Marni Nixon’s singing was dubbed in for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, for Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
Alanis Morissette appeared on Star Search in 1989, but lost to a singing cowboy.
George Gershwin’s last tune: “Love Is Here to Stay,” for the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies.
In the 1944 film To Have or Have Not, Lauren Bacall’s singing was dubbed by Andy Williams.
Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” was never released as a single.
Regis Philbin sings “Pennies from Heaven” on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: The Album.
Clint Eastwood did his own singing in the 1969 film Paint Your Wagon. Jean Seberg’s was dubbed.
The American Film Institute’s top two movie songs of all time: “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Over the Rainbow.”
What song did Hal, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, learn to sing? “A Bicycle Built for Two.”
Dooley Wilson, the piano player Sam in Casablanca, couldn’t play the piano. He sang “As Time Goes By,” but the piano playing was dubbed.
Victor Fleming, the director of The Wizard of Oz, nearly cut “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the film.
Clint Eastwood wrote the theme songs for Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, and Gran Torino.
Love, Sweet Love
Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on TV’s The Dating Game in 1973.
Maud Gonne, William Butler Yeats’s lover, was a founder of the Irish political party Sinn Fein.
Myrna Loy’s second husband was car-rental heir John Hertz Jr.
Singer James Brown’s wife once tried to get her traffic tickets dismissed because of “diplomatic immunity.”
Charles Dickens nicknamed his wife “Dearest Darling Pig.”
Golfer Nick Faldo’s former girlfriend demolished his Porsche with a 9-iron during their breakup.
On a date with Oprah Winfrey in 1986, Roger Ebert urged her to go national with her talk show. Winfrey credits Ebert with launching her career.
John Lennon’s first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
Which celebrity has been married the most times in Las Vegas? Mickey Rooney (eight).
Courteney Cox and David Arquette met on the set of Scream (1996).
Rudolph Valentino was arrested for bigamy in 1922. Charges were later dropped.
Each of Tom Cruise’s three wives was 11 years younger than the previous one.
Tom Selleck was a bachelor on The Dating Game twice. (He wasn’t picked either time.)
Comedian Henny Youngman (“Take my wife, please!”) was happily married for 59 years.
The ancient Greek temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love, was discovered by an archaeologist named Iris Love.
Sports & Leisure
The first permanent concession stand at a baseball stadium was built at Wrigley Field in 1914.
There really is a Southfork Ranch where the TV show Dallas was filmed. It’s 20 miles north of Dallas, Texas, and hosts nearly 1,400 events a year.
The Opera House in Haskell, Vermont, straddles the U.S.-Canada border. The audience sits in the United States, but the stage is in Canada.
The Ohio State University’s stadium holds 101,000 people, almost twice the number of students enrolled there.
It would take you about 200 years to spend a night in every hotel room in Las Vegas.
Oldest surviving Broadway theater: the Lyceum, opened in 1903.
First modern summer Olympic games: Greece, 1896. First winter games: France, 1924.
Philadelphia’s Shibe Park opened in 1909; it was the first baseball stadium made out of concrete and steel.
Minnesota’s Mall of America is the size of 78 football fields—32 jet airplanes could fit inside it.
John XXIII, who was pope from 1958 to 1963, installed a bowling alley in the Vatican.
In 1959, when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev visited Los Angeles, he wanted to go to Disneyland. The city’s police chief wouldn’t allow it because of “security concerns,” which prompted an irate Khrushchev to give a speech wondering if there were nuclear missiles buried beneath the amusement park. (There weren’t, and Khrushchev visited a movie studio instead.)
Body Talk
The human body creates and kills 15 million red blood cells every second.
A cough travels at 600 mph.
The fastest-moving muscle in the human body is the one that opens and closes the eyelid.
Your hair grows about 0.5 inch per month, but it grows a little faster in the summer than in the winter.
A human body decomposes four times faster in water than underground.
A bleeding wound will start to clot in less than 10 seconds.
The human brain continues to send electrical wave signals up to 37 hours after death.
It takes four to six months to regrow an entire fingernail.
You burn about 105 calories in one hour of typing.
All your skin weighs twice as much as your brain.
Movie Miscellany
Average cost of a movie ticket in Havana, Cuba: 10¢.
In Gone With the Wind, if the dates of the battles were correct, Melanie’s pregnancy would have lasted 21 months.
The word “sir” is used 164 times in A Few Good Men (1992).
Rod Steiger chewed 263 packs of gum during the shooting of In the Heat of the Night.
Who was in both The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen? Charles Bronson.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is nearly four hours long, but it has no women in speaking roles.
On average, a movie makes about five times more from its video sales than from its ticket sales.
On her eighth birthday, Shirley Temple received 135,000 presents.
Myra Franklin of Cardiff, Wales, saw The Sound of Music 940 times.
The biggest U.S. film studio is Universal City in Hollywood, with 34 sound stages on 420 acres.
A two-hour movie uses about two miles of film.
