Ben Johnson, a genuine cowboy who was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, won an Oscar for playing “Sam the Lion” in The Last Picture Show.
Johnson’s first jobs in show biz involved stunt work, and John Ford often used him as a stand-in for John Wayne.
American historian Robert Caro, who has spent decades researching and writing about President Lyndon B. Johnson, was persona non grata to the staff of the LBJ Library for several years, but is once again on good terms with them.
Pledge furniture polish, Windex, Raid insect spray, Fantastik, Ziploc bags, Drano, Glade air fresheners and Saran Wrap are all products of the family-owned S.C. Johnson company, which was long known as Johnson Wax.
Ziploc bags were first named and sold as such in 1968 by the Dow Chemical Corporation.
Robert F. Kennedy spoke to a mostly-black crowd of voters in Indianapolis, Ind. on the night in April 1968 that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. The crowd did not know that King had been killed, and Kennedy had to tell them, and then called for peace and racial harmony in the U.S.
Robert De Niro was the second actor to win an Oscar for portraying Vito Corleone. He and Marlon Brando are the only two actors ever to win an Oscar for playing the same character.
Marlon Brando, late in life, morbidly obese and under virtual house arrest by his family so that he would be forced to lose weight, would sometimes pay neighborhood kids to buy cheeseburgers for him and throw them over the backyard fence.
Cheeseburgers were supposedly first served in 1934 at Kaelin’s restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. However, Louis Ballast of Denver, Colorado filed a trademark for the name “cheeseburger” in 1936 but never enforced it.
Jimmy Buffett took a long boat trip on the Caribbean Sea and subsisted on canned food and peanut butter. He eventually dreamed of eating a cheeseburger in paradise, and did, at the end of his journey.
Jummy Page was the fourth and final lead guitarist of the Yardbirds. The third was Jeff Beck and the second was Eric Clapton, but the first (and least famous) was Anthony Topham.
Sir Topham Hatt is the head of the railroad on the Island of Sodor in the Thomas the Tank Engine media empire of books, TV shows and movies.
H.R. Pufnstuf and Witchie Poo reside on Living Island.
Before producing “H.R. Pufnstuf”, Sid and Marty Krofft had been best known for creating the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera’s series “Banana Splits,” featuring four musicians in gorilla suits riding around on undersized ATV’s. Their inspiration from Ernie Kovacs’ Nairobi Trio sketches on his own show is obvious.
“Witchy Woman” is the only single from the band’s debut album The Eagles to feature Don Henley as the lead vocalist.
Only Bingo was a gorilla. The other Banana Splits were Drooper (lion), Snorky (elephant) and Fleegle (dog).
In play: Barry White was the real-life lead vocalist for the group’s song “Doin’ the Banana Split”.
Barry White was a guest voice (as himself) on The Simpsons’ episode, “Whacking Day.”
The mother of Alan Kooi Simpson (former Senator) has the same surname as Bote Willem Kooi, expert on the mechanics of the bow and arrow.
Baseball player Harry Simpson was given the nickname “Suitcase,” not because he was frequently traded as is often thought, but after the Toonerville Folks character of Suitcase Simpson. The comic strip version was so named because of his large feet, and Harry’s size 13s inspired the nickname.
In 1860, Simpson College was founded by members of the Iowa United Methodist Church. It is located about12 miles south of Des Moines.
Until 1985, when Roger Staubach and O.J. Simpson were both inducted, there were no Heisman Trophy winners in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.