Trivial Pursuit...

Featuring one the most beautiful women to have ever walked this earth...

...Elizabeth Taylor
"You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal."

At one point during her life-threatening illness while filming BUtterfield 8 (1960), Elizabeth Taylor was actually pronounced dead.

She was the first actress to earn $1 million for a movie role, Cleopatra (1963).

In 1963, while the highest paid American business executive earned $650,000 and President John F. Kennedy's salary was $150,000, Elizabeth received at least $2.4 million.

Elizabeth admitted in an interview with Barbara Walters in the late 1990s that she would still like to act but, because of her medical problems, no movie company will insure her. In addition to many other medical problems, including a benign brain tumor she had removed, she has broken her back four times. This causes her severe pain when walking or standing for long amounts of time.

She has appeared solo on the cover of PEOPLE magazine 14 times, second only to Princess Diana (as of 1996).

The stories of Elizabeth's Oscar win for BUtterfield 8 (1960) have grown legendary. It is generally accepted as truth that she won Oscar voters by a vote of sympathy, because of the recent death of her husband, Michael Todd, and her near-fatal illness and emergency tracheotomy to save her life (her scar was very visible on Oscar night). Wisecracker and Rat Pack member Shirley MacLaine, who was favoured to win for her role in The Apartment (1960), said afterward that "I lost out to a tracheotomy."

Judy Garland
"I've always taken The Wizard of Oz very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I've spent my entire life trying to get over it."

Judy Garland was considered an icon in the gay community in the 1950s and 1960s. Her death and the loss of that emotional icon in 1969 has been thought to be a contributing factor to the feeling of the passing of an era that helped spark the Stonewall Riots that began the modern gay rights advocacy movement.

The day she died, there was a tornado in Kansas.

During her first marriage to David Rose, Judy was forced to undergo an abortion at the insistence of MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer who feared that pregnancy would hurt her good-girl image. The event left her traumatized for the rest of her life.

Had intense fears of flying, horses, and guns.

Adding to her appeal within the gay community, Judy always acknowledged her gay fan base at a time when homosexuality was seldom even discussed. Late in her career and in dire need of money, she even accepted work singing in a New York City gay bar.

Jean Harlow
"When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas."

The title of Jean Harlow's movie Bombshell (1933) started the popular term for a blonde sex-pot to be known as a "bombshell."

Between films she didn't worry about her hair or weight and allowed herself to get chubby. She'd have to diet drastically to get back into shape, eating mostly vegetables and salads.

Jean had a photographic memory, and never ran lines. She'd simply look over the script, come out of her dressing room and do it perfectly, take after take.

She had a habit of speaking of herself in the third person.

Jean suffered from a severe inferiority complex. If anyone did anything for her, she'd give them a present, expressing gratitude for practically nothing.

She used to put ice on her nipples right before shooting a scene in order to look sexier.

Jean never wore any underwear whatsoever, and always slept in the nude.

Gene Kelly
"I never wanted to be a dancer. It's true! I wanted to be a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates."

Gene Kelly had a crescent-moon shaped scar on his left cheek caused by a bicycle accident he had as a young boy.

He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in economics.

Martial arts stars Jackie Chan and David Carradine both cite him as an influence.

Gene wore a hairpiece (toupee).

Had a fever of 39.4 degrees celsius (103 degrees Fahrenheit) while filming the famous rain scene in Singing In The Rain.

Gene and MGM studio head Louis B Mayer shared a long standing feud stemming from even before Kelly entered the motion picture business. One evening after seeing Gene perform in Pal Joey on Broadway, Mayer met Kelly backstage and offered to sign him to MGM without a screen test. When Kelly later received a call from a MGM representative requesting a screen test he insisted there was some sort of mistake saying he had Mayer's word he did not have to make one and told the rep to ask Mayer himself. When the rep did, he called back days later stating that he did talk to Mayer and that he still had to make a test. Gene was furious and wrote a scathing letter to Mayer for retracting his promise. For the first couple of years he worked for Mayer, Kelly was uncertain that Mayer even read the letter until Louis brought it up in an argument one evening.

