Natalie Wood rehearsed for her striptease in the film Gypsy (1962) for a month. She finally did so well, "Life" magazine reported, that Gypsy Rose Lee herself, watching Wood on the movie set, burst into tears of nostalgia.
New footage of the 1931 horror classic, Frankenstein, was found in January 1986. It depicted the monster, played by Boris Karloff, throwing a girl into a lake and showed a hypodermic needle in the monster's arm. The scenes had been excised because they were considered too shocking for provincial 1930's audiences. They have since been put back in and the film has been re-released.
Nineteen countries around the world are producing their own versions of Sesame Street. Chinese children also tune in to the American children's classic TV show Sesame Street. But there it's called "Zhima Jie." Da Niao, Big Bird's Chinese cousin, is played by a gentle young man who still works as a truck mechanic. The other characters are all Chinese: a lively three-year-old red monster called Little Plum; a furry blue pig; a kindly grandfather; a very sweet mother; and a little boy, An An.
Bigger than life: Of his 50-year film career, John Wayne once said, "I can't remember if I've made 200 or 400 films." In 1956, "The Duke" was the highest paid actor in the world, and Time magazine labeled him "the biggest moneymaker in movie history."
Blackmail, Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 masterpiece, was the first British sound film
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), starring Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, and Robert Taylor, opened in West Germany movie houses 42 years after it had been produced in the U.S. The pre-WWII film had received an Oscar for dance direction, and had been a nominee that year for Best Picture and Best Writing. Quaintly dated, the film didn't appear in West Germany until December 1977.
Cash or charge? Before they became famous, many entertainers worked in sales. Among them, Johnny Cash sold appliances, Rue McClanahan sold blouses, Boris Karloff sold real estate, Leonard Nimoy sold vacuum cleaners, and George Takei sold men's ties.
Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison, made its greatly-anticipated world premiere in 1963. It was one of the most lengthy (4 hours, 3 minutes) and expensive ($40 million) pictures of all time. Adjusting for inflation, the film would cost $212.8 million to produce in 1998 dollars. Cleopatra was also one of Hollywood's biggest money-losers. The extravagant film did not begin to recoup its expenses until many years after its initial release, when the television rights were sold.
Grand Illusion was the first foreign language film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
Inherit the Wind, starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly, is one of Hollywood's more thought-provoking films. Based on a true story, teacher John T. Scopes went on trial ("The Scopes Monkey Trial") in 1925. In a kind of carnival atmosphere, newsmen from all over the world descended upon the small courtroom, sending off millions of words about the famous trial. Scopes had been accused of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Scopes, who oddly did not take the stand in his own defense, was convicted and fined $100. Later, the young teacher became an engineer for a gas utility. Shortly before his death in 1970, Scopes told a reporter that he knew very little about evolution; he had merely taken over for an ill colleague and subbed for him for a week or so. "Actually," he mused about his past brush with fame and Hollywood, "I doubt very much that I taught that high school class any evolution at all."
t's all in the family: Film star Alan Ladd and his son David both appeared in the 1958 film The Proud Rebel. David was 11 years old at the time, and appeared in a number of mediocre films before trying his hand at film producing. David married Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor, who changed her professional name to Cheryl Ladd. They were married from 1974 to 1980. Previously, David had been married to Dey Young, the sister of actress of Leigh Taylor-Young.
Kazatsky (also spelled kazatski and kazatska) is the popular, vigorous Russian folk dance performed by a man. It is characterized by a step in which, from a squatting position, each leg is alternately kicked out.
King Kong is the first movie to have its sequel (Son of Kong) released the same year (1933).
Kings of the Road: Before they became famous in the entertainment industry, these people all worked as truck drivers: Stephen J. Cannell, Robert Conrad, k.d. lang, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, Desi Arnaz, and Elvis Presley. James Cameron worked as a truck driver and a school bus driver before becoming a successful film director (The Terminator, Titanic).
Lilies of the Field (1963), starring Oscar winner Sidney Poitier, had several different working titles while the film was in production. Among them was The Amen Man and Piety in the Sky.
M*A*S*H army surgeon Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce hailed from Crab Apple Cove, Maine.
Star Trek's Mr. Spock had green skin because of traces of copper and nickel in his blood.
Take a look under the hood? Before they became famous, some entertainers worked as auto mechanics, including Clark Gable, Jay Leno, Sebastian Cabot, and George Peppard.
The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan was a Saturday morning cartoon TV show in 1972 which featured the Oriental sleuth Charlie Chan and his large family who solved crimes with the help of a transforming van. Ten-year-old Jodie Foster supplied the voice of daughter Anne Chan.
The Muppet Show was banned from TV in Saudi Arabia because one of its stars was a pig.
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