Regarding Judy Tenuta:
A. She died in 2022. I did not know this.
B. Her first credit on IMDb is the R-rated DeepThroat Part II. Years before she became the Love Goddess.
I didn’t know until fairly recently that she was married to Emo Philips for a while. (IMDb says 1988 - ?)
I knew that they toured together and had fake dates for the cameras. I didn’t think they were really a couple. Apparently Judy was later quite negative towards Emo.
I only recall one of her jokes.
I was familiar with the South American false water cobra from an episode of the old “Wild Kingdom.” There is also a South American snake called the water cobra sans-false. And. . . they are the same snake.
Phylogeny is pretty murky, based on what little I could find, but that appears to be pretty common with lots of other snakes, too.
Today I learned that apparently, in some German fire stations, it’s considered unnecessary to install a fire alarm.
Experts didn’t think alarms were necessary. Huh? What, do fire stations have an understanding with flames, a kind of professional courtesy?
There is a way it makes a weird kind of sense. (German accent) “What is the purpose of an alarm? It summons us to the fire. But we are already here.” Obviously this isn’t right, but you can sort of see how it was rationalized.
“And in my opinion, THAT’S how we make a fire go away.”
From here.
“But it’s just a storage facility” (full of lithium ion batteries and other electrical equipment), “what could go wrong?”
Jayne Mansfield and Rip Torn took acting classes together. Ended up being trained by Sidney Lumet’s father. They left Texas at the same time and headed to LA.
Torn was married to actress Geraldine Page and their daughter Anglica Page is an actress as well. He was also married to actress Ann Wedgeworth.
And, of course, he got his cousin, Sissy Spacek, into the Actors Guild.
A random fact about Sissy Spacek: she’s got a non-acting credit as the Set Dresser for Phantom of the Paradise (1974).
Another interesting fact about about Rip Torn is that when he was making Maidstone (1968) he struck the director and star of the film Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer and managed to bite Mailer’s ear before they were separated by the crew.
I knew Ann Wedgeworth was an old childhood friend of Jayne’s from Texas but I didn’t know she was married to Rip.
Torn and Page have some other acting kids. Tony Torn appeared with his twin brother John in Page’s Trip to Bountiful. It was John’s only role but Tony continues to act. I remember him best as the diner cashier in Chasing Amy.
Continuing into Jayne Mansfield randomness.
In 1967, the year she died, she released a 45: “As The Clouds Drift By”/“Suey”. The guitarist on it was Jimi Hendrix. The B-side song has a bit better guitar work.
Rip Torn was hardly the only person whom Mailer enraged. The hammer is kind of notable though.
Mansfield was married to bodybuilder/model/actor Mickey Hargitay and their daughter Mariska is well known for her long running role on Law&Order:SVU. In addition, Jayne’s last husband, Matt Cimber was a film director and co-founder of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) wrestling promotion and TV show.
Was that the guy she divorced twice?
Also, while Mariska was technically Mickey’s daughter, the DNA is a separate matter, as she was separated from Mickey at the time and in Europe at the time Mariska would have been conceived. Rumors are that Nelson Sardelli is the bio-dad. Personally, I don’t think she looks much like Jayne, Mickey, or Sardelli–although with Jayne, it’s hard to find any pics where she isn’t ‘in character.’