Badmovies.org Forum

I liked the old thread, it's been half a decade, let's do another:

1. I think orange is an underrated color.

2. Wherever I am I am likely within reach of a tube of Chap Stick.

3. I like to color but I'm not very good at it.

4. I have never broken my wedding vows, and have a near-mania about keeping my word.

5. I am a little safer from pursuing lions, since I can outrun my friends.

6. I think mirrors have the capacity to be extremely creepy things.

7. Almost everyone I know has had some preternatural experience.

8. I believe I have been psychologically tortured.

9. I try not to exceed 30 grams of sugar a day in my diet.

10. I think Star Trek blows Star Wars out of the water, but Star Wars is doing a much better job these days.

11. When I was a child I grew up meeting a fair number of famous and well-known people.

12. With firearms I am an excellent shot, but try as I might mastering archery eludes me.

13. I dislike killing so much I try to catch bugs in the house alive and let them go outside.

1. There are 3 Ronald Merchants in my family. My Uncle (now dead), my cousin and me.
2. I met Verene Troyer (aka Mini Me) in rehab.
3. I hitchhiked from Michigan to NY.
4. I drew a comic strip for the local paper for 10 years.
5. I've been arrested over 20 times. No felonies!
6. We have had 2 suicides in my immedite family. My brother Richie, and my cousin Ricky.
7. My grandfather Merchant divorced my Grandmother before I was born, and married an American Indian woman. My Uncle Eddie and my Uncle Doug both married Mexican women. I lived for many years with an American Indian woman and a black woman.
8. I have never been married, but have 2 children and 5 grandchildren.
9. I used to get drunk in Poe Park, the Bronx.
10. I knew 6 murder victims, and one murderer.
11. My mother was adopted.
12. My great grandfather was a silversmith in Norway.
13. My older brother was in prison for attempted murder.

1. I was born in a country which now has a different name.
2. I was an unwanted child and was raised by a childless couple who are the only parents I have ever known.
3. I am the son of a feminist and a former juvenile delinquent who later became a cop  :buggedout: :wink:
4. I lived through a deadly bush war.
5. I had my first movie experience at the age of 6.
6. I went to an English Public School although not in England.
7. I am an abuse survivor and would unalive myself if I ever hurt anyone the way I was hurt or any way at all.
8. I nearly killed a school bully and everyone left me alone after that.
9. I got arrested in February 1987, a month after coming to South Africa for not having an ID: thankfully I had my passport with all my permits on me.
10. I have worked on over five hundred films, including an Oscar winning one.
11. I have a niece and nephew who are the only young peeps I allow to call me Uncle.
12. I am a trained projectionist and archivist.
13. This is my second home.

1. I don't like talking about myself.
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Repost from yesterday. Added a few other things.

1. I'm a social drinker but don't like alcohol. Never developed a taste for beer (gross), but I will drink one when out with colleagues or friends.
2. The older I get the more obsessed I am with rain.
3. I'm a winter and autumn person. I hate summer. I can't function when it's hot.
4. People always tell me I'm funny. I probably should have been a comedian but I clam up and feel unease when there's a crowd. Plus see 7.
5. I never go to bed without socks.
6. I was a very tall teen.
7. I don't like to be the center of attention.
8. I quit watching TV in the early 2000s.
9. I don't believe in karma.
10. I only befriend people on FB I know personally. You are not missing out as I don't post anything (anymore, for many years now).
11. I sometimes make funny faces at work when no one is looking.
12. I could eat sushi every day.
13. I just recently learned the 'h' is silent in herbs.

1) I've survived multiple stab wounds.

2) Because of the way I walk I have overdeveloped calf and shoulder muscles.

3) I firmly believe that any gods out there should be held responsible for their creations, both good and bad.

4) When someone says "We need to educate people more", I hear "We need to train them to think like us" regardless of who and where it comes from.

5) I have twice refused to meet Ozzy Osborne, once by accident once deliberately.

6) I have met a number of other famous people though. My favourite was Lemmy.

7) I've never had sex with anyone from Africa, Australia  or Antartica. At this point I figure that is unlikely to change.

8) In general, I'll take cats and books over people. There are a few exceptions though.

9) Only my family know my real name. I changed it when I was 12 and haven't had any contact with anyone who knew me before outside of them. Combined with my early records going missing, not having any debt until I got married, not paying any taxes until my mid 20s and being missed off three consecutive censuses there is a lot less information on me out there than most people. I often wonder what some future genealogist will make of this lack of information on me combined with my military service. I think it will look much more dramatic than the reality.

10) The first concert I went to see was Motorhead, supported by The Almighty. It was at The Barrowlands in Glasgow which remains my favourite concert venue.

11) In the past month I have achieved 3 major life goals, one which I set my mind on as a child.

12) Every time I fly or go on a rollercoaster I am convinced there is going to be a major accident. I still do these things though.

13) I dislike the taste and smell of both coffee and fish.

1. I'm writing this downstairs because my husband's asleep and I'm, uh, not.

2. If I could I'd give claws karma for sharing my fascination with rain.

3. I've been kissed by a man who later got murdered in prison.

4. I think I'd make a disappointing prostitute, because I'd want to talk to the clients.

5. As I write this my left knee hurts and I have no idea why.

6. I'm convinced Oscar Wilde's wife knew all about the buggery and wasn't really shocked when it all blew up around her.

7. I was once so hungry I went into a supermarket looking for samples to eat. There weren't any. That was a bad day.

8. I think rich people are better looking than poor people, but poor people are more interesting.

9.  I feel deeply conflicted about the Vikings. Also about the movie Howard's End, which I thought was a porno.

10. My daughter plans to be a surgeon, and has a paid subscription to a site for medical students that shows instructional videos about operations. That sort of freaks me out.

11. My friend Clare does sweet things after she gets over her brief episodes of being mad at me, but sometimes when I'm listening to her I remember once I was with her brother and she left him a happy answering machine message about getting some amazing shoes at the mall, and her brother actually started laughing about how happy she sounded about her new shoes, and I don't know if she even remembers those apparently awesome shoes from the 1990s but I've never told her about him laughing at her message like that, because I think her brother has become a sacred figure in her mind and I wouldn't want to intrude on that. He loved her dearly but he sort of made fun of her behind her back too.

12. I've tried to imagine George Washington and Abraham Lincoln being intimate with their spouses, but quit because it made me feel like I was invading their privacy.

13. I spent a week excited as a four year old because my parents said I could stay up with them and watch the finale of MASH, and it was so long and boring I finally voluntarily went to bed on my own.

You have fantasies about dead American presidents having sex? That is some strange head porn right there, but hey no kink shaming here.

Yeah, baby, a threesome with a tall, cadaverous prairie lawyer, and an old dude with wooden teeth. Just don't ask where I'd get splinters....

(OK even I'm embarrassed by that one!)

I was going to post a list but ER's last comment drove rational thought from my brain . . . .    :buggedout: :buggedout: :buggedout:

Thirteen random things about my husband....

1. He's 6'2".

2. He wanted to be an architect but hated school, so skipped a long process and started restoring 19th century homes, mostly self-taught.

3. He was born to an unwed teenage mother in eastern Ohio and adopted by the married couple who raised him from infancy; he was in his forties before he knew who his biological father was.

4. Except for being close to his cousin Vince, he existed for most of his life with mainly female friends.

5. He shagged a lot of them.

6. Despite all that he says he had only one serious long-term relationship before me, a woman named Corrie, who, sadly, died a couple years ago.

7. Unlike me he has no belief in God, and to diverge even more from me, zero interest in whether God is real, or what follows this life: my obsessions!

8. He's been a great father, even though he was worried he wouldn't know how to bring up a boy.

9. He's an incredibly honest person; so much so that if he tells me something, I believe it.

10. He and I understand one another extremely well, which has helped us a great deal in the rough patches that come with marriage.

11. He spent well over a year in sexless pursuit of me in a difficult time in my life, and we were together for almost eight years before we got married.

12. Still, he says I love a dead man more than I do him. (No, not Jesus.)

13. There's a chance he saw my grandpa's ghost on the stairs of our house, but he just shrugged it off like, "Whatever."

OK, I think I can try this now -

1.  I'm 5'11" and weigh . . . more than I'd care to admit at the moment.
2.  I have briefly held an Australian death adder.
3.  I survived a collision at sea that tore a huge hole in the side of the USS Lockwood in Dec. 1985.
4.  I have seen a Soviet aircraft carrier on the high seas.
5.  I've been buzzed by Russian MiGs. (On the same deployment)
6.  I climbed Mt. Fuji but didn't make the summit because I got altitude sick.
7.  I also swam in the Dead Sea.
8.  Although I had written several short stories, I had never completed a novel until 2012.  Since then I've written seven more.
9.  I have loved snakes since I was a small boy and have several pet ones.
10.  My snake Napoleon has his own Instagram (Napoleon the History Snake!).
11.  My best friend is someone I have never once met face to face.
12.  My wife and I met in second grade, and we were sweethearts all through elementary school.
13.  We have seen every single STAR WARS movie in the theater, as a couple, since 1977.
BONUS FACT:
  I hold a third degree black belt in Okinawan karate.

1. Ugly houses or cars annoy me.  Especially either that rancid tomato soup red or baby poop green I keep seeing on SUVs.
2. Now that I'm over 50 I make sure to take my 4 vitamins at least a couple times a week (they get too expensive to take them much more): Garlic, Calcium+D, C, and Multi.
3. NEVER doing non-chewable vitamins.  Bleck!
4. My happiest relaxation moment: a Coke (or reasonable store-brand facsimile), easy chair and internet or video games.  Acceptable substitute: eating a yummy cheesesteak sandwich.  Or hugging, kissing, petting and scratching a happy doggie.  And cat purrs.
5. I almost never cry.  I just don't get sad about things.  The death of my dog last year got the waterworks going.
6. Don't drive.  Never liked it; I have enough expenses currently.  Have most things I like/need within walking distance.  May get a scooter sometime.
7. Not a fan of big changes in the workplace (hospital).  I try to keep things looking neat and bright and shiny in my wards so they don't try to move me.  It's pretty clear no one else on the crew can do what I do-- when I'm off for a short while it's obvious when I return that things weren't done very well, or at all-- so I'm confident that won't change.
8. Pretty antisocial.  Any attempts at work by the powers that be to try to get me to be more interactive with other housekeepers doesn't end well.  I'm not rude to them but I certainly won't be going around asking what movies they've seen or whatever.  I have a very busy schedule to keep-- one of the busiest, having to manage Dialysis and Chemo units and more-- so I just want to get working as soon as I can.
9. My #1 goal in life right now is nothing special-- I just want to pay off my house.  Many homeowners flip their property for another home; makes sense in a lot of ways.  I just like my neighborhood (which has greatly improved in quality over the years) and don't want to sell; I put a lot of money into it and am happy where I'm at.  Not selling despite many inquiries.  Looking forward to simple property tax payments and utilities, and saving money.
10. I refuse to go get a haircut.  I can neaten my hair up here and there on my own, but I don't care about it enough.  It's all falling out anyway..
11. When I'm not at work my eating schedule goes to whack.  I often just do one big meal, then peck at things other times of the day.  Doesn't seem to be terribly bad for my health, I just watch what I eat.
12. My allergies are such that if I eat too much at once, I start sneezing like crazy.  Kind of a helpful way for my body to tell me to stop, rather than crapping myself or throwing up.
13. Love to sing (karaoke); above average.  But it frustrates me that I can't sing like I used to.  I was crazy good in my 20s/30s.  Never had lessons (apart from some lame choir class in Junior High, which I honestly don't think contributed to my ability).
Bonus: I do get pretty mad about certain things, like asinine people blasting music, my sports teams playing crappy, sustaining stupid injuries or playing particularly difficult video games.  People doing stupid things around me or saying stupid things to me I can just walk away from.

Quote from: indianasmith on October 07, 2023, 08:12:17 PM
OK, I think I can try this now -

1.  I'm 5'1" and weigh . . . more than I'd care to admit at the moment.

5'1"? I stand 5'2", so I guess I'm taller than you....?  :question:

Quote from: RCMerchant on October 08, 2023, 03:28:21 AM

Quote from: indianasmith on October 07, 2023, 08:12:17 PM
OK, I think I can try this now -

1.  I'm 5'1" and weigh . . . more than I'd care to admit at the moment.

5'1"? I stand 5'2", so I guess I'm taller than you....?  :question:

Typo!!  I'm actually 5' 11". Went back and fixed it.

13 on Dizzie?

1. My oldest daughter, Daisy, authored my one and only lucid out of body experience, while I was having her.

2. She is much smarter than me, and unlike young me, she actually loves school.

3. She played soccer for several years as a younger child, quit playing altogether for a few years, but is now back into it, in high school.

4. Like her sister, she takes after her dad in appearance, something he inordinately gloats over.

5. She wants to be a surgeon and is serious about preparing for medical school.

6. Completely on her own she became a Roman Catholic in her single-digit years, and taking her to church is the only reason I go.

7. She can be bossy to her siblings, and is usually right in what she's telling them, but I generally ask her to ease off.

