Margaret Dumont’s godfather was Joel Chandler Harris, the associate editor of the Atlanta Constitution best known as author of the Uncle Remus stories.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton was a Nova Scotia lawyer, politician and judge who wrote the first best selling novels in Canada. He sat in both the Nova Scotia Legislature and later in the British House of Commons.
Jon Cryer was originally offered the role of Chandler Bing in Friends.
Friends, or Quakers are a religious society that was founded in England in the mid-1700’s. In 1877 the Quaker Oats Company in Ravenna, Ohio registered it’s trademark of a “man in Quaker garb” providing us with one of the most recognizable and enduring advertising images in history.
Al Hodge, who created the role of the Green Hornet on radio and played the title role in Captain Video and his Video Rangers, was born in Ravenna, Ohio.
Hodge v. The Queen is a foundational constitutional law case in Canada. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council held that under the division of powers, matters or activities which in some aspects may come within federal jurisdiction may in other aspects come within provincial jurisdiction. This principle is commonly called the “double aspect doctrine.”
Hodge was the name of Samuel Johnson’s favorite cat and is immortalized as a statue in London.
Sherlock Holmes occasionally referred to Dr. John H. Watson, his friend, companion and amanuensis, as “my Boswell,” likening him to James Boswell, the man who filled the same roles for the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson.
In 1934, the New Orleans-raised singers known as the Boswell Sisters recorded a song most notable for its name – “Rock and Roll”.
Although “The Chapel of Love” was the biggest hit by The Dixie Cups, composed of New Orleans sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson, they also charted with “Iko Iko”, a minor (and uncredited) remake of James “Sugar Boy” Crawford’s “Jockomo”. Sung largely in creole patois, it tells the story of an encounter between two Mardi Gras black “Indian tribes”.
Despite their name, Dixie Cups are not of Southern origin, but were developed by Bostonians Lawrence Luellen and Hugh Moore. Originally marketed as Health Kups, their renaming was inspired by the Dixie Doll Company of New York.
Blues Musician Taj Mahal became known for his long and odd song titles like “She Caught the Katy (and Left Me a Mule to Ride),” “Going Up to the Country and Paint My Mailbox Blue,” “Ain’t Gwine Whistle Dixie Any Mo’,”“You’re Going to Need Somebody on Your Bond,” and “You Ain’t No Street Walker Mama, Honey but I Sure Do Love the Way You Strut Your Stuff”
The world’s longest song title is “The Sad But True Story Of Ray Mingus, The Lumberjack Of Bulk Rock City, And His Never Slacking Stribe In Exploiting The So Far Undiscovered Areas Of The Intention To Bodily Intercourse From The Opposite Species Of His Kind, During Intake Of All The Mental Condition That Could Be Derived From Fermentation” by Rednex, a Swedish techno-folk bluegrass band.
The shortest album title of which I’m aware is So by Peter Gabriel, released in 1986. It remains the best-selling album of Gabriel’s career.
The record for the world’s shortest poem is held by Muhammad Ali. It goes “Me? Whee!”
Ali MacGraw got her footprints embedded in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in 1972 after appearing in only 4 movies.
Former model and actress Ali MacGraw’s mother was of Hungarian Jewish background and her father was of Scottish descent. She was born in New York State in either 1938 or 1939.
Paul Newman’s father was of Hungarian Jewish descent and his mother was a Hungarian Catholic.
Eliza Doolittle scored a triumph in My Fair Lady by fooling language expert Zoltan Karpathy, who does not realize she is a cockney and decides her accent shows her to be Hungarian.
Jimmy Doolittle’s raid against the Japanese mainland, 18 April 1942, was an important victory for morale despite that it did little damage and all aircraft were lost. Most of the crewmen were rescued, though those who landed in Soviet Union, a U.S. ally, were interned. The Japanese massacred 250,000 Chinese in retaliation for Chinese aid to downed crew from the raid.