50 Facts About the 50 United States
Sure, the boring facts about states have been drilled into you by teachers and history books over the years. You might even remember all of the state capitals. But here are 50 trivia tidbits that you probably didn’t learn in second grade.
1. Alabama. New Orleans might be the hot spot for Mardi Gras these days, but it was actually started as a sedate tradition in what is now modern-day Mobile, Alabama.
2. Alaska. The Alaskan flag was created by a 13-year-old-boy in 1926. For his efforts, Benny Benson received $1,000 and an engraved watch. Picture from Alaska.edu.
3. Arizona. London Bridge – yes, the London Bridge – was shipped stone by stone and reassembled in Lake Havasu City. It was meant to be a tourist attraction in the retirement community and was rebuilt over land, not water.
4. Arkansas. Sam Walton started a little store in Bentonville, Arkansas – today, it’s known as Walmart. However, Bentonville is also home to the headquarters of a lesser-known company: The Whistler Group, a company that makes radar detectors.
5. California. We all know Cali is known for its wine and grapes – but it’s also home to the self-proclaimed Avocado Capital of the World (Fallbrook), the Raisin Capital of the World (Fresno) and the Artichoke Capital of the World (Castroville). In fact, Marilyn Monroe was the first Artichoke Queen in 1947.
6. Colorado. Although the cheeseburger wasn’t invented in Colorado, a Denverite held the copyright to the word for a while. In 1935, Louis Ballast, owner of the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In, applied for and received the copyright to a food he didn’t invent. That distinction goes to Lionel Sternberger of Pasadena, California.
7. Connecticut. PEZ is made in Orange, Connecticut.
8. Delaware. There’s no National Park System unit of any kind in Delaware – no park, no historic site, no battlefield, no memorial or monument. It’s the only state that doesn’t have something denoted by the National Park System (you can check out other National Park units here, though).
9. Florida. The first ATM designed just for rollerbladers resides in Miami. Of course.
10. Georgia. The sweetest onion in the world, the Vidalia, can only be grown in specifc Vidalia and Glennville areas of Georgia – only 20 counties in total. The Vidalia Onion is Georgia’s state vegetable.
11. Hawaii. Back in 1874, the village of Kalaupapa on the Island of Molokai was once a leper colony. The act naming the village such wasn’t repealed until 1969.
12. Idaho is the only state that might have been named because of a hoax. A lobbyist suggested the name in the 1860s, claiming that it was an old Shoshone word meaning “the sun comes from the mountains” or “gem of the mountains.” After the name was adopted, the lobbyist admitted he made the word up.
13. Illinois was once home to the largest city in the United States – no, not Chicago. Up until about 1800, Cahokia, Illinois, had more than 40,000 residents in the area thanks to its strategic spot near the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers. Philadelphia outgrew it sometime near the turn of the century.
14. Indiana. Santa Claus, Indiana, gets more than half a million letters from kids during the holidays. “Santa’s Elves,” a group of local volunteers, makes sure that each letter gets a reply from the man himself.
15. Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are totally formed by water – the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri on the west. It’s also the only state whose name begins with two vowels.
16. Kansas. Amelia Earhart was from Atchison, Kansas.
17. Kentucky. The song “Happy Birthday to You” was written by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill, Louisville residents. The women were kindergarten teachers who wrote the song as a ditty called “Good Morning to All” that would be easy for young kids to remember and sing.
18. Louisiana. There used to be more to Louisiana. Prior to 1856, there was an island southwest of New Orleans called Last Island. On August 11, 1856, it was completely and utterly destroyed by a category four hurricane. It was hit with such force that the island was split into five smaller islands. Everything on the island – which had been a popular resort destination – was gone. When the water levels went down five days later, the only evidence that there had been human life on the island was a wrecked steamer sent to save the people on the island at the time. More than 200 people died.
19. Maine. Up until a couple of years ago, a vast majority (90 percent) of the toothpicks used in the United States were made in Maine.
20. Maryland. Residents of Saint Michaels found out that the British were going to attack in 1813, so they strategically placed lit lanterns at the tops of ships and on high tree branches and cut all sources of light from the usual places on the ground. It confused the British and they overshot the town, hitting just one single house.
21. Massachusetts is home to the first U.S. zip code ever – 01001 in Agawam.
22. Michigan makes cars, yeah, you already knew that. But it also manufactures the most magic supplies in the world. The little town of Colon (population: 1200) was where magician Harry Blackstone made his home, including his headquarters and magic workshop. He invited other magicians to his abode, and the town eventually sprouted Abbott’s Magic Company, the world’s biggest producer of handmade illusions, and Abbott’s Magic Get-Together, an annual four-day convention. The high school nickname is “The Magi” and their mascot is a rabbit (rabbit out of the hat, get it?).
23. Minnesota. Minneapolis has 52 blocks of skyway – more than five miles – so people who work downtown in the frigid Minnesota winter can get around without getting frostbite.
24. Mississippi was the last state to end prohibition. Even though nationwide prohibition had ended more than 30 years earlier, Mississippi didn’t repeal it at a state level until 1966.
25. Missouri. With more than 200 fountains, Kansas City claims to have the most fountains of any city in the world, with a single exception: Rome.
26. Montana. The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gemstone to be included in the the royal Crown Jewels.
27. Nebraska. Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska. It was made in inventor Edwin Perkins’ mother’s kitchen and originated as a liquid called “Fruit Smack.” When he needed a cheaper way to ship it, Perkins figured out how to remove the liquid and leave only a powder, creating Kool-Aid.
28. Nevada. The first casino to open on the Las Vegas Strip (before it was the Strip) was called the Pair-O-Dice Club. It opened its doors in 1931.
