Hugh Hefner’s younger brother Keith hosted two local children’s TV shows in his career. Mr. Toby’s Tip Top Merry Go Round was seen weekday evenings on WAAM/WJZ TV Channel13 in Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1950s. And he was the fourth and last host/performer (JJ Jellybean) of WABC TV Channel 7 NYC’s Time For Fun!/The Johnny Jellybean Show weekday afternoons and mornings from 1958-60.
President Reagan said that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he ate jellybeans.
Ronald Reagan, a Democrat turned Republican, was born in Illinois but moved west to political prominence in California. Barack Obama, a Democrat his entire adult life, was born in Hawaii but moved east to political prominence in Illinois.
Ka Lae, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is the southernmost point in the US. It is located at 18:54:49 N 155:41:00 W. There is a constant 27 knots per hour wind blowing east to west, 24 hours per day and 365 days per year.
Among the sitcoms which had an episode set in Hawaii were The Brady Bunch, Sanford and Son, and I Dream of Jeannie.
Sanford, Florida, where George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, is also the southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto-Train, providing overnight nonstop service for you *and *your car from the Washington suburb of Lorton, Virginia.
Dean Martin’s favorite reading matter was reportedly superhero comic books.
Martin Luther King Jr., as a child, sang with his church’s choir at the segregated Atlanta premiere of Gone with the Wind.
“Dust in the Wind”, from the album Point of Know Return, was one of the least typical songs for prog-rockers Kansas but still their top-selling hit, even more so than “Carry On, Wayward Son”. Although the title and key lyric is reminiscent of Genesis 3:19 ("…for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."), it actually comes from a book of Native American poetry he was reading.
There have been just two warships named USS Kansas, a gunboat during the Civil War and a battleship sent around the world with the Great White Fleet by President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas, displays over 2,000 pieces of Ozophilia, incorporating items relating to the books, the musical stage productions and the movies.
The musical adaption of Wicked was so popular that Gregory Maquire wrote three sequels:
The Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz.
“By the Pricking of my Thumbs” was Agatha Christie’s last Tommy and Tuppence mystery. The title comes from a line in Macbeth: “By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes.” It is said by one the witches, referring to Macbeth himself, who by this stage in the play is thoroughly steeped in gore.
Julie Christie’s father ran a tea plantation in Assam, India, where she was born and raised.
“Julie, don’t go!” was the catchphrase in Wayne and Shuster’s sketch, Rinse the Blood Off my Toga, a send-up of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Simon & Schuster’s publishing house began by selling crossword puzzle books. They remain the preeminent U.S. publisher of the genre. Their Pocket Books line were the first paperbacks published in the U.S.
The original logo for Pocket Books was a mother kangaroo, with a joey in her pouch, reading a book.
Rolf Harris dropped the verse “Let me Abos go loose, Lou / They’re of no further use” from his song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” due to negative public reaction. Reaction was much more positive to his cover of “Stairway to Heaven” set to the tune and instrumentation of his earlier hit. The first verse is based on the poem “The Dying Stockman” by “Banjo” Paterson, best known for “Waltzing Matilda”.
Richard Harris was knighted by Denmark in 1985.
James Harris became the first Black player to start an entire season at quarterback for an American pro football league when he was the QB for the Buffalo Bills in 1968. He was also the first black QB to start and win a playoff game in 1972.