"Valley of the Dolls," Jacqueline Susann's best-selling novel, was originally titled "They Don't Build Statues to Businessmen."
"Big Apple" titles: There are several hundred films that contain the name New York, including Gangs of New York (2000), Naked in New York (1994), New York, New York (1977), New York Stories (1989), The Toast of New York (1937), Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Escape from New York (1981), Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (1975), Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976), Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976), A King in New York (1957), One New York Night (1935), Streets of New York (1939), New York Confidential (1955), Sunday in New York (1964), Little Old New York (1940), The New York Hat (1912), King of New York (1989), Sidewalks of New York (1931), The Killer that Stalked New York (1950), New York Nights (1929), Hercules in New York (1970), The Belle of New York (1952).
In January, 1987, San Francisco station KRON-TV became the first major market TV station in the U.S. to air a condom commercial.
In Japan, a gruesome TV drama series, "Shitsurakuen" (or, "Paradise Lost"), popularized the drinking of red wine. The Japanese demand for red wine exploded when the show's main characters committed suicide by mixing poison with Chateau Margaux. Many Japanese wine drinkers switched from the preferred white to red after the 1997 TV episode aired. Advertising agencies said the macabre show not only pushed red wine sales, but wine glass sales also rose.
In Japan, where kissing was considered ‘unclean, immodest, indecorous, ungraceful, and likely to spread disease' — per Tokyo's Prefect of Police — approximately 800,000 feet of kissing scenes were deleted from American movies released there in 1926.
In Los Angeles in 1921, New Orleans trombonist Kid Ory recorded what most historians feel were the first instrumental jazz records by a Negro band. In 1923, Ory scored another first with his radio broadcasts. Kid Ory trombone solos were so contemporary that he was largely responsible for freeing the trombone from playing glorified tuba parts, allowing the instrument such choices as long, flowing lines of even improvisations with the aid of a plunger mute. Kid Ory's most famous composition "Muskrat Ramble" has become a Dixieland standard.
In March 2000 during the pre-ceremony Academy Award interviews, Tom Cruise confessed that he had never watched an Oscar telecast until long after he was an adult and was pursuing an acting career.
In March, 1986, pop star Michael Jackson received the biggest commercial sponsorship deal in history at that time from Pepsi-Cola. He was paid $15 million up front to appear in two TV commercials, and Pepsi agreed to sponsor his first solo tour. Also, a 1984 Pepsi sponsorship of $7 million was split among the other Jackson brothers.
In music, a hemidemisemiquaver is a sixty-fourth note.
In November 1998, Johnathan Lee Iverson became, at age 22, the youngest and the first black ringmaster in the 129-year history of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
In October 1993, the deliberately tasteless Beavis and Butt-head, MTV's animated top-rated series, was attacked for allegedly inspiring a 5-year-old child to start a fatal fire. In response, MTV agreed to run the controversial show in a later time spot and the writers agreed not to use references to fires in the future.
In October, 1994, Amtrak railways cancelled $2 million in advertising with "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to retaliate against the frequent jokes Leno told on the show about the railway. Amtrak had complained several times, demanding that the wisecracks be stopped. Leno continued to take potshots, prompting Amtrak's cancellation.
The play The Clouds (423 B.C.) by Aristophanes is a comedy, the butt of which is tragedy writer Sophocles, whom the playwright mocks.
The popular band The Police was originally known as Strontium 90.
The Professor on Gilligan's Island was named Roy Hinkley. The Skipper was named Jonas Grumby. Both names were used only once in the entire series, on the first episode.
The Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood is where Vincente Minnelli proposed to Judy Garland. It is also where Marilyn Monroe met her future husband Joe DiMaggio on a blind date, when the Grill’s predecessor, the Villa Nova Restaurant, was here.
The real name of director Stanley Kubrick was Terrence Nezman. His parents changed it on the second day after he was born.
In Spain, the TV drama "Beverly Hills, 90210" has a more romantic title: it is called "Sensation of Living."
The role of bumbling French Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther (1964) was originally written for Peter Ustinov, who dropped out before filming began. Following his successes in Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and The World of Henry Orient, Peter Sellers was cast. Although the part was only a supporting role in the first of the Pink Panther series, Sellers' extraordinary gift for comedy immediately elevated the role to that of lead for the six other Panther sequels.
In the Mork and Mindy series, the capital city of Mork's home planet, Ork, was Kork.
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