Leo Szilard was one of a group of Hungarian Jewish physicists and mathematicians who emigrated to the US in the early 20th century. He nicknamed the group, who included Theodore von Kármán, John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller and Paul Erdős, “The Martians”, which suggested that Hungary was a front for aliens from Mars. Wiki adds:
Chess, a musical by Tim Rice and Benny & Bjorn of ABBA fame, has yet to have a really successful run anywhere. Nevertheless, there have been three productions done in Budapest, Hungary.
Budapest originated as the Roman fort Aquincum. In 1873, the cities of Buda and Obuda, on the west bank of the Danube, were formally merged with Pest, on the east bank. Prominent residents have included composers Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, physicists Leo Szaliard and Edward Teller, and all-purpose celebrities Eva, Zsa Zas and Magda Gabor.
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is one of the leading American virtuosi of the banjo, as leader of the bluegrass group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. His New Yorker parents named him after Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček, all of the Romantic period.
Cool story! My parents lived in Princeton, N.J. in the Fifties, and my mom remembers seeing Einstein riding his bike around town.
The New Yorker magazine is embodied by the cartoon dandy Eustace Tilley, created by Rea Irvin (who also designed the magazine’s distinctive typeface). Tilley debuted on the very first cover of the magazine, in 1925, and reappears on anniversary issues.
Singer Jack Jones (perhaps best known for crooning the Love Boat theme) appeared in a 1975 commercial for the Chrysler New Yorker.
John Singer Sargent painted Theodore Roosevelt’s official portrait. The story goes that the two walked around the White House for quite awhile, looking for a suitable backdrop, and had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs when the President expressed his frustration at not having found just the right place. Sargent turned, saw him, and immediately knew he had his pose.
R. Sargent Shriver, the brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy, served as the first director of the Peace Corps and first director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. He later replaced Thomas Eagleton as Democratic vice presidential candidate with presidential nominee George McGovern in 1972. His daughter, Maria Shriver, is married to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John F. Kennedy rose to the rank of Star Scout in the Boy Scouts of America; Gerald Ford rose to the rank of Eagle Scout, the only President to have done so.
Gerald Ford was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. After his parents divorced the year he was born (1913), the boy’s mother married Gerald Rudolff Ford in 1916, and Leslie Jr. became Gerald Jr. He eventually changed the spelling of his middle name to the more conventional “Rudolph”.
Gerald Ford was one of two Presidents to have changed his family name (not counting Barack Obama Jr. having been referred to by a stepfather as “Barry Soetoro”). William Jefferson Blythe III dropped the name of the father who had died before his birth to honor his stepfather, Roger Clinton.
James Goldman’s novel Myself as Witness is set during the last years of the life of King John, a character whose adolescence Goldman wrote about in his play The Lion in Winter. The narrator of the novel is Father Gerald, a Welsh monk and historian better known by his Latin name of Giraldus Cambrensis.
King John
Put up a notice,
"LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES
MORRISON’S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HABE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN TO THE END OF
THE TOWN - FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!
“Disobedience” by A. A. Milne – author of Winnie the Pooh
King John of Bohemia was known as John the Blind. He died while fighting in the Battle of Crécy at the age of 50, a decade after he had lost his sight.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen reached #2 on the Billboard charts in 1992 after being featured in the movie Wayne’s World. That’s higher than the songs original peak of #9 in 1976.
Lady Jane Grey, caught in the middle of political battles, was named Queen of England for nine days before being disposed.
(Thanks, Chuck, now I have the Chad Mitchell Trio version of “James James Morrison Morrison” in my head.)
Earl Grey Tea, flavored with bergamot oil, is named for the second Earl Grey, UK Prime Minister in the 1830’s, who legendarily received a gift of it from a Chinese diplomat in gratitude for an Englishman’s saving his son from drowning.
Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of the starship USS Enterprise often ordered tea from the replicator in his Ready Room with the soon-to-become-a-catchphrase command, “Tea, Earl Grey, hot.”
William Shatner did a rap version of the “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech from Julius Caesar in the movie Free Enterprise
Shatner starred in the 1965 horror film Incubus, the second feature ever to be performed in Esperanto (after the 1964 Angoroj). He performed the role phonetically, emoting with no regard for his lines’ actual meaning, preparing him well for his future roles. 