Mel Brooks was taught to play drums by Buddy Rich, who was about nine years older and had grown up in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn from which Mel also hailed.
When Carl Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show he based the character of Maurice “Buddy” Sorrell in part on Mel Brooks. Brooks and Reiner had worked together on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows.
Another Your Show of Shows alumnus was Neil Simon, who based his play Laughter on the 23rd Floor on his experiences as a member of Caesar’s stable of writers.
The film comedy My Favorite Year was also loosely based on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, with lead Peter O’Toole even more loosely based on Erroll Flynn (best line: “I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star!”).
England has twice had a “Year of Three Kings” - 1483 (Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III) and 1936 (George V, Edward VIII, and George VI).
The Tre Kronor (Three Crowns) symbol of Sweden is of obscure origin, but may represent the 14th-century union under Magnus Eriksson of the kingdoms of Sweden, Scania, and Norway.
“They’re Down On Their Luck And Up To Their Necks In Senoritas, Margaritas, Banditos And Bullets!” was the tagline for Three Amigos, which starred Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase,
The U.S. has twice had a “Year of Three Presidents” - 1841 (Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler) and 1881 (Hayes, Garfield, Arthur).
1536 was the Year of Three Queens: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
Long Island in New York consists of four counties: Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk.
Nassau Hall, the oldest continuously-used building at Princeton University, was occupied by British troops during the 1777 Battle of Princeton. Campus lore has it that the redcoats lost heart and surrendered when a Continental Army cannonball decapitated the portrait of King George III there.
After his abdication as King Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor served during World War II in Nassau as Governor of the Bahamas. He was accompanied by his wife, the former Wallis Warfield Simpson.
After his surrender in the Revolutionary War, General Cornwallis was appointed as both commander-in-chief of British India and governor of the presidency of Fort William, also known as the Bengal presidency. Based in Calcutta, he oversaw the consolidation of British control over much of peninsular India, setting the stage for the British Raj.
This title of the musical Oh! Calcutta is a French pun, “O quel cul t’as!” French for “What an arse you have!”.
Calcutta is an unincorporated area of St. Clair Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. It is a shopping and residential district just north of East Liverpool, the county’s largest city.
Liverpool is the name of a department store chain in Mexico that was founded in 1847 by a Frenchman as The Cloth Case. The name was changed in 1872 when most of the stores merchandise was European in origin and shipped through Liverpool, England.
Ulysses S. Grant was in Mexico during the Mexican War, where he took part in most of the major battles (as a quartermaster, so he didn’t see much action). After the war ended, he visited Popocatépetl as a tourist, though his appearance in a military uniform caused some consternation. During the Civil War, one of his first encampments was also in Mexico – Mexico, Illinois.
During the homesteading period in western Canada, settlers who complied with the homestead requirements of the Dominion Lands Act received their land by a grant from the Crown.
The Dominion, an alien empire run by shapeshifters, was a particularly dangerous foe of the United Federation of Planets in the last several seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The Dominion of Newfoundland existed from 1907 to 1949, then was incorporated into the Dominion of Canada as a province.