The short story was called The Greatest Gift and was inspired by a dream Stern had one night in the 1930s.  Stern, already an accomplished author at this point, albeit a historical author, then proceeded to write the 4,000 word short story about a man named George who was going to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge, but was stopped when someone happened by and struck up a conversation with him.  The mysterious person eventually learns that George wishes he’d never been born and grants George his wish.  George soon discovers that no one he knows recognizes him and that many of the people he’d known were worse off in their lives because he had never existed.  Most prominent among these was his little brother who had drowned because he had not been there to save him.    George eventually gets the stranger to change everything back to the way it was and is now glad to be alive.

Stern initially sought to find a publisher for his short, 21 page story, but failed in this endeavor, so decided to make a “Christmas Card” style gift out of it and printed 200 copies which he sent out to friends and family in December of 1943.  This ended up being a gift that gave back, as the work eventually found its way into the hands of producer David Hempstead who worked for RKO Pictures.  RKO pictures then paid Stern $10,000 (around $124,000 today) for the motion picture rights to the story, just four months after Stern had sent it out.  Various adaptations were then written before the screenplay version of the story was sold to Frank Capra’s production company in 1945, also for $10,000.  Capra’s company subsequently adapted the story further and ultimately made it into It’s a Wonderful Life, which debuted in 1946.

Interestingly while the story was based on The Greatest Gift, the character of George Bailey was actually based partly on the founder of Bank of America, A.P. Giannini.  Giannini was also the inspiration for a similar character in Capra’s American Madness.  At the age of 14, Giannini left school and began working with his step father, Lorenzo Scatena, in the produce industry as a produce broker.  By the time he was 31, he was able to sell much of his interest in this company to his employees and had planned to retire.  However, one year later, he was asked to join the Columbus Savings & Loan Society, which was a small bank in North Beach, California.

Once he joined up, he found that almost nobody at the Savings & Loan, nor other banks, were willing to give loans to anyone but the rich or those owning businesses.  At first, Giannini attempted to convince the other directors at the Savings & Loan to start lending to working class citizens, to give them home and auto loans, among other things.  He felt that working class citizens, though lacking in assets to guarantee the loan against, were generally honest and would pay back their loans when they could.  Further, by loaning them money, it would allow working class citizens to better themselves in ways they would not have been able to do without the money lent to them, such as being able to buy a home or to start a new business.  He was never able to convince the other directors to begin lending to the working class.  So he raised funds to start his own bank, the Bank of Italy, which later became the Bank of America.

He then made a practice of not offering loans based on how much money or equity a person had, but based primarily on how he judged their character.  Within a year, Bank of Italy had over $700,000 in deposits from these working class individuals, which is somewhere around $15-$20 million today. By the middle of the 1920s, it had become the third largest bank in the United States.

Much like the fictitious George Bailey, Giannini kept little for himself through all this.  Despite that fact that the bank he started was worth billions at the time of his death, Giannini’s entire estate was valued at only $500,000 when he died at the age of 79 in 1949.  He avoided acquiring great wealth as he felt it would cause him to lose touch with the working class.  For much of his career, he refused pay for his work and when the board attempted to give him $1.5 million as a bonus one year, he gave it all away to the University of California stating “Money itch is a bad thing.  I never had that trouble.”

Bonus Factoids:

• The Greatest Gift was eventually made into an actual published work in 1944, one year after Stern had sent it out as a Christmas present, being published in Reader’s Scope magazine.  One month later, it was also published in Good Housekeeping under the title “The Man Who Was Never Born”.  Stern also managed to get it published in book form around this time, with illustrations for the story done by Rafaello Busoni.
• When the motion picture rights of the story were first sold to RKO, Cary Grant had been slated to play the lead role of George.  When Capra acquired the rights, Lionel Barrymore ended up being the one to convince Jimmy Stewart to take the part, even though he initially didn’t want it, as it was too soon after he had returned from WWII.
• Jimmy Stewart rose to as high as a Two Star General in the U.S. military.  In August of 1943, he found himself with the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, initially as a first officer, and shortly thereafter as a Captain.  During combat operations over Germany, Stewart found himself promoted to the rank of Major.  Stewart participated in several counted and uncounted missions (on his orders) into Nazi occupied Europe, flying his B-24 in the lead position of his group in order to inspire his troops.
• For his bravery during these missions, he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross; three times received the Air Medal; and once received the Croix de Guerre from France.  This latter medal was an award given by France and Belgium to individuals allied with themselves who distinguished themselves with acts of heroism.
• By July of 1944, Stewart was promoted chief of staff of the 2nd Combat Bombardment wing of the Eighth Air Force.  Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to the rank of colonel, becoming one of only a handful of American soldiers to ever rise from private to colonel within a four year span.
• After the war, Stewart was an active part of the United States Air Force Reserve, serving as the Reserve commander of Dobbins Air Reserve Base.  On July 24, 1959, he attained the rank of brigadier general (one star general). He finally retired from the Air Force on May 31, 1968 after 27 years of service and was subsequently promoted to Major General (two star general).
• It’s a Wonderful Life was the first film Jimmy Stewart did after serving in WWII.  It came at a time when he was strongly considering quitting acting, as he didn’t know if he’d be able to continue after his experiences in the war.
• On January 5, 1992, It’s a Wonderful Life became the first American program ever to be broadcast on Russian television.  A translated version, courtesy of Stewart and Lomonosov Moscow State University, was broadcast to over 200 million Russians on that day.
• It’s a Wonderful Life was largely considered a flop after it was released and, partially due to this film’s poor showing at the box office, Capra’s production company went bankrupt and Stewart began to further doubt his ability to act following the war.  However, thanks to being considered a Christmas movie (which Capra himself claimed to be a surprise to him, as he didn’t see it that way), the movie steadily gained momentum over the years and today is considered one of the great classics in movie history.  Stewart himself stated that It’s a Wonderful Life became his favorite of all the movies he had done in his career.
• It’s a Wonderful Life cost $3.7 million to make (about $44 million today) and only took in $3.3 million in its initial run in theaters.  This made it good enough for only the 26th best (out of 400+) gross take of American movies in 1947.  Incidentally, it did beat out Miracle on 34th Street in 1947 for gross revenue, being one position ahead of it.
• While initially a flop with the public, It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for five academy awards, though didn’t win any.  Today, it is considered by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 greatest American films ever made.  They also have it as the number one most inspirational American film of all time.
• In the scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where “Uncle Billy” is drunk and leaving the party at George’s house, the sound of him apparently running into some garbage cans and falling down is heard.  In actuality, one of the crew members accidentally dropped some equipment after Uncle Billy walked out of the shot.  Rather than break character, the actor who played Uncle Billy, Thomas Mitchell, shouted “I’m all right, I’m all right!” and Jimmy Stewart also played along.  The take was obviously the one that made it into the movie, despite the gaff.  The stagehand that dropped the equipment was given a $10 bonus.
• Donna Reed really did manage to hit the window in the first take of the scene where she makes a wish and throws a rock at the window.  Originally, they had planned to have her throw it and then had a sharp shooter standing by to shoot the window at the appropriate moment, to make it appear the rock had broken it.  This turned out not to be necessary as Reed had quite the throwing arm.
• Donna Reed grew up on a farm and, on a bet from Lionel Barrymore, demonstrated how to milk a cow on the set of It’s a Wonderful Life.
• Over his lifetime Philip Van Doren Stern published over 40 books, mostly historical and many on the Civil War, to which he became one of the nation’s leading scholars.

