The song “Civilization,” written by Carl Sigman and Bob Hilliard for the musical Angel in the WIngs, is more commonly known as “Bongo Bongo Bongo (I Don’t Wanna Leave the Congo)”
Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans includes what was originally called Congo Square, since it was the spot where slaves and free blacks would congregate on Sundays toplay music, sing, dance, and socialize.
Louis Armstrong was also greatly concerned with his health and bodily functions. He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, a practice he advocated both to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way. Armstrong’s laxative of preference in his younger days was Pluto Water, but he then became an enthusiastic convert when he discovered the herbal remedy Swiss Kriss. He would extol its virtues to anyone who would listen and pass out packets to everyone he encountered, including members of the British Royal Family. (Armstrong also appeared in humorous, albeit risqué, cards that he had printed to send out to friends; the cards bore a picture of him sitting on a toilet—as viewed through a keyhole—with the slogan “Satch says, ‘Leave it all behind ya!’”) The cards have sometimes been incorrectly described as ads for Swiss Kriss.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong flew several fighter jets during his Navy career, but as a research pilot he also flew the B-47 Stratojet and the KC-135 Stratotanker.
Neil Armstrong, a Navy veteran and the first man to walk on the Moon, was given a burial at sea from the stern of the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea on September 14, 2012.
A man impersonating Gary Oldman discussed the *Man on the Moon *project with an unsuspecting Danny DeVito for months and even submitted an audition tape to Milos Forman. The real Gary Oldman had passed the role of Andy Kaufman months earlier, and became aware of the scam after he found his name listed as one of the actors auditioning for the part.
Singer Karla DeVito is the wife of actor Robby Benson. The couple collaborated on the song “We Are Not Alone”, which was featured in the film The Breakfast Club.
Robby Benson starred in the film of the hit song Ode to Billy Joe, directed and produced by Max “Jethro” Baer, Jr… In the movie Benson has a homosexual experience with a character played by James “Roscoe P. Coltrane” Best.
It is often reported that Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s career as an actor ended with a series of rape trials and that he died forgotten. In fact, Arbuckle was in the midst of starring in a series of successful shorts and was on his way back up when he died in 1933.
(The legend that his box office clout faltered after the scandal is not entirely true. Actually his films were making just as much money as they had been before the scandal; the problem was that with all the scathing headlines about him, studios were reluctant about putting him under contract and so he had problems getting work.)
On 05 Jan 1933, construction began on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his first inaugural address, in which he famously declared that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1933.
The state of Washington is one of only seven that do not levy a personal income tax.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka “Galloping Gertie”) connects Tacoma WA to Gig Harbor WA. Galloping Gertie is known for its infamous collapse on a windy day on 07 Nov 1940. Suspension bridges since then are built much more safely thanks to Galloping Gertie’s experience.
Myrtle Bennett murdered her husband John in 1929 after he was unable to make his four spades contract. The Bridge Table Murder case captured popular attention and was publicized further in Bridge World magazine and the New York Journal, both analyzing how the hand might have been better played and thus the crime avoided.
In 1929 the German airship Graf Zeppelin flew around the world in 21 days.
FASA’s role-playing game materials for Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 included reference to a non-canonical Constitution-class starship USS Graf Zeppelin.
In 1987, 4-year old Cecilia Cichan was the only survivor of the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255.
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Paul Simon has performed his 1970 hit Cecilia with the cast of Stomp in recent years.
Carrie Fisher said the breakup of her marriage to Paul Simon was due at least partly to the feelings created when her father, Eddie Fisher, left her and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor, while Carrie was a child.