29. New Hampshire has its own Stonehenge. “America’s Stonehenge” has had charcoal pits carbon dated to 2000 BC to 173 BC, potentially making the site 4,000 years old. It allegedly inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.”
30. New Jersey has the most diners in the world – and the most shopping malls in one area (seven major malls in a 25 square mile radius).
31. New Mexico. The cub that became known as Smokey the Bear, the National Fire Safety Symbol, was found trapped in a tree in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest when it caught on fire in 1950. The black bear was chosen to be the official state animal in the little guy’s honor 13 years later.
32. New York isn’t home to Dorothy Gale – that’s Kansas, of course – but it does call her creator, L. Frank Baum, a native. In Chittenango, his hometown, yellow brick sidewalks lead to Oz-themed businesses, and you can go to the yearly Oz-Stravaganza every June.
33. North Carolina can boast that they had the first child born in America to English parents. Her name was Virginia Dare and she was born in Roanoke.
34. North Dakota is a great state to drive through if you can manage to make the Enchanted Highway part of your route. It’s a 32-mile stretch of highway with giant sculptures. This one, called “Theodore Roosevelt Rides Again,” is 51 feet tall and weighs more than 9,000 pounds. Photo from EnchantedHighway.net.
35. Ohio, so far, has been the home state of seven U.S. presidents, making it the state that has produced the second-most Commander in Chiefs (Virginia wins that title with eight). In case you’re wondering, they are: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding.
36. Oklahoma is where the first-ever parking meter was installed. Oklahoma City was the first to start charging for prime parking real estate in 1935.
37. Oregon has the most ghost towns of any U.S. state, with 18 spots officially designated as such.
38. Pennsylvania is where you’ll find the Mutter Museum, a museum dedicated to medical oddities (for educational purposes, of course). Exhibits include a woman whose corpse turned to soap, famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker, and the tumor removed from Grover Cleveland’s hard palate in a top-secret operation the world didn’t know about until years later.
39. Rhode Island claims the oldest, still-operating tavern in the U.S. The White Horse Tavern was built in 1673.
40. South Carolina. In case you’re interested in the first boll weevil ever found in South Carolina, don’t worry – you can still see it. The insect is on display at the Pendleton District Agricultural Museum.
41. South Dakota has the world’s only Corn Palace, a building entirely decorated in different varieties of corn kernels and cobs. Exterior murals on the palace are redesigned every year.
42. Tennessee has the largest underground lake in the United States (and the second-largest in the world). It’s part of Craighead Caverns in Sweetwater and is known as The Lost Sea.
43. Texas has the only hotel in North America entirely built over water. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston juts out 1,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico.
44. Utah has a hotspot known as “Little Hollywood” – Kanab earned the nickname because so many movies and T.V. series have been filmed in the area. Which ones, you ask? To name a few: Gunsmoke, Planet of the Apes, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Lone Ranger and Stagecoach
45. Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, is the only state capital that lacks a McDonalds.
46. Virginia is where you’ll find a couple of Presidents’ mansions, including Jefferson’s Monticello, which is on the back of the $2 bill. Incidentally, the gift shop at Monticello is probably one of the only establishments in the country to routinely give $2 bills as change.
47. Washington is the only state named after a president.
48. West Virginia had a hand in the invention of billboards and outdoor advertising. A tobacco company there started painting barns and bridges with their slogan, “Treat Yourself to the Best, Chew Mail Pouch.”
49. Wisconsin. Love mustard? Then you’ll love Mount Horeb, which is where you’ll find the world’s largest collection of prepared mustards at the Mustard Museum. It is run by Barry Levenson, who used to be the Assistant Attorney General for the state.
50. Wyoming was the first state that gave women the right to vote.
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Guess The Nerd Movie
UGO’s Guess the Movie quizzes are challenging. This one I thought I’d ace, but had to settle for 6/10. All of their quizzes are hard, and categories vary from Coen Brothers Movies to the Halloween movies, and more.
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7 Things You Might Not Know About The Twilight Zone
Mental_floss is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Twilight Zone in their own way, by bringing trivia about the show. For example, great acting wasn’t exactly a priority during filming of the episodes.
Interestingly enough, many of the actors in these pieces, when interviewed decades after the fact, confessed that they weren’t particularly proud of their performances. The Twilight Zone had a budget, just like any other series, and often the bulk of the money per episode had to be spent on sets and special effects. There was no luxury of multiple retakes until the actor felt just right about a particular scene. A sub-par performance wasn’t a matter of concern in most episodic television of that era, but, as William Shatner later mentioned in an interview, at that time a Twilight Zone appearance was just another job – no one ever suspected that these episodes would be aired over and over (and over!) again for years to come.
There’s more about your favorite episodes and about host Rod Serling. Link
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Million Dollar Questions
To celebrate the (temporary) return of the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” mental_floss is featuring questions from the show in today’s Lunchtime Quiz. But these are not ordinary questions; they are questions for which people have actually won a million dollars! So even if you get just one right, you can pat yourself on the back. I scored 67%. Link
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Movie Trivia: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Did you guys hear that Indiana Jones 5 is apparently in the works? Are you all as horrified as I am? If you’re like me and hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a passion, then you prefer to dwell on the classics – Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, and yes, even Temple of Doom. Here’s some trivia to remind you of the good times.
The movie was filmed during the summer of 1980.
You’ve probably heard the rumors, and yes, they’re true – Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas’ dog, Indiana. He was the prototype for Chewbacca as well, so his old malamute had a pretty big impact on Lucas’ two biggest series.
“Indiana Smith?” Yep, almost, until Steven Spielberg told Lucas it just didn’t sound right. The equally-generic “Jones” was suggested and flowed much better.
