The first black elder of the Mormon church was an escaped slave with the lovely name of Elijah Abel
Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who became a celebrated “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. She helped an estimated 500 people escape slavery in the American South, including her parents.
Harriett Hilliard was the singer for saxophonist Ozzie Nelson’s big band in the 1930’s, before they married and went into the radio and TV sitcom business, along with their adorable sons Ricky and David.
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Ronald Reagan served a radio sports announcer, and once had to kill time describing repeated but nonexistent foul balls when the Associated Press wire briefly conked out while he was “announcing” a baseball game he wasn’t actually watching.
Willis B. Powell, an Illinois editor, released to the Associated Press a story about a cat-and-rat ranch proposed for his town of Lacon. The story, which was printed throughout the U.S., went as follows: “Glorious Opportunity to Get Rich–We are starting a cat ranch in Lacon with 100,000 cats. Each cat will average 12 kittens a year. The cat skins will sell for 30 cent each. One hundred men can skin 5,000 cats a day. We figure a daily net profit of over $10,000. Now what shall we feed the cats? We will start a rat ranch next door with 1,000,000 rats. The rats will breed 12 times faster than the cats. So we will have four rats to feed each day to each cat. Now what shall we feed the rats? We will feed the rats the carcasses of the cats after they have been skinned. Now Get This! We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats and get the cat skins for nothing.” In 1940 Goldfish Bowl, published by the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., reported that this prospectus had been a hoax created by Powell.
Since 1982 Broadway’s Winter Garden theatre has only had two shows play in it: CATS and MAMMA MIA!
Catgut, once commonly used for the strings of musical instruments and tennis racquets, does not and never has come from the intestines of cats, but from the intestines of other animals such as sheep and goats. The name comes from “kit”, which once meant “little fiddle”.
The song Cat’s in the Cradle was the only number one song for Harry Chapin. The lyrics, originally written by Chapin’s wife Sandy, tell the store of a father who wouldn’t spend time with his son, later to find that the now-adult son didn’t want to spend time with him. The song was covered by a number of other artists, including Ugly Kid Joe and Johnny Cash.
One of Johnny Cash’s nephews is now the Navy chaplain at Evergreen Chapel at Camp David, the Presidential retreat in Maryland. Barack Obama, like his predecessor, has selected the chapel as his primary place of worship due, in part, to security and privacy concerns.
Camp David received its present name from Dwight D. Eisenhower, in honor of his grandson, David.
In a major 1912 football game between Army and the Carlisle Indian School, linebacker / running back Cadet Eisenhower made a tackle on Jim Thorpe, but injured his knee and had to end his contact-sports career.
President William Howard Taft’s military aide, Col. Archibald Butt, died in the sinking of RMS Titanic in April 1912.
The sinking of the Titanic was nearly forgotten popular culture by the 1950s, when Walter Lord published A Night to Remember in 1955. It was far more likely for people to remember the Lusitania. After the book, interest in the Titanic continued to grow, while the Lusitania is only mentioned in history classes.
Lusitania was an ancient Roman province covering most of present-day Portugal as well as a part of Spain.
Mark Portugal pitched for the Minnesota Twins (1985-1988), Houston Astros (1989-1993)
San Francisco Giants (1994-1995), Cincinnati Reds (1996), Philadelphia Phillies (1997-1998), and Boston Red Sox (1999), with a career record of 109-95 and an earned run average of 4.03. He won the (somewhat obscure) Silver Slugger Award in 1994, signifying that he was the best-hitting pitcher in baseball that year.
The Silver Sow Award was a fictitious prize given for excellence in farm reporting, particularly that dealing with hogs. Les Nessman, news and farm director of WKRP in Cincinatti won the “coveted” honor several times.
Richard Sanders played Les Nessman and Les Nessman’s mother on WKRP in Cincinatti just as John Inman played Mr. Humphries and Mr. Humphries’ mother on Are You Being Served.
Winnie the Pooh lived under the name of “Sanders.” There was a sign with that name above his den.
In 1960, Alexander Lenard’s translation, Winnie ille Pu, became the only book in Latin ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list.