Sources and Further Reading:

•  It’s a Wonderful Life
• It’s a Wonderful Life Trivia
• The Guy Who Founded Bank of America was Also the Inspiration for the Character of George Bailey
• Jimmy Stewart was a Two Star General
• The Greatest Gift
• Philip Van Doren Stern
• Image Source

Atkinson originally received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering (EE) at Newcastle University before enrolling in an EE master’s program at The Queen’s College Oxford in 1975.  While working towards this degree, he also pursued acting on the side with a variety of clubs, including: the Oxford University Dramatic Society; the Oxford Revue; and the Experimental Theatre Club.

The character of Mr. Bean, though not the name, was originally developed during this time period.  The character’s modus operandi was to be a “child in a grown man’s body”, based on similar brands of “physical humor” comedy portrayed by such famed actors as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Jacques Tati (particularly the character of “Monsieur Hulot” portrayed by Tati).

In retrospect, the development of the character of Mr. Bean proved to be a more profitable use of Atkinson’s time in college than actual course study.  The subsequent TV program based on this character lasted five years and was wildly popular throughout the UK with peak ratings as high as just shy of 19 million viewers.   In addition to that, the two films made to date featuring this character, “Bean” and “Mr. Bean’s Holliday”, combined grossed nearly half a billion dollars worldwide in theaters ($250 million and $230 million respectively), while only costing $22 million to make the first film and $25 million for the second.

Bonus Factoids:

• In his early days of acting, Atkinson earned a truck driver’s license as a way to make extra money while he established himself as an actor.
• In the UK, a truck driver is called a “lorry driver”.
• Thanks in large part to the Mr. Bean character, along with various other roles he’s performed, Rowand Atkinson is today estimated to have a net worth of around $150 million.
• Atkinson’s oldest brother, Rupert, in 2000 barely lost the post of leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (by a mere 16 votes).
• Buster Keaton, whose style of comedy was very similar to Mr. Bean, also inspired Jackie Chan’s brand of comedy, according to Chan’s autobiography.
• Keaton was named the seventh greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.  Further, he is ranked as the “21st greatest male actor of all time” by the American Film Institute.  In his early silent films, he was known for delivering his brand of physical comedy with a completely straight face, which he found typically drew bigger laughs than if he was more animated in his expressions.
• Keaton got his start in show business at just four years old in 1899, performing in his parent’s comedy sketch.  His role was typically to get his dad angry at him, at which point his dad would toss him across the stage to land in the orchestra pit or to slam against the scenery.  While this may sound rough, his dad taught him how to land such that he wouldn’t ever get hurt. Although, his father faced being arrested several times for child abuse, only getting off when Keaton would show that he had not been hurt in any way by being tossed.  Keaton stated “The secret is in landing limp and breaking the fall with a foot or a hand. It’s a knack. I started so young that landing right is second nature with me. Several times I’d have been killed if I hadn’t been able to land like a cat. Imitators of our act don’t last long, because they can’t stand the treatment.”
• Keaton was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1966, but his doctors never told him he was going to die; they told him he just had bronchitis, though they knew it was lung cancer.  His last wife, Eleanor Keaton, also died of lung cancer 32 years later.
• A major car enthusiast, Atkinson occasionally writes for different British automobile magazines, such as Car, Octane, Evo, and SuperClassics and has appeared on the motor vehicle show, Top Gear.  He also owns several cars including the exceptionally rare McLaren F1, which he has wrecked twice, once in 1999 and once just a few months ago in August of 2011.  In the first wreck, he rear ended a $600 Mini Metro car with his car worth then about $1+ million (today worth more in the vicinity of $4 million).  In the second accident, he hit a tree.
• The McLaren F1 can go from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds and has a top speed of around 240 mph.  McLaren only produced 106 of these cars.
• One of the earliest known performances of the Mr. Bean-style character done by Atkinson was in a 1979 show called “Canned Laughter”.  The character, while similarly portrayed as Mr. Bean, went under the name “Robert Box”.
• The name of “Mr. Bean” wasn’t thought up until after Atkinson landed the Mr. Bean show.  During early production, they threw around a variety of names for the character, originally “Mr. White”, then several possible names based on vegetables and other plant life like “Mr. Carrot” or “Mr. Cauliflower”.  Eventually, they settled on “Mr. Bean”.
• Other notable characters done by Atkinson include: Zazu on Disney’s The Lion King;  Johnny English; and various characters on the historical sitcom Blackadder, among many others.
• The Queen’s College Oxford was founded nearly 700 years ago in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield, who was a chaplain to the wife of King Edward III of England, Queen Philippa of Hainault.
• The city of Oxford was originally named Oxenaforda, which just meant “Ford of the Oxen”.

Sources and More Information:

• Rowan Atkinson
• The Whole Bean
• Mr. Bean
• About Mr. Bean
• Mr. Bean
• Mr. Bean Wrecks His McLaren F1
• Rodney Atkinson
• The Queen’s College
• Buster Keaton
• Rowan Atkinson Bio
• Mr. Bean Trivia
• Mr. Bean’s Holliday
• Truck Driver
• Oxford
• Image Source

While staring in Family Matters, Jeleel White was cast to do the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog for 65 episodes in the animated series The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1993.  From 1993-1994, he also did the voice of the famous gaming character for 26 episodes of a different animated Sonic the Hedgehog series.  He later reprised his voice-over role in the 1999-2000 Sonic Underground animated series, which lasted for 40 episodes.  In this series, he also did the voices of two other characters, Manic and Sonia (Sonic’s brother and sister).  His final voicing of Sonic the Hedgehog, to date, is in the 2011 Sonic fan film.