According to George Lucas, almost every studio in town turned down the movie, feeling that it would cost too much money to make.
Tim Matheson and Tom Selleck both tested for Indiana Jones; Karen Allen actually screentested with Tim Matheson. Tom Selleck did very well and was the frontrunner, but had to bow out due to Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford was brought up early in the casting discussion, but George Lucas wanted to avoid casting him since he had already become so closely associated with Star Wars.
The role of Sallah was offered to Danny DeVito – he was Spielberg’s first choice – but was unable to do it because of Taxi. The job went to John Rhys-Davies instead. Picture from BlogCDN.
Indy’s leather jacket looks old and beat up, but in reality, it was brand new – and there were 10 of them. The costume director “aged” each jacket with a metal brush and Harrison Ford’s own pocket knife.
The famous hat is from Savile Row in London, a place called Herbert Johnson. The hat had a very wide brim and the crown was quite high, apparently the fashion Down Under since it was their Australian model. After a couple of fittings, it was declared the Indiana Jones fedora. When the customized hat arrived at the studio, the costume designer rolled it up and crushed it, then various members of the cast (including Harrison) took turns sitting on it to make it look like a very worn-in, well-loved hat.
Someone was actually sent out to find a mountain that specifically looked like the Paramount Studios logo mountain so they could create the opening shot of the movie. I suppose these days Lucas would have just made a CGI mountain…
There was a complication during the scene where Alfred Molina is covered in spiders – they didn’t want to move. They just sat stagnant on him, making the excitement of the scene rather… well, not exciting. They discovered that all of the spiders were male, so a female spider was put on Molina’s chest. It did the trick – the male spiders were immediately more active and started to crawl in the direction of the female.
The golden idol was based on an Incan fertility statue. Photo from FanPop.
The movie was filmed in Tunisia because it was a lot cheaper to shoot there than Egypt, and since the script never called for shots of the Sphinx or the pyramids, so they were able to get away with it. In fact, one of the scenes was shot in the exact same canyon where R2-D2 was stolen by Jawas in Star Wars.
The part where Indy watches a swordsman go through a very elaborate routine with his scimitar only to shoot him at the end of it happened because Harrison Ford really had to go to the bathroom. Indy was supposed to have a huge fight scene using his whip, but a bout of dysentery had left him weak and desperately needing the john. Because of this, someone – reports vary on whose idea it was – suggested that Indy just dispatch the dude like anyone who had a gun in his arsenal would.
Harrison wasn’t the only one who got sick – a majority of the cast and crew found themselves incapacitated at some point during filming in Tunisia. Steven Spielberg didn’t get sick because he ate only canned food from the U.K. Everyone else who ate food in the restaurants or at the hotel got horribly sick at least once during filming.
During the scene where Indy fights while the plane is rolling around, Harrison Ford actually sustained an injury when the wheels of the plane got too close and rolled right up onto his leg. It tore his ACL, but rather than submit to Tunisian hospitals, Ford wrapped it in ice and continued to shoot. He also bruised his ribs during the scene where he is dragged behind the truck.
Unlike his character counterpart, Harrison Ford isn’t afraid of snakes and had no problem working with them during the Well of Souls scene. Precautions were taken anyway – if you look closely, a reflection gives away the fact that a sheet of glass was placed between Ford and the cobra. It was a good thing, too – at one point the cobra actually sprayed venom onto the glass.
Some of the sound effects weren’t fancy at all: the sound of snakes slithering was really just the sound designer squishing his fingers through a cheese casserole, the sound of people getting punched was really a pile of leather coats being hit with a baseball bat, and the lid sliding off of the Ark was a toilet lid being slid off the back of a toilet. The sound designer was having trouble coming up with just the right sound for the rolling boulder at the beginning of the movie and ended up using the sound of a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel hill.
Marion was the writer’s grandmother-in-law’s name, and he had been mulling over a surname for a while when he came across a streetname called “Ravenwood” and loved the way the two names fit together. Photo from TheShadyCat.
The boat was actually the submarine model from Das Boot.
Although most shots were done in four takes or less because Lucas and Spielberg wanted a “quick and dirty” feel to the movie – nothing too perfect – there was one shot that took more than 50 takes. It was the scene where the monkey salutes with a “Heil Hitler” gesture. A grape was attached to fishing line and held just out of reach of the camera shot to achieve the salute, but it took a while to get it just right. It ended up being one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite moments in the movie.
Those of us who like little movie secrets know that George Lucas likes to include a reference to “1138” in all of his movies in homage to his first movie, THX 1138. You’ll find it in Raiders during the Nazi harbor scene if you listen to the numbers being read over the loudspeaker. It’s subtle, though, because the numbers are read in German – “Ein, ein, drei, acht.”
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5 Little Know Facts about Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon always seemed like a great guy with a good sense of humor. He will be missed. These little known facts about the guy put a smile on my face. 
From the list, here’s something about "the human laugh track" and Top Second Banana that you may not have known:
Ed always knew he had a voice destined to be heard by the masses—and he started his training early. In 1938, at age15, he became a bingo caller, but that wasn’t his only odd job over the years. To put himself through college, the Hollywood heavyweight worked as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the boardwalk of Atlantic City and hawked pots and pans as a door-to-door salesman.Prior to that, he worked as a carnival barker for three years in Mexico, Maine.
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Movie Trivia: Big Fish
I missed last week’s Movie Trivia because I was on vacation, so I figured I’d make up for it today by doing a Tim Burton double feature. First up? Big Fish. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about William, a son (Billy Crudup) coming to terms with his relationship with his dying father (Albert Finney), who is prone to telling tall tales. William spends the movie sorting through his dad’s legends, trying to figure out which ones are real and which ones are just the products of an overactive imagination. His mom is played by Jessica Lange, and the younger versions of his parents are played by Ewan McGregor and Alison Lohman.