Tony Martin, husband of MGM star/dancer Cyd Charisse, said he could tell who she had been dancing with that day on an MGM set. If she came home covered with bruises, it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.

Judy Garland's section actually makes me a bit teary. I never knew that she'd had such a difficult time...


Romany

[photos courtesy of cinematicpassions.wordpress.com, familiarface.wordpress.com, sodahead.com and popsugar.com]

Trivial Pursuit...

Including the original Divine Ms. M...

Marilyn Monroe
"In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty."

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson) started using this name in 1946, but did not legally change it until 1956.

The first time she signed an autograph as Marilyn Monroe, she had to ask how to spell it, as she didn't know where to put the "i" in "Marilyn".

Monroe's ex-husband baseball player Joe DiMaggio put fresh roses at her memorial site for years after her death.

She died with the phone in her hand.

Fearing blemishes, Monroe washed her face fifteen times a day.

She was originally set to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), but Audrey Hepburn played the role instead.

Monroe tried 9 different shades of blond hair color before settling on platinum.

At 168, her IQ was significantly higher than John F. Kennedy's 129 (a score of 100 is considered average and 150 to be highly gifted).

Ava Gardner
"I haven't taken an overdose of sleeping pills and called my agent. I haven't been in jail, and I don't go running to the psychiatrist every two minutes. That's something of an accomplishment these days."

Filming My Forbidden Past (1951), Ava Gardner was attracted to co-star Robert Michum, who was under contract to Howard Hughes. Mitchum called up his boss and asked, "Do you mind if I go to bed with Ava?" "If you don't," Hughes replied, "they'll think you're a pansy."

Years of sexual dissipation and heavy boozing caused Gardner to lose her legendary beauty. Her housekeeper reported that she'd often stare at her face in the mirror and say to her image, "Too many bullfighters, baby. Too many dicks. Too many George C. Scotts. Too many Artie Shaws. Too many Roberts." [referring to Robert Walker, Robert Taylor and Robert Evans]

She never forgot seeing Bette Davis at the Hilton Hotel in Madrid. Gardner went up to her and said, "Miss Davis, I'm Ava Gardner and I'm a great fan of yours." "Of course you are, my dear," Bette replied. "Of course you are." And she swept on.

George Cukor once said of her, "Ava is a gentleman." She claimed it was the nicest thing that's ever been said about her.

Gardner rolled her first cigarette when she was five years old.

Married Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra - all three of them had nineteen wives between them; Rooney with eight, Shaw with seven and Sinatra with four.

None of her ex-husbands attended her funeral.

When Gardner heard Sinatra had married Mia Farrow, she exclaimed, "Hah! I always knew Frank would wind up in bed with a boy."

Paul Newman
"The embarrassing thing is that my salad dressing is out-grossing my films."

Paul Newman was among the celebrities on the famous "Enemies List" kept by President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Newman was training to be a pilot while in the Navy, but was discovered to be color-blind, ending his flying aspirations.

Early in his acting career, he was often mistaken for Marlon Brando. He claims to have signed around 500 autographs reading, "Best wishes, Marlon Brando."

Newman has donated between $150 million-$175 million to charity since the 1980s.

He is godfather to Jake Gyllenhaal.

Prior to filming The Hustler (1961) , Newman lacked talent at playing pool. But after brushing up on it for the role, he felt very confident in his ability. So he bet co-star Jackie Gleason $50 on a game of pool. Being the excellent pool player he was, Gleason beat Newman. Instead of paying him in dollar bills, Newman dumped $50 worth of pennies on the table for Gleason to take.

Known as an inveterate prankster, he and Robert Redford, in particular, played numerous pranks on each other. One time, Redford, who was also into car racing, had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to Newman's porch for Newman's 50th birthday. Newman never said anything, but not long after, Redford found a crate of the (now) molten metal delivered to the living room of a house Redford rented, which dented the floor. Not to be outdone, Redford then had the metal turned into an incredibly ugly sculpture and dropped into Newman's garden.

