As usual, I can’t help but share with Funfare readers some of the two books’ interesting contents. Take these:
• John Wayne was nicknamed Duke by his friends because that was the name of Wayne’s boyhood dog. Wayne’s real name was Marion Michael Morrison.
• Humphrey Bogart was so short that he had to wear platform shoes during the filming of Casablanca in order to appear as tall as Ingrid Bergman.
• Spencer Tracy is the only actor to ever receive an Academy Award with the wrong name engraved on it. Instead of reading "Spencer Tracy," the award read "Dick Tracy."
• Nicolas Cage (ex-husband of Lisa Marie Presley) is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, now running for Governor of California in the recall elections set for next month, won the Mr. Universe competition three times and the Mr. Olympia seven times. Before he became a superstar, he went by the name "Arnold Strong."
• Cher’s real name is Cherilyn Sarkisian. Although she was best known as a singer before her acting career took off in the l980s, Cher had appeared in almost 20 films throughout the ’60s and ’70s.
• Katharine Hepburn won four Academy Awards, more than any other actress had to this day. Her winning performances were in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, Morning Glory and On Golden Pond.
• Marilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jean Mortenson. She worked at an aircraft plant before breaking into the field of modelling. She was sexually abused by several of her mother’s boyfriends while she was still just a child.
• One of Barbra Streisand’s earliest jobs was as a switchboard operator.
• Woody Allen’s real name is Allen Stewart Konigsberg. Prior to becoming a film director, he was a highly successful stand-up comedian and joke writer for The Tonight Show.
• John Ford, who was an extra in D.W. Griffith’s acclaimed silent epic The Birth of a Nation, won four Academy Awards for directing, a record that stands to this day. The films were The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Informer and The Quiet Man.
• When Alfred Hitchcock was a child, his father punished him by having the police throw him into jail overnight.
• When people hear the name Akira Kurosawa, they generally think of Samurai films. But few people realize that Kurosawa has a great love for Western art, especially Shakespeare. In fact, Ran and Throne of Blood, two of Kurosawa’s famous works, were based on Shakespeare’s plays.
• Martin Scorsese originally studied to be a Catholic priest.
• Steven Spielberg started making movies when he was just six years old. He took his family’s 8mm camera with him wherever he went, and he liked to direct tiny war epics that starred his friends. But despite Spielberg’s amazing talent and experience at filmmaking during his youth, no major film school would accept him. His high school grades were too poor!
And here are some memorable quotes:
• Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump: "My mama always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get’."
• Marlon Brando: "I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse."
• Clark Gable (to Vivien Leigh) in Gone With The Wind: "Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn."
• Dustin Hoffman (to Anne Bancroft) in The Graduate: "Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me."
• Paul Newman in Hud: "The only question I ever ask a woman is, ‘What time is your husband coming home?’"
• Anthony Perkins in Psycho: "A boy’s best friend is his mother."
• Robert De Niro (to himself) in Taxi Driver: "Are you talkin’ to me?"
• Mae West in Belle of the Nineties: "It’s better to be looked over than to be overlooked."
• Bette Davis in Dark Victory: "I’ll die as I please. Now leave me alone."
• Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel: "I want to be alone."
• Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams: "If you build it, he will come."
• Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz: "There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home."