The movie was based on a 1998 book by Daniel Wallace called Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions.
There’s a parallel between the movie and what was going on in Burton’s own life at the time – his father had died two years earlier and his mother died just one month before he accepted the directing job. He said that filming the movie and thinking about father-son relationships and death was really cathartic for him.
Most of the scenes were shot on location in Wetumpka, Alabama, and Prattville, Alabama.
Jack Nicholson was the first choice to play Edward Bloom – both the older and younger versions. They were going to use computers to make him look younger so he could play the younger Edward. Burton has said that it became clear who to cast when he came across the pairing of Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney because the two of them seemed to have some sort of a spiritual connection that would be perfect for the movie.
Steven Spielberg was originally slated to direct as of 2000, but as the script went through several re-writer, Spielberg became engrossed in other projects. By the time the third draft was done, the directing job ended up in Burton’s hands.
Most of the scenes were shot on location in Wetumpka, Alabama, and Prattville, Alabama.
Matthew McGrory, who played Karl the Giant, was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the the largest feet in the world – size 29.5. Sadly, Matthew passed away in 2005. He was 7′6″ and only 32 years old at the time of his death.
The banjo player that you see when Ed first walks into Spectre is the same actor who played the banjo-playing kid in Deliverance.
When we see Steve Buscemi’s (Norther Winslow) poem about Spectre – “Grass so green/skies so blue/Spectre is really great! – that’s actually Tim Burton’s handwriting.
Somewhat surprisingly, Tim Burton hates the circus and is afraid of clowns. I knew there was a reason I liked him.
The guy who plays “Colossus” in the first circus scene is actually a circus performer.
In the book, the town of Spectre was depicted as incredibly dark and creepy. Tim Burton put his own spin on this and compared his version of Spectre to Burbank – it may look idyllic and sweet (and rather technicolor), but there’s something sinister lurking just beneath.
Alison Lohman was cast as Sandra Templeton Bloom because Tim Burton loved her silent movie-esque looks and felt that she was able to convey a whole range of emotions even when she was just standing still.
The part where the elephant takes a massive crap was, obviously, not scripted. Instead of calling that take a loss, Ewan McGregor just acted through it. The cast and crew thought the take with the elephant pooing in the background was hilarious, so it was kept in the final cut.
Ewan McGregor really did get to hang out in a cage with a lion when he filmed the scenes of him performing menial tasks around the circus. He also really learned Cantonese for the scene where he talks to the conjoined twins. I mean, just a couple of lines of Cantonese, but still…
Tim Burton has a very brief cameo – literally a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it situation. When the ringleader (Danny DeVito) and Edward Bloom burst out of his trailer because Calloway is morphing into a werewolf, keep your eye on the clowns that immediately scatter from their card-playing table. One of them is Tim.
Speaking of which, in case you’re wondering, that’s really Danny DeVito in the buff. No stunt doubles were required.
Another brief cameo: the author of the book, Daniel Wallace, can be seen as Sandra’s professor at Auburn.
If Sandra’s fiance (and Edward’s rival) looks familiar, I’d be willing to bet it’s because you know him as a slightly scruffier character: Roy on The Office. Poor dude is always getting his fiance stolen!
In the scene where Sandra opens the window to find Edward standing there in a field of daffodils that he planted for her, you’re really looking at daffodils. They weren’t digitally added in later. Tim Burton explains that his crew spent an entire weekend digging and planting and replanting when they didn’t look right, but he felt that it was extremely important to the reality of the scene.
Check out Jessica Lange’s outfit at the end of the movie during the funeral scene. Her character, Sandra, is the only one dressed in red. This is supposed to be symbolic of the fact that she was quirky and individualistic and the perfect match for Ed Bloom, who wouldn’t want her to be dressed in mourning black anyway.
Eddie Vedder composed “Man of the Hour,” the song that runs during the credits, after watching an early screening of the movie and adoring it. He apparently went home and wrote the music, had a demo for the band the next day and recorded it with them five days later.
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Movie Trivia: The Wizard of Oz
There’s so much behind-the-scenes info on The Wizard of Oz, I couldn’t possibly touch on all of it in one Neatorama post. I just picked some of my favorites, but if I missed your favorite bit of Oz-related trivia, definitely leave a comment and let all of us know.
Poor Margaret Hamilton (the witch) was really injured in the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West departs Munchkinland in a huff after Dorothy arrives. She was standing on a trap door and was supposed to disappear down into it quickly when the smoke (followed by fire) puffed up, but during the second take of that scene, the fire came too early and her costume started burning. She suffered second and third degree burns and was unable to work for a month. When she came back, she refused to do any more work with fire.
Toto was played by a Cairn Terrier creatively named Terry. Because of her previous experience (she was “Rags” in Shirley Temple’s Bright Eyes) Terry got $125 a week for her efforts, which was more than twice what the actors playing the Munchkins got ($50/week). She got her foot broken during filming when an actor playing one of the guards stepped on her.
Margaret Hamilton’s son has said that she loved her “I’ll get you my pretty…” line so much, she used it in her personal life on a somewhat frequent basis, just for fun.
The date on the Wicked Witch of the East’s death certificate is actually the date of L. Frank Baum’s death. The 19th anniversary of his death, to be exact. We can’t read it, but this is what the Death Certificate says:
Certificate of Death
Name: The Wicked Witch of the East
Residence: The Land of OzI HEREBY CERTIFY that I attended deceased from May 6th to May 6th, 1938
I last saw her alive on May 6th 1938:
Death is said to have occurred on the date stated below at 12:30 p.m.