Interestingly, White’s big break almost came five years earlier than Family Matters when he was cast as “Rudy” on The Cosby Show.  However, he was cut when Cosby decided the character worked better as a girl.

When White landed his role in Family Matters, the character of Steve Urkel wasn’t actually supposed to be a regular.  He was originally cast in the 12th episode of the first season, at which time the show was on the verge of being canceled.  His character was intended to last only one episode, but his performance and portrayal of the character, much of which was his own design, impressed the director and producers so much that they decided to keep him around as an occasional guest star.  However, Urkel soon became a fan favorite and scripts were re-written to include him as a primary character.  By the start of the second season, he officially became a full cast member and he soon became the highest paid person on the show.

Other TV shows White has appeared in include: Mr. Belvedere; Step by Step; Full House; Charlie and Company; The Jeffersons; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; Grown Ups; and House, among others.

Bonus Factoids:

• The glasses Urkel wore were actually a pair of White’s dad’s glasses.  When he auditioned for the role, he had intended to wear old style black glasses with tape around the middle, but couldn’t find any, so just grabbed his dad’s glasses to use instead.  They were over-sized as his dad was a dentist and primarily used them to keep random particles from flying into his eyes as he worked on people’s teeth.  White then came up with the walk, posture, and nasal voice of the character and went to the audition.
• Around the same time White landed his role as Steve Urkel, he also was strongly being considered for a main character on Saved by the Bell.
• The original theme song for Family Matters was not As Days Go By, but rather, What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.  The theme song was changed after the fifth episode and reruns of the first few episodes today use the new theme song, excepting the pilot.
• White was also in the 1990 made for TV movie Camp Cucamonga.  This TV movie wasn’t exactly a hit, but it did also feature Jennifer Aniston, Josh Saviano and Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years), Chad Allen (My Two Dads), and Candace Cameron (Full House).
• White’s first TV role was in a Kellogg’s commercial when he was just three years old.  His parents actually weren’t the ones who wanted him doing TV, initially, but his preschool teacher convinced them they should take him around to auditions.
• White not only played Urkel and several other characters of the Urkel family, but in later seasons began writing some of the episodes of Family Matters, including several of the series’ highest rated shows.
• Contrary to urban legend, White did not kill himself in 2006 because of becoming obsessed with the Urkel character.  This story was spread about presenting itself in emails as being from the Associated Press.  In fact, towards the end of the show in 1998, White had come to detest the character of Urkel and even publicly stated:  “If you ever see me do that character again, take me out and put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery.”  So apparently, if he was going to be killing himself, it would be because he was forced to reprise his famous role, rather than lamenting its loss.
• ER and Family Matters had sets near each other, so on breaks, White and George Clooney would frequently play basketball together.
• Sonic the Hedgehog originally was named “Mr. Needlemouse” when he was first created to become the new mascot character of Sega’s gaming system.  He was painted blue to match Sega’s logo and his shoes were modeled after Michael Jackson’s boots.  His personality was supposedly based after Bill Clinton, oddly enough.  The original character also had fangs and was to be the boyfriend of Madonna.  Obviously this was changed before Sonic came to market.
• Sonic the Hedgehog has gone on to sell over 80 million copies of the various games he’s appeared in since the original Sonic the Hedgehog came out in 1991, selling 15 million copies.  It was listed as number 15 on the top 50 gaming franchises of all time by Guinness Book of World Records.
• Family Matters was actually a spin-off series of Perfect Strangers.  In Perfect Strangers, Mrs. Winslow was an elevator operator in the third and fourth seasons at the Chicago Chronicle newspaper office.  The show also included writers and producers of Perfect Strangers.
• This spin-off, which was almost canceled in its first season, ended up lasting 215 episodes and became the second longest running sitcom with a mostly African American cast, behind only The Jeffersons.
• The baby “Richie” on Family Matters was actually played by two kids, due to California child labor laws concerning extremely young children.  This is also why shows like Full House chose to use twins for the role of Michelle Tanner.

Sources:

• Jaleel White Filmography
• Steve Urkel
• Jaleel White Biography
• Jaleel White
• Jaleel White Suicide
• Steve Urkel All Grown Up
• Jaleel White, I Don’t Miss Playing Urkel
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog Series
• Family Matters
• The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
• Image Source

That isn’t the only misconception surrounding his name. The name itself means “the coolness”, but is often incorrectly said to mean “cool breeze over the mountains”.

Reeves’ was named after his uncle Henry Keanu Reeves. In Keanu Reeves’ early days in Hollywood, his agent thought his name was too exotic and in his early films he is often credited as K.C. Reeves (his middle name is Charles).

Bonus Factoids:

• Reeves’ estranged father earned his GED in prison in Hawaii. He was in jail for selling heroin at the airport. His father left his mother when Keanu was 3 years old.
• Kim Reeves, Keanu’s only full sister, was born in Australia and has been battling leukemia since her first diagnosis in the late 1990s.
• In 1999, Reeves’ girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to a stillborn daughter just a few weeks before the due date. In 2001, Jennifer was killed in a car accident, having smashed into three parked cars driving home from a party at Marilyn Manson’s house.
• In 1991, Reeves best friend, outside of his dying sister, actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose.
• Besides Reeves’ father (Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist), his mother, who was once a stripper and is now a designer, has also been married to a Broadway and Hollywood director (Paul Aaron); a rock promoter (Robert Miller); a hairdresser (Jack Bond); and two others (for six total marriages).
• Reeves’ attended five different high schools in five years, including getting expelled from one. In his own words, he got expelled because: “I was greasy and running around a lot. I was just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often. I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school. I was just getting in their way, I guess.” He eventually attended an anarchistic free school “Avondale Alternative” which allowed him to act while continuing to go to school. He later dropped out and didn’t ever get a high school diploma.
• Throughout high school, what he was best at was hockey, having been fairly poor at academics partly because of dyslexia. His primary position in hockey was goalie. He was so good he was named MVP and nicknamed “The Wall”. His dream, at that time, was to play hockey in the Olympics and hopefully professionally. He ended up having to quit hockey due to an injury. His hockey experience did help him land his first movie role in the hockey film Youngblood.
• Reeves once revealed in an interview that he used to have frequent nightmares where he would die and on his tombstone it said: “He played Ted”, referring to his role in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and the sequel to that film.
• Reeves’ famously turned down a role opposite Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in the movie Heat to pursue the leading role in the Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet. Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times critic, wrote, “He quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark…He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he *is* Hamlet.”
• In Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the time machine was originally supposed to be a 1969 Chevy van, but this was changed as they felt it was too close to Back to the Future’s DeLorean. They picked a phone booth inspired by the box-shaped TARDIS time machine from Doctor Who.
• There was actually supposed to be a Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 3. This was eventually scrapped, but you can still go watch the movie in its slightly modified form, Bio-Dome, starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin. Large portions of the script and much of the storyline were adapted for that movie.
• Along with acting, Reeves also played bass guitar in the grunge band Dogstar, in the 1990s, and more recently in the band Becky. The former band was apparently huge in Japan, though more for Keanu than for that actual band. “In Japan, if Keanu scratched his head, they screamed. If he went to tie a shoelace they fainted,” said drummer Robert Mailhouse.
• Keanu Reeves was born in Lebanon. His mother is English and his father is an American with very mixed heritage (English, Hawaiian, Chinese, and Portuguese).
• Reeves has citizenship in the United States through his father; in Canada by naturalization; and in Britain by his mother. Given that he grew up in Canada, he considers himself Canadian.
• Keanu Reeves donated about 75 million dollars from his Matrix earnings to the costume and special effects teams who worked on the films.

