The Hollywood sign originally read “Hollywoodland,” a housing development in the area.
As Johnny Carson often joked, what tourists usually think of as “Hollywood” - where the studios are based and where films and TV are created - is actually Burbank, California.
JohnnyCarson joined the U.S. Navy on June 8, 1943.While in the Navy, he posted a 10-0 amateur boxing record, with most of his bouts fought on board the USS Pennsylvania. On 07-Dec-1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the USS Pennsylvania was Admiral Kimmel’s fleet flagship at Pearl Harbor but was not moored at “Battleship Row” because it was drydocked at the nearby Navy Yard.
The big band standard “Pennsylvania 6-5000” was named after the phone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City.
Glenn Miller’s big band was the top selling band from 1939 to 1943. Miller joined the US Army to perform for service men and women. In late 1944, Miller’s plane went missing while flying from the UK to France over the English Channel. Miller’s official status is M.I.A. It is suspected his plane was hit by friendly fire.
We had that not too long ago.
Georgia Governor and later U.S. Senator Zell Miller’s campaign slogan was “Zell yes!” A conservative Democrat, Miller gave a speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention that was highly critical of his party and its nominee that year, Sen. John Kerry.
Harry Von Zell was the announcer for The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Also appeared in the show as himself.
Oberon Zell is one of the founder of the Church of All Worlds.
Oberon is the king of the fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Shakespeare coined the phrase “the beast with two backs” meaning intercourse in his play Othello.
Othello was the Moor of Venice
Medieval Venice was an oligarchic republic.
The “Bridge of Sighs” is in Venice, and it’s said that you and your beloved will have true love forever if you kiss while in a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs.
In the final scene of From Russia with Love, James Bond and Tatiana Romanova sail under the Bridge of Sighs in a gondola just before he tosses the film of them having sex into the Grand Canal. The bridge itself was used to take convicted prisoners directly from the city’s courts to jail, hence its name (sighs of depression, rather than romance).
And I played him in my high school’s production of the play!
The main jail in Manhattan, New York City, is called “The Tombs.”
Grant’s Tomb in NYC was completed just in time for the 75th anniversary of US Grant’s birth on April 27, 1897—almost twelve years after the President’s death.
Grant is not buried in Grant’s Tomb.
He and his wife are entombed in the tomb.
The guard takes 21 steps during his walk across the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia, an allusion to the 21-gun salute. For the same reason, he hesitates 21 seconds after his about-face to begin his return walk.
Back in the 1970s, all NFL right guards signed an endorsement deal for one antiperspirant brand. (The brand name is left as an exercise for the reader.)
Two new NFL franchises were created in 1976, the AFC’s Seattle Seahawks and the NFC’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.