Date of Death: May 6th 1938
Month Day Year
Signature: W.W. Barister, M.D.
Address: Munchkin City
Can you imagine anyone but Judy Garland as Dorothy? How about Shirley Temple? Although producer Mervyn LeRoy had always had Judy in mind for the role, he was being pressured to “borrow” Shirley Temple from Fox. She was only 10 and Judy was 16 at the time; studio executives thought 10 was a much more appropriate age for this particular role. They ended up auditioning Shirley just to say they had, but in the end it didn’t matter anyway: Fox refused to loan her out.
The first film version of Dorothy depicted her as a blonde with baby doll-esque makeup because that’s the way Oz illustrator John R. Neill drew her in the books. Well, he was actually the second person to illustrate Dorothy for L. Frank Baum – the first was W.W. Denslow, who drew her the way we know her today: brunette pigtails and the blue-and-white Gingham dress. But Baum had a falling-out with Denslow and John R. Neill took over for the design from then on out, which amounted to more than 40 stories. People who are fans of the book series over the movie say that they usually picture a blonde Dorothy as opposed to the Judy Garland Dorothy.
When the song “If I Had a Heart” is playing and a girl speaks the words “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” the voice you’re hearing is Adriana Caselotti – Snow White.
The Horse of a Different Color was created by putting Jell-O paste onto a white horse. It was difficult to keep the horse from licking the paste, so the scene had to be shot quickly. If you look closely, you can see the driver of the buggy subtly restraining the horse from licking himself.
Originally, a scene with an insect called the Jitterbug was shot. It involved a dance sequence with our heroes but was ultimately cut due to time constraints. But you can still hear a reference to the scene in the movie when the Wicked Witch of the West sends the flying monkeys after the gang. She says,
“Take your army to the Haunted Forest, and bring me that girl and her dog. Do as you like with the others, but I want her alive and unharmed! They’ll give you no trouble. I promise you that. I’ve sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them. Take special care of those ruby slippers. I want those most of all. Now fly!”
Bert Lahr, AKA the Cowardly Lion, was the first to use the phrase “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” that Snagglepuss later became famous for. Snagglepuss’ voice was based on Lahr’s. His son, John Lahr, is the senior drama critic at The New Yorker.
As most people know, the Tin Man was originally supposed to be played by Buddy Ebsen, but when Ebsen discovered he was severely allergic to the Tin Man’s makeup job, he was forced to drop the role. Jack Haley replaced him, using a voice that he used to tell his son bedtime stories. Somewhat strangely, Jack Haley, Jr., was married to Liza Minelli for about five years in the ‘70s.
When the witch first tries to take the ruby slippers from Dorothy at the beginning and her hands are zapped with fire, you’re actually seeing dark apple juice squirting out of the shoes. The footage was later sped up so the streams of apple juice resembled fire more closely. So says IMDB, anyway – I couldn’t verify that through any other source.
I loved looking for creepy things in movies when I was in high school, and I totally bought all of them – the “ghost” in Three Men and a Little Baby and the “munchkin suicide” in The Wizard of Oz among them. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s allegedly at the end of the Tin Man sequence, right before Dorothy and Co. head back down the Yellow Brick Road. I remember very clearly seeing this image back then (the clip below will show you exactly where) and having no doubt that it was clearly a suicide, and how creepy it was. Ever since I’ve discovered that it was just the wing of an exotic bird, that’s all I can see. I can’t even fathom how I used to buy that it was a munchkin suicide. Check out the clip below of TV Land’s “Myths and Legends” to get the whole scoop.
Here’s another myth, sort of. I tried this one in high school too – matching up Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon with the movie. And it works! It really does. But various members of Pink Floyd have denied that they wrote the album while watching The Wizard of Oz or that they were inspired by the movie or anything of that sort at all. But it does eerily match up. It gives the whole thing a very spooky vibe. If you don’t want to rely on YouTube and have both the album and the movie, here’s how to do it: start the album at the third lion’s roar in the MGM movie title right before the film starts. Otherwise, here’s the YouTube version. I suggest also checking out “The Great Gig in the Sky” which coincides with the tornado scene – it’s kind of amazing.
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30 Simple Tricks that Make You Look Smart
Who can’t use a few tricks up their sleeve when in a pinch? I’ve already used the dollar as a rule hint this week. Pretty awesome.
Look like a genius using these secrets for navigating everyday life
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Movie Trivia: Wayne's World. Zang!
Is there anyone who doesn’t know at least 75 percent of the lines in Wayne’s World? It gets busted out in our house quite a bit. As much as we quote it, though, I certainly didn’t know most of the stuff below before I started researching, and hopefully you didn’t either. Party on.
Have a favorite Wayne’s World line or moment? Share it in the comments. Rumor has it that Mike Myers has been working on the script for WW 3 – what do you think about that? Could it be done so many years later, and would it be a flop like WW 2 was?
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Movie Trivia: Step Brothers
I have to admit, the first time I saw Step Brothers, my reaction was this: “Eh….”
But like all Will Ferrell movies, Step Brothers eventually wormed its way into my brain and now I love it. I felt the same way about Anchorman when I first saw it, and I really disliked Talladega Nights the first time around. Citizen Kane it’s not, but Step Brothers definitely makes me grin. Enjoy the trivia, and let me know what you think about the movie in the comments. Did you hate it or love it?
• The Director of Photography shot the Bourne films, so this is quite a departure for him, I would think.
• The driving scenes were all green screen so the actors would be free to improvise more.
• Richard Jenkins (he plays Dale’s dad) met John C. Reilly when he was only about four. He worked for Reilly’s dad when they both lived in Chicago. The “C” is for Christopher, by the way.
