Post interesting little entertainment trivia bits here! I'll start.

[nytemare]

Stan Laurel was Charlie Chaplin's understudy in Fred Karno's vaudville comedy act, and is rumored to be the actual creator of the "little tramp" character.




http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/17/02a_laurel1.html

[Broken_Hero]

1. Richard Donner

who directed 100% of superman the movie, also filmed 70% of superman II. He had a falling out with the producers, and was fired before he could complete all of superman II. The producers then hired Richard Lester to finish up the movie. On edit:Donner filmed both movies at the same time...

David Prowse, who actually played Darth Vader in the first three Star Wars movies, was also Christopher Reeves trainer, for is beefing up for the Superman role.

[nytemare]

9. That is cool!

I am a big Star Wars fan, and had no idea David Prowse trained Christopher Reeve.

:hi:

[LanternWaste]

14. More kinda cool trivia on Donner...

Donner's frist commercial directing gig was for season one of Land of the Lost.

Remember how season one was super great and then after that it kinda lost its steam? Donner left after season one.

[brook]

26. Donner is also

one of the two men riding ATVs on the beach at the end of The Goonies. The other is Harvey Bernstein, his friend and producer. Two of the funniest, nicest men in the film business.

[LanternWaste]

32. Just asking on a lark...

Just asking on a lark... are you by any chance in the business (directly or indirectly?)

[brook]

50. Used to be.

Worked with Donner a couple of times.

[slj0101]

20. Darth Vader has appeared in two Kubrick films.

James Earl Jones in "Dr. Strangelove" and David Prowse in "A Clockwork Orange."

on edit- the space pod from "2001" can be found in Watto's junkyard in "The Phantom Menace" as an homage to Kubrick, who died shortly before the film's release.

[Broken_Hero]

40. You are right...I'm plum forgot about his role

as that old man's bodyguard/nurse in A Clockwork Orange....

[bigwillq]

29. Replied in the wrong spot (nt)

[darkstar]

2. Wow... cool factoid...

Love that period of comedies and never knew that fact.

Thanks!!!

:hi:

[nytemare]

10. The little article liked was pretty interesting.

I knew Laurel was his understudy, but didn't hear about the little tramp thing until I read that article.

[darkstar]

3. self-delete....

yow...

[Kutjara]

4. Will Smith turned down a scholarship to MIT...

...in favor of his singing career. I bet he's really cut up at the lost opportunity to be a computer programmer.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. Troy Donahue's character in Godfather II was also his real name -- Merle Johnson.

[Va Lefty]

6. James Caan turned down Paul Newman's role in

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Said his reason was "nobody goes to see Westerns anymore." He also turned down Dustin Hoffman's role in Kramer v. Kramer. Saw him on Tom Synder show years ago talking about poor career choices he had made.

[Kutjara]

7. Jack Lord of 'Hawaii 5-0' fame...

...was cast as James Kirk in the original Star Trek series, but he insisted on co-producer status and wanted a cut of the gross. Roddenberry said no.

[begin_within]

8. Trivia about the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" ...

Douglas Rain (the voice of HAL the computer) never visited the set of "2001." It is believed that Rain and Keir Dullea (Bowman) have never met in person.

In order to get the relaxed tone for HAL's voice, Douglas Rain spoke his lines barefoot with his feet resting on a pillow.

According to Douglas Trumbull (special effects supervisor), the total footage shot was some 200 times the final length of the film.

There is no dialogue in the first 25 minutes of the movie, nor in the last 23 minutes. With these two lengthy sections and other shorter ones, there are around 88 dialogue-free minutes in the movie.

Evidence of Stanley Kubrick's attention to detail: there are visible replacement instructions for the explosive bolts in the ejection apparatus of the pods.

The girl shown in the video phone call was Kubrick's own daughter, Vivian, who was 4 at the time of the filming.

The phrase "See you next Wednesday" is heard for the first time during the scene in which Poole receives birthday greetings from his parents. The phrase would become a trademark of director John Landis who would use it in many of his movies.

The actual "Space Station 5" model, which was about 7 feet across, was found a few years after 2001 was made, discarded in an English field with wild grass growing over its rapidly decaying surface. The model was destroyed by vandals a few days later.

Alex North was hired to write an original musical score from the film, and completed it, but Kubrick discarded it in favor of classical music. Kubrick failed to tell North this, and to his great dismay, North did not discover this until he saw the movie at the premiere.

Almost every company mentioned or shown in the film is either no longer in business or has merged with another company and relinquished the name shown in the film. Only IBM, Hilton and Aeroflot are still in buisness under those names. A scene was filmed a bushbaby being purchased at Macy's, but the scene was cut from the film - to the dismay of Macy's.

Before settling on "2001: A Space Odyssey" as the title of the film, other possible titles considered by Kubrick included "Journey Beyond the Stars," "Universe," "Tunnel to the Stars," "How The Solar System Was Won," and "Planetfall."