Sources:

• Keanu Reeves
• Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• Keanu Reeves Trivia and Quotes
• Keanu Reeves
• Keanu

It was during spring training of what would turn out to be Pete Rose’s rookie year that Ford gave the nickname to him.  The exact event that lead to the nickname is somewhat in dispute.  The most commonly held story is that he gave Pete Rose the nickname after Rose drew a walk in a spring training game, but instead of jogging up the line, he sprinted.

However, according to Mickey Mantle, that wasn’t the first time Ford called him that.  Rather, it was in a spring training game where Mickey Mantle hit a home run way out of the ballpark; rather than just watch it sail overhead, Rose ran to the wall and jumped as high as he could to try to catch the ball that was long gone.  Mantle stated that when he got back to the dugout, Ford said “Did you see Charlie Hustle out there?”

In any event, that hustle paid off as Rose went on to win the Rookie of the Year award that year, batting .272 with a .334 OBP while tallying 170 hits.  From there, he went on to compile one of the most impressive “counting stat” careers in the history of the game, finishing his career as a player: first in hits (4256); first in games played (3562); first in runs scored by a switch hitter (2165); most doubles by a switch hitter (746); most singles (3215); most walks by a switch hitter (1566); most total bases by a switch hitter (5752); most consecutive seasons with 100 or more hits (23); and tied for most years with 200 hits (10, tied with Ichiro Suzuki who did it consecutively, unlike Rose, and just missed making it 11 straight in 2011 by 16 hits).  In addition to those, Rose also added to his trophy case: three batting titles; one MVP; 17 All-Star game selections; and two Gold Glove awards.

He also went on to manage, starting in 1984 while he was still a player and continuing on to 1989, with the latter three years of that as just a manager and not a player/manager.  He eventually was placed on the permanently ineligible list in 1989 due to a gambling problem, including betting on Reds games, the team he was managing.  In exchange for voluntarily being placed on that list, Major League Baseball agreed to not formally reveal their findings on his gambling habits.  However, it is known that he bet on at least 52 Reds games between 1986 and 1987, though there was never any evidence that he bet against the Reds.  Despite numerous appeals, Rose has remained on that list to date and is barred from the Hall of Fame because of it.

Interestingly, Mickey Mantle was also once put on the permanently ineligible list for being associated with gambling.  In his case, though, he wasn’t the one doing the gambling.  Rather, he was working at a casino in Atlantic City in 1983 as a greeter and representative, primarily in golfing charity events.  The commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn, when he found out Mantle worked at the casino warned him that he would be banned from baseball if he didn’t quit.  When Mantle ignored his warnings, the commissioner followed through on his threat and placed him on the permanently ineligible list.   When Kuhn was replaced by Peter Ueberroth, Mantle was reinstated and allowed to participate in MLB activities again starting in 1985.

Bonus Factoids:

• Willie Mays was also placed on the “permanently” ineligible list at the same time as Mickey Mantle and for the same reason, working as a greeter and special assistant to the casino’s president.  His suspension was also lifted at the same time as Mantle’s.
• After his rookie season, Pete Rose joined the US Army Reserves and served at Fort Knox for six months.  He also served six years with the 478th Engineering Battalion at Fort Thomas as a cook.  This division also included Johnny Bench, Bobby Tolan, and Darrel Chaney. Being a cook allowed him to only have to show up one weekend a month.  During that weekend, he was also allowed to leave early so that he could make the Reds’ games.
• Rose’s first manager in the minor leagues once told the Reds that “Pete Rose can’t make a double play, can’t throw, can’t hit left handed, and can’t run.”  A true testament to subjective scouting-style player evaluation.   Further, he likely would have never even been signed at all out of high school had his uncle, who was a scout for the Reds, not begged them to sign him.  Other scouts at the time reportedly saw little potential in him, but thanks to the fact that the Reds system was somewhat depleted at the time, they eventually agreed to sign him on June 18, 1960.
• Before 1991, Rose still would have been technically eligible for the Hall of Fame.  It wasn’t until that year that the Hall voted to ban those on the permanently ineligible list, though it had been an unwritten rule previous to that among Hall of Fame voters.
• Pete Rose also holds the record for longest managerial suspension due to an on field event (30 days).  This was following a confrontation between Rose and an umpire where Rose shoved the umpire after supposedly being scratched by the umpire on the face as they argued.
• Shortly after being banned from baseball, Rose was arrested and served five months in prison for failing to count horse racing winnings and money earned from selling autographs on his income taxes.  The total amount he was deficient in back taxes was $366,041.
• Although officially banned from all MLB related events and activities, Rose was allowed to participate in the pre-game events before Game 2 of the 1999 World Series.  The ban was lifted for a night because Rose had been selected by fans to the “All-Century” team.
• Pete Rose’s daughter Cara (stage name: Chea Courtney) starred in the first season of the soap opera “Passions” and had a recurring role in Melrose Place.
• Mickey Mantle was named after Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane as Mantle’s father thought “Mickey” was Cochrane’s first name.  In fact, his name was Gordon.
• Due to an injury in college, Mantle nearly never had the chance to play professional baseball.  During a football game, Mantle was kicked hard in the shin, which, aside from being really painful, the leg became severally infected and doctors initially thought they were going to have to amputate it.
• Mantle stated in his autobiography that his father forced him to marry the woman who ultimately became Mickey’s wife, Merlyn Johnson.  While the two remained married until Mantle’s death, they separated fifteen years before and Mantle was known to have had numerous affairs.  He even was audacious enough to bring one of his mistresses with him, along with his wife, to his Hall of Fame induction.
• Mantle also had a major alcohol problem through most of his life, as did pretty much everyone else in his immediate family.  After having to have a liver transplant in 1995, Mantle stated to the press: “This is a role model. Don’t be like me.”  Soon after that, he died of cancer.
• Edward Ford was given the nickname “Whitey” during his stint in the minor leagues due to his deeply blond hair.
• Once his career was over, Ford admitted that later in his career he had frequently cheated by doctoring baseballs.  His favorite method was to mark up the ball using various sharp objects, such as his wedding ring.  He also would have his catcher mark up the ball by sharpening a buckle on his shin guard and rubbing the ball against that before throwing it to Ford to pitch.  Elston Howard, his catcher, also used the mud around the batter’s box to coat one side of the ball before giving it to Ford to throw.