8. She wanted to move her bedroom downstairs last year, and somehow has taken over the entire lowest floor.

9. Her best friend is my cousin Dana's youngest girl, her eighteen-year-old cousin Bethany Brooke, a relationship which oddly mirrors the one I had with Dana, who is about the same number of years older than me as Bethany is with Daisy, who is going to be fifteen next month.

10. She wanted a pet snake when she was seven, so we got her one. It vanished somewhere in our house, never to be seen again! Her cat Miss Sparkly Feet likewise up and vanished, though probably outdoors.

11. Daisy's insights into me and my life can be dauntingly accurate, though I don't always admit it to her. She thinks it's funny to devil me about one theory in particular which I don't think is funny at all and has actually made me get mad at her when she presses me on it, try as I might to never be mad at my children.

12. She says, "Boys will just get in the way of my life-plans." I always feel like setting off fireworks and playing the Ode To Joy when she does.

13. She read The Silmarillion when she was ten!  Let me repeat that: when she was ten!:buggedout:

1. H.P. Lovecraft's wife said he was OK in bed.

2. During WWII doctors in the Pacific used both saltwater and coconut milk as would-be substitutes for blood plasma.

3. Tony Blair said he found Prime Minister's Questions so intimidating he would get digestive upset beforehand.

4. The Great Pyramids are odds-on favorite to be the last manmade objects to remain on Earth.

5. Pope Gregory the Great retroactively declared every cleric who ever belonged to the Celtic Christian Church was in Hell.

6. Penn and Teller stand by the theater doors after every Las Vegas show and personally thank fans for coming.

7. Freddie Mercury had to have his foot amputated in the last months of his life.

8. Spock was originally going to have red skin.

9. My grandparents took me to Claiborne Farms to see Secretariat when I was little, and the man there called him a king.

10. According to Master Chef John Kinsella, many supposed scallops served in restaurants are actually rounds cut out of fish fillets.

11. Microbiologists warn that in using alcohol-based hand squirt we are creating strains of germs resistant to its effects.

12. The US Great Plains are not flat, they are gradually rising thousands of feet in elevation from east to west.

13. The American funeral business has one of the highest "profit versus cost" inflations of any industry in the country.

1. Most lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun.

2. The comic strip Peanuts was nearly called Lil Folks.

3. I once saw a ladder bounce off a moving pickup truck, then bounce back in.

4. By custom the British sovereign does not enter the House of Commons.

5. Edgar Allan Poe was an athlete in his student days, and won awards for his feats of swimming.

6. Nowhere in the Bible does it say the devil is in Hell; on the contrary it appears to claim he was given this world for his kingdom. (Thanks, God!)

7. The man who headed the US government's "walk facing traffic" campaign in the mid-20th century was killed by a car going the wrong way.

8. Some historians claim male homosexuality was no more common in ancient Greece than in any other culture, just was something glamorized by those writers whose work has come down to us today.

9. Herman Goering used to throw parties where the main entertainment was watching his prize bull mate with cows.

10. There are far more trees in the world than people.

11. Real raindrops look like the raindrops we draw turned upside down.

12. New Jersey was once predicted to be ground zero of the US movie industry.

13. Slightly more boys are born each year than girls, which is thought to be nature's way of compensating for the fact boys die in childhood more often than girls do. (Boy, nature thinks of everything, doesn't it?)

Quote from: ER on October 12, 2023, 09:56:56 AM

13. Slightly more boys are born each year than girls, which is thought to be nature's way of compensating for the fact boys die in childhood more often than girls do. (Boy, nature thinks of everything, doesn't it?)

Indeed. Edwin Starr failed to consider this fully. The lack of a major war in Europe for a long time is leading to an increasing imbalance in the numbers of the sexes.

13 about my house.

1. It was built in 1920, and the original owner actually named the house and grounds The Stand, which tickled me back when I read Stephen King so much in my early teens.

2. I turned the old cistern into a storm cellar/quiet room/safe room.

3. There is an odd storage area under the floor of the foyer closet that's about four feet deep, five feet long, and three feet wide. Since I can remember it's been called the priest's hole, after the hidden spaces where Catholics would hide priests in Reformation England.

4. Yet despite the "priest hole" when my grandpa bought it in 1965 there was a condition attached to the sale of the house that said it would not be sold to anyone except a WASP. The story varies about whether Grandpa was going to sue over it or that the condition was just ignored.

5. The house and land were left to me in 2000 but I had a years' long legal battle with my cousins' father before I could live in it.

6. Supposedly the main staircase imitates a Tudor design in a house the builder saw in England around the turn of the last century.

7. There is a well here and no attachments to city water have ever existed. They still send us bills though.

8. I find artifacts from past owners, including my grandparents, all the time in the woods. Everything from golf balls to wind chimes to an old ash heap where household trash apparently used to get dumped along with broken plates.

9. The downstairs fireplace is so big I could stand up in it til I was about twelve, without touching the sides.

10. Some of the trees here were planted when the house was built and are a century old, but there are even more venerable ones in the woods.

11. There are apparently no ghosts, unless a weird incident where my half-asleep husband may have seen my late grandpa on a staircase counts.

12. When my grandpa put in the concrete swimming pool out back in 1966, it was still considered such an aberration and oddity that he had to take out an insurance policy on it alone, that cost as much as the policy on the house.

13. The overlook on our hillside has a great river view and I am sure people have stood and gazed out on it for 12,000-plus years.

Random facts about the endings of thirteen unidentified works of fiction.

1. The title character loses his nocturnal duel in a park in Japan and is decapitated by a venerable katana.

2. She realizes he has really been the great love of her life, yet even as he leaves her, her optimism in the future remains undimmed.

3. He slices into pieces the wasp stinging his hand, slashing open his own palm, yet feels a great sense of joy about his actions.

4. She died but a number of her children remained behind with her unlikely friend.

5. He travels from one end of America to the other dragging a corpse behind him in order to bury his comrade according to his dying wishes.

6. He came to love the figurehead of his totalitarian nation.

7. It was not an exit.

8. The boats push against the current, which ceaselessly bears them backward.

9. He threw the valuable titular object back into the sea.

10. Radiation kills everyone. Every-one.

11. The boiler exploded and destroyed the primary setting.

12. Dying was by far the best thing he ever did.

13. He was only pretending to be a teenager, he wasn't really her friend, and even knowing it would be the end of her, she got into the car with him.

1. My Ma was born in Nashville, North Carolina.
2. I was born in the Bronx, NYC.
3. I have lived with 4 women. Kerrie Noble for 2 years, Gail (ugh!) for 3, Tara Sue for 5, and Tiana for 10.
4. I have never been married.
5. My mother was adopted.
6. I once jumped out of a car going 60 mph.
7. My brother Mike was in prison for 6 years.
8. My brother Glenn stabbed someone in the face with a screwdriver 8 times and was put in a nuthouse. He escaped and hitchhiked to California.
9. I hitchhiked from Michigan to New York in 1978.
10. I used to sell LSD at a biker bar in the late 80's.
11. My Dad was in the Navy.
12. I seen PLANET OF THE APES (1968) in the theater in 1968.
13. My little brother Richie shot himself in the head.

My mom.

1. She was born in County Galway, the Republic of Ireland.

2. She was the oldest of five, three girls, two boys, and spent a lot of her time helping her parents with her younger siblings, even though she wasn't much older than most of them.

3. She married my dad when she was seventeen years old, and as she liked to remind me, a virgin.

4. She had me when she was eighteen, ten and a half months after getting married.

5. Her two youngest children died as babies, my youngest brother, Daniel, in her arms shortly after he was born.

6. She has tremendous musical and artistic talent, but isn't big on reading like my dad and me are.

7. If there is such a place as the fey realm, my mom is reflective of it.

8. She almost never watches movies or TV, but these days goes to church almost every morning.

9. She went from a teenager in Ireland to be married with a child, in a strange country, by eighteen, and then spent her twenties dealing with the fact her husband's job took him away for long and sometimes indefinite periods, often without much warning or her knowing where exactly he was, or being able to communicate with him.

10. When I was sixteen she left my dad and got a civil divorce as a courtesy to him so he could re-marry if ever he wanted to, but considered herself canonically wed to him. They remarried much later, but she eventually left again and is back to living in her birth country.

11. Despite everything she remains the great love of my fathers life.

12. She is one of the most physically beautiful and graceful people I have ever known, with a sometimes piercing gaze.

13. She has had breakdowns in the past, and over the last few years I think her mental health has not been the best.

1. My Ma is dead.
2. My Dad is dead.
3. My girl Tara Sue is dead.
4. My brother Richie is dead.
5. My best friend Larry is dead.
6. Bela Lugosi's dead.
7. Donald Trump is still alive.  :bluesad:
8. Putin is still alive.  :bluesad:
9. Hitler is still dead.  :smile:
10. My older brother Mike is still alive.  :smile:
11. My step ma Mary Jo is still alive.  :hatred:
12. I'm still alive.  :lookingup: somehow.
13. God is dead.

13 random facts about Abraham Lincoln:

1.  He adored the works of Shakespeare and could quote long passages from memory.
2.  He was a formidable chess player.
3.  He wept when the White House stables burned and the horse that had belonged to his deceased son Willie died in the blaze.
4.  He was a powerful wrestler as a young man, and once defeated the leader of a local gang one on one by knocking him out cold.
5.  At 6 foot 4, he was the tallest President.
6.  He allowed his son Tad to have pet goats in the White House.
7.  He is the only President to hold a patent in the U.S. patent office.
8.  He was so strong he could hold an axe by the end of the handle, parallel to the ground, for a full minute at a time.
9.  He offered Robert E. Lee command of all Union armies at the beginning of the Civil War.
10.  He and his father were not close, and he did not attend his father's funeral.
11.  He was prone to fits of deep depression that might last for weeks.
12.  He also loved to tell funny jokes and stories, and once made the bailiff in a courtroom laugh so hard the judge fined him.
13.  In the early 1850's, he was one of the highest paid trial lawyers in the state of Illinois, despite having only one year of schooling.

1. For two centuries Poland was eastern Europe's strongest nation, and would raid both Germany and Russia.

2. Mark Twain joked that Tesla invented a doomsday weapon that created earthquakes, and the story sticks to this day.

3.  Bees vote on the location of new hive sites.

4. Queen Victoria was technically a dwarf.

5. There exists a breed of chickens with black feathers, feet, skin, meat, and bones.

6. Bill Clinton wrote his memoirs with a pencil

7. Elevators are the world's safest means of transportation.

8. George Washington believed the proper title of respect for US presidents should be "Your Mightiness."

9. The concept of a weekend was invented in the 20th century.

10. A steel ball will bounce higher than a rubber ball.

11. Dormice were a common snack in ancient Rome.

12. Stonewall Jackson refused to send a letter if it would be in transit on a Sunday.

13. Antarctica is a desert.

1. London's "fog" was primarily a hazardous amalgamation of various pollutants that killed many people every year.

2. To this day the oath of office sworn by Kentucky's governors requires them to attest to the fact they have not fought in a duel.

4. Most shopping cart handles contain more germs than toilet seats.

5. All dogs are descended from wolves.

6. Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Henson died on the same day.

7. Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, and President John F. Kennedy likewise died on the same day.

8. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson breathed their last on the same day as well.

9. On the other side of the coin, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln shared the same nativity day: February 12, 1809.

10. The Golden Gate Bridge is not golden, but is, however, among the world's leading spot for suicides.

11. The Aztecs were a hygiene-obsessed people and had a law that fined anyone for habitually smelling bad.

12. According to a coalition of advertisers, attention spans among US adults are said to have fallen thirty-percent since the 1970s, which has led to simpler TV commercials.

13. Shark bite victims generally report sensations of great crushing pressure, not mutilation.

1. Tesla had a phobia of round objects.

2. The Gettysburg Address monument is not in the spot where Lincoln made the address.

3. Physician intervention most likely led to the deaths of Lord Byron, Hank Williams, George Washington, and Andy Warhol.

4. Certain CPAP machines have been linked to lung cancer, and the manufacturer recently paid out over $400,000,000.00 to settle a class-action suit.

5. The supposed site of the Battle of Hastings is likewise not in the place where the battle was fought in 1066.

6. I once saw a hawk fly overhead with a live, writhing snake in its talons.

7. The supposed sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird actually pre-dated the writing of the To Kill A Mockingbird.

8. There is a drink called Tequila Mockingbird.

9. Dorothy Parker claimed Joe Kennedy only had affairs with women in order to impress other men with how many women he had affairs with.

10. George Washington's body was disinterred around thirty years after his death, so it could be relocated to its present resting place at Mount Vernon, and his body was said to look "dried but in excellent preservation."

11. My daughter once drew the Easter Bunny a picture of what she thought his poop looked like.

12. A church in Ethiopia claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant.

13. In 2020 The Journal of Medical Ethics concluded babies in the womb can feel pain as early as twelve weeks past conception.

