14 year old Sarah Brightman made her West End debut in the musical I and Albert. The British theatre magazine Plays and Players that carried the review of this show also carried the review of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s only flop, Jeeves. 10 years later Brightman and Lloyd Webber would get married, after he divorced his first wife Sarah and she divorced her first husband Andrew.
At the 1933 Oscar dinner, Will Rogers as toastmaster announced the winner of Best Director, saying, “Well, well, well. What do you know. I’ve watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Come on up and get it, Frank!” Frank Capra rose and began a triumphant walk to the podium – only to notice the Rogers had been looking at Frank Lloyd. Capra had to slink back to his table, abashed.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright dumped his wife and kids for his mistress, scandalizing society of the day and nearly destroying his career.
Samara, a house in West Lafayette, Indiana, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house’s original owner, John Christian, still lives there. When he decided to hire Wright, Christian called Frank’s office, and was surprised when the architect himself answered the phone.
Samara, Russia, at the confluence of the Samara and Volga Rivers, was named Kuybuyshev during the Soviet period after an early Bolshevik leader. It was designated as the new capital of the USSR in case Moscow fell to the Germans, and was later closed to foreigners due to its military industry.
The colors of the Russian Federation’s flag, like those of the United States, United Kingdom and France, are red, white and blue.
In England’s War of the Roses, supporters of the rival houses of Lancaster and York wore badges that looked like roses. The red badge symbolized the house of Lancaster and the white represented the house of York.
And that of Thailand.
The Black Rose was sometimes used as a code name for Ireland, when English laws prohibited direct references to Ireland as a sovereign nation.
When auditions were being held for The Golden Girls, the producers wanted Rue McClanahan to read for Rose as she had just portrayed Maude’s dimwitted friend Vivien and Betty White for Blanche, as she had just portrayed the man hungry Sue Anne on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Rue was reading the script while Betty was reading for the producers, and realized she knew exactly how to lay Blanche and wondered how she could get to read for the part. The producers came out and said “Sorry, Rue, but Betty read for Rose and she is perfect for the role.”
And the rest is TV history.
Actually, neither side in the Wars of the Roses used a rose as their primary emblem. The House of York (under Edward IV) used “The Sun in Splendor”: three suns in the sky (Note the line in Richard III: “the glorious sun of York”). Richard III used a boar.
The House of Lancaster did have a rose as a secondary emblem, but not their primary one, and red roses did not exist during the time involved. The legend come from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I, where the participants uses roses to identify themselves. The scene was used by Sir Walter Scott to name the struggles, “The Wars of the Roses”; prior to that, they were referred to as “The Cousins’ War.”
It’s that damned Hollywood casting couch all over again!
A new seedling of the White Tree of Gondor was planted in the Court of the King at Minas Tirith after Elessar of the Royal House of Telcontar, the man formerly known as Aragorn, at long last took the throne of Gondor and Arnor in the final book of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.
J.R.R. Tolkien was a linguist as well as an author. He wrote The Lord of the Rings partly to provide a setting for stories in his constructed Elvish languages.
Tolkien was born in South Africa to English parents, and largely raised in Great Britain. He lost several close friends while serving in the British Army during World War I.
During the Union of South Africa years, the country had four provinces – the Boer-dominated Orange Free State and Transvaal, plus the former British colonies of Natal and Cape of Good Hope.
The plot of 1989’s Lethal Weapon 2, reuniting Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as LAPD officers and Joe Pesci as comic relief, centers around a scheme to smuggle Krugerrands out of South Africa, shipping them via the fictional Transvaal Lines. Joss Ackland plays an RSA official behind the plan, and Patsy Kensit had a gratuitous topless scene.
Artist Charles Dana Gibson created “the Gibson Girl,” the ideal of femininity in 19th Century America.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, RAF, commanded the 617 squadron, the “Dambusters”, in the Operation Chastise bombing raid on the Möhne and Edersee Dams using Avro Lancaster bombers at very low altitude, using specially-developed “bouncing bombs”. Gibson was played by Richard Todd in the 1955 film, which was notable both for composer Eric Coates’ “Dambusters March” and for the name of Gibson’s black dog. It has not been decided if Peter Jackson will retain the name in his planned remake.
Peter Jackson was originally due to have been the producer of the two-movie series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but when production fell years behind schedule due to New Line Cinema’s and MGM’s various legal and funding issues, director Guillermo Del Toro dropped out, and Jackson will now direct the movies after all.
The introduction to the Superman radio show – “Yes, Superman. Strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way” – was spoken by radio announcer Jackson Beck. Beck also narrated Woody Allen’s, Take the Money and Run and voiced Bluto for some Popeye cartoons.
The character of Bluto was first introduced in the *Popeye *comic strip, then carried over to the cartoon series, which was produced by Max Fleischer – who also produced the Superman cartoons.