• The commentary was largely musical, which was weird.
• Pablo Cruise offered to play at the premiere when they saw that Will Ferrell was wearing a Pablo Cruise t-shirt in one of the trailers. Honestly, I didn’t even know that Pablo Cruise was a real band. They had a few fits in the ’70s, including “Whatcha Gonna Do?” and “Love Will Find a Way.”
• Writer/director Adam McKay says they shot something like 12 hours of the scene where the new family eats their first dinner together. Both actors commented on how sick they were of chicken nuggets and salty fast food afterward.
• Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins both improvised lots of different backstories for Brennan and Dale. Neither of them were really improv pros before, even though Steenburgen is on Larry David’s unscripted Curb Your Enthusiasm on a regular basis. Steenburgen said that even though Curb is unscripted, it was actually a lot harder shooting Step Brothers. With Curb, she said, although there was no script, there was a loose plot line. Step Brothers would veer so far off of script sometimes that the plot line would take a completely different direction.
• You’d never know it to look at them, but the prosthetic testicles Will Ferrell rubs on Dale’s drums were worth $25,000. Will got to keep them as a present when the movie wrapped.
• There’s a sign for Hugalo’s Pizza in Dale’s bedroom, which is the pizza joint Ricky Bobby (played by Will Ferrell) worked at in Talladega Nights.
• The drumset obsession was based on something that really happened to John C. Reilly – one of his brothers was apparently insanely possessive over his drum set when they were growing up and Reilly (I feel like I need to call him John C. Reilly at all times) used to sneak in and use them.
• John was not supposed to throw the glasses at the windows in the kitchen scene when the stepbrothers are sleepwalking, but Adam McKay encouraged him to when the set designers weren’t listening. When he threw glasses, he actually broke real windows because they weren’t made of breakaway glass since the set wasn’t planned for that purpose. The set designers were not pleased with them.
• John C. Reilly says he had to be careful not to choke on food when they were filming that scene. Will Ferrell accidentally ingested some coffee grounds (ew).
• The second dinner scene when Brennan’s jerk brother Derek is there took about seven hours to shoot. When Derek falls out of the treehouse after Dale punches him, the actor really got hurt: everyone was under the impression that there was a pad on the ground, but there wasn’t. No one was seriously hurt, though, and shooting continued.
• Right before Derek comes up to the clubhouse, the guys are in the clubhouse looking at porn and were holding a real “popular pornographic magazine” (Adam McKay referred to it as such) but later found out that they didn’t get clearance to use the brand in the movie, so they spent a lot of money to go back and add a fake cover to the magazines they were holding. I’m kind of curious about this myself, because at the end of the movie, they brothers hold up a bunch of Hustlers. So if they had the clearance for Hustler, why didn’t they just use those magazines earlier in the film? Hmmm.
• The scene where Brennan tries to bury Dale in the backyard was one of the first scenes they shot.
• If you’ve seen the movie, no doubt you’ve noticed the huge array of logo and band t-shirts the brothers wear in the movie. I’m partial to the Judds baseball tee, myself. Adam McKay said the costume designer found hundreds of suitable t-shirts and then he, Will and John would take turns removing 10 until the shirts got down to a manageable level.
• The Catalina Wine Mixer scene wasn’t actually filmed on Catalina Island. They scouted it out for location but didn’t care for the way things looked; however, you can actually see it in the background of the scene because they ended up shooting on the shore facing the island.
• Coincidentally, Will Ferrell sings Por Ti Volare at the end of the film, which is the song he and Jon Heder skate to in Blades of Glory. Will does his own singing in the movie, by the way, and John C. Reilly does his own drumming.
• At one point during the commentary, Baron Davis, point guard for the Clippers, randomly comes in and starts chatting with Adam McKay, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. A good 30 minutes of non-movie related basketball talk ensues, in which I discovered that Baron feels Shaq is the scariest dude to encounter on the court in the NBA. He also does some commentary even though he wasn’t there and had never seen the movie. He refers to John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell as “Adult Cabbage Patch Kids”. Also, Baron did not have bunk beds growing up; he slept on the floor in the living room. You know, just FYI.
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Movie Trivia: The Sixth Sense
I missed the Movie Trivia post for last week, so we’re doing a double feature today. Grab yourself a bowl of popcorn and some M&Ms and enjoy!
By the way, if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen The Sixth Sense by now, I’m going to recommend that you stop reading, because a lot of my trivia revolves around the plot twist. There, you’ve been warned. I’m jealous of people who have never seen the movie, actually – this is one of those films I wish I could go back and see again for the first time.
• We don’t see a drop in temperature when Malcolm (Bruce Willis) is around Cole (Haley Joel Osment) because the cold only occurs when a ghost is angry or upset. Malcolm is never angry or upset around Haley Joel.
• I knew there was a reason I liked this movie: M. Night Shyamalan says the movie was at least partially inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, which was only like my favorite show on SNICK back in the day. The episode was called “Tale of the Dream Girl” and centered around characters who had died but didn’t know it.
• Lefty Bruce Willis learned to write righty so we couldn’t easily see that he wasn’t wearing a wedding band (presumably his wife received it when he died).
• The color red is used to represent “anything in the real world that has been tainted by the other world,” M. Night Shyamalan says. A few examples: the red sweater Cole wears when he gets attacked in the attic, the red dress Malcolm’s wife wears when she visits the restaurant where they got engaged, the doorknob in the scene pictured and right and the red tent where the little girl who was poisoned by her mom appears to Cole.