Sources:

• Slick, My Life in and Around Baseball, by Whitey Ford
• My Prison Without Bars, Pete Rose
• Pete Rose
• A Hero All His Life, by the Mantle family
• Mickey Mantle
• Mickey Mantle
• Mickey Mantle Stats
• Pete Rose (official site)
• Pete Rose Stats
• Whitey Ford Stats
• Whitey Ford (official site)
• Whitey Ford
• Willie Mays
• Image Source

Carrie Fisher, who’s best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, is the daughter of famed entertainers Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.  At the height of Eddie Fisher’s fame as a singer and eventual TV show host in the 1950s, he married actress Debbie Reynolds, with the two staying married for four years, from 1955-1959.  Carrie Fisher was born just a year after the two were wed in 1956.

When Eddie Fisher divorced Reynolds in 1959, he quickly married one of Reynolds’ best friends, Elizabeth Taylor who was also the widow of his former best friend, producer Mike Todd, who had died in 1958.  After Todd’s death, Fisher and Taylor became close and began having an affair that ultimate resulted in him divorcing Reynolds.  The marriage with Fisher was surprisingly Elizabeth Taylor’s third marriage, even though she was at the time only 27 years old.  The two stayed married for five years and divorced in 1964 when Carrie Fisher was 9 years of age.

From there, Fisher married three more women throughout his life (making a total of five), two of which he later divorced and one that died in 2001 while the two were still married, that one being his longest marriage, lasting nearly nine years.  Elizabeth Taylor went on to marry another four men (making a total of seven husbands and eight marriages).  Her final husband was Larry Fortensky who was a construction worker she met at the Betty Ford Clinic.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Reynolds’ husband left her for Elizabeth Taylor, the two women eventually became friends once again, after, by chance, they were traveling together on a cruise liner and decided to make up. They also did a made for TV movie together called These Old Broads where a bit in the movie includes the two making fun of a character named “Freddie” who was the ex-husband the two characters had both at one point been married to.  Incidentally, These Old Broads was co-written and produced by Carrie Fisher.

Bonus Factoids:

• Carrie Fisher began performing with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, at just 12 years old in Las Vegas, including eventually performing in the Broadway show Irene in 1973, which starred Debbie Reynolds.
• The famous golden bikini in Return of the Jedi was originally thought up as Fisher had complained in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back that her outfits made it so the audience couldn’t tell by anything but her face and voice that she was a woman.  Fisher stated that it wasn’t actually made of metal, but rather a type of plastic.  Further, from behind, the outfit left absolutely nothing to the imagination, in her words: “if you stood behind me, you could see straight to Florida.”  She also stated she had some issues keeping her top from falling off at times, which also added to her uncomfortableness on the set, despite the fact that everyone was completely professionally even though she was half naked.
• Carrie Fisher is indirectly mentioned in several Paul Simon songs, with the two having been married for a year in 1983-1984 and having dated for about five years before that.
• During filming of Empire Strikes Back, Carrie Fisher has stated she used cocaine heavily and nearly died of an overdose at one point.
• The famous “bun” hair style worn by Leia in A New Hope and later by Padme in Revenge of the Sith was inspired by a certain Mexican hair style that was popular in the late 19th century.  Somewhat similar hair styles can still be seen sometimes in places like Valencia Venezuela, particularly during the Falles festival.
• In the original A New Hope script, Leia was to be a 14 year old spoiled princess with two brothers, neither of which was Luke.
• In the original Empire Strikes Back script Darth Vader was not Luke’s father, but rather his father appeared to him in ghost form, much like Obi-wan in the final script, and instructed him in the ways of the Jedi.  The co-writer of that script died of cancer though, and Lucas was unhappy with it anyways, so re-wrote parts of it, including making Vader Luke’s father.  He also decided to write in the scene having Han Solo imprisoned in carbonite to make the ending even darker.
• Lucas originally envisioned Star Wars as a nine part movie series, but after doing the middle three, he became sick of it and decided he’d abandon the franchise, though he later went back on that and made the first three.  Hopefully if he decides to make 6-9, he’ll go with the Timothy Zahn “Heir to the Empire” trilogy, which is fantastic, and not try to write his own scripts again after the disaster, particularly with the dialogue, that was 1-3.
• Interestingly, in the original plot of Revenge of the Sith, Lucas had Anakin’s journey towards the dark side be because the Emperor had poisoned his mind against the Jedi and convinced him that the Jedi were attempting to take over the Republic and were themselves the ones who were secretly evil.  Thus, Anakin joined the Emperor to prevent that.  He later changed it so that Anakin becoming a Sith Lord was simply to try to save Padme’s life, which, in my opinion, is a much weaker plot than the original.
• Eddie Fisher died just a little over a year ago on September 22, 2010, from complications after falling and breaking his hip just 13 days before his death.
• Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23, of this year (2011) of heart failure, six months after Eddie Fisher.
• Debbie Reynolds also partook in serial monogamy marrying three times: to Eddie Fisher, then shoe store chain owner and millionaire Harry Karl, who ultimately gambled away his and her fortune, and finally to Richard Hamlett from 1984-1996.  The final marriage fell apart reportedly due to problems with a hotel and casino the two owned in Las Vegas that was floundering and eventually went under a year after their divorce, resulting in Reynolds having to declare bankruptcy.  Today, Reynolds lives next door to her daughter, Carrie Fisher, in Beverley Hills.
• Debbie Reynolds got her start as an entertainer at the age of just 16 years old, signing on with Warner Bros. and later with MGM.  She was vaulted into stardom four years later for her role in the musical Singing in the Rain.
• Elizabeth Taylor was actually born in Brittan, but with U.S. parents, giving her dual citizenship. Her godfather was British parliament member Colonel Victor Cazalet.  She tried at one point in the 1960s to renounce her U.S. citizenship and became solely a British citizen, but her request was denied because she wouldn’t speak the words that she renounced all allegiance to the U.S.
• Taylor’s family moved back to the U.S. when WWII broke out.  She subsequently began acting at the tender age of nine years old.  She became a star just three years later at the age of 12 after appearing in the movie National Velvet, which also stared Mickey Rooney and Angela Lansbury.
• Due to devoting all her time to acting and practicing acting, Taylor received little formal education and even in her teen years reportedly couldn’t add or subtract well without using her fingers.  She even attempted to quit acting so she could just enjoy being a kid, but her parents refused to let her.
• Taylor’s first marriage was to Hilton heir Nicky Hilton, who turned out to be extremely abusive and had gambling and drinking problems, so the marriage only lasted about 6 months.  She was just 18 years old when the two got married.  Her second marriage was to a much nicer man, Michael Wilding, but who was 20 years older than her, which ultimate doomed the marriage, according to Taylor, because of her immaturity.  Her third marriage was to producer Michael Todd and lasted a little over a year before he died.  Her forth marriage was to Eddie Fisher.  Her fifth was to “one of the three loves” of her life, famed actor Richard Burton.  The two began having an affair with one another while they were both married to other people.  Her sixth marriage was also to Burton, the two divorced and later got back together.  Her seventh marriage was to U.S. senator John Warner, which ended with her being deeply depressed and unhappy with the life of a politician’s wife.  She checked into the Betty Ford Clinic, which was also where she later (a different instance) met her eighth husband Larry Fortensky, who was at the clinic due to drunk driving and a general drinking problem.  The two got married in 1991 and divorced in 1996.  Incidentally, their prenuptial agreement stated he had to stay married at least five years to get anything in the divorce.  On the five year mark, almost exactly (about 24 days after the mark), they got divorced and he received one million dollars.  The two remained friends though throughout the rest of Taylor’s life and she occasionally gave him additional funds to help him support himself.  She also left him an additional $800,000 when she died.  According to Fortensky’s sister, the two did not divorce for lack of love, but rather because he was sick of being known as “Mr. Elizabeth Taylor”.
• Taylor also was engaged to be married to Glenn Davis, the Heisman Trophy winner.  More famously, Howard Hughes attempted to get Taylor to marry him, even trying to get her parents to convince her.  He promised to build a movie studio for her, if she’d marry him.
• When Hughes proposed to Elizabeth Taylor, he swooped in with a helicopter and had it sprinkle diamonds all around her.
• While married to Burton, Elizabeth Taylor intentionally gained weight to try to get studios to stop giving her movie roles as she once again attempted to quit acting.
• When Burton first met Elizabeth Taylor, he stated: “She was unquestionably gorgeous. I can think of no other word to describe a combination of plentitude, frugality, abundance, tightness. She was lavish. She was a dark unyielding largesse.”  After having been married to her, he changed his tune a bit, stating: “calling her the most beautiful woman in the world is absolute nonsense. She has wonderful eyes, but she has a double chin and an overdeveloped chest, and she’s rather short in the leg.”  Marriage…
• Upon her death, Elizabeth Taylor’s estate was estimated to be worth around $1 billion, including $150 million worth of jewelry and $130 million in real estate.  Interestingly, most of her fortune did not come from acting, but from her various business dealings.  In 2010 alone, her various business ventures grossed nearly $70 million.
• Throughout her life, Taylor was hospitalized 70 different times and had 20 major operations, among these included: having both her hips replaced, breaking her back five times, surgery to remove a brain tumor, surgery to repair a punctured esophagus, heart surgery, and skin cancer.
• At her funeral, Taylor requested that she be late for her own funeral, so it was started 15 minutes after the posted time.