13 random facts about game shows:
1. Bill Cullen, "dean of game shows", had polio since he was one and a half.  That's why you usually saw him holding on to his podium or seated at the onset of his shows.  Mel Brooks met him on his show Eye Guess and Bill freely waddled over to greet him.  Mel thought he was doing a silly dance or something and imitated him!  Bill took it in stride completely.
2. Paul Lynde of The Hollywood Squares seemed like all his quips were of his own making, but they were always or almost always completely scripted.  Paul was often an alcoholic, neurotic jerk off the set (and sometimes on).  Right when he was starting to make a serious effort to go sober (as was close friend Dick Van Dyke at the time), he had a fatal heart attack at 55.
3. The flop THE MAGNIFICENT MARBLE MACHINE was quite an expensive one-- the giant pinball machine used in the show's bonus round was 20 feet high and 12 feet long, had a foot-wide gold painted ball, and went through 250 lbs. of nails, 4 miles of wiring, 38 gallons of glue, 23 coiled springs and 10 car windshields worth of glass during its time on the show.  All that, and it lasted less than a year.  The machine took 2 months to put together.
4. Entertainer Alan Thicke composed numerous themes for game shows, including WIZARD OF ODDS (1973-74), THE JOKER'S WILD (1974-75 theme), WHEEL OF FORTUNE (1974-82 theme), and WHEW! (1979-80). 
5. Host Wink Martindale was born Winston Martindale.  A neighborhood kid couldn't say his name right and called him "Wink", and the name stuck.
6. The quiz show scandals of the '50s made it hard for Jack Barry to find work for quite a while, and more so for his partner Dan Enright.  THE JOKER'S WILD in 1972 was Jack's big comeback, though Dan was not given credit as co-producer or executive producer until 1975 (and Jack acknowledged him in the send-off on the final 1975 episode).  Though CBS would end its Joker's Wild run in 1975 it would be picked up for a new run in syndication in 1977.  Likewise, CBS would end its run of Barry/Enright's TIC TAC DOUGH in 1978 and it would also see much more success in syndication, later that year.
7. Michael Larson was an unemployed former ice cream truck driver and heating/AC repairman when he won the big $110,000+ on PRESS YOUR LUCK in 1984.  Taken to court by CBS, it was proved he did not cheat, but had simply taped and studied the board patterns from previous episodes to know when to hit the top prize nearly every time and continue to get spins.  Unfortunately Michael would lose it all to bad real estate deals and a robbery.  He would accuse his wife of stealing money as well and be estranged from his family until his death of throat cancer at 49.  Though he had balding white hair on the show he was only in his mid 30s.
8. The final episode of the short-lived RHYME OR REASON (1975-76) was crazy-- 4 of the celebrity panelists starting destroying the set towards the end of the show!
9. Allen Ludden was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1980 while hosting PASSWORD PLUS.  He became too ill to continue-- and even complained about it on air at least once-- and had to take a leave of absence while Bill Cullen and Tom Kennedy (who became permanent host) filled in.  Allen slipped into a coma for a brief time and afterwards was hopeful to return (host Tom even mentioned on air that he was "getting better"), but he died in 1981.
10. The cartoon show WACKY RACES was originally going to be a game show!  The winner of the car race was to be bet on by either contestants or a studio audience.  Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley (Hollywood Squares, Gambit, High Rollers, etc.) were producers of the cartoon.  This prevented Dick Dastardly from appearing in the 1977 cartoon LAFF-A-LYMPICS as Heatter/Quigley still owned the rights to the character at the time.
11. On the final episode of THE GONG SHOW, Chuck Barris himself appeared as a "contestant" playing the song "Take This Job And Shove It", as a f*** you to NBC for canceling the show.  Long time panelist Jamie Farr gonged him!
12. Host Tom Kennedy's real name was Jim Narz.  He was host Jack Narz's brother.
13. Producer Jack Barry was liked by some hosts (Jim Lange, Jim Peck) and rubbed others the wrong way (Wink Martindale, Geoff Edwards) due to a fairly outdated vision of what a game show host should be like.  He told Edwards he "didn't like his voice" and asked him to change it, to which Edwards took great umbrage.  Martindale said Barry wanted him fired because he "made too much money".  Jack had planned to pass the reins of THE JOKER'S WILD to Jim Peck and ease into retirement (he was 66 in 1984) but died suddenly of a heart attack while jogging in Central Park.  Dan Enright chose to instead have Bill Cullen as the replacement host; Bill would also die of smoking-related causes a handful of years later.

1. Bela Lugosi first starred as Dracula in 1927.
2. Bela Lugosi was married 5 times.
3. Bela was an alchoholic and a moriphine addict.
4. Lon Chaney Jr. was an alchoholic, as was John Carradine and Glenn Strange.
5. Peter Lorre was a moriphine addict.
6. Jayne Mansfield had an IQ of 149.
7. Bela Lugosi was once a communist.
8. Boris Karloff's mother was Indian.
9. Karloff's real name is William Henery Pratt, Lugosi's was Bela Blasko, and Lon Chaney Jr.s was Creigton Tull Chaney.
10. Bela Lugosi had only 1 child.
11. Boris Karloff had only 1 child.
12. Lon Chaney Sr. had only 1 child.
13. Christopher Lee's favorite actor was Conrad Veidt.

(https://i.imgur.com/4dH7PL9.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

Vanity (Denise Matthews)

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Vanity_6_album.jpg)

1. Born in Canada. Her mother was german, her father was african american.
2. Vanity was mentally and physically abused by her father.
3. at the age of 17 Vanity moved away from home with plans of becoming a model, singer and actress.
4. Her modeling was restricted to commercials and photo shoots since she wasn't tall enough to work the runway.
5. She was known as D.D. Winters in Canada, Denise Matthews in America and Denise Sonic in Japan.
6. Vanity made her acting debut in Klondike Fever (1979), followed by Terror Train (1980) and Tanya's Island (1980).
7. In late 1981 she first heard Prince in a record store in Japan. She knew right away that she had to meet him.
8. They met at a music award show in January 1982. It is said that Vanity arrived with Rick James but left the show with Prince.
9. Prince renamed Denise Vanity after she said no to Prince's first suggestion, Vagina.
10. Vanity left the Prince camp in 1983, right before filming Purple Rain. The reason being her salary. Prince's management wanted to pay her $30,000 for Purple Rain. Vanity thought she was worth more than that. She wanted $1m.
11. in 1983 Martin Scorcese contacted Vanity personally to play Maria Magdalena in The Last Temptation of Christ. However, due to delays the film wasn't made until 1989, and the part went to Barbara Hershey.
12. Vanity was selected 'Audio / Video Girl of 1984' by her new record company Motown.
13. When Vanity was high on cocaine she would have one night stands with strangers. She would tell them her name is Apollonia. Apollonia (Kotero) had replaced Vanity in Purple Rain.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/45/Apollonia6.jpg/220px-Apollonia6.jpg)

Bonus fact

14. Vanity passed away in 2016 at the age of 57. Prince died two months later at the age of 57.

13 random weird things about people I know.


1.   Because of his job with the National Park Service, my college roommate's brother has the odd claim to fame of having been pooped on by three different species of rattlesnakes.

2.   My cousin got breast implants while she was still in high school, and in college during the Pamela Anderson craze, got bigger ones.

3.   Ted Bundy's cousin used to work at a local GE Evendale plant, and told people he never met him, but one night drinking with my cousin's husband, the man admitted he was around Ted Bundy on all number of occasions growing up, and said the only thing weird about him was he seemed to try hard to please everyone.

4.   In high school my boyfriend tried to get me to walk along the ledge of a six story building, and I said no, and how about you don't either? Thing was, if he'd asked me one more time, I think I would have, and to this day I have a creepy sense a tragedy was averted because I said no.

5.   My mom was flying overseas one time and was offered a chance to take a seat in first-class. Sitting near her was Andrew Lloyd Webber.

6.   I once bribed the groundskeeper of a cemetery to give me the key to an old mausoleum, so I'd have someplace quiet to disappear and read without being disturbed. It didn't bother me at all being in there, though I never went in at night.

7.   A producer for The Real World: Austin threatened to have my friend's friend arrested if he didn't quit following a cast member around Sixth Street and hitting on her. When he didn't, the cops were summoned and told this man to leave or go to jail.

8.   A soldier I worked with saw a man in Baghdad beating his very young looking wife, so he stopped him and took the young woman to her father, who gushed gratitude at his saving her. Days later he heard the woman and her family were revenge-killed for their interaction with the US military.

9.   Every month I get a new burner phone, and my son and I come up with creative ways to bash, blow up, burn, entomb, drown, shoot, or crush the last one.

10.   Years ago I applied to teach English in Mongolia. I heard nothing for so long I forgot about it, but eventually was offered the job, but by then things had changed and I couldn't do it.

11.   In the palm court of a famous hotel in the city is the flight of stairs that Lou Gehrig fell down just before he was diagnosed with the disease eventually named after him. I once had a dream my eventual husband pushed me down those stairs and to this day when we're there it freaks me out to walk on them with him.

12.   Once when I was watching him as a preschooler, my cousin's son Tyler abruptly climbed into a circular rack of jeans at Target and before I could stop him, peed in there because he said he thought it was a bathroom stall.

13.   My "normal" cousin Jared, who lives in Columbus, recently told me his oldest daughter, a teenager who has a Kaufman-like sense of the odd, has emailed Ben & Jerry's every week this year, to see how many times they'll reply: so far every time.

1.   Parts of Mexico City are sinking at a rate of twenty inches annually.

2.   When 22-year-old Maura Murray disappeared in 2004, her father speculated she'd been abducted off nearby Route 112, by "some dirtbag." On the anniversary of her vanishing, a creepy man put up a YouTube video which showed him laughing mockingly. He called himself, "112dirtbag."

3.   Shakespeare died the morning after a late-night drinking binge.

4.   The solid ground of Earth is about as thin in proportion to the planet as the skin of an apple is to the apple.

5.   There are 3,150 Calvin and Hobbes strips.

6.   A tactless interview with Charlie Rose once left Conan O'Brien so depressed that he crawled under his desk and stayed there most of the rest of the day.

7.   Unborn babies in the third trimester have been known to respond to music with movements that suggest they may, in a way, be dancing.

8.   The funnel spider of Australia has venom so potent it can erode leather on the soles of boots.

9.   Civilizations along the Indus River valley had flush toilets and hot and cold running water 4,000 years ago.

10.   Michael Jordan makes an estimated $7,400 per hour off the interest of his money.

11.   Guy Fawkes is an ironic figurehead for modern "social justice" movements, as he was a Catholic extremist who hated democracy and wanted to bring the Inquisition to England.

12.   The remaining population of the Samaritan people mentioned in the Bible lives almost entirely in Israel, and are thought to be the most inbred humans on Earth, with blindness afflicting nearly a quarter of them in their lifetime.

13.   The Romans never invented any form of punctuation.

13 random facts about THE TRANSFORMERS Generation 1 cartoon series/movie:
1. Voice actor Frank Welker voiced FIFTEEN different characters!
2. Voice actor Chris Latta aka Christopher Collins (Starscream, Reflector, Sparkplug) was a stand up comic from New Jersey.  During his time with the series/movie he had major health issues and was in near-constant pain and turned to cocaine to dull it.  He died at 44 of a cerebral hemmorage.  He also battled personal demons and was to be the voice of Mr. Burns on The Simpsons, but his crass attitude to others in the studio upset creator Matt Groening and he left.
3. Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime, Ironhide) based his voice of Optimus Prime on both John Wayne and his own brother, who was a Marine Corps captain.  Peter was a long-time veteran of voice acting by this point and also appeared on the goofy HUDSON BROTHERS RAZZLE DAZZLE SHOW.
4. Quality of the animation in the series varied greatly at times-- this was due to a different anime studio from Korea called AKOM that put out sub-par effort.  The usual studio was Toei.
5. The death of Optimus Prime in the 1986 movie caused such a backlash from traumatized children that the series was forced to reanimate the character!  The deaths of him and other characters in the film were implemented to usher in new characters and their toy likenesses.
6. Transformers: The Movie was the last film of Orson Welles.  Orson's health had rapidly declined by this point and was in a wheelchair while delivering his lines.  It was thought by many that Leonard Nimoy (Galvatron) finished his lines, but Welles (barely) finished them and passed well before the film's release the following year.  His voice was so weak it had to be run through a synthesizer.  Scatman Crothers (Jazz) died later in the year of its release, also making it his final film.
7. Series writer Ron Friedman included female Autobots due to his daughter being a fan of the Transformers, and giving her characters to better identify with.
8. One episode from Season 3 of the series features a crossover episode with G.I. JOE!  The character of Cobra Commander, who Chris Latta voices as well as Sparkplug and Starscream, is simply known as "Ol' Snake" here.
9. Casey Kasem was of Lebanese descent and voiced Bluestreak and Cliffjumper, and the Autobot computers Teletraan 1 and 2.  Upon learning of the inclusion of a stereotyped Middle Eastern despot from the nation of "Carbombya" (!) in season 3, Kasem left the show in disgust.
10. Megatron's raspy voice took a bit of a toll on Frank Welker's vocal chords, so he performed the character's lines last for that episode after his other characters.
11. The season 3 character "Marissa Fairborn" is the daughter of G.I. Joe's Flint and possibly Lady Jaye.
12. In the comics adaptation of the series, Spike Witwicky has a brother named Buster.  He is not mentioned in the tv series or movie.
13. Numerous characters in the series/movie disappear without any explanation given.  This includes the humans Sparkplug, Chip Chase, and Dr. Arkeville.

