Hilo Hattie, who gave her name to a chain of muu-muu shops in Hawaii that any visitor to the islands knows about, was really named Clara Haili. She became famous for her singing and hula dancing, filling the Tapa Room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village nightly before Jim Nabors and then Don Ho took over the gig.
The Big Island, on which Hilo is located (and a very pleasant town it is too), is Hawaii’s largest at 4,038 square miles. It is twice the size of all the other main Hawaiian Islands combined.
The Disney movie Lilo and Stitch takes place in Hawaii.
In Lilo and Stitch the character of Cobra Bubbles, voiced by Ving Rhames, bears a marked resemblance to the gangster he played in Pulp Fiction, right down to the same earring.
“Tiny Bubbles” was Don Ho’s signature song.
(BTW, I saw him and Hilo Hattie back in the early 60s.).
I’d forgotten that - thanks! A nice bit of trivia.
In play:
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II does not have a signature; under British law she has a “sign manual,” typically Elizabeth R (for “regina,” queen in Latin).
Elizabeth Taylor was the first actress to earn US$1 million for a movie role, in Cleopatra (1963).
Marlon Brando was the first actor to be paid one million dollars for a movie role, for The Fugitive Kind in 1960.
The 1960 Democratic National Convention was in Los Angeles. A picture of then-candidate John F. Kennedy greeting mounted LAPD patrol officers was featured in the opening credits of the Dragnet TV series remake.
Broadway on Broadway, a free outdoor concert in Times Square celebrating Broadway musicals, was first held in July of 1992 during the Democratic Nationall Convention. It was so popular it was held for the next 20 years (including September 9, 2001), but has been cancelled this year.
In 1961, extensive discussions between the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Commonwealth Federation, a social democratic party, led to the creation of the New Democratic Party, with Tommy Douglas, Premier of Saskatchewan, as its first federal leader.
Despite the fact that the NDP is now 52 years old, there is no movement to re-consider whether it is still New.
Winston Churchill warned in the 1945 British general election that Labour, which had served in his national unity government during World War II, would necessarily establish some kind of secret police to enforce its socialist plans. It was not his finest hour. Despite this fearmongering, Churchill and the Conservative Party were badly defeated that year, and Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister.
The Kentucky Derby, held at Churchill Downs in Louisville on the first Saturday in May and inaugurated in 1875, is the oldest continuously held horse race in the US. While the Preakness was inaugurated in 1873 and the Belmont in 1867, they took hiatuses from 1891-93 and 1911-12, respectively.
In “Fog on the Barrow-Downs”, the hobbits get captured by wights, rescued by Tom Bombadil, and receive swords of Westerness (plus their ponies, re-named by Tom).
Tom Poston of Newhart fame served in the US Air Corps from 1941-45 and flew over Europe on D-Day.
President Ronald Reagan spoke in Normandy in 1984 on the fortieth anniversary of the D-Day landings, praising the heroic determination of U.S. and Allied troops.
Reagan started eating jelly beans when he gave up smoking in the early 1960’s. On his first day as governor of California, candymaker Henry Rowland gave Reagan a big jar of jelly beans, which Reagan put on the Cabinet Room table. Reagan said: “You can tell a lot about a fella’s character by whether he picks out all of one color or just grabs a handful.” Sometime later he remarked, “Some political figures have endured in history as lions or conquerors or something equally impressive. It’s a little frightening to think California history might record us as jelly beans.”
Henry Winkler played the same character – Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli – on five different series: Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Joanie Loves Chachi.
Henry Winkler also played the Bluth family’s incompetent attorney Barry Zuckercorn on Arrested Development. Eventually he was fired and replaced by Bob Loblaw, played by Scott Baio, whose character Chachi took over for The Fonz in the Happy Days universe. Loblaw told the Bluths “Look, this is not the first time I’ve been brought in to replace Barry Zuckerkorn. I think I can do for you everything he did. Plus, skew younger.”
LOL! Nice in-joke.
William Henry Vodrey was colonel of the 143rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, one of the 90-day regiments called up in the spring of 1864 to support Gen. U.S. Grant in his Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee. The 143rd served on garrison duty in the Washington, D.C. area.