James Earl Jones made his first vocal appearance on The Simpsons in the first “Treehouse of Horror” episode, where he was heard in all three segments, the only special guest voice to date who holds that distinction: as the moving man in “Bad Dream House,” Serak the preparer in “Hungry Are the Damned” and the narrator in “The Raven.” He later voiced an alternate-universe Maggie in “Treehouse of Horror V” and the closing narrator in “Das Bus,” explaining that the children were rescued by, “…oh, let’s say Moe.”
When Bleeding Gums Murphy speaks to Lisa from a cloud, he is joined by Mufasa from The Lion King, Darth Vader, and a CNN announcer: all voice-over roles originally portrayed by James Earl Jones, but in this instance all there were a voice imitarion of Jones by Harry Shearer
In 1957, Harry Shearer appeared in the pilot episode of *Leave It to Beaver *as Wally’s sneaky friend “Frankie.” Shearer’s family did not want him to be tied down in a series, so the part was recast with Ken Osmond as “Eddie Haskell.”
Three novelizations of the Leave it to Beaver TV series were written by noted children’s author Beverly Cleary, best known for her “Ramona Quimby” novels.
Beverly Cleary, born on April 12, 1916, is still alive at age 94! In addition to her books for children and adolescents, she has penned two marvelous memoirs of her own childhood and adolescence, A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.
The 1943 film Reveille with Beverly was loosely inspired by the LA morning radio show hosted by Jean Ruth “Beverly” Hay to help get war plant workers pepped up for the day. The film featured cameos by a number of musicians “Beverly” played on her show, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, The Mills Brothers, Bob Crosby, Vernon Alley, Freddie Slack, and Ella Mae Morse.
Johnny Carson claimed to have the entire score and most of the dialogue memorized by the end of his service on Guam, where there was apparently little variety in the film selection.
The Mills Brothers were the first African-Americans to have a series on network radio (CBS, 1930) and the first African-Americans to give a command performance before British royalty (King George V and Queen Mary, 1934).
The King George V class of British battleships during World War II included HMS King George V, Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Anson, and Howe. HMS Prince of Wales is the only one lost during the war; the others were eventually scrapped.
The Beatles song “All Together Now” begins with a countdown of 1-2-3-4.
The Beatles recognized biological children are Dhani Harrison (1), Julian & Sean Lennon (2), Zak, Jason & Lee Starkey (3), and Mary, Stella, James & Beatrice McCartney (4).
Two important Beatle stepchildren are Heather (See) McCartney, Linda McCartney’s daughter by her first husband who was raised by Paul, and Kyoko Cox who was Yoko’s daughter by her second husband. Yoko’s ex-husband Tony Cox abducted Kyoko in 1972 and she was estranged from her mother for 25 years; for 10 years she and her father lived off the grid, then Yoko agreed to stop seeking custody as she felt it best for Kyoko to be able to live openly with her father. Mother and daughter reunited in 1997 and Yoko has announced she is leaving a substantial portion of her enormous estate to Kyoko’s children.
There’s also Francesca Gregonni, Barbara Bach’s daughter by her first husband, and Ringo Starr’s stepdaughter. She’s a singer, songwriter and film director, and also a lesbian who dated and was engaged to Portia de Rossi, but was dumped when de Rossie met Ellen DeGeneres.
The cast of “Glee” has recently taken the record for most songs placed on the Billboard Top 100 chart by a group, with 75, passing the Beatles’ former record of 71.
Your Hit Parade was a radio and television program that featured the most popular songs of the week. Singers over the show’s lifetime included Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Johnny Mercer, Dinah Shore, Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson and Giselle MacKenzie. A 1957 episode was the first program ever to feature NBC’s “peacock” logo.
Dorothy Love Coates was a noted gospel singer/songwriter in Birmingham, Ala. in the 1950s. She was often urged to record pop or soul tunes, but always refused, saying that her voice was intended solely to praise the Lord. Perhaps her best-known song today is “Strange Man,” about Jesus’s forgiveness. (Great song, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkxN6moLPw).
Birmingham, AL, a postbellum steel mill city, boasted “The Heaviest Corner on Earth” in the years prior to World War I when several builders competed with each other to have the tallest skyscraper in the city, all of them built and reinforced with steel manufactured in and near B’ham. Birmingham was considered a major target for Axis bombers during World War II as it is one of the few places on earth where iron ore, coal, and limestone (the ingredients in steel) appear close together.
Aside/Not for Play:Many Alabamians when referring to statements about Alabama end sentences with “not counting Birmingham” as it’s much more “northern metropolis” than the rest of the state in size, atmosphere, lack of Civil War history, and culture. An example: “Fried Vidalia onions are a staple of Alabama cuisine, not counting Birmingham” or “Alabama is known for its hospitality, not counting Birmingham”. Similarly Courtney Cox is one of several Alabama born celebrities not really counted as Alabamian since she’s from a wealthy suburban family in B’ham- that doesn’t count.
There have been three U.S. Navy warships named USS Birmingham, the latest of which was a Los Angeles-class nuclear fast attack submarine decommissioned in 1997. Footage of the sub was used in the movie The Hunt for Red October.
Jaguar Cars’ factory at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham was used to produce Spitfire fighters in the war. Like Landrover, Jaguar is now owned by the India-based Tata industrial conglomerate (and Tata is pretty bodacious), having been sold by Ford after horrendous losses trying to fix it.
Jaguar started as the Swallow Sidecar Company, and kept the name even after it moved to the manufacture of passenger motorcars. The firm switched to Jaguar after World War II rendered the “SS” initials marketing poison in Britain.
Schwalbe, or Swallow, was the official name of the Messerschmitt Me-262, the first operational jet fighter. One of them appeared on the cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1974 album “Secret Treaties”, which included a song titled “Me-262” about its pilot’s thoughts on a bomber interception mission.
Blue Öyster Cult’s song “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” was spoofed on Saturday Night Live in a celebrated April 2000 skit that had Christopher Walken demanding “More cowbell!” from Will Ferrell, who wrote the skit.
Blue Oyster Cult was written up in Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia before they ever recorded an album, under their original name, Soft White Underbelly.
The only other group in the book that had not recorded an album when the book was written in 1969 was The Vagrants, whose guitarist, Leslie West, released a solo album, Mountain, soon afterwards. The name of the album then became the name of the group he fronted.