Apollonia / Apollonia 6

(https://i.imgur.com/dC1gqPim.jpg)

1. When Vanity left Prince, Patricia Apollonia Kotero, an actress and model, was cast to play the female lead in Purple Rain (1984).
2. During their first meeting in 1983, Prince drove with Apollonia to a deli for lunch. They didn't talk about the movie, they talked about life.
3. While filming, Apollonia passed out from hypothermia from jumping into a cold lake during multiple takes.
4. Apollonia warmed up her voice singing When I'm 69 by The Beatles before recording the song Sex Shooter for the Purple Rain soundtrack.
5. Prince would tease Apollonia, saying, 'You're the kind of chick who would wear a mink coat in the summertime.'
6. When Prince involved Sheila E. in his music projects, he lost interest in Apollonia 6. He took away their best songs and put them on Sheila E.'s first album.
7. Apollonia dated Van Halen's David Lee Roth in 1982. David introduced Apollonia to his parents before going out on their first date.
8. Apollonia was in Ray Parker, Jr.'s The Other Woman (1982) music video, and in Eddie Money's Shakin' (1983) music video.
9. The Apollonia 6 album was released in October 1984, and they went on a three month promotional tour through Asia, Europe and South America.
10. Apollonia 6 did a rare live performance singing Blue Limousine at an open air concert event in South America in January 1985.
11. Apollonia 6 made a mini-movie titled Happy Birthday Mr. Christian in early 1985. The film contained four music videos, plot was about the girls having to work for a living for the first time. The short was produced and directed by an Australian/UK music & film company, with singer Ricky Nelson playing Mr. Christian. He died the same year in a plane crash. Nobody knows why the film was never finished and released. According to Apollonia Warners demanded music videos to be made for every song on the album, but it didn't go any further than that. The raw footage of Happy Birthday Mr. Christian was uploaded and taken down on YouTube multiple times.
12. While promoting their song Sex Shooter in Germany, Apollonia met Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen from the band Nena (99 Red Balloons). Uwe was to write and produce songs for a possible Apollonia solo album. They had booked a recording studio in 1985, but the project was cancelled after one week. Apollonia 6 disbanded in June 1985.
13. Apollonia released her first and only solo album in 1988.

Bonus facts

14. Apollonia has said many times in interviews that she doesn't own a mink coat to this day.

15 The other two members of the group were Brenda Bennett and Susan Moonsie. Susan was the on and off girlfriend of Prince from 1981 to 1983. They broke up in 1983. Prince wrote When Doves Cry about Susan and their doomed relationship. When Apollonia 6 disbanded, Susan moved to Canada and married actor David Garfield. When he passed away in 1994 Susan packed her belongings and moved back to her family in Trinidad. Brenda was already a musician and singer before she met Prince through her husband, who worked as a stage designer for Prince. When Apollonia 6 split, Brenda went to England for a possible record deal, but nothing came of it. She got divorced from her husband in 1989 and moved back to her hometown, Boston.

1. Football games can be cold and boring.
2. "
3. "
4. "
5. "
6. "
7. "
8. "
9. "
10. "
11. "
12. "
13. And the lines to the restrooms are longer than a calculus class.

1, Horses killed Kennedy.
2. Malcolm X is secretly alive, and bought Twitter.
3. PMS was invented by Big Chocolate.
4. Popeye the Sailor and Sammy Davis Jr. both lost their eyes on the same day.
5. The letter Q doesn't exist, it was just needed to fill the last space on a keyboard.
6. The British royal family are not lizard people, they are long lost Village People.
7. Roger Ebert caused Lincoln's death by giving Our American Cousin a thumb's up.
8. One day it will be proven that nobody likes anime, everyone is just trying to sound hip.
9. Elvis DID fake his death to escape his fame, but was fatally hit by a bus the next afternoon.
10. One in seven Canadians is so chemically dependent on poutine that they have robbed to get money for it.
11. The Olympic gold medal is made of recycled Greek newspapers.
12. The Korean War is just waiting for someone to turn it into a musical.
13. Vikings invented mooning.

1. I've been to every state but one.

2. I've been to every continent but three.

3. Of every state capitol I've toured, I think Kentucky's was the best.

4. I've tasted the famous water in Bath, England, and I wouldn't recommend it.

5. I once spent most of a night in a K-Mart store that closed at ten, and it became completely creepy in the dark with no air conditioning and many odd sounds.

6. On a cruise with Jackie in 2006 I asked the captain if there was a morgue on board, and he said yes.

7. New Zealand doesn't look that big but on the south island Landon and I once drove two hours without seeing even one other person.

8. I used to have a recurring dream about being on a jet falling from the sky, down even to more or less the same people on it.

9. In England In was once almost hit by a car because I was tired and looked the wrong way before stepping into the street.

10. I fed a crow a croissant beside George Sand's grave.

11. In Scotland I said the water tasted like perfume but everyone else insisted theirs tasted fine.

12. My cousin once walked away from me in Kansas when I was taking her California, and I drove home and left her there.

13. At a funeral I attended in West Virginia, the mourners embraced the body in the casket and keened, "Devil cain't have are Sister! Devil cain't have are sister!"

Quote from: ER on November 11, 2023, 05:30:55 PM
4. I've tasted the famous water in Bath, England, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Your mama should have told you never to drink Bath water.

13 random classic TV sitcoms with behind-the-scenes info:

1. BEWTICHED: Dick York (Darren Stephens) had major back problems due to an injury he suffered during the film THEY CAME TO CORDURA.  Some episodes even had him laying on a couch/sitting/leaning for most of the time.  The crippling pain led to him leaving the show and being replaced by Dick Sargent.

Agnes Moorehead (Endora) disliked her time on Bewitched and felt the show to be beneath her, having an established career on stage and screen for decades prior.  She was one of the cast of the film THE CONQUEROR that developed cancer, possibly from a nearby nuclear test site.  She died of uterine cancer at 73 in 1974.

Montgomery was married to the show's producer, William Asher.

2. ALL IN THE FAMILY: Early in the series Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker) demanded back pay he felt was owed to him, which he almost didn't get-- the writers almost killed off his character-- but they reached an agreement.  Jean Stapleton (Edith) eventually did get written out of the show with her character's death from a stroke by the start of season 2 of ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE.  She just got tired of playing such a submissive character.

Based on the British TV series "Til Death Do Us Part".

Though Edith Bunker had a horrible singing voice, Jean Stapleton was a trained singer, performing in numerous stage productions.

3. MARRIED.. WITH CHILDREN: Michael Richards (SEINFELD) was the original choice to be Al Bundy but he was deemed too wacky and high-energy for the character.  Sam Kinison was also considered for the role (and guest appeared on an episode).

Amanda Bearse (Marcy) did not get along with Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy).  Ed was kind of a "man's man", who was actually invited to training camp by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Bearse was a gay feminist so their personalities kind of clashed.  Their characters were originally to be cast as good friends but their personal friction changed plans.  

Much of the show's spendy budget went towards Kelly Bundy's outfits and legal expenses over the show's controversial content.

Despite the numerous fans of the show over the years it never won an Emmy, though it had been nominated 7 times.

Roger Moore was a fan of the show.

4. THE BRADY BUNCH: Florence Henderson (Carol Brady) was in Europe for the filming of THE SONG OF NORWAY and had to film her Brady Bunch scenes apart from the rest of the cast, who were in Paramount Pictures Studios.

Star Robert Reed (Mike Brady) didn't really like working on the show and was gay in real life but was very fatherly to all the younger actors/actresses on the set, taking them on vacations and even ensuring strict safety regulations, preventing a possible accident on the set of one episode involving a roller-coaster ride which could have killed the kids if not tested (which Reed supervised).  Reed and producer Sherwood Schwartz often butted heads over the scripts.  The final episode did not even feature Reed at all due to one of these blowups.

A scene where Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady) gets hit by a football in the nose actually did result in a football on the actress's nose-- and she had recently injured it in a car crash!

Christopher Knight (Peter) could not sing.  When the family had a singing number on the show he lip-synched.

5. SANFORD AND SON: Based on a British show "Steptoe And Son".

Comedian/star Redd Foxx was only 49 when he started the show.  He had his hair greyed for the part of Fred Sanford to look older.  He also wore weighted shoes to give him a bit of a limp.

Foxx was written out of most of the 1973-74 season when he walked out over a pay dispute.  He returned to a settlement for the rest of the show.

Lawanda Page (Aunt Esther) was good friends with Redd Foxx since childhood.  Despite her character's pious demeanor she supplied drugs for the cast!

Both Norman Lear shows ALL IN THE FAMILY and SANFORD AND SON were big ratings successes for Lear and helped spell the end of sitcom competitor THE BRADY BUNCH.

Redd Foxx's controversial/profane humor, heard on many comedy recordings, was greatly toned down for the show.

Spinoffs, all of which bombed: GRADY, SANFORD ARMS and SANFORD.

6. THE GOLDEN GIRLS: Estelle Getty (Sophia), who plays the mother of Dorothy (Bea Arthur), was actually a year younger than Arthur.

Bea Arthur and Betty White (Rose) did not get along.  Arthur was stuffy and off-putting and White was social and sweet-natured.

Betty and Rue McClanahan (Blanche) co-starred on MAMA'S FAMILY.

The theme "Thank You For Being A Friend" was sung by Cynthia Fee but originally recorded in 1978 by Andrew Gold (we used to have this 45 record).

Estelle Getty had serious stage fright.

The Queen Of England and Princess Diana were big fans of the show.

Residuals from an appearance on 2 episodes got Quentin Tarantino the funds to help make RESERVOIR DOGS.

Spinoffs: THE GOLDEN PALACE (only 1 season), EMPTY NEST (1988-95)

Won 11 Emmys.

7. THE ODD COUPLE: Dean Martin and Mickey Rooney were at one time considered as the leads.

Spoofed in the 1975 DePatie-Freleng cartoon show "The Oddball Couple".

Never a ratings success but stuck around for 5 seasons due to summer rerun success.

Actor Richard Stahl appeared on the show 9 times-- as 9 different characters!

A laugh track was used in the first season (to both Jack Klugman and Tony Randall's disgust), as was one camera.  The rest of the series used 3 cameras and was filmed in front of a studio audience.

Jack Klugman's wife Brett Somers appears as his character's ex-wife Blanche on the show.

ABC added a narration about Felix and Oscar recovering from marital disputes, so as not to imply a homosexual relationship from 2 men sharing an apartment together.  Woody Williams, who later narrated THE SUPERFRIENDS in 1973, provides the opening spiel.

In regards to the famed episode where Oscar and Felix appear on the game show PASSWORD, both Jack and Tony had appeared on the show, and Jack was also on MATCH GAME.  Tony was good friends with both host Allen Ludden and his wife Betty White.

The rest to come later..

After rising to stardom in 1984, Prince received backlash and had plenty of bad luck in 1985.

1. Prince was heavily criticized for not taking part in the recording of the charity song We Are the World in January 1985. Prince would later say he would've clammed up with all these great artists in one room. To his friends, he said he would never sing a Michael Jackson song written by Lionel Ritchie with a bunch of motherf**kers.
2. The American Music Awards wouldn't allow Prince to perform the song Paisley Park from his upcoming album Around the World in a Day in January 1985. He was told that only nominated songs can be performed at the show.
3. Prince arranged a listening party for his upcoming album Around the World in a Day at Warners headquarters in February 1985. All of Warners executives were present. Prince brought along his father, and singer Joni Mitchell. After listening to the album, everyone was in shock. They expected Purple Rain 2. The word was that the album is good, but not commercial. Prince would later say he made the album for his true fans, those who supported him before he became famous with Purple Rain.
4. Prince didn't allow any kind of printed promotion for his album Around the World in a Day, released in April 1985. His management sent out the whole album to radio stations, instructing that radio dj's should pick and choose a song they liked. A practice never done before. Radio stations were confused, even calling Warners asking what song to play. The song that got the most airplay was Raspberry Beret, which was rushed out as a single in May 1985.
5. Prince didn't want to do music videos for the album, but Warners insisted he do one for Raspberry Beret. Prince didn't like his hairstyle in the video. He said he looked like f**king Lou Ferrigno.
6. Ironically, when Around the World in a Day was released, it knocked the charity album We Are the World from the #1 spot.
7. While leaving a Mexican restaurant with singer Jill Jones, a reporter jumped inside Prince's limousine and started taking pictures. Prince and Jill were shocked. Prince's bodyguard dragged the reporter out of the limousine. While doing so, the reporter bumped his head on the door. He would later sue the bodyguard, who had to pay a $10,000 fine.
8. Prince was criticized by the media for the injured reporter incident. Prince would tell his side of the story in the b-side song "Hello" released on his second single "Pop Life," in July 1985.
9. Former Prince bodyguard Chick Huntsberry sold his story ($5,000) to tabloid news National Enquirer in the summer of 1985. In the interview, he said Prince was weird and lived a sheltered life, and had a shrine for worshiping Marylin Monroe. Chick would later admit he made up lies and agreed to do the interview to feed his cocaine addiction. Chick would become a minister and renewed his friendship with Prince. Chick passed away in 1990.
10. Prince, who had avoided talking to the press for years, gave an interview to Rolling Stone Magazine in September 1985. Rolling Stone wasn't allowed to record the interview, but allowed to take written notes. In the interview, Prince tried to set the record straight on all the negative press and rumors.
11. In September 1985 People Magazine's cover featured Prince, David Lee Roth and Madonna asking "Has Rock Gone too Far?"