[Patiod]

11. A 2nd-hand coat bought for "Oz" was one of L. Frank Baum's

What definitely did occur on The Wizard of Oz -- perhaps the most astonishing thing that did occur -- was dismissed as a publicity stunt. Yet it is vouched for by Hal Rosson and his niece Helene Bowman and by Mary Mayer, who served briefly as the unit publicist on the picture. "For Professor Marvel's coat," says Mary Mayer, "they wanted grandeur gone to seed. A nice-looking coat but very tattered. So the wardrobe department went down to an old second-hand store on Main Street and bought a whole rack of coats. And Frank Morgan and the wardrobe man and Victor Fleming got together and chose one. It was kind of a Prince Albert coat. It was black broadcloth and it had a velvet collar, but the nap was all worn off the velvet." Helene Bowman recalls the coat as "ratty with age, a Prince Albert jacket with a green look."

The coat fitted Morgan and had the right look of shabby gentility, and one hot afternoon Frank Morgan turned out the pocket. Inside was the name "L. Frank Baum."

"We wired the tailor in Chicago," says Mary Mayer, "and sent pictures. And the tailor sent back a notarized letter saying that the coat had been made for Frank Baum. Baum's widow identified the coat, too, and after the picture was finished we presented it to her. But I could never get anyone to believe the story."

- From "The Making of the Wizard of Oz" by Aljean Harmetz

http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozcoat.htm

[theophilus]

12. Russ Colombo was on his way to becoming a mega star in 1934.

He was a singer who rivaled Bing Crosby for crooning and popularity. He acted in films. He was a businessman. He visited a friend who was chatting with Colombo when he struck a match on an old dueling pistol's handle. The pistol had a long forgotten charge in it that went off and fired a bullet. The bullet ricocheted off of a table and hit Colombo in the eye killing him almost instantly. That's bizarre but now for "the rest of the story".


Colombo's mother lived for her boy. The family felt that if they told the mother of Colombo's death she would die as well. They deceived her for then years (until her death) with post cards "signed" by Russ from a world tour he was on. She never learned the truth.

That might make a good movie..........huh?

[Crap_in_a_Hat]

13. Peter Jackson appears in a painting in Bilbo's house

in "Fellowship of the Ring", as does one of the screenwriters.

[taterguy]

15. Harrison Ford plays a character named Lucas in Apocalypse Now

[meegbear]

16. When Pink Floyd's "The Wall" movie was being worked out ...

The film's original plot was going to comprise of footage of the band playing live at Earls Court in London with Gerald Scarfe's animation sprinkled throughout the film. The concerts were filmed, but Alan Parker later nixed the idea.

Film footage of the Earls Court shows from 1980 and 1981 have surfaced on bootlegs and look presentable. The audio has been released as "Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live".

[ironflange]

17. Some 80% of all movies use the line. . .

"Let's get outta here," or some similar variant. It bugs Mrs. Ironflange to no end when we're watching a movie, and I snicker when somebody says it. It's something to watch for, especially if the movie's no good.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. The other line that turns up in almost every movie is

"Who the hell are you?" :-)

[ironflange]

54. Yeah, that pops up a lot

So does "What are you doing here?"

LGOOH is still the champ, though. It's fun, some of the most unlikely movies use it. Shakespeare in Love, for example, though it's worded differently, "Shall we depart this place" or something like that.

[Zavulon]

18. In the Terminator 2 scene when Linda Hamilton

came face to face with the terminator that had morphed into a copy of her, that wasn't a camera trick. That was Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie. Kind of unfair that there were two of them and neither one dated me.

[nytemare]

39. Interesting!

I never knew she had a twin.
:hi:

[Little Wing]

19. Scarlett Johanssen offered to go topless in "The Island"

But Michael Bay refused, because he wanted the extra bucks a PG13 would get instead of an R

Burn in Hell, Michael Bay!

[Zavulon]

21. Quentin Tatantino wrote a Reservior Dogs part specifically with

James Woods in mind and offered Woods the role. Woods' agent turned it down without ever consulting Woods. After it was too late, Woods found out he could have been in the movie, got seriously pissed off and fired his agent.

[edbermac]

22. Psycho trivia.

The blood was chocolate syrup.

The stabbing sound was a knife cutting into a casaba melon.

The knife is NEVER seen cutting flesh in the shower scene.

The first American film to show a toilet being flushed.

In the final scene where Norman is cold in his jail cell and is given
a blanket, the officer who unlocks/locks the cell door is Ted Knight
of future Mary Tyler Moore fame.

The voice of "Mother" was actually a composite of 3 people; 2 women and a man.

Neither actor Tony Perkins or composer Bernard Herrmann were nominated for Oscars.

[Giant Robot]

23. Nick Nolte turned down the role of

Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise.

