The IMDb says “[Griffith’s] mother, Tippi Hedren, recently stated that the minature doll of Hedren given to her by Hitchcock was not intended to be a prank by the director. He merely wanted to give Melanie a beautiful doll from her mother’s image, but it happened that the doll was in a wooden box. So, when Melanie received the gift, she “freaked out” and became upset thinking that it was indeed meant to be her mother in a coffin.”
Here’s an interesting tidbit I just learned:
David McConnell (1858-1937) was a voracious reader as well as an entrepreneur of limited success. His favorite writer by far was Shakespeare and he named his company after him. Eventually he tried to weave his love of reading with his entrepreneurial endeavors and became a door to door book salesman, which didn’t work out terribly well. On his wife’s suggestion he “sweetened” the offer by giving five miniature bottles of his wife’s homemade perfume to ladies who purchased one of his deluxe editions. Very soon more women were asking for the perfume sets than for the books, so he sacrificed passion for pragmatism and became a door to door perfume salesman, later branching into other cosmetics and becoming so successful he owned a factory and had many salespeople working for him. The name of his company, of course, was Avon. (And that’s how the monkey got his kidneys.)
This is incorrect.
Some Psycho trivia: Hitchcock (who used a ‘dummy’ apprentice to buy the rights to the book so that Bloch wouldnt’ know who he was dealing with and up the price) tried to buy every copy of the book then on the shelves so that people couldn’t read the twist ending before seeing the movie.
:smack:
Which part of the story is incorrect? I recall having heard it retold in part by Janet Leigh. Was it all a fabrication (*a la * Judy Garland’s Munchkin myths) or did I just get some details wrong?
Always seeking opportunities for enlightenment.
Speaking of Ilsa Lund, the movie Casablanca was not big budget and was in danger of going overbudget, so to save money the plane in the famous ending was only built to half-scale while the extras surrounding it were midgets*.
*I know that some consider that a PI term, but it sounds far less condescending than “Little People” to me.
And speaking of enlightenment, what was Judy Garland’s Munchkin myth?
From IMDB
Now, I’m not sure where they got this bit of info, but there you go.
Garland liked to claim that the Munchkins engaged in riotous behavior off-camera.
Have you got some evidence for this? She was married and has four children; I can’t find anything suggesting that she’s gay. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Plus two nominees: Ned Beatty and Michael O’Keefe.
Sorry about that- Erin Murphy is in fact straight. Her twin sister Diane, who also played Tabitha, is a lesbian.
“Hot lesbian witches!” 
You don’t know which one?
I’m sorry, but I can’t buy this. I’ve got a well-worn copy of The Real Frank Zappa Book; and Frank makes no mention of changing his name to Zappa from Zappalorta, being on the Steve Allen show, or ever playing a ten-speed bike as an instrument. He does mention that he’s not the son of anyone on Captain Kangaroo, and that he’s never taken a dump on stage.
I’ve heard the ‘played a bicycle concerto’ thing before, but I’ve never heard anyone say he changed his name. Sites that I would expect to have that kind of info, like IMDb, don’t mention it, and Snopes says FZ’s father was named Frank Vincent Zappa, Sr. That would most likely rule out the name-change.
I should clarify that by saying I have heard the bicycle thing before, but not from Zappa himself, which might trump some third-party thing.
I’ve seen the Frank Zappa clip, probably on one of those bloopers programs that included early performances of celebrities. Here is a page with some stills: http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/videography/Steve_Allen_Show.html
The bicycles don’t appear to be 10-speeds, which were uncommon in 1963. The page also says it was aired several times on VH1.
If you watch the ultra-obscure film Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush you can see the front door of the house I grew up in.
ALong with a few others on here I also saw the clip on one of those “before they were famous” programs.
Franks is dressed up in a suit and talsk to Steve Allen and explains he will play the bike, he proceeds to use drumsticks to play various parts of the reame, fenders and spinning rims to mke a sort of music.