Spuds McKenzie, the Bud Light ‘Party Animal’, was sometimes depicted in a party-type setting wearing a sweatshirt with the Greek letters Δ Ο Γ (Delta Omicron Gamma) –
or DOG, in English.
-“BB”-
(Aside: although I did not know that, I am surprised during Covid there was no conspiracy theory claiming gamma rays could change omicron, since, you know…)
Funky Cold Medina is a hip-hop song by Tone Loc, which hit #3 on the U.S. Billboard chart in 1989. The song’s lyrics tell the story of Tone’s adventures with an aphrodisiac drink; in one verse, he gives the drink to his dog, which attracts the attention of two famous, fictional dogs, which were featured in beer advertisements of the era: Spuds McKenzie (Bud Light) and Alex (Stroh’s).
The 1984 film The Last Starfighter stars Lance Guest as teenager Alex Rogan, who beats a high-score on the Starfighter rail shooter arcade game and is then recruited to go up in space and do it himself.
His recruiter and mentor, Centauri, is played by Robert Preston in his final film role. He was written as a nod to his star-making role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man.
Robert Preston played Professor Harold Hill in the original Broadway production of The Music Man, but when Warner Bros. began to develop a film version of the musical, studio head Jack Warner wanted a bigger, more established film star in the role. Warner offered the role to actors including James Cagney, Bing Crosby, and Cary Grant, but all of them turned him down; Grant went so far as to tell Warner that “nobody could do that role as well as Bob Preston,” and that he (Grant) would not bother seeing the film if it did not star Preston.
Ultimately, Meredith Wilson (the author and composer of the show and film) reminded Warner that his contract gave him the right of refusal on casting, and that he would cancel the project entirely unless Preston was given the lead
Minor nit-pick, @kenobi_65 – the creator of the play “The Music Man” spelled his last name with two 'L’s (Willson). An easy reminder is that the last name of the protagonist (Harold Hill) also has two 'L’s in his name as well.
IN PLAY:
Meredith Willson was born and raised in Mason City, IA, and it is generally accepted that his hometown (and its residents) was the inspiration for the fictional town and characters of River City, IA.
-“BB”-
Mason City, IA is commonly called “River City” because it is centered on the Winnebago River. The river enters the city from the north, then flows south and east before leaving the city. In The Music Man, the song Ya Got Trouble opens with this lyric about River City:
Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City.
Mason City celebrates its music history and heritage as the hometown of Meredith Willson, as @Bicycle_Bill shared with us. Many characters in The Music Man were based on people Willson knew from his childhood in Mason City.
Besides its proud musical heritage, Mason City was sadly the place, in the very early morning hours of 03 February 1959, where the fateful small airplane flight of “The Day The Music Died” took off from. Musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” J. P. Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson were all killed when their plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. The musicians had just performed in the Winter Dance Party at Clear Lake’s Surf Ballroom.
To this day the Surf Ballroom has an annual Winter Dance Party on or near 03 February. The next one is 01-03 February 2024. See: Winter Dance Party Lineup - Surf Ballroom.
Dion DiMucci, of Dion and the Belmonts, still lives to this day. He is the last survivor of the original performers on that Winter Dance Party Tour.
Note — I’ve been to that corn field and walked past these Buddy Holly eyeglasses. And I’ve been to the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake IA, the sight of their final performances. There’s lots of history there in the Surf Ballroom, and a small shrine at the spot where the music died. It is interesting and worth a stop.
I was there in August of 2014, and 5 years later in August 2019 my daughter also visited.
The Winnebago River was originally known as Lime Creek, but upon the fame of The Music Man, the locals felt compelled to promote the creek to a river, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names made “Winnebago River” the official name in a 1961 decision.
The river was subjected to 18-foot flood waters in 2008, the highest in the river’s recorded history.
“The Last of the Winnebagos”, by Connie Willis, won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella in 1989.
The Hugo Award is named for sci-fi magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback, who also had a crashed ship named after him in the video game Mass Effect 2.
Lawrence “Crash” Davis was an American baseball player who was the inspiration for Kevin Costner’s character, “Crash Davis”, in the movie Bull Durham. Davis earned his nickname at age 14, when he collided with another player while chasing down a fly ball.
Davis played three seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics before being drafted into the navy in 1943; he served as liaison to the ROTC program at Duke University. After being discharged he joined the Durham Bulls, then part of the Carolina League. He played for Reidsville Luckies and Raleigh Capitals before retiring from baseball in 1952.
In the 1983 film The Big Chill, Kevin Costner was cast as Alex, a member of the group of college friends whose suicide leads the rest of the group to reunite. Flashback scenes were shot with Kostner, and the rest of the cast, but were cut from the final version of the film, meaning that Costner did not actually appear in the final version at all.
The character of Alex in The Big Chill is a good example of a maguffin: he has a central part in the plot and development of the other characters without being revealed to the audience.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third season Worf discovers he has a son, Alexander, from his lover K’Ehleyr, whom he had sex with one time in the previous season. Perhaps owing to the fact that he is three-quarters Klingon and one-quarters human, he has the appearance of a human of about four or five years of age.
Later, Alexander takes the last name “Rozhenko” from Worf’s parents after he goes to live with them in Minsk.
Costner has no lines, but I believe it’s his body you see being dressed for the funeral in the opening scene.
In play:
Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) wore a straw Klingon baldric or sash in early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation; it was left over from the original series. Later on, he wore a metal baldric made specifically for the show.
The Klingon language is the world’s most popular fictional language as measured by number of speakers — according to the Guinness World Records.
The Klingon language is included among the languages you can learn on the Duolingo app.
Star Trek’s Klingons were named after Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, of the Los Angeles Police Department, with whom series creator Gene Roddenberry had served in the LAPD.
In the film Rush Hour, Chris Tucker plays Detective James Carter of the Los Angeles Police Department, which he calls the most despised police department in America. “My own mama ashamed of me,” he says. “She tell everyone I’m a drug dealer.”
Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, celebrated his 99th birthday on Sunday, October 1. Carter, who entered home hospice care in February, overcame cancer after diagnosis at age 90, and had a hip replacement at age 94.