On a different vein, the alarm clock that goes off in the Beatles song A Day in the Life, was not originally intended to be in there. It was set up to let Paul know when to come in and start singing. The alarm clock sound just flowed well lyrically with the song and was left in there.

[Giant Robot]

24. Oh and in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The recent movie, in the scene where they are standing in line to get the paperwork to free Trillian, the BBC version of Marvin can be seen ahead of them in line.

Douglas Adam's head was the model for one of the planet's they visited (sorry blanking on names right now and am at work so I can't check it out in my copy).

[Kerrytravelers]

31. In the Hitchhiker movie (recent one) the woman in the bar sitting by Arther Dent

played Trillion in the BBC version from the 80s.

[nytemare]

47. Neat.

I think Harrison Ford was a better choice, anyway.

[WernhamHogg]

25. John Lithgow

John Lithgow was up for the part of Doc Brown in Back to the Future and for the part of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.

Matthew Broderick was offered the role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties, but he had to turn it down.

[Squatch]

27. The Coriolis Effect is not strong enough to influence the direction

in which your toilet flushes.

[Ha Ha Ha Oh Wow]

28. Eskimo's have over 150 different words for "Ice" and none for "Hello"

nt

[bigwillq]

30. Kevin Costner is the corpse

at the funeral home in "The Big Chill"

[LanternWaste]

33. There were supposed to be flashbacks concerning his character,

There were supposed to be flashbacks concerning his character, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. However, Kasdan was so impressed with Costner's work that he promised Costner serious screen time in his next feature-- Silverado.

[bigwillq]

37. I heard that too about the cuts.

I was never impressed by Costner though.

He's a bum.

[skygazer]

35. Perfect role for Costner

Whose acting resembles that of a corpse.

[dysfunctional press]

34. who is the only actress to win all 4: a grammy, a tony, an emmy & an oscar?

rita moreno.

[JackBeck]

41. Did you ever see "Forbidden Broadway" or hear the cast recording?

There's a really funny song set to the music "America" from "West Side Story" called, "My Name is Rita and Not Chita".

Everyone always gets those two mixed up.

[blogslut]

36. Actor Stewart Granger

changed his name so he would not be confused with another popular actor. Granger's birth name was James Stewart.

[nytemare]

44. I did not know that!

Cool!

[trof]

38. Marlena Dietrich used gold dust on her hair.

Bankhead had more luck with Dietrich, with whom she enjoyed, at the very least, a long and flirtatious friendship. In the '30s, Bankhead's dressing room adjoined that of Dietrich's , and accounts in movie magazines discuss their whiling away the hours drinking champagne. One account in McLellan's books says that Bankhead liked to apply some of Dietrich's signature hairdressing gold dust to her pubic hair, open the door and flash anyone who passed by, asking them what they thought she had just finished doing. The author speculates that the two stars shared more than champagne during this time, though of course, there is no proof.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/01/26/queer.DTL&type=performance

[nytemare]

42. Thanks for the link.

Interesting read!

[KamaAina]

43. Mark Lindsay lost out on the role of John Lennon in a biopic

when it was discovered his full name was Mark Lindsay Chapman!

[martymar64]

45. Donovan (folk singer) sang backup on Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies

n/t

[6000eliot]

55. It's actually a duet between them.

Each one takes an alternate verse and chorus.

[martymar64]

56. You're right!

But the pairing of these two is what is so strange. A modern day equivalent would be Marilyn Manson dueting with Norah Jones.

[idgiehkt]

46. my grandad was buried in the coffin used in the movie "Being There"

in case anyone wondered what happened to it.

Strange, I know.

[bridgit]

48. now *that's* trippy...

:hi:

[bridgit]

49. hubby's step-uncle designed The Oscar...

and was the art director for The Wizard Of Oz, among therefore many MGM films

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. The Heartbreak Kid (1973) was filmed in Minneapolis and suburbs, and

the church where Charles Grodin and Cybil Shepherd get married is just a couple of miles from where I went to high school. In fact, my high school speech teacher was an extra in that film and can be spotted quite recognizably in the reception scene.

However, there are some real howlers for anyone who knows Minneapolis, most significantly, that Charles and Cybil sneak away for the evening to Cybil's family's "cabin in the mountains."

The nearest mountains to Minneapolis are the Black Hills of South Dakota, which take a very long day to drive to if you go fast on the freeway.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

53. Marni Nixon dubbed the singing voices of

Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (just the high notes that Marilyn couldn't reach)
Natalie Wood in West Side Story
Deborah Kerr in The King and I and
Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

She also appeared as one of the nuns in The Sound of Music who disables the Nazis' car.

[NewJeffCT]

57. In Die Hard 2 (this is more like a blooper)

Bruce Willis races through the Washington DC airport and picks up a pay phone labeled "Pacific Bell"