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Entertainment Trivia

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The Academy Award statue is reportedly named after a librarian's uncle. One day, Margaret Herrick, librarian for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, made a remark that the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar, and the name stuck. There are other sources citing that it was Bette Davis who gave the statue its nickname.

While traveling with a British troupe in the United States, Charlie Chaplin was discovered in a stage show in 1913 by producer Mack Sennett. Sennett signed him to star in one-reelers at Keystone Films for $150 a week, a tidy sum of money for the time. Audiences fell in love with his Little Tramp character, and his fame spread like wild fire. In just seven years, Chaplin had appeared in sixty-nine films, and was commanding an unheard-of salary of $10,000 a week. In 1998 dollars, that would be nearly $82,000 a week.

The American TV hit Survivor was based on the Swedish TV game show Operation Robinson.

Who said accountants aren't funny? Bob Newhart graduated with a B.S. in commerce from Loyola University, and worked as an accountant and a copywriter before he tried his hand at comedy. He won the first Album of the Year Grammy award presented for a comedy performance for his album “Button Down Mind.”

The Austrian conductor and composer Johann Strauss (1825-1899), son of the famous conductor and composer Johann Strauss (1804-1849), penned more than 400 waltzes. Some are popular to this day, such as "The Beautiful Blue Danube" of 1866 (which was used brilliantly in the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey) and "Tales from the Vienna Woods" of 1868. He pursued his career against the wishes of his father.

Whoopi Goldberg was a mortuary cosmetologist and a bricklayer before becoming an actress.

The bards of the Irish royal houses composed countless songs which subsequently became part of the repertoire of the medieval troubadours. By these means, Celtic poetry dating back to the eighth century has survived.

Wile E. Coyote has only caught the Road Runner once, on May 21, 1980.

The Beatles' last concert took place August 29, 1966, before a crowd of 25,000 people in the 45,000-seat capacity Candlestick Park (now called 3Com Park). Although the group recorded together until 1970, they did not play live in concert after 1966 because of the frenzy and noise of the crowds. The last song they played was "Long Tall Sally."

William Claude Dukenfield was better known as W. C. Fields

The Beatles played the Las Vegas Convention Center in 1964. Some 8,500 fans paid just $4 each for tickets.

The birth name of 'N Sync's J.C. Chasez was Joshua Scott Chasez.

The Broadway musical A Chorus Line, written by James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch, and Edward Kleban, employed 510 different members during its record 15-year run at the Shubert Theatre.

William Conrad was a former trumpet player and radio-drama writer and performer before turning exclusively to acting.

William Goldman's screenplay writing credits read like a formidable "Who's Who" entry. Not only did he write the film classic "The Stepford Wives (1975), but the novel and screenplay for "The Princess Bride (1987). Other film writing credits include "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), "The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), "All the President's Men (1976), Marathon Man (1976), "Misery (1990), "Maverick (1994), "The General's Daughter (1999), and "Jurassic Park 3 (2001). Goldman won two screenplay Oscars for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and "All the President's Men.

William Holden asked for $750,000 plus 10 percent of the gross to play Capt. Keith Mallory in "The Guns of Navarone (1961). After much discussion, he was turned down, and Gregory Peck was cast.

The Broadway show Grease put performers John Travolta, Richard Gere, Marilu Henner, Treat Williams, and Barry Bostwick on the road to stardom.

William Shatner is the CEO of the Toronto-based Core Digital Effects company that created the effects for the 1996 film "Fly Away Home.

The cello's real name is the violoncello.

With the highly publicized fiery 1998 implosion of the 17-story, the 31-year-old landmark Las Vegas Aladdin hotel and casino became the fifth casino to be brought tumbling down since 1993. Previously imploded buildings along the Vegas strip included the once-opulent Dunes, Sands, Landmark, and Hacienda hotels. All were destroyed to make room for bigger, more-modern facilities. The Aladdin was the site of Elvis Presley's wedding to Priscilla Ann Wagner on May 1, 1967.

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