Sources:

• Postcards From the Edge
• Wishful Drinking
• Carrie Fisher
• Princess Leia Organa
• Star Wars
• Carrie Fisher Biography
• Eddie Fisher
• Debbie Reynolds
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Larry Fortensky
• Richard Burton
• Mike Todd
• Image Source

Trey Parker’s dad’s name is Randy Parker and, like Randy Marsh, he’s a geologist.    Sharon Parker is an insurance broker, unlike Sharon Marsh, who is a receptionist at Tom’s Rhinoplasty.  In addition to that, Shelley Marsh on South Park is also named after Trey Parker’s older sister Shelley.

Matt Stone’s mother, Sheila Stone, is also Jewish, much like Sheila Broflovski.  The last name Broflovoski is derived from Sheila Stone’s maiden name, Broslovski, which was later changed to Belasco when her family immigrated to the United States.  Stone’s father, Gerald Whitney Stone, is an economics professor, unlike Gerald Broflovski, who is a lawyer.

Stone also has a sister named Rachel, but creating a character for her in the Broflovski South Park family was ruled out because they felt Stan and Kyle were already too much alike.  Instead, they gave Kyle an adopted younger brother, Ike.

Bonus Factoids:

• The character Stan Marsh shares a birthday with Trey Parker, October, 19th.
• Trey Parker does the voices of: Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Randy Marsh, Marvin Marsh, Starvin’ Marvin, Clyde Donovan, Mr. Garrison, Ned Gerblansky, Dr. Alphonse Mephesto, Stephen Stotch, Mr. Hankey, Santa Claus, God, Sexual Harrassment Panda, Mr. Mackey, Officer Barbrady, Ms. Choksondik, Timmy, Jimmy Vulmer, Tuong Lu Kim, Phillip, Satan, and a few other minor characters.
• Matt Stone does the voices for: Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormik, Leopold “Butters” Stotch, Gerald Broflovski, Stuart McCormik, Jimbo Kern, Jesus, Saddam Hussein, Big Gay Al, Pip, Terrance, Tweek, Craig Tucker, Father Maxi, Skeeter, and Mr. Adler.
• Randy Marsh also bears the same name as a Major League Baseball umpire.  The umpire, Randall Gilbert Marsh worked as a major league umpire from 1981-2009, umpiring in the 1990, 1997, 1999, 2003, and 2006 World Series and serving as the crew chief in the latter three listed there.  Marsh was known for maintaining a very small, but remarkably consistent strike zone, making him a player favorite for his consistency and professionalism.
• Matt Stone holds a dual major degree in mathematics and film from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Trey Parker majored in music at Berklee College of Music and later at the University of Colorado.
• Although South Park often satirizes religion, Parker, on Nightline, stated he believes in God and finds the idea of athiesm ridiculous: “Basically … out of all the ridiculous religion stories which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous — the silliest one I’ve ever heard is, ‘Yeah … there’s this big giant universe and it’s expanding, it’s all gonna collapse on itself and we’re all just here just ’cause … just ’cause’. That, to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever.”
• On politics, Matt Stone stated: “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals.”
• Matt Stone was raised in the Denver, Colorado area, before moving to Littleton Colorado.  Trey Parker grew up in the Conifer, Colorado region.