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_cssjIXEAQH34-.jpg)

12 Prince was under attack again, this time by Tipper Gore, co-founder of Parents Music Resource Center. Tipper caught her daughter listening to Darling Nikki, which had saucy lyrics about sex and masturbation, from Prince's Purple Rain album. PMRC promptly released the legendary "Filthy Fifteen" list. 15 songs they found the most objectionable. #1 on the list is Darling Nikki by Prince. #2 is the Prince song Sugar Walls performed by Sheena Easton. Sugar Walls is about her vagina. #4 is Prince's former girlfriend Vanity with Strap on 'Robbie Baby', presumably a song about strap-on dildos.
13. Prince released "America" as the third and final single from his Around the World in a Day album in September 1985. "America" is about America's politics and morals.

Continued:
8. DIFF'RENT STROKES: The show was initially to be titled "45 Minutes From Harlem".

Alan Thicke wrote and performed the theme song.

Protracted battles over star Gary Coleman's (Arnold Drummond) wages eventually made him NBC's highest paid sitcom star, up to $70,000 per episode.

Housekeeper Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) would have her own spinoff FACTS OF LIFE.

Dana Plato (Kimberly) was eventually written off the show when her drug problems worsened.  She did make some guest appearances during the last couple seasons, though.

Cames/tenuous links: SILVER SPOONS (Ricky meets Arnold on a 1982 episode) and HELLO, LARRY (Phillip Drummond owns Larry's radio station), as well as Gary Coleman and Conrad Bain appearing on THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR in character.

An attempt at another spinoff was called NIGHT SCHOOL but NBC passed on it.

Gary Coleman had just finished a pilot for a LITTLE RASCALS remake that never got picked up, and Conrad Bain had just finished MAUDE, before both signed up for DIFF'RENT STROKES.

9. GREEN ACRES: Seemingly innocent actresses Eva Gabor and Bea Benederet (who was Kate on the parent program PETTICOAT JUNCTION) had a knack for profanity and dirty jokes, fitting right in with many of their male costars/staff.

Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor became very close on the show and after passing were buried within yards of each other.

Hank Patterson (Fred Ziffel) was deaf.  Sometimes his cue to deliver his lines was a light poke from a pole just off screen.

Tom Lester (Eb) made up a rumor that the cast ate Arnold the pig during a luau on the final day of fllming.  Arnold was gaining a lot of popularity during his time on the show.  He even received the only award of the entire cast-- a Patsy award (given to best animal actor).

Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney) based his shyster salesman character on Elvis Presley's manager Col. Tom Parker, who used to be a carnival barker.

Though named Arnold, the pig was usually played by a sow.

Eleanor the cow was apparently allergic to Eva Gabor's perfume, causing it intestinal distress.

Cameo appearances on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES and vice versa.

Don Ameche was originally considered for the role of Oliver Douglas.

10. THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: Danny Bonaduce was dyslexic and worked on memorizing both his and everyone else's lines.  This would sometimes annoy the other actors when Bonaduce would correct them if they misread.

Shirley Jones was originally considered for the role of Carol Brady in THE BRADY BUNCH.

Originally the show was to star The Cowsills but they backed out when Shirley Jones was to be the matriarch of the band, not Barbara Cowsill.

Olivia Newton-John was an early choice for Susan Dey's role.  In turn, Susan Dey would later be considered for the role of Sandy in GREASE, which of course went to Newton-John.

Of the cast, only Shirley Jones and David Cassidy actually sing.

Cartoon spinoff: PARTRIDGE FAMILY 2200 AD.  The Partridge Family's cartoon likenesses also appeared on the cartoon GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS.

Rick Springfield would have replaced David Cassidy had the show entered a 5th season.

Shirley Jones was married to Jack Cassidy, David's father, and divorced him a year after the close of the show.  David's strained relationship to his father, as well as Danny Bonaduce's strained relationship with his own father, writer Joseph Bonaduce, allowed the two young actors to bond.

Jack Cassidy's mental state deteriorated rapidly, leading to the divorce with Shirley Jones.  He died in a fire in 1976.  Shirley would marry comic/voice actor Marty Ingels in 1977, who David and his singer brother Shaun loathed.

11. BOSOM BUDDIES: When Tom Hanks' star power took off in SPLASH 2 years after Bosom Buddies' cancellation on ABC, repeats were aired on NBC on Saturday nights.

Cast member Telma Hopkins (Isabelle) was in the band Tony Orlando & Dawn.

Presumably for legal reasons, the theme "My Life" was sung not by Billy Joel, but by Gary Bennett.

The show is set in NYC, but it's obvious by the palm trees seen in the opening that it's filmed in LA.

12. MR. BELVEDERE: This was the 4th and only successful attempt to bring the character of Mr. Belvedere to television.  He was previously in print and film.

Co-star Bob Uecker was still doing Milwaukie Brewer broadcasts during the show's run.

Was not expected to continue for the 1987-88 season, but was added to the ABC fall lineup when MAX HEADROOM was cancelled. 

Singer Fergie has an early appearance as a classmate of Wesley's.

The theme is sung by Leon Redbone, who also sang jingles for Budweiser and All laundry detergent.

10 episodes were unaired, until the show went into syndication.

13. NEWHART: The opening credits sequence is re-used from the film ON GOLDEN POND.

Larry (William Sanderson) wears a "quarter ear" prop, which the actor also used in the film COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER.

In addition to the actual ending of the series, in which the whole series was a dream by Robert Hartley (the star of the earlier BOB NEWHART SHOW), Bob Newhart released an alternate ending in whcih he goes to heaven and meets God.

1. One is both the first and second number in the Fibonacci sequence.
2. Two is the only even prime number.
3. Three is almost universally considered a lucky number.
4. There are four seasons, and four elements in the western canon: air, water, fire, earth. (Ether usually fails to make the cut.)
5. The five dots on a die are called a quincunx.
6. In Japan, four is considered bad luck, as the character for four greatly resembles the character for death.
7. Taoists believe seven is the number of greatest harmony.
8. Turned on its side, eight becomes the symbol for eternity.
9. In baseball, only right fielders wear the number nine.
10. Because of its symbolism in Freemasonry, the founders of the United States insisted there be exactly ten amendments in the Bill of Rights.
11. The Canadian loonie has eleven sides.
12. There are twelve hours on a clock, twelve inches in a foot, twelve is the age of maturity for Jewish girls, there are twelve months in a solar year, twelve signs of the zodiac, and Jesus selected twelve apostles, supposedly symbolic of Israel's twelve tribes.
13. A "baker's dozen" is thirteen of something, and the name is the result of bakers including an extra item in an order as thanks to a housekeeper for purchasing from the bakery.

Quote from: retrorussell on November 12, 2023, 05:45:00 AM

Star Robert Reed (Mike Brady) didn't really like working on the show and was gay in real life but was very fatherly to all the younger actors/actresses on the set, taking them on vacations and even ensuring strict safety regulations, preventing a possible accident on the set of one episode involving a roller-coaster ride which could have killed the kids if not tested (which Reed supervised).  Reed and producer Sherwood Schwartz often butted heads over the scripts.  The final episode did not even feature Reed at all due to one of these blowups.

The actors who played his children have been quoted many times as saying Robert Reed treated them as his real kids.

Facts about 13 Prince songs:

1. (Album: For You, 1978) 'Soft and Wet' was the first single from his debut album, For You. For promotional purposes, Warners arranged a "Win a Waterbed" raffle.
2. (Album: Prince, 1979) The song 'Bambi' is about Prince trying to convert a lesbian he is in love with, telling her (sex) "is better with a man."
3. (Album: Dirty Mind, 1980) John Cougar Mellencamp was a big fan of 'When You Were Mine'. He would play the song on a little tape recorder, holding it to a microphone during his concerts. Cyndi Lauper and Mitch Ryder both did cover versions of 'When You Were Mine' in 1983. Prince has said he wrote the song after listening to John Lennon.
4. (Album: Controversy, 1981) in the second half of 'Do Me, Baby' Prince can be heard having sex with a woman. To this day, nobody knows who the woman was.
5. (Album: 1999, 1982) 'Little Red Corvette' was Prince's first top ten single. The song is about a woman's sex drive/vagina. The song 'Stand Back' by Stevie Nicks was inspired by 'Little Red Corvette'.
6. (Album: Purple Rain, 1984) When Prince was on his 1999 concert tour in 1983, he kept seeing Billboards advertising Bob Seger's concert tour. Prince didn't understand the appeal of Bob Seger. Band members told Prince that Bob Seger makes white people music, and that Prince should try to do one. After listening to a few Beatles and Bob Seger songs, Prince wrote and recorded the song 'Purple Rain'. The first version was a mix of blues, gospel and country and according to legend, superior to the version we are familiar to now.
7. (Album: Around the World in a Day, 1985) The song 'Pop Life' makes references to the cocaine addiction of Vanity and Morris Day. The line, "what's the matter with your hair? Is anybody living there?" is aimed at Vanity. When she was with Prince, she had straight hair. When she left Prince, she changed her hairstyle to big hair.
8. (Album: Parade, 1986) The song 'Kiss' was intended for the funk-rock band Mazarati, the first group Prince signed to his Paisley Park label. Prince came up with the lyrics on the spot, while singing and recording 'Kiss' in less than fifteen minutes with a guitar. Mazarati didn't know what to do with the song, so they gave it a funky makeover. When Prince came back the next day and heard what they did with the song, he was blown away. He immediately reclaimed 'Kiss'. Prince changed very little, only adding minor stuff here and there. In exchange, Prince gave Mazarati the song '100mph'.
9. (Album: Sign 'o the Times, 1987) According to sound engineer Susan Rogers, who worked for Prince from 1983 - 1986, the song 'U Got the Look' was inspired by Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love.
10. (Album: Lovesexy, 1988) When his sister Tyka Nelson released her first album (Royal Blue, 1988), Prince re-recorded his song 'Alphabet St' as a duet with his sister. The Tyka & Prince song was never officially released, but was played on a few radio stations selected by Prince.
11. (Album: Batman, 1989) No secret, but the 12" version of the song 'Scandalous' features Kim Basinger singing with Prince.
12. (Album: Graffiti Bridge, 1990) The opening song 'Can't Stop This Feeling I Got' was recorded in 1982.
13. (Album: Diamonds and Pearls, 1991) 'Cream' was Prince's final #1 song, and the only song of his that didn't make the R&B charts.

13 Facts about ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979)

1. Darby Crash (lead singer of the GERMS) can be seen in the crowd at the concert wearing a white jacket.

2. The Ramones were not the first choice. CHEAP TRICK were slated, but wanted too much money.

3. Clint Howard, who played Eaglebauer, is the brother of Ron Howard.

4. PJ Soles, who played Riff Randell, was 28 years old at the time.

5. Mary Worvonov, who played Principal Togar, was once a member of Andy Warhol's entotage, and starred in a number of his underground films and appeared as a go-go dancer in the Velvet Underground's Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows.

6. Johnny Ramone was an avid collector of B- film posters.
7. Joey Ramone had OCD.

8. Dick Miller, an AIP regular, who played the Police Chief, has the line- "they're ugly, ugly people"-which was improvised.

9. Other songs in the film were done by Alice Cooper, MC5, Paul McCarthey and WINGS, Brian Eno, and the VELVET UNDERGROUND, among others.

10. Vince Van Patton, who played Tom Roberts, was the son of Dick Van Patton of 8 IS ENOUGH tv fame and the nephew of Tim Van Patton, who starred in the Punk Rock horror film CLASS OF 1984 (1982).

11. Dick Bartel, who played Mr. McGree, starred with Mary Woronov in 17 films together.

12. Dee Dee Ramone was probably the most prolific songwriter of the group, followed by Joey.

13. My first "punk" rock album I ever bought was the Ramones first album in 1979.

(https://i.imgur.com/4mW7s7A.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)
Darby Crash in white jacket.

13 weird 1980s subsidy film titles from South Africa (largely made by fraudulent 'filmmakers')

1.  SLOW VERSUS BONER  :buggedout:
2.  THE HORROR
3.  THE BLACK NINJA
4.  SAY MAMA
5.  PICNIC OF FEAR
6.  FRIDAY'S GHOST
7.  TIP VERSUS TAP
8.  SPACE MUTINY
9.  RETURN OF THE FAMILY MAN
10. THE TOOTHMAN AND KILLER
11. TOXIC HEART
12. HOTTER THAN SNOW
13. JED AND OWEN MEET BIG GEORGE

:buggedout: :wink:

1. When I was little, new local UHF channel 64 was so broke it had virtually no commercial sponsors, so during breaks it ran almost nothing but minutes' worth of PSAs and program announcements.

