoy named a mountain after him. Yup, Mount Darwin. It is the highest peak in Tierra del Fuego.

A year earlier, Darwin and his shipmates were on a small island in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago when a huge mass of ice fell from the face of a glacier and plunged into the ocean, causing a huge wave. Darwin ran to the shore and saved the ship's boats from being swept away. For saving everyone from being marooned, FitzRoy named the area Darwin Sound.

And as if one mountain isn't enough, Darwin got three more named after him: There are other Darwin Mountains located in California, Tasmania, and Antarctica.

5. The Full Title of "On The Origin of Species"

Larger photo: University of Sydney

You probably know that Darwin's most famous work, outlining his theory of evolution, is On the Origin of Species.

But what most people don't know is the full title: On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. It was published in 1859, twenty years after his epic voyage (yes, he took his sweet time in publishing his work, which he only did because Alfred Russell Wallace came to the same conclusion of evolution and Darwin didn't want to be left behind). A total of 1250 copies were printed and it went on sale for 15 shillings. It's now valued at around $23,000.

In the 6th edition, the title was changed to The Origin of Species.

6. Darwin Didn't Invent the Phrase "Survival of the Fittest"

That was Herbert Spencer, a philosopher and contemporary of Charles Darwin. After reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Spencer wrote Principles of Biology in 1864. He coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" and extended Darwin's theory of natural selection into the realm of sociology, ethics, and economics.

Darwin himself used the phrase in his 5th edition of The Origin and gave full credit to Spencer.

7. Darwin Married His First Cousin

Darwin was a logical man, and he approached the important issue of marriage like he would any problem. In The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Darwin made careful pro and con list of marriage to his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood:

Image: Cambridge University Library - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

Under the title "This is the Question," Darwin wrote in the "Marry" Column:

Children — (if it Please God) — Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one, — object to be beloved & played with. — —better than a dog anyhow. — Home, & someone to take care of house — Charms of music & female chit-chat. — These things good for one's health. — Forced to visit & receive relations but terrible loss of time. —

W My God, it is intolerable to think of spending ones whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, & nothing after all. — No, no won't do. — Imagine living all one's day solitarily in smoky dirty London House. — Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps — Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Grt. Marlbro' St.

... and in the "Not Marry" column:

No children, (no second life), no one to care for one in old age.— What is the use of working 'in' without sympathy from near & dear friends—who are near & dear friends to the old, except relatives

Freedom to go where one liked — choice of Society & little of it. — Conversation of clever men at clubs — Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in every trifle. — to have the expense & anxiety of children — perhaps quarelling — Loss of time. — cannot read in the Evenings — fatness & idleness — Anxiety & responsibility — less money for books &c — if many children forced to gain one's bread. — (But then it is very bad for ones health to work too much)

Perhaps my wife wont like London; then the sentence is banishment & degradation into indolent, idle fool —

He concluded that he should marry, and wrote:

Marry - Marry - Marry Q.E.D.

It is ironic that the man who gave rise to the importance of genetics in natural selection chose to marry his first cousin (Darwin wasn't alone in this - Einstein also married his cousin), but one thing is for sure: Darwin cleverly avoided adding more relatives to visit!

8. How Darwin Lost His Faith in Christianity

Darwin was actually quite a religious fellow when he began his voyage on the Beagle (he was fresh out of divinity school). Aboard the ship, Darwin was known to quote passages from the bible to rowdy sailors on board.

But something happened during the trip that made him less religious. Darwin saw slavery firsthand as well as the wretched living conditions of the natives of Tierra del Fuego and wondered why God allowed such inhumanities to happen (Source). Darwin became skeptical of the history in the Old Testament, yet still believed in the existence of God.

Darwin lost his faith when his daughter Annie caught scarlet fever and died at the age of 10. He wrote "We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age ... Oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still & and shall ever love her dear joyous face." The heartsick Emma filled a small box with Annie's small treasures and kept it until her own death. (Source)

From then on, Darwin continued to help the local church with parish work, but would go on walks while his family attended church on Sundays. When asked about his religious views, Darwin denied that he was an atheist, but called himself agnostic.

In 1915, Lady Hope claimed to have visited Darwin and witnessed his deathbed conversion back to Christianity. This was refuted by his children, who noted that his last words were to Emma: "I am not the least afraid of death - Remember what a good wife you have been - Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me." (Source)

9. Darwin was a Backgammon Fiend

After his return from South America, Darwin developed a life-long illness that left him severely debilitated or bed-ridden for long periods of time. Darwin consulted with more than 20 doctors, but the cause of his disease was never discovered (Wikipedia has a n interesting list of possible illnesses).

Over the years, with the help of Emma, Darwin developed a strict routine that seemed to help in alleviating the symptoms. AboutDarwin.com has an interesting glimpse into what everyday life was like for Darwin.

Of note is Darwin's strict schedule for playing backgammon. Every night between 8 and 8:30 PM, Darwin would play 2 games of backgammon with Emma. He even kept score of every game he played for years!

10. Church of England Finally Apologized to Darwin

When Darwin's work on the theory of evolution came out, the church attacked him vociferously. Now, 126 years after his death, The Church of England has apologized to Darwin:

Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practice the old virtues of 'faith seeking understanding' and hope that makes some amends. But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests. Good religion needs to work constructively with good science – and I dare to suggest that the opposite may be true as well. (Source)

If you like this article, you'll probably love these 10 Fun Facts articles on Neatorama:

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