Rock Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., in Winnetka, Illinois in 1925.
Bob Haggart and Ray Bauduc of the Bob Crosby Orchestra wrote, performed, and popularized the jazz tune “Big Noise from Winnetka”, performed only by whistling, a bass, and a drum set.
Thanks, Eutychus, for enlightening me about the Pizza Planet truck. Cool.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s home is the neoclassical Severance Hall, in the University Circle area of Cleveland, Ohio.
Grover Cleveland avoided service in the Civil War by paying someone else to take his place- a common and perfectly legal arrangement at the time.
The campaign for the 1888 election in which incumbent Grover Cleveland ultimately lost to Benjamin Harrison (before being returned to the White House four years later) provides the backdrop of the Disney film The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band.
Cleveland’s election in 1884 was one of the dirtiest in US history. Cleveland was charged with fathering a child out of wedlock (he was smart enough to admit to it, defusing the issue), but Republicans chanted “Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?” Cleveland supporters meanwhile went after Republican candidate Blaine with the chant, “Blane, Blane, James G. Blane. The continental liar from the state of Maine” and “Burn this letter!” (referring to a scandal). Blane ended up losing because someone called the Democratic party the party of “Rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” The “Romanism” lost the Catholic vote and especially the Irish Catholic vote, which went heavily for Cleveland, giving the key state of New York to Cleveland.
Winston Churchill once (apocryphally) described the traditions of the Royal Navy as “Rum, sodomy, and the lash”.
Rum Tum Tugger, who was merely a finicky and indecisive cat in T.S. Eliot’s poem, is generally played as a preening, Mick Jaggeresque rock star cat in productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats.”
Rum was indeed a popular drink in the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy. Gaining promotion, fame and fortune in the Navy are important themes in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion. Two of Austen’s brothers served in the Navy, both eventually rising to the rank of admiral.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has been filmed a number of times, including in a Bollywood version titled “Bride and Prejudice” starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson.
Martin Sheen is now appearing in a Los Angeles revival of the Frank D. Gilroy-written drama The Subject of Roses, playing the father of the character he played in its original 1964 staging.
Jane Austen’s brother Henry wrote that the author liked dancing “and excelled at it.” Austen herself was proud of her talent as a seamstress.
Martin Sheen appeared in a TV commercial as the older version of his son, Charlie Sheen.
The two Sheens also appeared in Wall Street as father and son, and in a scene of Hot Shots! that parodied the elder Sheen’s role in Apocalypse Now.
Nitpick: The correct title is The Subject Was Roses.
Back to the game:
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen gained fame through writing, radio broadcasting, and appearing on television. His program Life is Worth Living debuted on the old DuMont Network in 1951 and ran until '57.
The vaudeville act of Gallagher and Shean, one of the top acts of the 1910’s and 20’s, was based around their song “Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean”, and its famous refrain “Absolutely, Mister Gallagher? Positively, Mister Shean!”.
Actress Megan Gallagher, a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, appeared twice on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and once on Voyager.
The name Megan is short for Margaret, which means “pearl.”
Margaret Thatcher was the first female leader of the Conservative Party and the first female British prime minister. Her death was prematurely and erroneously announced a few weeks ago.
Abe Vigoda, who played Sal Tessio in The Godfather, & Fish in Barney Miller is often the subject of humorous false death rumors.