2. During a pledge-a-thon on our city's PBS station, someone called in and promised a big donation if the GM, this ultra-dignified "probably takes a bath wearing a suit" type of man danced to Madonna's Vogue live on the air, and he actually did.

3. The local Fox affiliate 's evening news anchor got suspended for calling Rachel Maddow an angry young man.

4. Late night DJs on an area top-40 station I used to stay up and listen to during the summer would let people come be on the air with them if they brought them a pizza. Many, including my cousin Dana, did.

5. During a 1997 tornado warning when the situation was looking particularly bad, a DJ in that same station broke "character" and talked to his scared little girl at home over the airwaves.

6. My Aunt Christie volunteered for decades for the PBS affiliate's on-air auction, and one year the item that got the highest bid was the donated outfit Tom Cruise wore while filming Rain Man in the station's studio.

7. Right after WWII Rod Serling used to work for an area radio station (which still exists) but ran afoul of management for wanting to turn some commercials into the advertising equivalent of soap operas, complete with cliffhangers.

8. Jerry Springer launched his talk show in the basement of our downtown NBC affiliate where he was news anchor. It was originally intended to be a high-brow interview program like Charlie Rose meets Phil Donahue, but sleaze was more profitable.

9. When my husband was a media studies major in college he was intern at a TV news station and had something going on with the hot second string weekend weather girl there, as did her married boss. Everybody got fired.

10. Just north of the city a 50,000 watt AM station broadcast tower sat right beside the Voice of America's 200,000 watt broadcast tower, and cars driving past used to sometimes have their electrical systems scrambled, even as some people with metal fillings in their teeth would find the broadcasts issuing out of their mouths.

11. Radio pioneer Powell Crosley Jr. was so admired in the city in the 1930s that its art deco train terminal was built to resemble a giant old-time radio. Today it houses the natural history and historical society museums.

12. In 1980 a gunman who'd murdered his girlfriend walked into the city's CBS affiliate and took hostages, live on the air, and stayed on broadcasting live, firearms in hand. He took his own life in the newsroom and the anchor did his afternoon broadcast with the gunman's body lying beside him, just off camera.

13. George Clooney's father was the leading news anchor in the city across most of the 1980s. George later got him a bit part in the Batman movie in which he starred.

It's a fact, my family has experienced this. 13 true family tales of the creepy kind.

1. My aunt who lives in Kansas says they got a Native American spirit living in their house. They can see footprints appearing on rugs. Their automatic garage door will open occasionally by itself. She can see it sitting down on the bed next to her, as in the blanket deepening. My aunt never bothered to get "rid" of it or to seek help, since the spirit never did anything drastic, like keeping them awake at night or destroying stuff.

2. When we lived in Las Vegas, my dad saw a formation of lights flying in the night sky. Dad was perplexed and pulled over to watch the lights. He said he had never seen anything like that before. My dad was in the military, and he was sure those flying objects weren't military based.

3. When my oldest sister was 6 or 7, she saw a tiny person standing next to her bed at night. It was about the size of a doll, and staring at her. My sister pulled the blanket over her head, almost dying of fear. She took a look after five minutes or so, and the person had moved closer to the bed. My sister then screamed, and our parents came in the room, turning on the light. Of course, nothing was there, but my sister claims to this day it wasn't a nightmare.

4. When I used to share a room with my youngest sister, she once saw the silhouette of a tiny person looking through the window at night. She told me about it the next morning. We then went outside. There was our garbage can underneath our window where it always is, but we also saw little footprints in the snow, coming from our neighbor's backyard leading to the garbage can. We told and showed our mom, but she said they could be prints from a cat, which my sister and I thought they were not.

5. My second-oldest sister had a tiny triangle-shaped object in her lungs. Doctors noticed when they did an X-ray. They said it doesn't appear to do my sister or her lungs any harm, otherwise they would've done surgery. When my sister had an X-ray as an adult, there was no tiny object in her lungs.

6. After our mom passed away, one of my sisters, who doesn't believe in the paranormal, could smell her scent in her (my sisters) car. She said first was nothing, then suddenly there was this strong scent of mom, which would then slowly fade.

7. Years ago I was waiting for the bus after work in another town, and I had a brief thought about my grandmother, who passed away a few years prior. The same moment, I turned my head and noticed a silver cigar-shaped object hovering next to a church tower. I stared at it for like 20 seconds, and it zipped away so fast, almost like disappearing on the spot.

8. My nephew has a few cams installed in his house on the second floor, for checking on his three small children. Last September, he and his family went to Italy on vacation. After two days, he got a notification on his smartphone telling him there was movement detected in one of the children's room. When he checked the footage, the cam was panning slowly from left to right, and there was the cam's green square indicating that something is moving "inside" the square. However, there was nothing and nobody in the square. No fly or insect on the cam's lens either.

9. When we lived in Louisiana, we did a little 4th of July BBQ at a small lake surrounded by nearby woods. This wasn't a camping area or anything like that. My dad and his brother always went fishing there. We saw what most of us believed to be Bigfoot in the woods. It was huge, walking on two legs, and we made out longish hairy fur. It was breaking branches and let out a spine-tingling scream that literally froze everyone in their tracks. It wasn't until the Internet that I found out that Bigfoot sightings in Louisiana are very rare. However, there have been sightings of Cajun Sasquatch, which is basically the same thing.

10. A few years ago, my oldest sister believed that her daughter unintentionally brought a ghost that was attached, to her apartment when she came for a visit. Her daughter had mild paranormal activity in her apartment for years. She would see shadow figures from the corner of her eye. My sister would hear rustling at night, and ever so often the small door of her nightstand would be open when she woke up in the morning. She also claimed to have felt a presence. I suggested putting up a cam, but she was too freaked out to do that. When she moved to another apartment (not because of the ghost), her "problem" was gone.

11. My mom who was suffering from schizophrenia would tell my dad and me that she hears a strange beeping noise at night. Of course, we didn't believe. One night, my mom came in my room and told me that it's "beeping" again. It was 3:00am. I went in her bedroom and indeed, there was a loud, weird, electronic beeping noise. It was coming from the corner walls next to her bed. My mom had no alarm clock or any other devices in her room that would make such a noise. The beeping was coming from the wall, not muffled. It was loud and clear. After a minute or two, it slowly faded. This was so strange. After that, my mom never complained about the beeping anymore. Apparently it was gone.

12. When my dad was a little kid, he lived with his family literally in the middle of nowhere. A heavily wooded area with only one dirt road. Back then, my dad would sometimes ride their horse to school, because there was no school bus. Sometimes he would visit his friend who lived a few miles away. When doing so he would take the family's horse "carriage" which was a wooden platform on wheels, intended for transporting stuff. One time he stayed late at his friend's house, it was already dark when he headed home. My dad said the horse knew the way home. All he had to do was sit on the small bench on the carriage. It was pitch black and the dirt road went through a forest leading to his home. After some time the horse started to snort. It was sensing something. That's when my dad heard something jump on the carriage platform behind him. He felt the weight of something pushing down the end part of the carriage. Something or someone was right behind him, most likely crouching. He could hear it breathing. My dad was too scared to turn around or to do anything, and after a while he pretended like everything was ok, and started talking to the horse, even though he almost passed out of fright because whatever it was, was still right behind him. After a few moments, he could see the lights of his house. That's when that thing or person jumped off the carriage, rushing into the woods. My dad had no clue what it was. He thought that it might have been a drifter.

13. When I had night shift some time ago, I went outside on my lunch break, around 2:30am. Across the street is another firm, but they don't work at night. The lobby's light was on, and for a brief moment I saw a pair of disembodied legs walking away disappearing behind the firm, at almost the same moment I saw a black disc-shaped object scooting on the ground from the lobby's entry into a field. I don't do drugs and I don't drink alcohol, so, no idea what was going on across the street.

Quote from: claws on November 19, 2023, 12:09:25 PM
It's a fact, my family has experienced this. 13 true family tales of the creepy kind.

1. My aunt who lives in Kansas says they got a Native American spirit living in their house. They can see footprints appearing on rugs. Their automatic garage door will open occasionally by itself. She can see it sitting down on the bed next to her, as in the blanket deepening. My aunt never bothered to get "rid" of it or to seek help, since the spirit never did anything drastic, like keeping them awake at night or destroying stuff.

2. When we lived in Las Vegas, my dad saw a formation of lights flying in the night sky. Dad was perplexed and pulled over to watch the lights. He said he had never seen anything like that before. My dad was in the military, and he was sure those flying objects weren't military based.

3. When my oldest sister was 6 or 7, she saw a tiny person standing next to her bed at night. It was about the size of a doll, and staring at her. My sister pulled the blanket over her head, almost dying of fear. She took a look after five minutes or so, and the person had moved closer to the bed. My sister then screamed, and our parents came in the room, turning on the light. Of course, nothing was there, but my sister claims to this day it wasn't a nightmare.

4. When I used to share a room with my youngest sister, she once saw the silhouette of a tiny person looking through the window at night. She told me about it the next morning. We then went outside. There was our garbage can underneath our window where it always is, but we also saw little footprints in the snow, coming from our neighbor's backyard leading to the garbage can. We told and showed our mom, but she said they could be prints from a cat, which my sister and I thought they were not.

5. My second-oldest sister had a tiny triangle-shaped object in her lungs. Doctors noticed when they did an X-ray. They said it doesn't appear to do my sister or her lungs any harm, otherwise they would've done surgery. When my sister had an X-ray as an adult, there was no tiny object in her lungs.

6. After our mom passed away, one of my sisters, who doesn't believe in the paranormal, could smell her scent in her (my sisters) car. She said first was nothing, then suddenly there was this strong scent of mom, which would then slowly fade.

7. Years ago I was waiting for the bus after work in another town, and I had a brief thought about my grandmother, who passed away a few years prior. The same moment, I turned my head and noticed a silver cigar-shaped object hovering next to a church tower. I stared at it for like 20 seconds, and it zipped away so fast, almost like disappearing on the spot.

8. My nephew has a few cams installed in his house on the second floor, for checking on his three small children. Last September, he and his family went to Italy on vacation. After two days, he got a notification on his smartphone telling him there was movement detected in one of the children's room. When he checked the footage, the cam was panning slowly from left to right, and there was the cam's green square indicating that something is moving "inside" the square. However, there was nothing and nobody in the square. No fly or insect on the cam's lens either.

9. When we lived in Louisiana, we did a little 4th of July BBQ at a small lake surrounded by nearby woods. This wasn't a camping area or anything like that. My dad and his brother always went fishing there. We saw what most of us believed to be Bigfoot in the woods. It was huge, walking on two legs, and we made out longish hairy fur. It was breaking branches and let out a spine-tingling scream that literally froze everyone in their tracks. It wasn't until the Internet that I found out that Bigfoot sightings in Louisiana are very rare. However, there have been sightings of Cajun Sasquatch, which is basically the same thing.

10. A few years ago, my oldest sister believed that her daughter unintentionally brought a ghost that was attached, to her apartment when she came for a visit. Her daughter had mild paranormal activity in her apartment for years. She would see shadow figures from the corner of her eye. My sister would hear rustling at night, and ever so often the small door of her nightstand would be open when she woke up in the morning. She also claimed to have felt a presence. I suggested putting up a cam, but she was too freaked out to do that. When she moved to another apartment (not because of the ghost), her "problem" was gone.

11. My mom who was suffering from schizophrenia would tell my dad and me that she hears a strange beeping noise at night. Of course, we didn't believe. One night, my mom came in my room and told me that it's "beeping" again. It was 3:00am. I went in her bedroom and indeed, there was a loud, weird, electronic beeping noise. It was coming from the corner walls next to her bed. My mom had no alarm clock or any other devices in her room that would make such a noise. The beeping was coming from the wall, not muffled. It was loud and clear. After a minute or two, it slowly faded. This was so strange. After that, my mom never complained about the beeping anymore. Apparently it was gone.

12. When my dad was a little kid, he lived with his family literally in the middle of nowhere. A heavily wooded area with only one dirt road. Back then, my dad would sometimes ride their horse to school, because there was no school bus. Sometimes he would visit his friend who lived a few miles away. When doing so he would take the family's horse "carriage" which was a wooden platform on wheels, intended for transporting stuff. One time he stayed late at his friend's house, it was already dark when he headed home. My dad said the horse knew the way home. All he had to do was sit on the small bench on the carriage. It was pitch black and the dirt road went through a forest leading to his home. After some time the horse started to snort. It was sensing something. That's when my dad heard something jump on the carriage platform behind him. He felt the weight of something pushing down the end part of the carriage. Something or someone was right behind him, most likely crouching. He could hear it breathing. My dad was too scared to turn around or to do anything, and after a while he pretended like everything was ok, and started talking to the horse, even though he almost passed out of fright because whatever it was, was still right behind him. After a few moments, he could see the lights of his house. That's when that thing or person jumped off the carriage, rushing into the woods. My dad had no clue what it was. He thought that it might have been a drifter.

