Montana’s official state animal is the grizzly bear.
For many years, though laymen referred to pandas as bears, zoologists classified the giant panda as a member of the raccoon family. More recently, DNA testing has shown that the panda is, in fact, a bear.
Rocky Raccoon went into his room, only to find Gideon’s bible.
The Old Testament battle leader Gideon from the Book of Judges had 72 sons; 70 were slain by their younger brother Abimalech, who spared his brother Jotham. King Ahab is another OT character who had 70 sons murdered in a power grab.
Guys and Dolls was selected as the winner of the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. However, since one of the playwrights had been condemned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, no Pulitzer for Drama was awarded that year. Sky Masterson, played by Marlon Brando in the film version, mentions Gideon’s Bible in one scene.
Sinatra’s behavior on the set of Guys and Dolls was described as awful and was largely because he was jealous of Brando being cast as Sky Masterson when Sky was cooler and had better songs than Sinatra’s Nathan Detroit. \At that his behavior was better than during the few days he spent as the star of the movie Carousel, which he quit following a tantrum over pay, requiring his scenes to be reshot with Gordon MacRae.
Frank Sinatra introduced Judith Campbell Exner (née Judith Eileen Katherine Immoor) to both John F. Kennedy and Sam Giancana (né Salvatore Giangana). She later claimed to have served as courier, transporting cash from the President to the head of Chicago’s Mob.
The original Courier typeface, decided by Howard “Bud” Kettler, was commissioned by IBM for use on the Selectric typewriter family, but the company decided not to preserve it as intellectual property, allowing it to become a universal standard. The font was nearly released with the name “Messenger.” After giving it some thought, Kettler said, “A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.”
Dr. Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, is the only medical doctor known to have run for the Presidential nomination of a major party.
Character actor William Pierson played Dean Travers, a dean at Jack’s culinary institute who was fascinated by Jack’s living situation, on several episodes of Three’s Company.
William Peterson, star and executive producer of the hit TV series CSI, was a longtime member of Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theater. Peterson gave the Steppenwolf Theater’s co-founder, Gary Sinise, the lead role in the spinoff series CSI: NY.
President Theodore Roosevelt’s eldest daughter, Alice, accompanied then-Secretary of War William Howard Taft on a goodwill tour of the Far East. The charming and vivacious young Alice got all the attention.
Some biographers attribute the often repeated joke “If you can’t say anything nice about someone, come sit by me” to Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Whether she originated or not, she had it embroidered on a pillow she kept on her sofa.
A cover of Australian band New World’s song “Living Next Door to Alice” by the Dutch band Gompie added the lyrics “Alice? Who the fuck is Alice?” into what had been an instrumental bar at the end of the chorus. That version was immediately covered by Smokie, who had previously released a faithful version, then later a parody cover with comedian Chubby Brown, for three versions in all.
Kevin Bloody Wilson wrote a parody of the the classic Australian rock son Eagle Rock entitled My Beer’s Cut Off.
Chief Wild Eagle, played by Frank DeKova, was the leader of the Hekawi Indian tribe, on the sitcom F Troop.
The show’s writers were trying to slip an old dirty joke past the censors- they originally called the Indian tribe the “Fukawi.” (The Indian tribe in the joke had gotten lost, and their desperate inquiry “Where the f–k are we?” was misinterpreted as “We’re the Fukawi.”)
Eventually, censors got wise and the milder name “Hekawi” was substituted.
When Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim were writing the song “Officer Krupe” for West Side Story, they wanted to end with “Gee, Officer Krupe…fuck you.” As unbelievable as it seems now, in 1957 it would have been judged “obscene” and the cast album would not have been able to be distributed across state lines!
Sondheim was ranting about what word could be used instead of “fuck” and still have the same impact. He couldn’t come up with anything, and was extremely frustrated about it. Finally Bernstein sang “Gee Officer Krupe…krup you.” It was the perfect word.
Leonard Bernstein’s last original score for Broadway was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a musical about race relations under various presidents from John Adams to Theodore Roosevelt with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. It starred the same actor/actress as every one of the dozen first couples it featured. It closed after seven performances.
Nitpick: Officer Krupke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq28qCklEHc
John Adams, as Vice President and President of the Senate, wanted to take part in debates there during the First Congress, but the Senate adopted rules prohibiting him - or any later Vice President - from doing so.
Actor Don Adams was born Donald James Yarmy and went on to play agent Maxwell Smart in the TV series Get Smart from 1965-1970. Adams is a Marine veteran of WWII (“is”, not “was” - once a Marine, always a Marine!). After his service in the Pacific Theater Adams came back states-side and served as a Drill Instructor.
(I can’t even begin to imagine being a recruit in his platoon while he, as a D.I., would verbally dress someone down and make fun of him with his comedic wit - it would’ve been very hard to keep a straight face, I imagine)