Theodore Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt while running for President in 1912. His assailant was aiming for Roosevelt’s head, but his arm was deflected. The bullet passed the 50-page manuscript of a speech Roosevelt was preparing to give, and also the case that held Roosevelt’s eyeglasses, before lodging in the wall of Roosevelt’s chest.
The Oreo was first produced in 1912 as the “Oreo Biscuit” to target the British market. Originally it was available in two flavors, lemon meringue and cream. Cream became the most popular flavor and Nabisco discontinued the lemon meringue filling during the 1920’s.
In 1988, Nabisco introduced its Teddy Grahams line, which has featured the bear-shaped morsels as cereal and snacks in cinnamon, honey, and chocolate flavors.
Ronald Reagan, because of term limits, could not run again for President in 1988. He was succeeded by his Vice President, George H.W. Bush, who defeated Democratic nominee Mike Dukakis in the general election that fall. Bush thus became the first VP since Martin Van Buren (in 1836) to succeed the President with whom he served.
Martin Van Buren was from Kinderhook, New York where his father was a tavern keeper and slave owner (as was MVB himself until his slaves were emancipated by New York law). He was known by the nickname “Old Kinderhook” or sometimes by its initials, OK, which some etymologists have claimed was the origin (at least of the popularity) of the word “okay”, though this is disputed.
Side note: IIRC, he still pulled the speech out of his pocket and gave it, complete with blood-stained. An impressive sight, by everyone’s account.
In the series MASH*, John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946), centering on the gunfight at the OK Corral, was Colonel Potter’s favoroite film. He said it had the three things that made a great movie: Horses, cowboys and horses.
J.K. Rowling’s bestselling battle-of-the-wizards novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be split into two movies for filming.
Ciarán Hinds plays Albus Dumbledore’s goat loving brother Aberforth in Deathly Hallows; he also portrayed general and dictator Gaius Julius Caesar in HBO’s ROME.
John Barth wrote his novel Giles Goat Boy as an allegory of the Cold War, with the East Campus of a university in a struggle with the West Campus. Giles got his name because he was raised by goats and had an inordinate affection for them.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 is considered by many historians to have been the most dangerous period of the Cold War. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tried to sneak nuclear-armed missiles into the Soviet client state of Cuba, despite previous U.S. warnings not to. When U.S. President John F. Kennedy learned of this, he overruled the advice of many of his aides to invade Cuba, and instead imposed a quarantine or naval blockade of the island, warning Khrushchev to withdraw and not launch the missiles. After a tense few days and much diplomatic negotiating, the Soviet leader agreed, and the crisis ended. The establishment of the Washington-Moscow teletype “hotline” was a direct result of the crisis.
When Cuban born Desi Arnaz hosted SNL he played his signature song, Babalu (a song about a Santeria sacrifice and ritual) with such vigor that producer Lorne Michaels later said in an interview he was afraid the 60 year old chain smoker was going to have a heart attack. (Video.) This may have been wishful thinking as Michaels and Arnaz did not get along that week, though the cast members remembered him as gracious.
Andy Hallett – who played Lorne on Angel – was given the part without having any acting experience. He was spotted by Joss Whedon singing at a club and Whedon conceived the character and offered him the role.
Other actors who had no notable acting experience before being cast in lead roles include Gabourey Sidibe in Precious and Kilnton Spillsbury in The Legend of the Lone Ranger.
Spillsbury never acted again, either.
Klinton Spilsbury’s lines in the film were dubbed by James Keach, who later produced the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line after befriending Cash as a result of The Man in Black’s admiration of the film The Long Riders. Keach played Jesse James in that movie, and also helped write and produce it.
During the filming and showing of Legend of the Lone Ranger actor Clayton Moore (the 1950s Lone Ranger) was legally prevented by the producers from making public appearances in character even to the point of not being allowed to appear in a mask even if he did not mention the character or to appear with Jay “Tonto” Silverheels at a paid function if LR was mentioned in any way. This being a significant portion of a much liked elderly actor’s income, and Silverheel’s death during this time, the move proved a PR disaster for an already doomed film, though Moore got a lot of publicity and a lucrative deal with Foster Grant sunglasses and after the film flopped regained rights to appear in character.
When Stan Freberg created a legendary commercial for Gino’s Pizza Rolls, he parodied a commercial current at the time for Lark Cigarettes, where Lark filmed people on the streets showing their packs of Lark in response to a sign asking them to, all to the music of the William Tell Overture.
Toward the end of the commercial, the Pizza Roll announcer has someone tap on his shoulder: it’s the actor from a Lark cigarette cigarette commercial. He says, “I’d like to talk to you about that music you’re using.” Then someone taps him on the shoulder. It’s Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. Moore says, “I’ve been meaning to speak to you people about the same thing.”
When Clayton Moore, late in life, was ordered by the studio not to wear the Lone Ranger’s signature eye-covering mask, he wore dark sunglasses instead.
In the 1990s Stan Freberg produced a famous and successful series of ads starring his son Donovan for the print version of Encyclopedia Britannica and also played a recurring role on Roseanne as a man whose interactions with Roseanne get him fired from several jobs (waiter, city worker, loan officer, etc.).
Roseanne Barr was the oldest of four children, born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a working-class Jewish family. She was awarded an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her work on Roseanne
Before Utah became a state, the Mormons there tried to establish the state of “Deseret”. This proposed state consisted of almost all of present-day Utah and Nevada, as well as sections of California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.