13. When I had night shift some time ago, I went outside on my lunch break, around 2:30am. Across the street is another firm, but they don't work at night. The lobby's light was on, and for a brief moment I saw a pair of disembodied legs walking away disappearing behind the firm, at almost the same moment I saw a black disc-shaped object scooting on the ground from the lobby's entry into a field. I don't do drugs and I don't drink alcohol, so, no idea what was going on across the street.

I can't give you karma but this entry deserved it!

Thanks!

^ Agree with Indy! I loved reading that!  The Prince stuff is cool too! :smile:

Thank you.

13 more Vanity 6 facts

(https://i.imgur.com/HmyctL2l.jpg)

1. Prince got the idea of putting together an all-female group in 1981, after watching The Idolmaker (1980), which is about a songwriter who had huge success with teen idols and bands he created. However, Prince's best friend and band member André Cymone claims Prince got the idea of putting together a girl group from him. Years later, Rick James would claim Prince "stole" the idea of putting together a girl group from him. He told Prince about The Mary Jane Girlls in 1980, when Prince was the opening act for Rick James.

2. Prince started working on songs for an all-female group before he had any singers for the group.

3. Prince came up with the sexually charged and seductive image for the band, to be called The Hookers.

4. Prince talked his personal assistant Jamie Shoop into being part of The Hookers. He said it doesn't matter if she can sing or not.

(https://i.imgur.com/bDHGoVvm.jpg)  
(Jamie Shoop with Prince)

Jamie was then joined by Prince's girlfriend Susan Moonsie, and her sister Loreen Moonsie. Loreen was never meant to be part of The Hookers. She filled in briefly for a test concept/previsualization shoot.

(https://i.imgur.com/6coug2rm.jpg)
(Jamie Shoop, Susan Moonsie, Loreen Moonsie)

Unlike Jamie and Susan, Brenda Bennett could actually sing. She was Prince's wardrobe mistress on his 'Controversy' tour when he asked her to join The Hookers.

(https://i.imgur.com/P6Su3Tlm.jpg)
(Brenda Bennett)

5. When Prince met model and actress Denise Matthews at a music award show in January 1982, he knew he found the perfect leading woman for The Hookers. Prince wanted Denise to change her name to Vagina, but she objected. They settled on Vanity instead, and the band's name was changed to Vanity 6. When Vanity came on the scene, Jamie Shoop gladly stepped back. She never had ambitions to become a singer, as she was talked into it by Prince.

6. Vanity joined Prince on his Controversy tour, and they became lovers. After the tour, Vanity packed her belongings in Canada and moved to Minneapolis to be with Prince.

(https://i.imgur.com/R6hmvaam.png)

7. Prince would entertain the girls all the time. They went rollerskating together, and bought lingerie for their outfits together.

8. The Vanity 6 album was completed in May 1982. One song intended for the album was 'Let's Pretend We're Married' but Prince decided to keep it for himself. He put it on his '1999' double album.

9. The Vanity 6 album was released in August 1982 to mostly positive reviews (it sold 500,000 copies).
Prince used his alter ego name 'Jamie Starr' on the album credits as the producer.
The songs 'Make-Up' and 'Drive Me Wild' were recorded in 1981.
The Foo Fighters did a cover version of 'Drive Me Wild' in 1997.
Only one of the four singles released made the charts. 'Nasty Girl' was #1 on Billboard's Dance Charts, and #5 in Netherlands Dutch Top 40.
A music video for 'Nasty Girl' was filmed in the Netherlands when Vanity 6 was there on promotion.
Most radio stations in America refused to play 'Nasty Girl' because of spicy lyrics.
'Nasty Girl' can be heard in Private School (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Girl 6 (1996).
'Nasty Girl' was also in the rough cut of The Return of the Living Dead (1985) but was later replaced with another song.
'He's So Dull' can be heard in the movie National Lampoon's Vacation (1983).
Between Spring and Summer 1983, Prince wrote at least six songs intended for the second Vanity 6 album:

   Promise To Be True
   Vibrator
   G-Spot
   Wet Dream Cousin
   Velvet Kitty Cat
   Moral Majority
   Sex Shooter

Sex Shooter and Vibrator were completed with vocals by Vanity before she left Prince. Between Vanity leaving and casting Apollonia, Prince recorded '17 Days' with Brenda Bennett. It is not known what plans Prince had with '17 Days' first, but he ended up keeping the song for himself and replaced Brenda's vocals with his own. '17 Days' aka '17 Days (the rain will come down, then U will have 2 choose. If U believe look 2 the dawn and U shall never lose)' was then released as a b-side on When Doves Cry in 1984. Years later, Prince would sample Vanity's moaning from 'Vibrator' into other songs.

10. Vanity 6 was the opening act during Prince's 1999 concert tour, but things would soon escalade. Prince was still in a relationship with Susan, which didn't go well with Vanity, causing drama on the tour bus. Vanity would stay in her hotel room after concerts, not socializing with others. Apparently this was the first time she took cocaine. Vanity would later say cocaine made her more confident to stand up to Prince.

11. Prince caused more friction between the girls by choosing Brenda to look after and 'babysit' Vanity. He also told Brenda to take care of the girls' choreography. Vanity was furious, because technically it was her band. She got into fights with Brenda. At one point, Brenda had Vanity by the throat and against a wall. Prince asked Brenda's husband if he doesn't have any control over his wife. His answer was he forgot his remote control at home.

12. Prince and Vanity would constantly argue and make up again. She would later say she couldn't handle Prince's relationships with other women.

13. Vanity 6 became Apollonia 6 when Vanity left Prince, who had to look for a replacement he found in Apollonia Kotero.

Bonus facts:

14. Vanity would release two solo albums on Motown Records. Wild Animal (1984) and Skin on Skin (1986). 'Pretty Mess' from Wild Animal (1984) went to #13 on the U.S. Dance Charts. 'Under the Influence' from Skin on Skin (1986) reached #56 on the U.S. Pop charts, and #6 on the U.S. Dance Charts.

15. From 1988 to 1989 Vanity was working on a third album with songs written and produced by Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam. Terry and Jimmy were former members of The Time, a band created by Prince. Prince fired both in 1983 after they got stuck at an airport and failed to make it to their The Time concert. Terry and Jimmy then became world-famous producers (Janet Jackson). It is unclear why Vanity's third album was never released.

16. Vanity became a born-again Christian in 1992 after almost dying from years of drug abuse. Vanity married football player Anthony Smith of the Oakland Raiders in 1995, but their marriage ended in 1996.

(https://i0.wp.com/thelastdragontribute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Denise-Vanity-Matthews-brief-marriage-to-Football-player-Anthony-Smith.jpg?ssl=1)

In 2016, Smith was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole, for torturing and killing three people between 1999 and 2011. He was also involved in and charged with a fourth murder.

Thirteen Odd Things I Have Done

1.   I used to sometimes write messages backwards on Brian's shoulder blades before I left his place after school so he'd have to stand turned around in front of a mirror to read them.

2.   Because she loved it with an unholy passion, I used to slice off bits off frozen beef liver and get my dog Charlotte Sometimes to stand up on her back legs and feed it to her from my fingertips.

3.   When Paramount bought King's Island amusement park by my house, they brought in costumed Star Trek characters, including Klingons and Ferengi, and I used to ask the Ferengi actors if their wives charged them for sex. I made one break character and laugh that way.

4.   In high school I used to sit in the confessional at St. X. Church downtown and have long self-centered conversations with a highly patient Jesuit there named Father Huber.

5.   In every house in which I've lived, even briefly, I've left something behind, notes slipped between floorboards or down inside air ducts. Once I wedged myself up inside an old brick chimney and wrote my name and the date in pencil on the bricks there.

6.   I once tried hard to talk "Hugh" in Austin into bidding at auction on the watch Buddy Holly was wearing when he.... Uh, yeah. He said it would cost too much.

7.   A crazy man I halfway knew from seeing him so much downtown came up to me at a bus stop in the city in the 1990s and said there was a giant "half bird man" walking down by the river, and he offered to show me its tracks, so I went down there with him and he looked around but couldn't find the tracks, so I said thanks for trying though, and caught the next bus.

8.   In the mid-'00s my current mother in law emailed her son a list of reasons why he should never marry me, and she accidentally sent it to me as well (and from her embarrassment I really do believe it was an accident) and I had the list made into a T-shirt and gave it to him on our first anniversary.

9.   Back when I was single I used to buy dresses and costumes and outfits from other eras, and wear them around my house sometimes. I think I did the 1920s well but I also made a good 18th century fop.

10.   I once walked a dog down the street with my friend to let the dog poop on the lawn of my Aunt Christie's neighbor, a guy named Jerry Springer.

11.   I collect vials of dirt from around the world.

12.   When my son was born I spread a rumor that his name was Arsenio.

13.   Looking back it also seems much weirder today than it did then that when I was in eighth grade I was more or less going out with a college student.  Yet at the time it was what I wanted most in the world, and what made me happiest of all.

South African Oscar winners:

Ted Moore BSC: A Man For All Seasons
Charlize Theron: Monster
Jon Blair: Ann Frank Remembered
Eric Abraham: Kolya, Ida
Paul Kemp: Violet
Margaret Sixel: Mad Max Furry Road
Gavin Hood: Tsotsi
Pippa Reed, James Erlich, Craig Foster: My Octopus Teacher
Sir Ronald Harwood: The Pianist
Dion Beebe: Memoirs of A Geisha

Quote from: Trevor on November 25, 2023, 06:50:34 AM
South African Oscar winners:

Ted Moore BSC: A Man For All Seasons
Charlize Theron: Monster
Jon Blair: Ann Frank Remembered
Eric Abraham: Kolya, Ida
Paul Kemp: Violet
Margaret Sixel: Mad Max Furry Road
Gavin Hood: Tsotsi
Pippa Reed, James Erlich, Craig Foster: My Octopus Teacher
Sir Ronald Harwood: The Piano Teacher

Shouldn't you have 13? Furry Road made me laugh though. That REALLY changed that entire movie. 😂

Quote from: Alex on November 25, 2023, 07:24:40 AM

Quote from: Trevor on November 25, 2023, 06:50:34 AM
South African Oscar winners:

Ted Moore BSC: A Man For All Seasons
Charlize Theron: Monster
Jon Blair: Ann Frank Remembered
Eric Abraham: Kolya, Ida
Paul Kemp: Violet
Margaret Sixel: Mad Max Furry Road
Gavin Hood: Tsotsi
Pippa Reed, James Erlich, Craig Foster: My Octopus Teacher
Sir Ronald Harwood: The Pianist
Dion Beebe ASC: Memoirs of A Geisha

Shouldn't you have 13? Furry Road made me laugh though. That REALLY changed that entire movie. 😂

Mad Max Furry Road was the version I saw  :wink: :wink:

I don't think there have been 13 SA Oscar winners, sadly but I forgot about Dion Beebe so that makes 10.

And I gave Sir Ronald Harwood an Oscar for the wrong film so  :buggedout: :wink:

Quote from: Trevor on November 25, 2023, 08:11:00 AM

Quote from: Alex on November 25, 2023, 07:24:40 AM

Quote from: Trevor on November 25, 2023, 06:50:34 AM
South African Oscar winners:

Ted Moore BSC: A Man For All Seasons
Charlize Theron: Monster
Jon Blair: Ann Frank Remembered
Eric Abraham: Kolya, Ida
Paul Kemp: Violet
Margaret Sixel: Mad Max Furry Road
Gavin Hood: Tsotsi
Pippa Reed, James Erlich, Craig Foster: My Octopus Teacher
Sir Ronald Harwood: The Pianist
Dion Beebe ASC: Memoirs of A Geisha

Shouldn't you have 13? Furry Road made me laugh though. That REALLY changed that entire movie. 😂

Mad Max Furry Road was the version I saw  :wink: :wink:

I don't think there have been 13 SA Oscar winners, sadly but I forgot about Dion Beebe so that makes 10.

And I gave Sir Ronald Harwood an Oscar for the wrong film so  :buggedout: :wink:

Pssst, look at the name of the thread.  :bouncegiggle: Thats why I asked if there were 13.

Trivia about 13 different horror films:

1. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD

Susan Blu (Tina's mom) is one of the more highly proficient cartoon voice actors (Arcee in TRANSFORMERS, Aimee Brightower in GALAXY HIGH, dozens of others). 

This was originally to be FREDDY VS. JASON but Paramount and New Line Cinema could not come to an agreement, so the idea was scrapped for 15 years and they went with a "Carrie vs. Jason" idea instead.

One of my favorite goofs in horror films is when the snooty Melissa gets a hatchet buried in her head, and Jason throws her across the room.  The actress tries to grab onto Kane Hodder in fear of being thrown.

Production title: "Birthday Bash".  An actress who was in the previous Friday The 13th film (part VI) signed on but upon admitting she was in part VI (the working title fooled her) she was not cast.

Rather light on the gore for a Friday The 13th film, it was heavily censored by the MPAA to avoid an X-rating.  Unfortunately for fans it doesn't look like the cut scenes will be restored (very low quality VHS print).

SFX/Director John Carl Buechler and Kane Hodder worked together on the film PRISON and Kane's work impressed Buechler enough to cast him as Jason.

Walt Gorney, who starred as "Crazy Ralph" in the first 2 films, narrates the opening.

