The American Film Institute in 2004 ranked “When You Wish Upon A Star” from the movie Pinocchio seventh in their 100 Greatest Songs in 100 years of Film History. It was one of four Disney animated film songs to appear on the list. The other three were “Someday My Prince Will Come” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ranked at No. 19, “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast ranked at No. 62, and “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King, ranked at No. 99.
If you’re curious, here’s the list: 100 Greatest Songs in Movies - AFI
In the Middle-earth legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien, a white tree on a black field is the symbol of the stony seacoast kingdom of Gondor, while a white horse on a green field is the symbol of the horse-loving kingdom of Rohan.
Rohan is comprised mostly of grasslands. In the US, to help prevent another Dust Bowl disaster of 1934-1940, the Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 authorized protected US National Grasslands. Administratively, these grasslands are essentially identical to US National Forests, except that grasslands are areas primarily consisting of prairie. Butte Valley National Grassland is the only one in California. It was established in 1991.
The Butte College campus rests on a wildlife refuge.
Buttes are tall, flat-topped, steep-sided towers of rock. Buttes were created through the process of erosion, the gradual wearing away of earth by water, wind, and ice.
“The Mittens” are a pair of buttes in Monument Valley, Utah. Each of these formations includes a thick tower of rock with a thin spire alongside it, making the two buttes look like a giant pair of mittens.
Image, The Mittens, Monument Valley (their thumbs face inboard: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Mittens,+Monument+Valley&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=msivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLzbm5kPrWAhUIjVQKHWOgA6gQ_AUIFCgD&biw=768&bih=928#imgrc=13cnQNdunKO6-M:
Because “Elephant Butte” is worth a childish snicker:
“Baby Elephant Walk,” written in 1961 by Henry Mancini for the 1962 film, Hatari!, Mancini a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement. The tune was written for an impromptu scene in Hatari! in which ‘Dallas’ led three baby elephants to a waterhole to bathe. The catchy simplicity has made it one of Mancini’s most popular works, appearing on many compilation albums. Although not used for the film, Hal David composed lyrics to Mancini’s tune, which appear in the printed sheet music and later were recorded by Pat Boone, released by Dot Records in 1965. Mancini’s version was not released as a single.
“Walk This Way” is a song by the American hard rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the 1975 album Toys in the Attic. The song (and Aerosmith) enjoyed a revitalization in 1986 when it was covered by rappers Run–D.M.C. on their album Raising Hell.
Devils Tower, Wyoming, prominently featured in the 1977 Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is a laccolithic (a sheet intrusion or concordant pluton injected between two layers of sedimentary rock) butte composed of igneous rock.
ETA: Aerosmith is not featured on the film’s soundtrack.
“Friend of the Devil” by the Grateful Dead is one of their most covered songs, including recordings and concert versions by Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Loggins and Messina, Elvis Costello and Lyle Lovett.
“Wrestle With The Devil” was a song from the failed Jim Steinman/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Whistle Down The Wind.” The show premièred at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 199. It drew mostly negative reviews, and the Broadway opening that had been scheduled for April 17,1997, was subsequently cancelled.
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Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Upon returning from his Royal Navy service during the 1982 Falklands War, he was photographed with a rose playfully clenched between his teeth.
The only nuclear submarine to sink an enemy vessel was HMS Conqueror, which sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano off the Falklands. The ship was previously USS Phoenix, and had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was only the second ship to be sunk in action by any type of submarine since World War II, the first being the Indian frigate INS Khukri by the Pakistani Submarine PNS Hangor during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
The 1956 film The Conqueror was notorious for being “the film that killed John Wayne”, who starred as Genghis Khan. It was shot in the deserts of Utah, downwind from the sites where the United States Army had conducted nuclear bomb testing. Of the 220 people involved in the film, 91 developed cancer and 46 died of it, including Wayne, director Dick Powell, and every leading cast member: Agnes Moorehead, Susan Hayward, and John Hoyt. Another star, Pedro Armendáriz would also be diagnosed with cancer, and committed suicide after hearing that his cancer was terminal. The number does not even include the extras and other people involved in filming. Numerous American Indians who served as Mongolian warriors contracted cancer in later years, and even John Wayne’s son Michael died in 2003 of cancer, after visiting his father on the set at age 22. While
Levan is a town in Juab County, Utah, United States. The population was 688 at the 2000 census. It is often said that the name of the town derives from its location at the center of Utah, because the name is navel spelled backwards.
John Wayne Airport is located in Orange County, CA.
Eight counties in the U.S. are named Orange. The oldest, in New York’s Hudson Valley region, dates from 1693, and is named for William of Orange, later King William III of England. It has no large cities and is home to the United States Military Academy at West Point; Brotherhood Winery, America’s oldest winery, in Washingtonville; and Tuxedo Park, one of the early planned communities; the tuxedo is named for its wealthy residents.
in 1677, William III of the Dutch Republic, married his first cousin Mary, elder surviving daughter of James, Duke of York, later James II of England (James VII of Scotland). This later led to his claiming the throne of England in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 and usurping his own father-in-law.
(that would make Thanksgiving dinner a bit awkward…)
The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands existed from 1581 to 1795. Today it is part of the Netherlands and Belgium. The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands is also known as the Dutch Republic.