Wally Schirra, Walter Cronkite, and Arthur C. Clarke were CBS’s lead broadcasters of the Apollo 11 mission.
Wally Schirra was played by Lance Henriksen in The Right Stuff.
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Because they generally weren’t permitted to pilot their space capsules, the Mercury astronauts referred to themselves as “SPAM in a can.” The only astronaut who attempted to maneuver his capsule was Gordon Cooper, who all but ran out of fuel long before the mission was supposed to be over.
While almost detested in US culture, SPAM is just about a staple food in Hawaii. You can even get SPAM sushi (or SPAM musubi) there.
During WWII, the little keys attached to each can of SPAM were discontinued “for the duration” in to order to conserve metal for the war effort. Tons of SPAM were sent to the USSR under Lend-Lease, and some old-timers there remember it fondly to this day.
US Hwy 1 connects the Florida keys and ends at Key West. While key means “little island”, there are big keys (Key Largo) and little keys (Missouri Key).
{If you haven’t done this pretty drive you need to add it to your list.}
In Carl Hiaasen’s novels about Florida, former Governor Clinton Tyree (aka “Skink,” aka “Captain”) sometimes enjoyed his existence as a hermit in the Crocodile Lakes National Wildlife Refuge on Key Largo.
The symbol on Lacoste shirts, usually referred to as a alligator, is actually a crocodile, so chosen because that was Rene Lacoste’s nickname when he was playing championship tennis. He won seven grand slam singles championships and was also the first to play using a tubular steel racquet.
The term “tubular”, meaning excellent or good, emerged from surfing lingo into popular usage in the 80’s - it refers to the tube created by large breaking waves.
“Tubular Bells” was the debut record album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973, and the first album released by Virgin Records. The opening piano solo was used as a soundtrack to The Exorcist (released the same year) and gained considerable airplay because of this.
Mike Oldfield was the creative mind behind the album Amarok, comprising a single sixty-minute track of uninterrupted music, and designed to be just as much of an irritation to the record company as it was a delight to his fans.
The Martin Handford comic game known as Where’s Waldo? in the U.S. and Canada originated/is published as Where’s Wally? in the U.K., where Wally is alsoa slang for a stupid person.
The term “waldo,” meaning a remote manipulator arm, was coined by Robert A. Heinlein as a device used by the title character of his story, “Waldo.”
In Mr. Magoo cartoons and comic strips, Waldo is the name of Quincy Magoo’s nephew.
Mr. Magoo was voiced by Jim Backus, who played millionaire Thurston Howell III on “Gilligan’s Island.” On that show, he was the only cast member who was allowed to ad-lib his lines, which were often better than what was written in the script.
Natalie Schafer, who played Lovey Howell on Gilligan’s Island, successfully concealed her real age (she was born in 1900) for many years. She managed to outlive Jim Backus, who was 13 years younger than her.
Natalie Schafer’s only real-life husband was Louis Calhern, who played the title role in the 1953 film version of Julius Caesar which starred Marlon Brando as Mark Antony.
The script for Apocalypse Now was incomplete when Marlon Brando arrived on-set in the Philippines, so director Francis Ford Coppola had Brando ad lib by the hour because he was being paid so much anyway.
Jocely Brando was Marlon’s sister and also an actor. She played Glenn Ford’s wife in “The Big Heat.”