Mozambique was once known as Portuguese East Africa.
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck led the German forces in German East Africa during World War I. Von Lettow-Vorbeck knew that what happened in Africa was meaningless in the context of the war fought primarily in Europe, so set up a guerrilla campaign whose primary goal was to force the British to send troops to East Africa at the expense of the Western Front.
Roald Dahl’s first military experience came when he was a young customer service agent for Shell Oil in Tanganyika (which had been German East Africa before the Great War). When WW2 started, he was made an officer of the King’s African Rifles, commanding a platoon of native Askaris, and assigned to round up the remaining Germans in Dar es Salaam.
Roald Dahl became a writer quite accidentally. C. S. Forrestor asked him to write up his notes on being a fighter pilot so he could put them in story form and submit them to the Saturday Evening Post for publication.
Two weeks after Dahl had submitted his “notes,” he got a letter from Forrestor:
I asked you to submit notes, not a story. I was blown away. This is the work of a gifted writer. I submitted it to my agent, who sold it to the Post for $1,000. He took his 10%. A check for $900 is enclosed.
Dahl’s first thought was “It can’t be that easy.”
Actress Arlene Dahl had six husbands, the most noteworthy of whom was Fernando Lamas, the father of her son Lorenzo. Dahl was also married to Lex Barker (who later wed Lana Turner) and winemaker Alexis Lichine.
Lex Barker is best known for his portrayal of Tarzan, a role he played in five movies between 1949 and 1953.
Game show host Bob Barker got his big break in 1956 when Ralph Edwards chose him to host Edwards’ Truth or Consequences. Barker, the son of a missionary school teacher, spent much of his childhood at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
“Rosebud” was the last word of Charles Foster Kane and also, by 70+ year old rumor, William Randolph Hearst’s nickname for mistress Marion Davies’ naughty bits.
London-born Michael Davies was the executive producer of the U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from 1999-2010. He is also the producer of ESPN’s 2 Minute Drill, VH1’s World Series of Pop Culture, CBS’s Power of 10, and the GSN originals: Chain Reaction, Grand Slam, and GSN’s remake of The Newlywed Game. He also wrote a blog on the 2006 World Cup for espn.com.
Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks pronounce their last name “Davis.”
Dean Martin’s daughter Deana said that Davy Jones of *The Monkees *was her father’s handpicked escort for her in the mid 1960s because Dean was under the mistaken assumption Jones was gay (he was short, English, and polite after all). Far from it, Jones was something of a hetero horndog, but his friendship with Deana was platonic, in part because he was afraid of her father.
Both Dino Martin’s sister Gina and Billy Hinsche’s sister Annie were married to Beach Boy Carl Wilson, If he had married Lucie Arnaz, he would have hit the Dino, Desi & Billy trifecta.
Desi (Ricky Ricardo) Arnaz’s maternal grandfather, Alberto de Acha, was one of the three founders of Bacardi Rum.
The first issue of TV Guide appeared on April 3, 1953. On the cover was Lucille Ball with her newborn son, Desi Arnaz Jr.
Lucille Ball appeared with the Marx Brothers in their film Room Service. Ball later bought the studio that made the film (RKO) and renamed it Desilu.
Desilu owned the “40 Acres” backlot that GONE WITH THE WIND was filmed at. Selznick (who had a long term lease on the lot during the 30s and 40s) burned the KING KONG gates and other old sets for the burning of Atlanta sequences of GWTW. Andy Griffith, Gomer Pyle, Star Trek, Hogans Heroesand The Untouchables were some of the many shows filmed in the streets of Atlanta sets built for GWTW. (The dilapidated Tara mansion remained in full view on a rise at the end of the street until it was dismantled in 1960.)
Spike Lee named his film production company 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, after a short-lived initiative by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to redistribute captured lands in the GA and SC coastal areas to former slaves, who would also be given surplus Army mules.
Two performers have each appeared in nine Spike Lee films – Joie Lee (the director’s sister) and John Turturro.
Spike Lee’s first film She’s Gotta Have It had a budget a budget of $175,000, and was shot in two weeks. Lee financed it by maxing out his credit cards. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 in the USA alone.
The 60s comic book “Sugar and Spike” was a long running non-superhero comic about two babies who could talk to one another in baby talk, which adults couldn’t understand (except for their grandfather, who was in his second childhood).