Character most often portrayed on-screen: Sherlock Holmes, with more than 200 films.
Edgar Allan Poe has the most works turned into movies (114) of any American writer.
In 1905, the average movie ticket cost 5¢.
Dirty Harry’s badge number is 2211.
And the Winner Is…
Only person nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and a Nobel Peace Prize: Bono.
Winner of the first Oscar for Best Song: “The Continental,” from The Gay Divorcée (1934).
Martin “Hezza” Henton won the 2006 World Music Award for “Most Aggressive Harp Player.”
Carlos Santana won eight Grammys in 2000, the most ever in a single year.
Solo male performer who’s won the most Grammys: composer George Solti, with 31. Female: Alison Krauss, with 26.
Vivien Leigh used her Oscar as a toilet-paper holder.
Roger Clemens has won baseball’s Cy Young Award seven times, in three different decades.
The 1961 Grammy winner for Best New Artist: Bob Newhart.
The trophy for Morocco’s King Hassan Golf Tournament is a jewel-encrusted dagger.
In 1975, Ellen Burstyn was the first person to win an Oscar (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore) and a Tony (Same Time, Next Year) in the same year.
First baseball player to win the league MVP Award while on a last-place team: Andre Dawson of the Cubs (1987).
College football’s Heisman Trophy is named for John William Heisman, an early 20th-century football player and coach.
First Canadian female artist to receive a U.S. gold record: Anne Murray, for “Snowbird” (1970).
The White House, Part 2
Movie screened most often at the White House: High Noon.
Warren G. Harding once lost an entire set of White House china in a poker game.
The White House’s first Web site debuted in 1994.
The bodies of seven presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, have lai
n in state in the East Room.
Very few cut flowers were used in the White House during James K. Polk’s administration (1845–49) because it was a common belief at the time that flowers gave off unhealthy vapors.
The president, First Lady, and others are carefully tracked within the White House. Signals alert the Secret Service and ushers whenever they enter a room.
Lyndon B. Johnson had a helicopter seat refitted for use as his Oval Office desk chair.
Abigail Adams used to hang laundry in the East Room.
Herbert Hoover held the last New Year’s Day reception at the White House in 1932.
John Quincy Adams expanded the White House garden to two acres.
Thomas Jefferson held the first inaugural open house in 1805.
Warren G. Harding had the White House’s first radio installed in 1922.
Andrew Jackson bought 20 spittoons for the East Room.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had White House matches stamped “Stolen from the White House.”
Toon Town
A 30-minute cartoon may contain more than 18,000 drawings.
For The Lion King, Disney animators went to Africa to study the movement of wild animals up close.
First animated cartoon character: Gertie the Trained Dinosaur (1910).
SpongeBob SquarePants creator Steve Hillenburg studied marine biology in college.
Walt Disney introduced the character of Goofy in 1932.
Dumbo is the only Disney animated film with a title character who doesn’t speak.
Donald Duck made his first screen appearance in 1934 in The Wise Little Hen.
Walt Disney’s wife convinced him to name his mouse Mickey instead of Mortimer.
First and last time the Roadrunner spoke: in a 1951 Bugs Bunny cartoon called Operation: Rabbit.
The full name of The Simpsons character Krusty the Klown is Herschel Schmoeckel Krustofski.
According to his “official biography,” Popeye is 34 years old, stands 5'6", and weighs 154 pounds.
Bugs Bunny was named for Warner Bros. animator Bugs Hardaway.
Joe Dougherty, the original voice of Porky the Pig, had a real stuttering problem.
Goofy’s first on-screen appearance: Mickey’s Revue (1932).
About a third of SpongeBob SquarePants fans are adults.
The Japanese have a word for “obsessed anime fan”—otaku.
That Old-Time Religion
Saint Peter (AD 1–64) is regarded as the first pope. There have been 264 popes since.
Texas has more churches than any state in the nation—nearly 17,000.
The first Dead Sea scrolls (created around 100 BC) were found in a cave in 1947 by herdsmen searching for a lost goat.
Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu was once the official church of the Hawaiian kingdom. Some of its services are still given in the Hawaiian language.
Vlad the Impaler, a 15th-century Romanian prince and one of the inspirations for Dracula, studied for the priesthood.
Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) named nearly 500 new saints, more than were named in the previous 500 years.
Woman with the most appearances on the cover of Time magazine: the Virgin Mary.
Robigus is the Roman god of mildew and grain rust.
Sir Isaac Newton was ordained as a priest in the Church of England.
The Aztecs sacrificed up to 15,000 people a year to their sun god.
The religion of India’s Todas people forbids crossing bridges.
Ancient Egyptians worshiped more than 2,000 gods.
Verminus was the Roman god who protected cows against worms.
The Romans believed in numerous household gods and spirits, including Cardea, the goddess of hinges, and Forculus, the god of the doors.
Dentistry
In the 18th century, dentists used rubber for fillings.
Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, practiced dentistry on some of his subjects.
