When legendary German flying ace Manfred von Richtofen, bka “The Red Baron” (though he wasn’t really a baron) was shot down command of his squadron went to Hermann Göring, a decision that infuriated many people (including von Richtofen’s brothers) as there were several German fighter pilots with better records. After the German surrender was signed, Göring and the pilots under intentionally crash landed the planes they’d been ordered to surrender.
Richtofen and Goering, among others, were awarded the Pour le Merite medal, originally Prussia’s highest military honor, as fighter aces. The medal became known as the Blue Max after one was awarded to Max Immelmann, the ace who was the first pilot to be so honored.
The Blue Max was a 1966 American film about a German fighter pilot on the Western Front during World War I. It starred George Peppard, James Mason and Ursula Andress.
Ursula Andress’ role in Dr. No, as Honey Ryder, gives her pride of place as film’s first “Bond Girl”. Says Wiki: “In 2003, the scene of Andress emerging from the water in a bikini topped Channel 4’s list of 100 sexiest scenes of film history. The bikini was sold in an auction for US$61,500. Entertainment Weekly and IGN ranked her as Top in a Top 10 Bond Babes list.”
The name “Ursula” comes from the Latin word for a female bear cub.
Urusla was the “beloved mate” of George of the Jungle, in the animated series, a parody of Tarzan, created and produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, better known as the creators of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, liked to play tennis before breakfast. On December 7, 1941 he was playing tennis with his son at his home on Oahu when he heard the beginning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He and his son both volunteered their services in helping with the relief that day and Burroughs tried using his influence as a well to do writer to be allowed to enlist in the armed forces, but at 66 there was no way he could qualify for active service.
deleted
The 1980 sf movie The Final Countdown has the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz going through a timestorm of some kind and emerging near Pearl Harbor just before the Japanese sneak attack. The Nimitz’s captain, played by Kirk Douglas, considers the possibly dangerous impact of intervention on the timeline, but decides his loyalty must be to his fellow countrymen. He orders an attack on the Japanese fleet but that pesky timestorm shows up again, goldarnit, and sends the Nimitz back to the future before his order can be carried out.
The ring tone on GOB Bluth’s phone in Arrested Development was “The Final Countdown”
The CapCom game, Final Fight, was the precursor to Street Fighter 2. After the kidnapping of Jessica by the Mad Gear gang, Jessica’s father, Haggar (the Mayor of the city) joins forces with Cody (Jessica’s boyfriend,) and Guy (Cody’s sparring partner and master of Ninjitsu,) to rescue her. Many of the characters in the game went on to star in future CapCom games: Rolento, Cody, Haggar, Sodom, and Andore became bosses or playable characters.
Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming.
Neal Cassady was the inspiration for Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s*** On the Road,*** and for Cody Pomeray in his Visions of Cody.
Bill “Iron Eyes” Cody, best known as the Indian with a tear in his eye in litter commercials, was the son of Sicilian immigrants, but his adopted sons were of Dakota and Maricopa ancestry; one is an award winning traditional Native American flute player.
Samuel Cody, a transplanted American who fashioned himself a relative of Buffalo Bill Cody in order to promote his own Wild West show, became fascinated with aviation. In 1908 he became the first person to fly in Britain, in a powered aircraft of his own design he named “Nulli Secundus”.
Buffalo Bill Cody was one of the two greatest sensations of the 1889 Paris Exposition, the other being the Eiffel Tower. Cody performed his show throughout the Exposition and was the toast of Paris, as was his featured act, Annie Oakley.
An ‘Annie Oakley’ is a free, punched ticket to an event so named after the sharpshooter who could shoot holes through a playing card falling through the air.
Annie Oakley once shot the ashes off a cigarette being held by the future (or newly-crowned, depending on your preferred source) Kaiser Wilhelm II. Had her aim not been so accurate, the course of history might well have been altered.
Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie’s inspiration for the character of Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects (1995) was a real-life murderer by the name of John List, who murdered his family and then disappeared for 17 years.
The future Kaiser Wilhelm II, the grandson of Queen Victoria, did not murder his family. He was, however, injured during his birth, and his arm was deformed. In adulthood, he posed for photographs while clasping something in his hand or with his arm concealed.