Today I found out the Stephen King short story Children of the Corn was originally published in Penthouse Magazine. While to date Stephen King has managed to sell about 350 million copies of his novels, he started out with quite humble beginnings as an author. After graduating from the University of Maine with a degree in English in 1970, Stephen […]
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Today I found out the James Bond movie Goldfinger was once banned in Israel. Ask most any James Bond fan to name his or her favorite James Bond film and chances are they’ll reply with “Goldfinger”. (Steven Spielberg has even called it his favorite Bond film). Goldfinger is also quite probably the most widely seen of any Bond movie. It […]
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Today I found out John Lennon once almost beat a man to death. Was John Lennon gay? “Why are you bringing up such a ridiculous question? Who cares if he was gay? I thought this article was about John Lennon almost beating a guy to death.” Well, it is, it is, keep reading and you will see all the pieces […]
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Today I found out Caryn Elaine Johnson, better known as Whoopi Goldberg, was once a phone sex operator. On the December 16, 2011 episode of “The View”, which Goldberg is a co-host of (since 2007), Elisabeth Hasselbeck was doing a segment on stay at home moms working as phone sex operators. Specifically, she was covering the fact that the number […]
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Myth: Marilyn Monroe was a size 12-16. From Roseanne Barr stating, “I’m more sexy than Pamela Lee or whoever else they’ve got out there these days. Marilyn Monroe was a size 16. That says it all”, to Elizabeth Hurley stating, “I’ve always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I’d kill myself if I was that fat…I went to see her […]
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Today I found out Eric Clapton was to meet up with Jimi Hendrix on the night Hendrix died. He was also with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the night he died. Clapton was good friends with Jimi Hendrix and was supposed to meet him on the night of Hendrix’ death at a Sly and the Family Stone concert. Clapton had bought […]
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Today I found out the famous Star Trek line “…to boldly go where no one has gone before” is thought to have been inspired by a passage in a White House issued pamphlet on space. Specifically, it is thought to be from this passage in the pamphlet, “Introduction to Outer Space“: It is useful to distinguish among four factors which […]
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Today I found out It’s a Wonderful Life was based on a “Christmas Card” short story by Philip Van Doren Stern, which was originally sent out to around 200 of Stern’s friends and family in December of 1943. The short story was called The Greatest Gift and was inspired by a dream Stern had one night in the 1930s. Stern, […]
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Today I found out Rowan Atkinson, the guy who played “Mr. Bean”, has a master’s degree in electrical engineering. 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 […]
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Today I found out the actor who played Steve Urkel also did the voice for Sonic the Hedgehog. 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 […]
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Today I found out Keanu Reeves’ first name is pronounced “Kay-ah-noo”, not “Key-ah-Noo”. 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 […]
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Today I found out Whitey Ford gave Pete Rose his “Charlie Hustle” nickname. 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 […]
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Today I found out Elizabeth Taylor was at one time Carrie Fisher’s step-mother. 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 […]
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Today I found out Randy and Sharon Marsh and Gerald and Shelia Broflovsky were named after Trey Parker’s and Matt Stone’s parents respectively. 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 […]
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Today I found out why short movie advertisement clips are called “trailers”, even though they are typically shown before the movie. 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 […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by frequent TIFO visitor and owner of DumpADay, Jon. 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 […]
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Today I found out how the “I’m going to Disneyland/Disney World” saying got started. In January of 1987, CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner, and his wife were having dinner with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Rutan and Yeager had just recently become the first to fly an aircraft around the world without re-fueling or stopping. At a certain point in […]
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Today I found out Robert Downey Jr. modeled his portrayal of Tony Stark after Elon Musk, one of the founds of Zip2, Paypal, Tesla Motors, Solar City, and SpaceX. During the planning stages of Iron Man, after Downey Jr. had been cast, director Jon Favreau and Downey Jr. sat down to discuss how to make a really believable Tony Stark […]
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