Theodore Tugboat was a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation children’s show about boats in a harbor based on Halifax Harbour. Denny Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas, who was born in Halifax, played the part of Harbour Master, as well as the voice-overs of the characters.
Between stints with Styx, lead singer Dennis DeYoung, a devout Roman Catholic, joined a touring revival of the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar in 1993. He appeared in about 200 performances as Pontius Pilate. The experience inspired him to record his 1994 album of Broadway standards, 10 on Broadway.
Pluto is the largest and second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System, behind Eris. Pluto is the ninth-largest known object directly orbiting the Sun. Pluto has five known moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra.
STICKS NIX HICK PIX was a headline printed in Variety, a newspaper covering Hollywood and the entertainment industry, on July 17, 1935, over an article about the reaction of rural audiences to movies about rural life. It is one of the most famous headlines ever to appear in an American publication. The headline, with all X endings on the words, appeared in the James Cagney film Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Zzyzx, California (ending in X) used to be called Soda Springs for the natural springs there. Soda Springs was the name of the railroad station of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad that passed there. Zzyzx is about 100 miles from Las Vegas, along I-15 as you drive towardsLos Angeles.
gMap — Google Maps
According to Yahoo, the shortest city name in the United States consists of three letters. The Yahoo article lists the shortest city name in each state, none of which is less than three letters. The list includes such notable burgs as Opp (Alabama), Eek (Alaska), Ina (Illinois), and Gas (Kansas).
The town slogan of Gas is ‘Don’t Pass Gas, Stop and Enjoy it.’
A special railroad spur line was built to then-Congressman James A. Garfield’s home Lawnfield in the **town **of Mentor, Ohio during the 1880 presidential campaign, to more conveniently bring the Republican Party faithful to visit him. Lawnfield has been beautifully restored and is open to visitors today as a National Park Service historic site.
Tom Paxton comments on John Denver’s legacy and sings three of his own songs that John Denver’s covers helped make three of Tom Paxton’s songs popular world-wide: Forest Lawn, Whose Garden Was This, and Jimmy Newman.
After Denver’s death, Paxton would pay tribute to him.
Forest Park in St. Louis, MO opened in 1876, is known as the “Heart of St. Louis”. It has more than 12 million visitors per year, surpassing the number of annual visitors to both Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch National Park combined.
The song “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis”, which is played at the home games of the Cardinal and Blues games, is one of the few instances of pronouncing the city’s name the French way “LOO-ee.” It is normally pronounced “LOO-is”.
The film Meet Me in St. Louis, based on the stage musical, featured Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, to her character’s younger sister. The movie lyrics are sad and a little bitter (“It may be your last”), about the family’s impending departure from their home city to follow their father’s career to New York. The show also included “The Trolley Song” and the title tune.
ETA: A series of short stories by Sally Benson, not a stage musical. Apologies.
Inge Swenson played Inger in the Bonanza TV epsiode Inger My Love. The story, told in flashback, explains how she gave birth to Eric “Hoss” Cartwright and later was killed by Indians.
Swenson’s best known role was as Gretchen Kraus on the TV series Benson, a perfect foil for Robert Guillaume’s title character.
Actress Inger Stevens was born in Stockholm SWE and acted in the TV series, The Farmer’s Daughter (1963-1966) together with William Windom. She died at the age of 35 from what is believed to be a drug-induced overdose suicide.
Stockholm Syndrome was named after a botched bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. In August 1973 four employees of Sveriges Kreditbank were held hostage in the bank’s vault for six days. During the standoff, an unusual bond developed between captive and captor.
Antonio, the merchant of Venice, gave a bond to Shylock where the penalty for non-payment when due was a pound of Antonio’s flesh, nearest to his heart.
The flag of Venice dates back to the early 1300s and depicts a golden lion of St. Mark on a red field with six fringes. In times of peace, the lion holds open a Bible; in times of war, it clasps a sword.
The Lion of Mark is one of the four symbols in the Christian art tetramorph derived from the four living creatures in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the heavenly chariot in the first and tenth chapters of the Book of Ezekiel. The other three are Matthew the man, Luke the ox, and John the eagle.
Although crews of the recently-retired US Navy and Marine EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft preferred the nickname “Chariot of Electronic Armageddon”, it was more commonly called “Sky Pig”. The electronic warfare version of the F-111 “Aardvark” fighter-bomber was the EF-111 “Spark Vark”, and the electronic warfare version of the A-3 “Whale” bomber was the EA-3 “Electric Whale”.
Eric Burdon and the Animal’s song “Sky Pilot” about an army Chaplin, the use of “found sound” in the interlude section, and heavy use of reverb and echos, and is also notable for its use of flanging, the swept “whooshing” sound effect laid over the entire track, most prominently during the chorus sections.