Keanu Reeves played bass for the garage band Dogstar, which nobody would ever have heard of it not for his name. The band originally called themselves Small Fecal Matter, and then BFS (Big Fucking Shit, or Big Fucking Sound), before settling on Dogstar, after Mailhouse found the name in the book Sexus, written by Henry Miller.
The parody show Forbidden Hollywood had actors portraying Keanu Reeves, Juliette Lewis and Melanie Griffin singing “We Shouldn’y Be In Pictures,” to the tune of “You Ought To Be In Pictures.”
Lewis and Clark got the weaponry and other equipment for their Corps of Discovery from the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va., later the scene of John Brown’s abortive slave uprising.
Good Morning, World was a short-lived TV series about the adventures of morning DJs Dave Lewis and Larry Clark, most notable because it was the first regular TV role for Goldie Hawn. The show was still airing epsodes when Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In made Hawn a star, making her one of the few actors who appeared on two different shows on two networks at the same time.
I assume you mean Melanie Griffith.
In play: During World War II, Dan Rowan flew Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters and shot down two Japanese aircraft. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart, the latter for being seriously wounded when his plane was downed over New Guinea.
Ed McMahon was trained as a fighter pilot in the Marines, but did not get his orders overseas before Hiroshima. He returned to active service in Korea, flying 85 combat missions unarmed Cessna O-1 Bird Dog artillery spotter planes. HMcMahon eventually retired from the Reserves as a Brigadier General, so he could devote more of his time to inanely chuckling at Johnny Carson’s quips on “The Tonight Show”. Well, the job did pay better …
Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de Mac-Mahon, 1st Duke of Magentam was president of France from 1873-1879, the first president under the constitution of the Third Republic.
The color magenta was originally called fuchsine. Printers obtained it from coal tar dyes starting in 1859. The name was soon changed in honor of the Battle of Magenta fought at Magenta on June 4 of that year in the Second Italian War of Independence, due to the color of the land covered by the blood of the casualties of the battle.
The battles of Lexington and Yorktown, the first and last major battles of the American War of Independence, were both memorialized by having U.S. Navy aircraft carriers named after them, both of which served with distinction in the Second World War.
Thailand’s HTMS Chakri Naruebet is the smallest aircraft carrier in operation in the world. You can compare her with the USS Kitty Hawk here.
Wilbur and Orville Wright actually made their first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills, four miles from Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk, however, had a telegraph office, from which they were able to send the news to their father.
Although Kitty Carlisle’s early (and later-life) career was in film, most notably opposite the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera, with some minor singing roles, she is best known as a long-time panelist (1957-78) on “To Tell the Truth”, hosted by Bud Collyer. She was married to playwright/producer Moss Hart.
Don Adams was cast as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the TV series Get Smart after Tom Poston, regular To Tell the Truth panelist, rejected the role.
John Quincy Adams served as his father’s assistant and as a diplomat before his election as President of the United States. He later served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the only former President to do so.
Quincy, Illinois, on the Mississippi River, is the county seat of Adams County. Both are named for JQA. The town square was originally named John Square, to complete the name. Joseph Smith led 5000 Mormon emigres through there on the way to their stop in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain, is less than 25 miles from Quincy IL
In the Broadway musical “Damn Yankees”, based on the Faust legend, Washington Senators fan Joe Hardy sells his soul to “Mr. Applegate” to become a star player who leads his team to the pennant. He created a backstory for his player which included his being from Hannibal, making it into the show as the number “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.”.
Fred Applegate pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1904, his only season in the majors. His lone victory was over the Washington Senators.
Author Gore Vidal grew up in Washington, D.C., often serving as a “seeing eye boy” for his grandfather Thomas Pryor Gore, a senator from Oklahoma who went blind due to two separate accidents.
Singer Judy Collins’s father Charles Collins went blind at the age of 4. He hosted a radio show about music during the golden age of radio.