Winston cigarettes’s slogan “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” was sharply criticized for bad grammar, using “like” instead of “as a cigarette should.” The company countered with a commercial asking “What do you want, good grammar or good taste?” MAD Magazine published a parody of this on the back cover of its January 1971 issue; set in a cemetery, it featured four tombstones with epitaphs written in the past tense (“What did you want, good grammar or lung cancer?” and ending with “I wanted to live longer”).
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) was the film debut of Jonathan Winters.
Jonathan Winters’ last film was Smurf 2(2013). He was the voice of Papa Smurf.
Jonathan Winters made a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy as the couple’s baby.
Ronald Le Roy Overacker became a movie star while still an infant, with the stage name of Baby Leroy. He was often paired as a foil to W. C. Fields, who supposedly hated working with him because Baby Leroy would upstage him.
W. C. Fields was the original choice for the title role in the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. It’s usually reported he turned it down because it wasn’t enough money.
Jason Ritter made his film debut in the 1990 TV movie The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story as Harry Neal Baum. Jason’s real life father John played the title role.
After leaving the White House and returning to Independence, Mo., Harry Truman would pick up trash left on the lawn of his house.
Harry Truman was the recipient of the first Medicare card, personally issued to him by Lyndon Johnson at the signing ceremony in Independence, Missouri.
He probably wouldn’t want Medicare, but indeterminately-ancient evil billionaire C. Montgomery Burns once, on The Simpsons, recited his Social Security number: “0-0-0 0-0 0-0-0-2,” after which he muttered, “Damn Roosevelt.”
In the film Iron Man, as proof of her theory that Tony Stark wouldn’t last long without her, Pepper Potts asked Stark to recite his Social Security number. He thought for a long moment, and then said, “5.” “5? Missing just a few digits there.”
In the silver age Iron Man comics, Pepper Potts married Stark’s chauffeur, Happy Hogan, in 1967. They stayed married until Hogan’s death in 2006.
Albert “Happy” Chandler was the second commissioner of baseball. His support of Branch Rickey’s promoting Jackie Robinson to the majors was essential in breaking the color line: Chandler could have voided Robinson’s contract if he so desired (his predecessor certainly would have), and when teams made racial slurs against Robinson, Chandler threatened them with disciplinary action.
Jackie Kennedy, widow of President Kennedy, refused to change out of her blood-spattered clothing on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas, and waited until she returned to the White House that night.
British actress Laura Keene, star of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater, raced to the Presidential box and cradled President Lincoln’s head in her lap anguish. She kept her blood- and brain-matter-stained dress afterward, publicly displaying it. Part of the dress is now in the Smithsonian.
What’s “lap anguish”?
A total of 63 stars appear on the U.S. Presidential flag - 50 in a circle around the eagle, representing the 50 current states, and 13 arrayed over the eagle’s head, representing the original 13 states.
nm
[probably “lap in anguish”]
Um, yes. Damn edit feature …
in play:
Stars of '63 was a Beatles album that featured an Introduction, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You, Money, Roll Over Beethoven, You Really Got A Hold On Me, She Loves You, Twist & Shout and an Interview.
Ludwig van Beethoven suffered from textbook symptoms of lead poisoning. Hair samples have revealed lead in concentrations 100 times that of normal.