The first woman in the United States to become a certified dentist: Lucy Hobbs Taylor, in 1867.
Doc Holliday was indeed a doctor…specifically, a dentist.
In the early 1900s, most Americans did not brush their teeth regularly.
The ancient Greeks thought that telling lies caused toothaches.
Before striking it rich as a writer of Western novels, Zane Grey had a dentistry practice.
Apollonia, the patron saint of dentists, had her teeth pulled for refusing to renounce Christianity.
According to polls, 40 percent of people who move to a new address change their brand of toothpaste at the same time.
A Chinese toothpaste called S.O.D. promises to “brush away senility.”
Two jobs where customers expect “friendly” breath: dentists and salespeople.
Sugar was first added to chewing gum in 1869…by a dentist.
Most popular toothbrush color: blue.
Every year, about 2,500 people go to the emergency room with “toothbrush injuries.”
Some people are able to pick up AM radio signals through their dental fillings.
Acupuncture uses 388 sites on the body…including 26 just for toothaches.
The First…
…oil well on land owned by the University of Texas was drilled in 1923. The well was dubbed Santa Rita, after the patron saint of the impossible.
…American musical comedy, The Black Crook, opened on Broadway in 1866.
…science-fiction novel: A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne (1864), according to some scholars.
…American bookseller and publisher: Hezekiah Usher, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1639.
…mention of golf in the United States: an edict banning it from the streets of Albany, New York, in 1659.
…recorded human blood transfusion was performed in 1667 by Jean-Baptiste Denys.
…known musical recording: folk song “Au Clair de la Lune,” in 1860.
…museum dedicated to the study of extraterrestrial life: the Alien Museum in Portland, Oregon.
…crossword puzzle collection released: 1924.
…wax figure made by Marie Tussaud was of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in 1778.
…team to fly to a baseball game: the Marysville Merchants (California), in August 1921.
…rock concert was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in March 1952—the Moondog Coronation Ball.
…novel sold in a vending machine: Murder on the Orient Express (1989).
…diet soft drink sold: a type of ginger ale called No-Cal Beverage, in 1952.
…revolving restaurant: atop Seattle’s Space Needle (1961).
One-of-a-Kind Animals
No two Holstein cows have the same pattern of spots.
Elephants are the only animals with four leg joints that all bend in the same direction.
The only marsupial native to North America: the opossum.
Every lion has a unique pattern of whiskers.
A type of flea found in Germany lives and breeds almost exclusively in beer mats (those coasters you get in bars).
Flies are the only flying insects that have two wings. All others have four.
The walrus has only two natural predators—orcas and polar bears.
The Chihuahua is the longest-lived breed of dog. Many live to be as old as 18.
Mormotomyia hirsuta is a type of fly that lives only in a crack at the top of Ukazzi Hill in Kenya.
The whistling swan has the most feathers of any bird—about 25,000.
Days & Times
During most of the 19th century, Americans set their watches to as many as a hundred local times. Standard Time was finally devised in 1883 by Sandford Fleming, a Canadian.
The anno Domini system of counting the years from the birth of Christ began in 525.
The tip of the hour hand on a wristwatch travels at about 0.00000275 miles per hour.
Mahatma Gandhi observed a day of silence on Mondays.
The first TV commercial: a Bulova watch ticking on the screen for exactly 60 second
s.
February 29, or leap day, was once called Bissextile Day.
According to a medieval system of time units, a “moment” is 1½ minutes.
Hindu holy days begin at sunrise, Jewish holy days at sunset, and Christian holy days at midnight.
Author James Joyce always wore five watches, each set to a different time.
When Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, October 4, 1582, was followed by October 15.
London’s Westminster clock tower (Big Ben) chimes part of Handel’s Messiah on the quarter-hour.
October almost always begins on the same day of the week as January. The exception: leap year.
The word February comes from the Latin februum, “to cleanse.”
Actress Tuesday Weld was born on a Friday (August 27, 1943). Her real name is Susan.
The Ruling Class
Japan’s Emperor Akihito is the 125th ruler in an unbroken line that goes back to the first century BC.
The words czar and kaiser are both descended from the word caesar.
The throne of Ethiopia’s Menelik II (1844–1913) was actually an electric chair imported from the United States.
The line of succession to the British throne includes 60 people.
The only English king to die on the battlefield was Richard III, in 1485 during the War of the Roses.
Europe’s longest-reigning monarch…so far: Louis XIV of France. He ruled for 72 years, 3 months, and 15 days.
Eleanor of Aquitaine was the only person to serve as queen of both England and France.
Longest-serving monarch: Pepi II, who ruled Egypt for 94 years between 2278 and 2184 BC.
The eldest son of the king or queen of England is automatically the Duke of Cornwall.
The word khan, as in Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, means “ruler.”
* * *
Football player who made end zone dances famous: Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, a kick returner who played professional football from 1974 to 1988 and spent most of his career with the Houston Oilers and the Atlanta Falcons.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Page 25