The New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad was commonly nicknamed the Nickel Plate Road. A former president of the company explained the name at a banquet speech:
The 1904 Summer Olympics was held in St. Louis. St. Louis was the first US city to host the Olympics. It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held outside Europe.
In 1899, the St. Louis Browns became the St. Louis Perfectos. That season, Willie McHale, a columnist for the St. Louis Republic reportedly heard a woman refer to the team’s red stockings as a "lovely shade of Cardinal." McHale included the nickname in his column and it was an instant hit among fans. The team officially changed its name to the Cardinards in 1900.
The late Bill Bidwill owned the NFL Cardinals in Chicago, St. Louis, and Phoenix.
Louis Vuitton, the founder of the Louis Vuitton brand of leather goods, came to Paris as a teenage runaway from the Jura mountains and found work as an apprentice to a box-maker and packer. He made his fame in 1858 with his revolutionary stackable and waterproof rectangular shaped trunks at a time when the market had only rounded-top trunks.
Bill Bixby’s fiand Brenda Benet were married in 1971, and she gave birth to their son, Christopher, in September 1974. They divorced in 1980. A few months later, in March 1981, six-year-old Christopher died while on a skiing vacation at Mammoth Lakes with Benet. He went into cardiac arrest after doctors inserted a breathing tube when he suffered acute epiglottitis. Benet was devastated by her son’s death and sank into a severe depression. On April 7, 1982, she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her home in Los Angeles. She was 36.
Four actors have portrayed physicist Dr. Bruce Banner, the alter ego of the Marvel comics character the Hulk, in live-action televison and films:
- Bill Bixby (in the 1970s TV series The Incredible Hulk, and in three subsequent TV movies, though the character was re-named Dr. David Banner)
- Eric Bana (in the 2003 film Hulk)
- Edward Norton (in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk)
- Mark Ruffalo (in the 2012 film The Avengers, and in numerous subsequent Marvel Cinematic Universe films)
Nitpick: The Bixby character was Dr. *David *Banner. The producers thought Bruce was too light-loafered a name.
Earlier, Bixby starred in “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”, in the role Glenn Ford played in the film. Brandon Cruz and Miyoshi Umeki played the son and the housekeeper, instead of Ron Howard (yes, him) and Shirley Jones.
Glenn Ford, born in Canada, was related to US President Martin Van Buren and to Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.
John Glenn’s space ship Friendship 7 safely splashed down 800 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral after Glenn’s 4-hour, 55-minute flight. He carried a note on the flight which read, “I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity” in several languages, in case he landed near southern Pacific Ocean islands.
One of the most popular puns about the musical compositions of Franz Schubert is “Take me to your lieder”. Art songs, for you philistines.
(I did note that in my post, though not as clearly as I should have. 
)
In play: Early in his career, Art Fleming was a radio announcer and television actor. In the early 1960s, producer Merv Griffin invited Fleming to audition for the role of host of a new quiz show which Griffing was developing. Fleming won the audition, and served as the host of “Jeopardy!” from its inception in 1964 until 1979, when the show went off the air.
Fleming later played himself in the music video for “Weird” Al Yankovic’s 1983 song, “I Lost on Jeopardy.”
Burt Griffin of Cleveland, a staff attorney for the Warren Commission during its investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was later elected a judge of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. In dismissing allegations of a coverup by the Warren Commission, he said, “If I had discovered evidence of a conspiracy to kill the President, I would’ve been elected to the U.S. Senate and not Arlen Specter,” a colleague on the Commission’s legal staff.
After appearing in a few films, Merv Griffin developed a liking for television and made his first appearance in 1954 on a show called “Summer Holiday.” His “The Merv Griffin Show” was on for 21 years and showcased many of the biggest stars and luminaries in entertainment, art, music, and politics. Over the years the show received 11 Emmy Awards.
Merv Griffin’s fake British accent in his 1950 song “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”, when he was the vocalist for Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, was actually worse than Dick Van Dyke’s in “Mary Poppins”.
In his book Those Funny Kids: A Treasury of Classroom Laughter, Dick Van Dyke wrote that he had grown to 6’1" by age 11.
Kids Say the Darndest Things, interviewing young guests who had not yet developed a sense of when to shut up, was a segment on Art Linkletter’s radio and TV show “House Party”. It later became its own show, hosted by Bill Cosby, and is being revived with Tiffany Haddish as host.
Bill Clinton became, in 2001, the first Democrat to serve two full terms as President of the United States since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.
Roosevelt Franklin was a Muppet who appeared frequently in the early seasons of the childrens’ television show Sesame Street. The character was created, and voiced, by actor Matt Robinson, who was the first actor to portray Gordon on the series.
Franklin, whose appearances usually included him using rhymes or scat to teach lessons, was dropped from the show in the mid-1970s, due to criticism that the character reinforced negative stereotypes about African-Americans.
Morgan Freeman played Easy Reader on “The Electric Company”, an educational children’s show inspired by “Sesame Street”. He associated with Valerie the Librarian (Hattie Winston) and Vi (Lee Chamberlin) in her diner.