When Newman failed to receive an Oscar nomination for his performance in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), producer Charles Schnee and director Robert Wise gave him what they called a Noscar. The engraving says, "The Schnee-Wise Noscar award to Paul Newman for best portraying a terrible no-good, for turning him into a charming and lovable sprite, and for thereby doing what Lincoln said should never be done, i.e. fooling all of the people all of the time".

Romany

[photos courtesy of claude101.wordpress.com, thecampofthesaints.com and balajoe27.wordpress.com]

Trivial Pursuit...

I hope you're ready for more...

Katharine Hepburn
"I have many regrets, and I'm sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret... if you have any sense, and if you don't regret them, maybe you're stupid. "

Katharine Hepburn walked around the studio in her underwear in the early 1930s when the costume department stole her slacks from her dressing room. She refused to put anything else on until they were returned.

She was nearly decapitated by an aeroplane propeller when she was rushing about an airport, avoiding the press.

Hepburn did all her own stunts because the stunt woman never stood up straight enough.

Suffered from pyrophobia (fear of fire).

In terms of acting talent, she particularly disliked Meryl Streep, claiming she could recognise Streep's constant search for tactics during a performance. Hepburn also thought Glenn Close was talented, but said openly Close's feet were too big for audiences to take her seriously as an actress.

Greta Garbo
"I wish I were supernaturally strong so I could put right everything that is wrong."

Greta Garbo disliked Clark Gable, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.

Before making it big, she worked as a soap-latherer in a barber's shop back in Sweden.

During filming, whenever there was something going on that wasn't to her liking, Garbo would simply say "I think I'll go back to Sweden!" which frightened the studio heads so much that they gave in to her every whim.

Except at the very beginning of her career, she granted no interviews, signed no autographs, attended no premieres, and answered no fan mail.

Greta Garbo was Adolf Hitler's favorite actress.

Joan Crawford

"Send me flowers while I'm alive. They won't do me a damn bit of good after I'm dead."

In 1933, Joan Crawford appeared in a Coca-Cola print advertisement. Some years later, in 1955, she married Pepsi-Cola board chairman Alfred N. Steele.

Crawford's costar Bette Davis had been nominated for Best Actress in their film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). If Davis had won, it would have set a record number of wins for an actress. According to the book Bette & Joan - The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine, the two had a life-long mutual hatred, and a jealous Crawford actively campaigned against Davis for winning Best Actress, and even told Anne Bancroft, nominated the same year, that if Anne won and was unable to accept the Award, Crawford would be happy to accept it on her behalf. According to the book, on Oscar night, Bette Davis was standing in the wings of the theatre waiting to hear the name of the winner. When it was announced that Anne Bancroft had won Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (1962), Davis felt an icy hand on her shoulder as Joan Crawford said "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept".

After her husband died, she still continued to set a place for him at the dinner table.

Her popularity grew so quickly after her name was changed to Joan Crawford that two films in which she was still billed as Lucille Le Sueur, Old Clothes (1925) and The Only Thing (1925) were recalled, and the billings were altered.

Her final words before dying were quoted as being "damn it...don't you dare ask God to help me." which was said to her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud.

Gregory Peck
"[on his opinion of stars being paid $30 million per film] I was born too soon!"

Stating he was worried about the 600,000 jobs hanging on the survival of the Chrysler Corporation, Gregory Peck volunteered to become an unpaid TV pitchman for the company in 1980.

Formed a solid friendship with Mary Badham, who played his daughter "Scout" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). They remained in contact until his passing. According to Badham, she always called him "Atticus" and he always called her "Scout".

During the Vietnam War, Peck was a vocal supporter of teenagers who dodged the draft, calling them "patriots" and "heroes" and saying that burning their draft cards was part of their civic duty. He produced an anti-war film, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972) using his own money in order to provoke more opposition to the conflict.

In 1997, as a presenter at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awards ceremony, he said, "It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all."

He took in former co-star Ava Gardner's housekeeper and dog after her death in 1990.

Many, many more to come.
Until next time...


Romany

[photos courtesy of selectsmart.com, dannymiller.typepad.com, sodahead.com and persephonereads.wordpress.com]

Trivial Pursuit...