• I didn’t know that Malcolm’s old patient (and killer) Vincent Grey was played by Donnie Wahlberg until years after the fact. I probably didn’t recognize him from his New Kids days because he lost somewhere around 43 pounds for the role. He told M. Night Shyamalan that he was going to drop some weight for the role, and Night basically said, “Sure, you do that,” thinking somewhere along the lines of 5-10 pounds. Wahlberg showed up to the set to film his scenes and Night didn’t even recognize him at first because his frame had gone from muscular and athletic to extremely wispy and thin.
• This is probably common knowledge at this point, but in case you don’t know, the little girl who is poisoned by her mom is played by a young Mischa Barton. It was one of her first few roles.
• Michael Cera (Arrested Development and Superbad) has said that his first-ever audition was for the role of Cole Sear.
• Although he was only 11 at the time, The Sixth Sense was far from Haley Joel Osment’s first acting gig. He has been acting since the age of four, including notable roles such as Forrest Gump, Jr., and Avery Brown (Murphy Brown’s son).
• The whole movie was filmed in sequence.
• As with all of his movies, M. Night Shyamalan has a little cameo. You can catch him as the doctor who examines Cole after he has the incident in the closet at the birthday party.
• All of the clothes that Bruce Willis wears throughout the movie are variations on the clothes he was wearing the day he died.
It’s too bad that Shyamalan hasn’t had the critical success he had with The Sixth Sense. I really enjoyed Signs and am probably one of the few people who didn’t hate The Village, but yeah… they weren’t quite the same. Maybe it’s because we’re all expecting the plot twist at this point. Anyway, what did you think the first time you saw the movie?
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Movie Trivia: Beetlejuice
I love most Tim Burton movies, but I have a special fondness for Beetlejuice. It still kind of blows my mind to see the young, skinny Alec Baldwin, and I can’t quite reconcile that Beetlejuice is Michael Keaton. Mr. Mom? Jack Frost? C’mon. It’s pretty hard to argue that he’s not totally amazing in this film. It must have been a blast… which brings us to our first bit of trivia.
• Michael Keaton has said that out of all of his films, this one is his favorite.
• …Which is perhaps because he only spent two weeks filming. Even though Keaton plays the movie’s title character, Beetlejuice is only in 17.5 minutes of the whole film.
• The screenplay was originally written by Michael McDowell, who also wrote the script for an episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents . The episode, “The Jar,” was directed by Tim Burton. McDowell also went to on write for Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Warner Brothers really didn’t care for the original title, which happened to be Beetlejuice. They suggested House Ghosts, which Burton hated, so he retaliated with the equally horrible Scared Sheetless, just to annoy them. He was mortified when they loved it and considered using it.
• After the movie’s success – it grossed $73,707,461 in North America alone and was made for only $13 million – a sequel was considered. It was called – brace yourself – Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. The premise: the Deetzes move to Hawaii to develop a posh resort. Construction begins, and it’s quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Uh-huh. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder were in, but Tim Burton was busy making Batman Returns and lost interest in the campy sequel. Thank God. I don’t think I could deal with Beetlejuice in a lei and flip-flops.
• The film won the Oscar for best makeup. It was up against Scrooged and Coming to America.
• Betelgeuse is a star in the constellation Orion – more specifically, it’s the star that represents his armpit. No coincidence, I’m sure.
• In the waiting room of the afterlife is a sign that says “No Exit” instead of “Exit.” That’s a reference to the Jean-Paul Sartre play, which is about three people stuck in a room together after they bite the big one.
• Tim Burton lobbied hard for Sylvia Sidney to play Juno the caseworker. She turned him down on multiple occasions, but finally said yes after some of the other stars (Michael Keaton in particular) confirmed. As an aside note, Sylvia Sidney’s first husband was Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor. And Sidney was certainly no newbie to the horror genre – she was the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage in 1936.
• The guy who plays Otho, Glenn Shadix, can be found in some other Tim Burton productions as well. He’s the voice of the mayor in The Nightmare Before Christmas and was Senator Nado in Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake. He was also in the 1996 Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity. Photo from GlennShadix.com.
• Be sure to check out all of the guests at the famous dinner party scene – Bernard, the snobby dude who is clearly unimpressed with Delia’s “sculpture,” is played by Dick Cavett.
• Beetlejuice features our first-ever look at Jack Skellington, five years before Nightmare came out. He’s on the top of Beetlejuice’s carousel hat when he comes out during the seance.
As of 2005, Michael Keaton said he was still up for a Beetlejuice sequel. A year later, however, Tim Burton, said sequel plans were all but dead. What do you think? I could handle a sequel, just not a Brady Bunch-esque Hawaiian holiday. Maybe Lydia has grown up and our favorite Ghost with the Most comes calling again? Hmm. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
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Movie Trivia: Groundhog Day
A day late, (Or AM I… maybe I posted this yesterday and you’re reliving it) I’m sorry!
But despite the holiday theme, this movie is pretty fantastic year-round. Enjoy the trivia (sprinkled with video for your viewing pleasure).
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Movie Trivia - Ghostbusters
The Stay Puft Marshmallow man doesnt only make an appearance at the end of the movie, he is also seen twice before. In Dana Barrett's apartment, next to the eggs on the counter there is a bag of Stay Puft, and in one of the outdoor scenes an ad for Stay Puft can be seen on one of the buildings.
The Ghostbusters Fire House is located at North Moore, & Varick St. in New York, NY. They have the large white Ghosbuster II sign hanging in their bay.
To promote the film, the Ectomobile was driven around Manhattan prior to the release. In the middle of the film's initial release, to keep interest going, Ivan Reitman had a trailer run, which was basically the commercial the Ghostbusters' use in the movie, but with the 555 number replaced with a 1-800 number, allowing people to call. They got a recorded message of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd saying something to the effect of "Hi. We're out catching ghosts right now." They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for six weeks.
