Thomas Jefferson was so deeply in debt at the time of his death, largely because of his endless redesigning and rebuilding of Monticello, that his heirs had to sell many of his slaves, breaking up several families (the existence of which were not recognized under Virginia law at the time).
Darlene, the honors student played by Robin Givens (later Mrs. Mike Tyson, briefly) on the 1980s sitcom Head of the Class, was a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings; George Jefferson once claimed to be on The Jeffersons but wasn’t.
While Bob Kane gets nearly all the credit for Batman, in the early days much of the art was done by Jerry Robinson (who chose the name Robin, supposedly from “Robin Hood,” though its similarity to his own last name is suspicious). Bill Finger wrote most of the early stories and created the Joker (though Robinson did show them a playing card and based the character’s appearance on that of Conrad Veight in The Man Who Laughs).
Kane created the characters, but pretty much stepped aside from the writing and drawing of the strip to act more as editor.
Jerry Orbach, perhaps best known for his long-running role as a NYPD detective on Law & Order, appeared briefly in the barbershop scene of the 1955 Marlon Brando/Frank Sinatra movie Guys and Dolls. He sang one solo line during “The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game.”
Jerry Orbach the voice of Lumière in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as well as being a noted musical theatre star; most notably Chuck Baxter in the original production of Promises, Promises (for which he won a Tony Award), Julian Marsh in 42nd Street, and Billy Flynn in the original production of Chicago.
He conquered both musical theatre and dramatic roles.
The songs for the musical 42nd Street were written by Harry Warren, one of the great composers of the 30s. He was not mentioned in fliers and posters for the show, but that’s not unusual for Warren, who, despite writing many classic songs and winning several Best Song Oscars, tends to be overlooked even by people familiar with his music.
(Haven’t we done that one a couple of times already?)
Manhattan’s 42nd Street connects the United Nations, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, the NY Public Library, Times Square, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and the Circle Line docks. Its intersection with Broadway was the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental road.
The Pyare Square Building, located on the west side of Madison, Wisconsin, is a cylindrically-shaped office building, which received its name as a pun on its circular shape (Pyare Square -> pi*R^2).
The Capitol Records building in Hollywood, the first cylindrical office building, designed in 1955, resembles a stack of vinyl 45-rpm records in a jukebox, although architect Welton Becket denied that it was his intent. The blinking light on its roof spells “Hollywood” in Morse code.
The killing of Thomas a Becket inspired T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral which was performed by NASA astronauts (with commentary by Walter Cronkite and Kathaine Hepburn) on a SCTV sketch.
Despite the fact that Eliot wrote some classic serious poems and theater pieces, nowadays the most valuable of all his literary efforts is his throwaway book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
Eliot Ness led the Treasury Department prohibition-enforcement team nicknamed “The Untouchables” for their alleged incorruptibility. His best-known activity was targeting and finally nabbing famed gangster Al Capone, albeit for tax evasion. Robert Stack played him on the TV series “The Untouchables”, and Kevin Costner played him in the film remake.
Eliot Ness later served as public safety director of Cleveland, Ohio, and is buried in Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery, along with President James A. Garfield, Lincoln aide and U.S. Secretary of State John M. Hay, and billionaire tycoon John D. Rockefeller.
The US was granted the right to build the Panama canal only two weeks after Panama declared independence from Colombia (at the US’s urging). The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, establishing this, was signed in Washington DC, and Bunau-Varilla at the time had been in exile from Panama for 17 years. He never returned to Panama, since he was French and only moved to Panama to oversee an earlier canal attempt.
The first major attempt at a canal across Central America was financed by Cornelius Vanderbilt (g-g-g-grandfather of Anderson Cooper) who was hoping to dominate the California Gold Rush traffic. His plan would have connected the two coasts of Nicaragua by widening rivers, using Lake Nicaragua, and original canal building as necessary. It never came to fruition for several reasons (among them treachery by Vanderbilt’s partners- they paid dearly), though the failure was good news from an ecological standpoint as the plan would have destroyed much of Nicaragua’s ecosystem.
Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador merged from 1896 to 1898 under the name “República Mayor de Centroamérica” (Greater Republic of Central America), in an attempt to revive the earlier República Federal de Centroamérica (1823-1838) which included Guatemala and Costa Rica and part of Mexico as well. Both were born of worries about possible Mexican expansionism. Although no longer united, the nations of the region did form a military alliance that fended off American pro-slavery filibuster William Walker in the 1850’s, although Walker did briefly gain control of Nicaragua.
Dennis Martinez, who pitched most notably for the Baltimore Orioles during his career, was the first native of Nicaragua to play in baseball’s major leagues. Martinez also holds the record (245) for most victories by a pitcher who never won 20 in any single season.
On March 12, 1951, Hank Ketchum’s comic strip Dennis the Menace debuted in the US. Three days later, a second strip named Dennis the Menace debuted in the UK. To avoid confusion, the US strip was renamed for British consumption as Dennis the Pickle, later shortened to Dennis.
Justin Berfield who played 2nd brother Reese on Malcolm in the Middle was an early favorite for the role of Annakin in The Phantom Menace but a growth spurt took him out of the warning; the role went to Jake Lloyd (who is 3 years younger) instead.
Interesting. How so?
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was written by Alex Haley (later to go on to fame for Roots), based on more than 50 in-depth interviews he conducted with the black activist for over two years before Malcolm’s February 1965 assassination.