My favorite was from when he first came to the U.S. and was asked by a Customs officer if he had anything to declare, and allegedly replied, “Only my genius!”
In play:
The West Point History of the Civil War, published this year, is drawn from a military history course taken by all cadets at the U.S. Military Academy. Over a thousand cadets provided feedback on the course materials, helping shape the text, maps and graphics.
West Point is America’s oldest continuously-operated military post.
Nathaniel West was an author and screenwriter whose best-known works are Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust. He also co-wrote a treatment of the film that Alfred Hitchcock filmed as Suspicion. Hitchcock was shown the script but already had one commissioned, so he did not use it.
The ten biblical plagues by God against Egypt are recorded in the book of Exodus, from chapter 7 to 12, and they were: turning waters into blood, frogs, lice, flies or wild animals, diseased livestock, boils, thunderstorm of hail and fire, locusts, darkness, and death of all firstborn in Egypt.
Leon Uris, the acclaimed author of “Exodus” and other novels, failed English three times and never graduated from high school.
The theme to the movie version of Exodus, also called “This Land Is Mine”, won many awards and, given lyrics by Pat Boone, became a number one hit single for Andy Williams.
(There’s a GREAT animation of the bloody history of Israel from prehistory to the present set to this on YouTube; I’d link but can’t as I’m mobile.)
Andy Williams sang the music for the movie “Where the Red Fern Grows”.
Andy Williams provided a voiceover for for Lauren Bacall’s singing of ‘‘How Little We Know’’ in To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart, but ultimately it was her own voice in the released film.
Lauren Bacall’s most famous line was “You do know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
Lauren Bacall began an affair with Frank Sinatra when Humphrey Bogart was terminally ill and began openly dating him after Bogart’s death. Bacall claimed that Sinatra proposed to her a year after Bogart’s death but then furiously withdrew the proposal when news of it became public. The two rarely spoke afterwards and she was not graciously silent about him, stating in her memoirs that he “behaved like a complete shit”.
Lauren Bacall’s real name was Betty Jo Perske. She disliked her stage name and insisted her friends call her “Betty.”
Lauren Bacall’s oldest child was named Steve (Stephen Humphrey Bogart), after the character her husband played in their first picture together.
Lauren Bacall was photographed vamping atop a piano in 1945 at the National Press Club for then-Vice President Harry Truman. Truman later said his wife Bess did not appreciate the gag.
Eleanor Roosevelt was the first First Lady to hold a press conference. She eventually held one each week, and held several hundred during FDR’s presidency.
When FDR died Eleanor helped Bess Truman organize her first press conference, at which Bess announced it would also be her last press conference. She was true to her word; she was one of the least public First Ladies in history.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s first name was Anna, which was also the first name of her mother, and was also the first name of her only daughter and her eldest child. When Eleanor married Franklin, at her wedding she was given away by President Teddy Roosevelt.
Nicholas Van Rosenvelt, born 1658 in New Amsterdam, was a fur trader and a New York City alderman. He had ten children including Johannes (founder of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts and gt-gt-gt- grandfather of Teddy Roosevelt) and Jacobus (founder of the Hyde Park Roosevelts and gt-gt-gt- grandfather of Franklin D. Roosevelt).
The city of Buffalo, New York received its name from a nearby creek called Buffalo Creek. Buffalo Creek is a tributary to the Buffalo River, which was the western terminus of the famed Erie Canal.
Houston, Texas, was first settled along the banks of Buffalo Bayou, hence the nickname of the minor league baseball Houston Buffalos, which preceded the expansion Colt 45’s (later the Astros) in MLB.
The original name for Regina, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan) was Wascana, a Cree word meaning “Pile of Bones,” referring to the bones left from years of buffalo hunting. The name was considered too colloquial for the capital of the Territories and was changed to Regina in honour of Queen Victoria.
Various hybrids have been bred among the many species of Tribe Bovini. American or European Bison (both in genus Bison) have been bred with cattle (genus Bos), producing respectively beefalo or żubroń. Within genus Bos, various combinations have been tried, e.g. yaks with cattle. Yaks have also been bred with bison in Alberta.
While the hybrids just mentioned all have matching chromosome counts (52 with 52), within genus Bubalus, hybrids have been attempted between river water buffalo (50 chromosomes) and swamp water buffalo (48 chromosomes). This hybrid is being bred in Thailand, partly to meet the demand for mozarella cheese as pizza becomes more popular.