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Movie Trivia: Shaun of the Dead
Ahhh, Shaun of the Dead
, the ultimate rom-zom-com. I could watch this over and over and never get bored. If you haven’t seen it, and you a) like zombie movies and b) have a dark sense of humor, you must immediately go rent it. For those of you that have, enjoy the trivia!
• Lots of the actors and crew originally worked on Spaced, a British comedy starring Simon Pegg (Shaun). The carryover includes director Edgar Wright, Pete Serafinowicz (Pete), Nick Frost (Ed) and Jessica Hynes (Yvonne). There are cameos by a lot of other Spaced regulars as well.
• The idea for the movie actually came from Spaced. In one episode, Simon Pegg’s character plays Resident Evil for 24 hours straight, then starts hallucinating that zombies have taken over the world.
• Look closely at all of the extras in the opening credits scene and the scene that shows Shaun walking to work. Nearly all of them will show up later in zombie-form.
• When Shaun is at the convenience store, pay attention to the guy wearing a suit that stands in line behind him. He’ll show up a little bit later as a zombie missing an arm. In real life, the actor is an amputee and had to wear a prosthetic arm for the convenience store scene.
• The smart-aleck kid that mouths off to Shaun at the appliance store is Rafe Spall, Timothy Spall’s son. You know Timothy from his roles as Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter and the Beadle in Sweeney Todd (among other things). Rafe also shows up in Hot Fuzz, another Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg collaboration.
• Simon Pegg likes to sneak his family members into his movies, and Shaun is no exception. You’ll find his mom in the background of the appliance store and his sister outside of the Winchester pub. She’s in the window when Shaun goes down to check the fuse box and realizes that he was followed by the zombies.
• Obviously George Romero movies were a huge influence, but Edgar Wright cites Invasion of the Body Snatchers as another inspiration.
• Throughout the movie are clever references to horror movie veterans. When Shaun is trying to make a last-minute dinner reservation at Fulci’s, that’s reference to Italian director Lucio Fulci. At the appliance store, Shaun says that the manager and Ash have called in, referencing Ash from The Evil Dead. And the appliance store itself, Foree Appliances, is a reference to Ken Foree, the lead actor in the original Dawn of the Dead. Mary, the supermarket checkout girl zombie, works at Landis Supermarket – a reference to John Landis, director of Thriller and An American Werewolf in London.
• I remember being delighted when I heard Ed tell Shaun’s mom, “We’re coming to get you Barbara!” It’s an homage to Night of the Living Dead. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg talked to George Romero after the premiere and he loved the movie, so they excitedly asked if he liked the Night reference. Turned out he hadn’t gotten it, but was delighted when they told him about it. He later repaid the favor by letting Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg be zombie extras in the remake of Land of the Dead.
• The character of David is played by Dylan Moran; you might also know him as Gordon from Run Fatboy Run. Shaun was the first thing I had ever seen him in, so to see him as the scraggly, strange, seemingly-on-something Gordon was completely bizarre to me. Turns out, it’s really the other way around. Moran is known for playing characters like Gordon; David was completely out of the norm for him.
• The Winchester scenes were shot at the Duke of Albany pub in New Cross. The pub is now being demolished to make room for flats.
• When Shaun and Ed come home trashed from the Winchester and wake up a very angry Pete, the record they’re listening to is Street Sounds Electro. According to Edgar Wright, this is an essential record for anyone who knows their electro – and Shaun would. Check out the posters in the background of that scene: there’s a poster that refers to Shaun “Smiley” Riley, which tells us Shaun’s last name and also his background: he used to be a DJ, which explains his obsession with techno. This was all explained in a scene that got cut from the movie.
• The guy who plays Pete, Pete Serafinowicz, is the voice of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace.
• Edgar Wright has used a few personal elements from his own life in the film. His mom calls him Pickle, which is why Shaun’s mom calls him Pickle. And Shaun eats Cornetto as a hangover cure, because that’s what Edgar Wright eats after imbibing a few too many the night before. In fact, Shaun is considered part one of what fans call “The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy.” In Shaun, red Cornettos are consumed for blood. In the second part, Hot Fuzz, blue Cornettos are consumed to represent the boys in blue. The third is called The World’s End and is so far scheduled to be out in 2010. Wright and Pegg has confirmed that the third one is green (mint), but as to what that means… who knows.
There’s a ton of trivia for this movie – you can listen to film commentary from pretty much all of the main characters, but they didn’t all record it at the same time, so you have to watch the movie a million times to catch them all. And I’m totally fine with that; I just haven’t quite gotten around to it yet. So if you know some trivia I don’t, feel free to share it in the comments. And let me know what movie you’d like to read about! I did Alex’s favorite for the first post and my favorite for the second, I think next time it’s time to move on to your picks.
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Inventions they Said Would Never Work
What we now take for granted many people once took for granted could never work.
The lightbulb. The telephone. Email. If you’re a specialist in your field, there are two ways to become a household name: create something new…or claim it can never be done. If you want to be remembered on the Internet, choose the second one. Here are 9 examples of breakthroughs, inventions and innovations the experts were completely wrong about.
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Movie Trivia: The Princess Bride
Our movie trivia posts have been so popular, we decided to make them a regular feature. When I talked to our fearless leader about this, he said it sounded like a great idea and nominated The Princess Bride for our first post. Please – like I needed an excuse to watch The Princess Bride. It’s great on so many levels. Enjoy!
Anyway, that’s it for The Princess Bride. If you have a movie you’d like to see covered, leave it in the comments, or head to the forums and see what others have suggested.
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