Trivia Dominoes: Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia

[twickster]

John Ford filmed many of his classic Westerns in Monument Valley, Utah.

[Bearflag70]

Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, California, recognizes Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the first European to set foot on what is now the West Coast of the United States; San Diego, originally named San Miguel, went on to become the site of the first European settlement in Alta California.

[Sampiro]

Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour was filmed at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

[astorian]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour was filmed at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

Jane Seymour was the only one of Henry the Eighth's six wives to give him a son.

[Jack Batty]

Henry the Eighth, I Am by Herman's Hermits was the number one song on the charts on the day esteemed Straight Dope Poster Jack Batty was born.

[RealityChuck]

Henry VIII never divorced any of his wives -- his marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves were annulled.

[ElvisL1ves]

Tammy Wynette, best known for "Stand By Your Man", had another hit country song with "D-I-V-O-R-C-E"

[Sampiro]

Tammy Wynette was married five times, her third being to singer George Jones with whom she had a daughter Georgette who played her mother on the TV series Sordid Lives.

[Spoons]

The song "Tammy," as recorded by Debbie Reynolds, hit number 1 on the charts in 1957.

[Sampiro]

Debbie Reynolds is the mother (by Eddie Fisher) of Carrie Fisher, best known for playing Princess Leia in the STAR WARS film and author of the memoir Wishful Drinking in which she discussed "Hollywood Inbreeding" when her daughter began dating the grandson of Eddie Fisher's ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor.

[twickster]

Gene Kelly didn't think much of Debbie Reynolds as a dancer, and had the sound of her taps dubbed in in "Singin' in the Rain."

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour was filmed at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

Not so. Although the book was set there, the movie was filmed elsewhere: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_H...inac_Island%29

Debbie Reynolds took her daughter Carrie to meet and be photographed with President Richard Nixon.

[KennerTheGreat]

One of the eulogies at Richard Nixon's funeral was delivered by then-California Governor Pete Wilson

[Sampiro]

When Richard Nixon's daughter Julie married David Eisenhower (Ike's grandson for whom Camp David was named) the best man was Fred Grandy, best known for playing Gopher on The Love Boat and later a Congressman from Iowa.

[Elendil's Heir]

Camp David was originally known as Shangri-La, after the hidden paradise in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton.

[KennerTheGreat]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Camp David was originally known as Shangri-La, after the hidden paradise in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton.

The role of George Conway in the 1973 film version of Lost Horizon was played by Michael York, who later would play Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers film series.

[Sitnam]

When soaked in water the seeds of several basil varieties become gelatinous, and are used in Asian drinks and desserts such as falooda or Sherbet.

[Sternvogel]

The formal name of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral is Cathedral of Intercession of Theotokos on the Moat.

[astorian]

Originally Posted by Sternvogel

The formal name of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral is Cathedral of Intercession of Theotokos on the Moat.

The silly novelty song "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band won the 1966 Grammy award for Best Rock and Roll Recording.

[Sampiro]

[not for dominoes, just for trivia: Winchester Cathedral was the Number 1 hit the day I was born.]

Winchester Cathedral was where Bloody Mary married her cousin King Philip I of Naples, who later became King Philip II of Spain (among many other titles) when his father retired. While married to Mary he was also styled King Philip I of England jure uxoris ("by right of marriage") but this ended the moment Mary died.

[Elendil's Heir]

Queen Mary thought she was pregnant twice; the second time it turned out to be what historians now believe is the tumor that killed her.

[ShibbOleth]

The Queen Mary is now permanently docked in Long Beach, California.

[Sampiro]

One of the people burned for heresy under Queen Mary was Perrotine Massey, who gave birth while being burned at the stake (woodcut); the child was also tossed into the flames, which led to charges of murder being levied twenty years later.

[septimus]

Jeanne d'Arc was burned for heresy after a trial where her testimony was so precocious that George B. Shaw used it word-for-word in a play.

[BigT]

John Dark was associate producer of the 1967 film "Casino Royale", which had a movie tie-in book that followed a completely different plot.

[ShibbOleth]

Barry Nelson played James Bond in the 1954 broadcast version of Casino Royale.

[Sampiro]

David Niven played James Bond in the 1967 Casino Royale with Woody Allen as Bond's nephew Jimmy Bond.

[ShibbOleth]

Early in his career, Woody Allen was a writer for television shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show and the Sid Caesar Hour.

[twickster]

At seven months, Conan O'Brien's tenure as host of "The Tonight Show" was the shortest ever.

[Elendil's Heir]

Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, committed suicide.

[Sampiro]

Robert E. Howard was a fan and friend of H. P. Lovecraft, a fellow contributor to Weird Tales magazine.

[Elendil's Heir]

Lovecraft set many of his stories in the crumbling, spooky, "witch-haunted" fictional town of Arkham, Mass.

[Gagundathar]

The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, commonly referred to simply as Arkham Asylum, is a fictional psychiatric hospital in the DC Comics Universe, usually appearing in stories featuring Batman.

[Sitnam]

Bedlam is the popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, London, an insane asylum. Bedlam was a synonym for 'lunatic', but now just generally means 'a place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion'.

[kunilou]

"lunatic" refers to the old belief that the phases of the moon somehow affected or controlled one's mental state. In Slavic languages, "lunatic" means "sleepwalker."

[Sigmagirl]

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was so named because it was founded on Christmas Eve.

ETA: Ouch!

[Elendil's Heir]

Ebenezer Scrooge has his adventures - or were they only a dream? - on Christmas Eve.

[twickster]

Italian composer Bellini wrote an opera called "La Sonnambula," or "The Sleepwalker."

[astorian]

The song "Juke Box Music" appears on the Kinks' "Sleepwalker" album.

[KennerTheGreat]

Catania, Sicily, the birthplace of Vincenzo Bellini, is home to the University of Catania, the oldest university in Sicily.

[Elendil's Heir]

Bellini, like Mozart, Bizet and Liszt, was a child prodigy.

[blondebear]

Lisztomania the current hit song from the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix .

[astorian]

"Amadeus" is a Latinized version of Mozart's real middle name, which was "Theophilus.

[ElvisL1ves]

Franz Liszt's daughter Cosima married Richard Wagner, and later directed the Bayreuth Festival, dedicated to Wagner's operas.

[ShibbOleth]

Richard Wagner was a favourite of "Crazy" Ludwig (King Ludwig II of Bavaria) and benefited from his patronage.

[twickster]

Ludwig, of course, was best known for building castles. The most famous of these, Neuschwanstein, was the model for Cinderella's castle at DisneyLand.

[astorian]

Phil Simms was the first player to utter the famous phrase, "I'm going to Disneyland" after winning the Super Bowl.

[blondebear]

Steve Martin's first job was selling programs at Disneyland.

[ElvisL1ves]

Disneyland was the "inspiration" for Wally World in National Lampoon's Vacation, starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo.

[Sternvogel]

Steve Martin was on the writing staff of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The head writer was Mason Williams, who composed the instrumental standard Classical Gas.

(I'll keep that fact up, but ElvisL1ves played the last valid domino.)