Sources:

• Randy Marsh
• Gerald Broflovski
• Sharon Marsh
• Sheila Broflovski
• Matt Stone
• Trey Parker
• Randal Gilbert Marsh

It turns out, the first movie trailers occurred not at the beginning of the films, as they do today, but rather at the end of the films.  They were called “trailers” because the advertisements would be spliced directly on the end of the reels, so that the movie advertisement’s film trailed the actual film.

The first known movie trailer to appear in a theater was in November of 1913.  It was made by Nils Granlund, advertising manager of Marcus Loew theaters in the United States.  The trailer was for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, which was shortly to open on Broadway.  In this trailer, he included short clips of rehearsals of the musical.   This idea caught on and trailers began appearing routinely after films.  This was particularly the case with cartoon shorts and serials that would often end in climactic situations where you needed to watch the next episode in the serial or cartoon to see what would happen.  Thus, these trailers, in particular that advertised the next episode, made a lot more sense at the end of the serial or cartoon than at the beginning.

However, it didn’t take long for movie studios to realize that full film advertisements would be a lot more effective if they showed up before the movie, instead of after, and by the end of the 1930s the switch had been made.  Despite the industry’s sincerest attempts over the last 60 or 70 years to get the name changed from “trailers” to some form of “previews”, among industry professionals and English speaking audiences the world over, “trailer” is still the generally used term.  Although, this has begun to change very recently among the general public when referring to trailers shown in theaters, which are now synonymously known as “previews”.

Bonus Factoids:

• While the first known trailer to appear in a theater was that listed above, Lou Harris, an executive at Paramount in the 1960s, states that the first trailer ever to show anywhere was at a New York area amusement park in 1912. One of the concessions workers at that park hung up a white sheet and showed the serial “The Adventures of Kathlyn”.  At the end of the episode, Kathlyn is thrown into a lion’s den.  The concessions worker then spliced into the reel some film that showed the text “Does she escape the lion’s pit?”  This simple text is considered to be the first ever rudimentary attempt at a trailer.
• In the early days of film trailers, a company called the National Screen Service began making crude film advertisements from transferred film stills without the permission of the film studios.  They’d then sell these film advertisements to be added on to the endings of films.  Rather than sue this company and have them shutdown for their innovation, as studios would most certainly do today, the film industry chose to embrace this novel format for trailers and began providing the National Screen Service with film footage they could use in these advertisements; this ended up giving the National Screen Service a virtual monopoly on movie trailers for a time.  It wasn’t until the late 1920s that studios began commonly making trailers of their own.
• It is estimated that around ten billion videos are watched online annually.  Of those ten billion videos, movie trailers rank third, after news and user created videos, as the most watched.
• The earliest references to the term “trailer” being used was a passage in the June 2, 1917 issue of the New York Times: “A committee of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry yesterday began sending films known as trailers [advertising the bonds] to all of the 15,000 or more movie theatres in the United States. These films are seventy feet in length and will be attached to longer films that are shown at every performance.”
• Early trailers typically just showed text explaining plots and then some stock footage of the film.  It wasn’t until the 1960s that this format changed into the format we know today.
• Pioneers in this change of trailer format in the 1960s were such people as Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Lipsett, and Andrew J. Kuehn.  Kubrick introduced the montage format for a trailer.  Kuehn, among other things, introduced the narrator, instead of using text, with his choice for narrator being the young James Earl Jones.  Kuehn’s format was so popular that, by the end of the 1960s, Kuehn’s Kaleidoscope Films were one of the largest and most successful trailer making firms in the world; this is a position they held for over three decades.  Most of the top trailer making companies that exist today are run by former Kaleidoscope Films employees.
• The most common trailer format today is the three-act structure, very similar to the structure of most films and plays.  The most common trailer format is as follows: Act 1, setting up the premise of the story; Act 2, highlighting main plot features of the story; Act 3, generally features a very powerful piece of music accompanied by a visual montage of emotional, suspenseful, action packed, or humorous moments in the film, depending on the film type.
• The maximum allowed length for any movie trailer shown in theaters or on TV is set by the MPAA.  The time limit is two and a half minutes, with one exception; each studio or movie distributor can exceed this time limit once per year, if they feel a particular movie warrants an extended trailer.  Trailers shown on the internet or on home videos have no time restrictions.
• One of the more famous non-montage trailers was one by Alfred Hitchcock who guided viewers through a tour of the Bates Motel, promoting his movie Psycho.  At the end of the trailer, he is in the bathroom where the now famous shower scene took place.  He then throws back the curtain to reveal Vera Miles, who issues a blood curdling scream, and then the title “Psycho” covers the screen.  For you movie buffs, you know that it was Janet Leigh, not Vera Miles who played Marion Crane, who was stabbed in the shower.  Leigh was not available after the filming when the trailer was made and so Hitchcock put a wig on Vera Miles, who played the sister of Marion Crane, and used her as a stand in for the shower scream on the trailer.  This went completely unnoticed until many years later.
• After seeing the shower scene in the movie Psycho, Janet Leigh stated that she no longer took showers unless she had absolutely no other choice, due to the film making her realize how vulnerable people are in the shower.  On the few occasions where she did have to take showers, she would lock the doors and windows in the place she was staying; search the place; and then would leave the bathroom and shower doors open while she showered.
• Today, most music shown on trailers does not appear anywhere in the movie or on the movie soundtrack.  This is because trailers are generally made long before the movie’s release date, often even a year in advance, and one of the last things typically done on any film is to give it to a composer to add the music.
• The standard narrative introduction on movie trailers “in a world where…” was originally used by Don LaFontaine.  LaFontaine is arguably the most famous movie trailer narrator of all time.  By the time of his death in 2008, he had recorded over 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, video game trailers, and network promotions.  For a several year span, he had a near monopoly on movie trailer narratives done in Hollywood.  LaFontaine also often was a guest narrator on Jeopardy, narrating clues for contestants.

Sources:

• Why are they called “trailers” if they’re shown before the movie?
• Trailer
• Don LaFontaine
• Pyscho

Today I found out that Dolph Lundgren (A.K.A. Ivan Drago) is a real life genius.

