General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller lived from 1898 to 1971. He was birn in West Point VA and is one of the most decorated US Marines with 5 Navy Crosses, a Distinguished Service Star, and a Silver Star. Chesty is among the most hallowed and revered Marines in history.
Stripper Chesty Morgan, who had a 73-inch bust, starred in two Doris Wishman films: Deadly Weapons and* Double Agent 73*. She was also filmed by Federico Fellini as Barbarina in Fellini’s Casanova, but her scenes were cut.
In Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), the British spy says that he was given his SIS “Double O” status and license to kill on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government after killing two men on orders: a Japanese cypher clerk in New York City, and a Norwegian double agent in Stockholm.
Licensed to Ill is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Beastie Boys. For the majority of their career, the group consisted of Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar). Horovitz is the son of playwright Israel Horovitz.
Diamond was, according to legend, Sir Isaac Newton’s favorite dog, who, by upsetting a candle, set fire to manuscripts containing his notes on experiments conducted over the course of twenty years. According to one account, Newton is said to have exclaimed: “O Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done.” There is substantial doubt that this story is true, but it still appears in stories about Newton.
‘Diamond Dogs’ was the 8th studio album by David Bowie. Released in 1974, it contained the single ‘Rebel Rebel’, which has been described as Bowie’s farewell to the glam rock movement, which he had helped to popularize.
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Filipino-American actor and director Lou Diamond Phillips was named after USMC legend Leland “Lou” Diamond (1890-1951) who served in WWs I and II. In WWI he was a Corporal and a Sergeant. In WWII he shipped out to Guadalcanal with the 5th Marines at the young, spry age of 52. He gained the nicknames “Mr. Leatherneck” and “Mr. Marine”, and he achieved the rank of Master Gunnery Sergeant, or “Master Gunny”.
Master Gunnery Sergeant Diamond is laid to rest at Toledo Memorial Park in Sylvania OH, close to Toledo in the NW corner of the state.
U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Paul X. Kelley advised the George H.W. Bush 1992 reelection campaign on national security after his retirement. He was asked by the campaign to go to a secret meeting at a Washington-area hotel with someone who had called the campaign anonymously, saying he had incriminating information about then-Democratic nominee Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, but no one appeared for the meeting and Kelley eventually left, after several hours waiting, empty-handed. The anonymous person has never been identified.
The USMC Commandants from 1980 to 1993 were:
1979-1983: Robert Hilliard Barrow
1983-1987: Paul Xavier Kelley
1987-1991: Alfred Mason Gray Jr. (ref.)
1991-1995: Carl Epting Mundy Jr.
Comment: These are the Commandants I served under.
The USS Alfred was a 30-gun warship of the fledgling Continental Navy. She served only from 1775-1778, was captured by the Royal Navy, condemned in a British prize court, bought by the Royal Navy and recommissioned as HMS Alfred. Sold in 1782, a year before the Treaty of Paris acknowledged U.S. independence, she had a later career as a merchant vessel but her eventual fate is unknown.
An advertisement for the stage play “The New Boy” published in the Los Angeles Herald on December 2, 1894 used an image and words that could easily be describing the character of Mad Magazine’s ironice Alfred E. Neuman. The paper reported that the, “comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [(face)] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes.” Elements of the plot of the play explain why the character has adult and childlike features, why the character is dressed as he is, and how he may have lost his teeth. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the original New Boy image was published with a two-part phrase that is similar in tone to Neuman’s, “What? Me Worry?” catch phrase. The catch phrase for The New Boy, was, "What’s the good of anything?—Nothing!
The New York Herald began publication in 1835. In 1924 the New York Herald was acquired by its smaller rival the New York Tribune, to form the New York Herald Tribune. In 1966, the New York paper ceased publication.
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Alfred E. Neuman made his Mad debut in November 1954, on the front cover of Ballantine’s The Mad Reader, a paperback collection of reprints from the first two years of Mad. Alfred E. Neuman’s first appearance in the comic book, from New York City, was on the cover of Mad #21 in March 1955.
The Paris Herald, later the International Herald Tribune and now the New York Times International Edition, was founded on 4 October 1887, as the European edition of the New York Herald by the parent paper’s owner, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Bennett moved to Paris because he had been ostracized by New York society, according to legend, because he arrived late and drunk to a party at the May family mansion, then urinated into a fireplace (some say grand piano) in full view of his hosts.
Irish actor Gabriel Byrne has played at least three characters in movies set in whole or in part in New York City: a German professor in Little Women, a Satan-possessed banker in End of Days, and a crooked ex-cop in The Usual Suspects.
The Usual Suspects took its title from a famous line spoken by French Police Captain Renault, on the telephone to his office, in the closing airport scene in Casablanca.
The Renault 2CV, or deux chevaux, is nicknamed the ugly duckling.
Actually, Capt. Renault says that directly to the police officers who show up at the Casablanca airport (0:40 here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXuBnz6vtuI