I recently stumbled upon a goldmine of Old (and New) Hollywood trivia, and figured there would be no better audience to share it with than my lovely readers! Like I said, these new features are nothing too fancy, but none-the-less have me rather excited. Enjoy!

Sophia Loren

"The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been in poverty."

Sophia Loren may have been a voluptuous sex goddess as an adult, but until the age of 14, she was a skinny child and considered an ugly duckling, nicknamed 'The Stick'.

She served 18 days in prison in Italy in 1982 for tax evasion.

Sophia didn't get along with Marlon Brando during the shooting of A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) - especially after filming a love scene when Brando commented, "did you know you have hairs up your nostrils?".

At times, male actors have been hesitant to appear with her, due to the fact that she stands at nearly 5 foot 9 inches, wearing towering heels and tall hair that can make her look over 6 feet tall.

Carole Lombard

"God knows I love Clark [Gable], but he’s the worst lay in the town."

In 1926, Carole Lombard was in an auto accident that badly cut her face. Advanced plastic surgery and clever use of make-up covered the scars. However, at the time the belief was that use of anesthetic during the operation would leave worse scars, so she endured the reconstructive surgery without an anesthetic.

The decision to take the plane which eventually killed Carole and her mother was decided literally by the flip of a coin, with Carole winning the toss. The plane they took was a military convoy which made many stops in order to pick up troops. After the first stop, an officer requested Carole, her mother and publicist to get off the plane to make room for more troops. Carole reportedly argued with him, stating the fact she had raised more than half a million dollars in war bonds and had the right to stay on. The officer finally conceded, and shortly after, the plane crashed.

Her film To Be or Not to Be (1942) was in post-production when Carole died, and the producers decided to leave out a part that had her character ironically saying, "What can happen in a plane?"

Shirley MacLaine

"It is useless to hold a person to anything he says when he's in love, drunk or running for office."

Shirley MacLaine took ballet as a child and always played the boy's role due to being the tallest in her class.

Her childhood dinner for many years consisted of Tabasco sauce and saltine crackers (which apparently often resulted in bad dreams, and her missing the bus to ballet class).

Right before a performance of Cinderella with the Washington School of Ballet (dancing the role of the Fairy Godmother), Shirley was warming up backstage when she broke her ankle. Instead of bowing out, she simply tied the ribbon on her toe shoes tighter and danced the role through. After the show was over, she called for an ambulance.

Named after Shirley Temple.

Marlon Brando

"The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them."

Marlon Brando worked as a department store elevator operator before he became famous. He quit after four days due to his embarrassment in having to call out the lingerie floor.

In 1995, as a guest on Larry King Live (1985), Brando kissed Larry King on the mouth.

He used cue cards in many of his movies as he refused to memorise his lines. In Superman (1978), hi lines were written on the nappy of baby Kal-El.

Brando was expelled from high school for riding a motorcycle through the halls.

Was fluent in French.

His signature was considered so valuable to collectors, that many personal cheques he wrote were never cashed because his signature was usually worth more than the amount on the cheque.

During an acting class, when the students were told to act out "a chicken hearing an air-raid siren," most of the students clucked and flapped their arms in a panic, while Brando stood stock-still, staring up at the ceiling. When asked to explain himself, Brando replied, "I'm a chicken - I don't know what an air-raid siren is."

Contrary to popular belief, he was not an atheist. At his son's trial, where he supposedly revealed his atheism and refused to swear upon a Bible, his actual words were, "While I do believe in God, I do not believe in the same way as others, so I would prefer not to swear on the Bible".

In his biography The Only Contender (1976) by Gary Carey, Brando was quoted as saying, "Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed."

He was an avid user of the Internet in his final years, often going into chat rooms to start arguments.

Brando was related to four presidents of the United States: James Madison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Jimmy Carter.



Surely I cannot be the only one who thinks Marlon Brando is absolutely yummy?
Many, many more to come!


Romany

[photos courtesy of stardustandsequins.wordpress.com, freemooviesonline.com, sodahead.com and media.photobucket.com]