I guess the phrase “you can’t judge a book by its cover” is true.  Just looking at Mr. Lundgren, I’d think he was a fun guy to hang out with and good at sports, but wouldn’t have imagined  he reportedly has an IQ of around 160; he speaks 7 languages (French, Swedish, German, English, Spanish, some Japanese and some Italian); and was a graduate in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

He has also spent considerable time studying in the United States and abroad on various academic scholarships. He attended Washington State University and Clemson University in South Carolina. In 1982, he received a scholarship to complete his Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. In 1983, he was even awarded a Fulbright scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

His less surprising feats, given his physique of the 6′ – 5″  245 lb, are that he was an elite ranger in the Swedish military and he holds a 3rd degree black belt in Kyokushin karate.  If that wasn’t enough, he was also a Pentathlon team leader.  Not to mention he has been a bodyguard, model, and has been in over 40 movies.  Of course, only two movies that I actually enjoyed (But don’t tell him that, I have no doubts he could kick my ass without breaking a sweat.)

His first movie role was a small one in the James Bond film “A view to a kill” as a KGB agent.  However, his breakthrough role came on his next film, Rocky IV, as Ivan Drago, which is still by far my favorite Rocky movie.  Aside from acting in movies, he’s also directed 7 films.  None of which I’ve ever heard of or plan on watching, but I felt it was still worth mentioning.

Bonus Factoids and 2 more geniuses you’ve probably not heard of…

• James Goodfellow – He was largely responsible for the original bank ATM design and invented the pin number/card system used to interact with a bank account securely via the ATM.  Goodfellow specifically patented the pin number/card system in 1966, and, 40 years later, he received royal honors for his invention. Today, his system can be found in ATMs worldwide, not to mention anywhere debit cards are accepted.
• Robert Kerns – the inventor of the mechanism used to achieve different windshield wiper speeds.  He originally presented this mechanism to the “big three”auto makers in the U.S.  They all rejected his idea and mechanism.  Interestingly, later that same year, they all released variable speed windshield wipers using designs suspiciously similar to Kern’s design.  Needless to say,  after a very drawn out legal battle, he was awarded a total of around $40 million between Ford and Chrysler, though he did spend about $10 million in legal fees in the process.
• Lundgren not only holds a rank of 3rd degree black belt in Kyokushin Karate, but also was the European champion in 1980 and 1981 after captaining the Swedish Kyokushin karate team.  He also later won a heavyweight Karate tournament in 1982 in Australia.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t until 1998 that he achieved the 3rd degree black belt.  When he started out in world competition in the sport in 1979, he was only a green belt.
• While in college, Lundgren worked as a bouncer in a Manhattan nightclub.
• Lundgren and Sylvester Stalone reunited on screen in the movie The Expendables, with Lundgren playing the sniper, Gunnar Jensen.
• Lundgren’s father was an engineer and an economist.  His mother was a language teacher, which explains why he can speak so many languages.
• During filming of Rocky IV, Stalone stated that Lundgren once hit him so hard that he had to be hospitalized with swelling around his heart.  He remained in intensive care for four days after that.

Sources:

• Wikipedia/Dolph Ludgren
• Cracked
• Business Insider
• James Goodfellow
• Robert Kerns
• The Expendables

In January of 1987, CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner, and his wife were having dinner with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.  Rutan and Yeager shortly before became the first to fly an aircraft around the world without re-fueling or stopping.  At a certain point in the dinner, Eisner’s wife, Jane, asked Rutan and Yeager what they were going to do now that they’d achieved this momentous milestone.  The response she got was “well, we’re going to Disneyland.”

Jane Eisner thought this would make a great slogan in an advertising campaign and suggested it to her husband, Michael.  Michael Eisner liked it and decided that Disney would use this slogan in a commercial following Super Bowl XXI, in 1987 in which the New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos 39-20.

The athlete they got to star in this commercial was the quarterback for the Giants, Phil Simms.  During the game, Simms completed one of the better performances by a quarterback in Super Bowl history, going 22 for 25 in pass completions for a total of 268 yards.  Even more remarkable was the fact that two of the three incomplete passes were good throws, dropped by the receivers. He also set the record for most consecutive pass completions in a Super Bowl game.  For this outstanding performance, Simms was named the MVP of Super Bowl XXI and offered $75,000 by Disney to appear in their commercial, with his part filmed directly after the game. During this he was to say “I’m gonna go to Disney World!” with alternate takes having him say “Disneyland” instead of “Disney World”.

Disney then followed this up with making three more such commercials in 1987, following other major sporting championships.  These included hiring: yachtsman Dennis Conner, after winning the America’s Cup; NBA star Magic Johnson, after the Lakers won the NBA Finals, and MLB player Frank Viola, after the Twins won the World Series that year.

Interestingly, many of the athletes and others who have uttered those words for Disney really do go to Disneyland or Disney World shortly after doing the ad spot.  Disney gives them an “MVP” all-expense paid trip, flying them on a private jet to Disneyland or Disney World and then puts their family up in a suite for the duration of their vacation.  They also are made the Grand Marshall of a parade and take part in various events for Disney during their stay.

Bonus Factoids:

• In 1988, Gretchen Carlson became the first non-sporting champion to be hired to say this now famous advertising phrase, after she won the 1988 Miss America contest.
• Before being the first to fly a plane around the world non-stop and without re-fueling, Dick Rutan was an Air Force lieutenant during the Vietnam War.  He completed over 325 combat missions, which was among the most flown by anyone during the Vietnam War.  During his service, he was awarded five Distinguished Flying Crosses, sixteen Air Medals, a Silver Star, and a Purple Heart.
• The original design for the Voyager, the aircraft they designed to fly non-stop around the globe, was first drawn on a napkin by Dick’s brother Burt, during a lunch meeting in which they discussed designing a plane to fly around the globe non-stop.
• The previous record for longest non-stop flight without re-fueling was 12,532 miles.  Rutan and Yeager shattered that record, flying their craft 24,986 miles.  The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds.  When they landed, they had only a 1% of the original fuel remaining.  During their flight, they maintained an altitude of around 11,000 feet and speed of around 116 miles per hour.  For taking off, they used a 15,000 foot runway and needed 14,200 of those feet.
• The Voyager’s record was later broken by the GlobalFlyer in 2006, which went 25,766 miles in just 76 hours and 45 minutes.
• Among the awards Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan were given for their achievement was a Presidential Citizens Medal, a Harmon Trophy, the FAI De la Vaulx Medal, a Longstreth Medal, and a Collier Trophy.

Sources:

• I’m going to Disneyland
• Dick Rutan
• Jeana Yeager
• The Truth Behind “I’m Going to DisneyLand”
• Rutan Voyager
• Phil Simms
• Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer
• I’m going to Disneyland, first commercial
• Image Source