Singer Bill Murray was one of the most popular artists of the early recording era, performing such songs as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Harrigan,” “In My Merry Oldsmobile,” and “Come Josephine in my Flying Machine.” He faded after the electric microphone allowed for the “crooning” style of singing.
Over the course of his movie career, American actor Bill Murray has played a world-weary actor (Lost in Translation), a cynical TV weatherman (Groundhog Day), an oceanic explorer (The Life Aquatic), a paranormal investigator (Ghostbusters), a prep school benefactor (Rushmore) and a country club groundskeeper (Caddyshack), among other noteworthy roles.
Bill Murray was uncredited for his supporting role in Tootsie. Dustin Hoffman however was credited twice for that movie - once as Michael Dorsey and once as Dorothy Michaels.
Brothers Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey were both prominent musicians and bandleaders during the Big Band era. They both died young (at ages 53 and 51, respectively), within a few months of one another.
Tommy Dorsey signed the then unknown Frank Sinatra to a contract as band singer which guaranteed Dorsey half of Sinatra’s earnings for life should Sinatra leave before the contract ended. When Sinatra became super popular and received very lucrative solo offers Dorsey made it clear he would hold him to the contract, turning down a six figure offer to let him buy out the contract but ultimately settling for a few thousand dollars. Rumors that Sinatra’s pal Sam Giancana helped “convince” Dorsey to reconsider were fictionalized as part of Johnny Fontaine’s backstory in The Godfather.
In the movie, Hear My Song, Adrian Dunbar plays the owner of a night club whose reputation is fading after booking acts like Frank Cinatra [not a typo]. He books “Mr. X,” who claims to be famed Irish tenor Josef Locke, who has left the UK to avoid taxes. When Mr. X turns out to be a fraud, Dunbar has to go to Ireland to convince Locke to perform a concert.
Sam Gianacana allegedly had a long-term affair with Phyllis McGuire, the youngest of the McGuire Sisters, a popular 1950’s singing trio. The group, who performed for Queen Elizabeth II and presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and G.H.W Bush, was known for singing in tight harmony, in identical costumes, with synchronized movement.
The McGuire Sisters (Christine and Dorothy are the others) performed at the inauguration of President George H.W. Bush in 1989.
Martin Van Buren and George H.W. Bush are the only two men to have been elected President while still serving as Vice President.
Twin sisters Esther Pauline “Eppie” Friedman and Pauline Esther (“Popo”) Friedman of Sioux City, Iowa both became famous, and bitterly competing, syndicated advice columnists, under the respective names Ann Landers and Abigail “Abby” Van Buren. John Prine wrote the song “Dear Abby” as a satire of the genre.
Napoleon’s sister Pauline was in some ways the family black sheep due to her indiscreet affairs and such stunts as posing for a nude statue, but she was the only one of Napoleon’s close relatives to visit him during his banishment to Elba and attempted to receive permission to visit St. Helena but was refused. (During her funeral the nude statue was placed on her coffin.)
Jerry Samuels recorded the novelty tune “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha!” using the name “Napoleon XIV.” The song made it to #3 on the charts. The flip side was the “!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er’yehT”
Napoleon McCallum, Napoleon Kaufman, and Napoleon Harris have all played for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.
And John Adams. :smack: What I meant to say was, it didn’t happen at all between Van Buren and Bush.
Richard Harris was the first actor to play Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies; after his death, Michael Gambon took on the role.
Richard Harris’s son Jared plays Lane Pryce, a partner in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, on AMC’s Mad Men; Michael Gambon’s son Fergus is an appraiser on Antiques Road Show (and has a half brother 45 years his junior).
The Simpsons’ episode “Treehouse of Horror XIX”, which first aired in the United States on November 2, 2008, included a segment called “How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising”. The segment, an adaptation of the Mad Men animated title sequence, was the inspiration of executive producer Al Jean; it featured a “rotund, lunchbox-carrying figure, undoubtedly Homer Simpson, entering a living room and then floating past windows bearing Springfield-centric displays that include a Duff Beer ad,” with the theme music of Mad Men on the soundtrack.
Although Fox has not licensed Duff Beer, copyright-violating knockoffs are now sold in the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Germany and Spain.
On his TV sitcom, Drew Carey and Cleveland friends Oswald, Lewis, and Kate ran a microbrewery that produced Buzz Beer, with highly-caffeinated coffee mixed in to counteract the depressive effect of the alcohol.
Christina Aguilera, Drew Carey, Janet Jackson, Tommy Lee, Axl Rose, and Kristen Stewart all have a pierced nipple.
Edward Stratemeyer formed the Stratemeyer Syndicate to publish what would now be call young adult novels, in series featuring a long list of characters who became embedded in popular culture like the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, the Happy Hollisters., and Nancy Drew.