Walking from the set in full Jason costume, Kane was annoyed by a man asking if he was with the movie.  Kane lunged at him and the man ran off.  The next day Buechler told him the sheriff was supposed to pay a visit, but never showed.

Hodder avoided very serious injury by mere inches when he fell through fake stairs in a scene, just missing his head from where the real stairs began.

2. HALLOWEEN (1978)

Director John Carpenter admitted he was high/drunk when coming up with the sobriquet "The Shape".

Working title: "The Babysitter Murders".

Due to the film being shot in the spring, many leaves were painted brown.

For much of his intended scenes, the child actor playing a young Michael could not be present, so his hands seen onscreen (like when he stabs Judith) were producer Debra Hill's.

Made a ridiculous $47 million off a $300,000 budget.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were considered for the role of Dr. Loomis.

A wrench is attached to Michael's hand when he breaks the car window at the asylum.

John Carpenter's rock band The Coupe de Villes includes Halloween crewmates Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick Castle.

3. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

Freddy was originally to be a child molester rather than just a child killer.  This was changed due to actual molestations in the L.A. area where the movie was filmed.  The 2010 remake integrates the molestation backstory.

The name Freddy Kreuger came from a bully who victimized director Wes Craven as a youth, as is the character Krug from LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

Freddy's sweater colors were to initially be red and yellow.

Case XX P210 tomato knives are used for Freddy's glove.

The odd appearance of lambs in dream sequences is a reference to the phrase "like lambs to the slaughter".

When Nancy looks in the mirror and says "My God, I look 20 years old", Heather Langenkamp was actually 20 and was one of the youngest on the set (most of her castmates were older).

The real-life Brugada Syndrome/Asian Death Syndrome served as the basis for the film.

Producer Robert Shaye is responsible for the released ending, which director Wes Craven did not like as he had filmed a much happier ending.

The doctor at the dream therapy clinic is played by Charles Fleischer, who later voiced Roger Rabbit.

4. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

The heat during filming (even at night) was so intense that it had a psychological effect on some of the actors, who would actually willingly hurt Marilyn Burns during the scenes of torturing her character.

Marilyn Burns was not terribly nimble, so her scenes of running away from Leatherface and falling down and getting hit by branches were genuine.  Also, Gunnar Hansen had to make "skidding stops" or cut at branches to give her more time to get distance.

Gunnar Hansen wore lifted shoes to appear taller.

John Larroquette provides opening narration.  His payment was one marijuana joint.

John Dugan, who plays Grandpa, was 20.

The original production company was a Mafia front.  They got busted on obscenity charges after their release of DEEP THROAT and were sued over payments owed (the company later went bankrupt).

The van the kids drive belonged to future director Ted Nicolau.

Gunnar Hansen's swinging of the chainsaw at the end was basically Gunnar letting out his frustration over the difficult production.

5. HALLOWEEN II (1981)

The Michael Myers mask is the same used in the first film-- it looks different due to being rumpled up in a pocket, being exposed to cigarette smoke and fitting over a different actor's face.

The kid with the boombox who bumps into Michael Myers is Michael's actor Dick Warlock's son Lance.

Jamie Lee Curtis had shorter hair than in the first film so she wore a wig for continuity.

John Carpenter (executive producer) made the decision to up the gore, to compete with the slashers at the box office.

Originally the film was meant to take place at a high rise apartment building.

The water in the hot tub was filthy and gave actress Pamela Susan Shoop an ear infection during her death scene.

Dana Carvey appears outside the Doyle house as a reporter's assistant.

Dick Warlock also plays the cop that drives the patrol car into Ben Tramer.

More later..

13 famous films banned in South Africa in no particular order:

A PATCH OF BLUE
BILLY JACK
TO SIR WITH LOVE
THE EXORCIST
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
SHAFT
THE DEVIL'S RAIN
THE OMEN
PRINCE OF DARKNESS
ENTER THE DRAGON
STRAW DOGS
SOLDIER BLUE
THE WICKER MAN

6. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

David Hess performed the song "The Road Leads To Nowhere".

Based on the film THE VIRGIN SPRING.

Cut and re-submitted repeatedly to the MPAA to keep it from being released as rated X, director Wes Craven had a friend on the board who approved it as R with all the cuts restored, and it was released as such.

The house in the title belonged to the producer's parents.

Originally to be a porn film, and was changed early on to not have hardcore sex.

Martin Kove was a friend of David Hess and recommended him for the part of Krug.  Kove was the bumbling deputy in this film.

The boy whose balloon is popped by Krug's cigarette is Jonathan, the son of Wes Craven.

Actress Sandra Peabody (Mari) had a traumatizing time on the set and the actors who played Krug's gang stayed in character throughout the shoot.

7. FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

Betsy Palmer took the job of Mrs. Voorhees solely to afford a new car.

Earned almost 40 million at US box office against a $550,000 budget.

Composer Harry Manfredini also voiced the famous "Ki-ki-ki ma-ma-ma" part of the score.

For Kevin Bacon's death scene, SFX artist Tom Savini's assistant Taso Stavrakis had a syringe to force stage blood through a tube in a fake neck.  The tube popped off and Taso simply blew into the tube, causing an effective geyser of blood in the scene.

Musician Lou Reed lived next door to the set.  He played music to entertain the cast.

Sally Field was offered the role of the final girl Alice.  Estelle Parsons and Shelley Winters were also considered for the film.

Story writer Victor Miller took the name of Jason Voorhees from a mashup of his own sons Josh and Ian and the last name of a girl he went to school with.

Tom Savini performs as a female character thrown through a window, and his assistant Taso Stavrakis portrays Mrs. Voorhees' headless, twitching body.

8. HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH

This film featured a different story due to John Carpenter wanting a series with different stories in each film.  When that idea failed, Michael Myers was brought back in part 4.

Joe Dante was the original director but moved on to another project.

The Silver Shamrock theme is based on "London Bridge Is Falling Down", which was used due to having fallen into public domain and being free of copyright issues.

The original ending was to have the sounds of children screaming over the ending credits.  To make their fate more ambiguous this was scrapped.

Jamie Lee Curtis provides some intercom/telephone dialogue.

9. SQUIRM (1976)

Kim Basinger auditioned for the role of Geri.

The sounds of the worms screeching was actually the sound of slaughterhouse pigs squealing.

Martin Sheen and Sylvester Stallone nearly got the parts of Mick and Roger.

Usage of all the worms in the film negatively impacted the local fishing industry.

10. FROGS (1972)

Most of the frogs and toads escaped the set during production.

Ray Milland wore a toupee in the film.

Though not Sam Elliot's debut, the film's success helped push him towards superstardom, especially among female fans who saw him in his many shirtless scenes here.

11. THE BOOGENS (1981)

Rebecca Balding (Trish) married director James L. Conway during filming.

The sound of the monster roar was a recording of a cat and dog fighting, and played in reverse and slowed down.

The temperatures reached up to 20 degrees below zero on the set.

Author Stephen King really enjoyed the film, calling it "A wildly energetic monster movie!".

A constructed mine set was destroyed in an accident, so they shot the scene in an actual abandoned mine.

12. A BAY OF BLOOD/TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE/CARNAGE (1971)

Influential on Friday The 13th and Friday The 13th Part 2.

Dario Argento loved the film so much he had a friend steal a print of it.

A silly gimmick in theaters was a "Final Warning Station" at which patrons would be personally warned by an attendant that this might be the last shock film you see.

Christopher Lee walked out of a theater showing this film, in disgust at the violence.

13. EVIL DEAD II (1987)

Set at the same cabin as the one from THE EVIL DEAD (1981) but filmed in Wadesboro NC instead of Morristown, TN.

Stephen King spoke to his financiers to help get the film completed.  A grateful Sam Raimi made appearances in the miniseries THE STAND and THE SHINING.

The Rosebud production company was a false name for Dino DeLaurentis' own company, used due to EVIL DEAD II being an unrated, heavily violent horror film.

Sam Raimi's brother Ted, who played the demon Henrietta, got so hot inside the body suit that a hole hat to be cut in it to let out the sweat.

The opaque lenses the actors/actresses had to wear to look possessed made it impossible to see.

Whereas the weather was very cold during the first film, this was filmed during a heatwave.

The production office was the house used in THE COLOR PURPLE.

Freddy Kreuger's glove can be seen over the door in the tool shed.

Last House on the Left, Bay of Blood and the 1980 Friday The 13th film were all banned here.

Thirteen books banned in South Africa

THE EXORCIST (William Peter Blatty)
JAWS (Peter Benchley)
BLACK BEAUTY (Anna Sewell)
THE b***h (Jackie Collins)
FRANKENSTEIN (Mary Shelley)
THE STUD (Jackie Collins)
LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER (D H Lawrence)
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Anthony Burgess)
THE SATANIC VERSES (Salman Rushdie)
A DRY WHITE SEASON (Andre P. Brink)
INNOCENT BYSTANDERS (James Mitchell)
LOLITA (Vladimir Nabokov)
A WORLD OF STRANGERS (Nadine Gordimer)

13 more true creepy family tales

1. many years ago, when my oldest sister came to visit for the weekend (she had to move to another town because of her husband's job) we went shopping the next morning. It was a Saturday, and it was Halloween. When we returned later, we brought the groceries into the kitchen and got a little surprise. Our biggest kitchen knife was stuck into our wooden cutting board, neatly placed on our kitchen table. It was a fun little Halloween scare, but we never found out who did it. My grandmother lived in the apartment above us, and she had a key to our apartment, but she wasn't a prank person. She was German and knew nothing about Halloween. We made bad Michael Myers  visiting our place jokes all night long.

2. My second-oldest sister, who doesn't believe in the paranormal, told me that last summer she was in her room reading, and suddenly heard a rattle. It was coming from the kitchen. She then went to investigate, and there was a small stack of plates with the top plate kind of vibrating, making a rattle noise. The other plates did not move at all. When she touched the plate, it stopped vibrating. When she pulled her hand back, it would vibrate again. She thought that was strange and went to her room to get her smartphone. When she returned, the vibrating and rattle had stopped.

3. Months after our dad passed away, my youngest sister told me she could feel his presence in her house occasionally. One time, while she was preparing dinner at the stove, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Before we had to put our father into a care home, my sister would take dad to her place when I had to work. He would usually sit at the kitchen table when she made dinner at the stove. Sometimes he would walk up behind her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

4. Months after our mom passed away, I was in the kitchen making coffee. It was early in the morning and still dark out. It was my mom's birthday and I quietly said "Happy Birthday, Mom". A few moments later, a butterfly came flying into the kitchen. Coincidence maybe, but I saw it as a sign of sort.

5. After my grandmother's second husband passed away, she once told us that he visited her last night in their bedroom, standing at the end of the bed. She said she wasn't afraid, and that she waved at him.

6. When we first watched Forrest Gump (1994) my dad was a bit stunned. My dad's name is Forrest, he was also in the Vietnam War, and just like Tom Hank's character, shot in the buttocks. Unlike the movie-Forrest, my dad was traumatized from the War, resulting in lifelong nightmares. Dad would usually have War-related nightmares at least once a week. He would scream in his sleep and one of us had to shake him awake. One night I had to wake him, and I asked him what his dream was about. He said "grey people trying to get in our house". I didn't think much of it back then because dreams can be weird and not make sense. Thinking back now with all the strange things we have encountered I wish I had asked him more about those grey people.

7. Years ago, I was working for a big company in a warehouse. When there wasn't much to do, I would sort unfolded shipping boxes by size, to keep me busy. This was done at a more secluded part of the warehouse. One time while sorting boxes, I heard somebody say clearly my name, like the person was standing next to me. I was startled, and turned my head, but nobody was there. I have not a history of hearing voices in my head. And certainly none that would make me startle.

8. My youngest sister had another "tiny person" encounter as a young teen. One time our parents were gone for the weekend. My sister invited her best friend for a sleepover. They slept in my parent's bedroom. My sister woke up at night because she heard a noise. At the end of the bed was a big closet with mirror doors. In the mirrors, she saw the reflection of a head moving back and forth behind the bedroom's window on the patio. She could make out a pointy noise, bald head and ears. If a normal-sized person would stand behind the window, you would see the entire upper body. So, seeing only the head would mean the person was very small. My sister said she was too scared to do anything, she just watched the figure pacing back and forth. She told us the next morning, and we searched the patio for "evidence" but found nothing suspicious.

9. Back in the 1990s, my second-oldest sister, her kids and I would sometimes drive around at night in her car. We would drive up to abandoned places, secluded spots, hidden side roads and what not, just for fun. One night we drove lonely back roads that went by woods, a few miles away from our town. We noticed a car parking on the side with the driver's door wide open. My sister slowed down a bit, and we looked for signs of a car crash, but everything seemed fine. The very moment a man came running from out the woods, screaming, with both arms raised. My sister stepped on the gas, and we speeded away. When we looked out the back window, he was running after us with both arms still up. No way we would have stopped with my sister's kids in the car.

10. When I was released from the hospital after my first two surgeries in 2020 I was suffering from insomnia, as in, I couldn't sleep longer than two hours. Sometimes I would hear three knocks the moment I woke up. Not all the time but quite often. Haven't heard the knocks in over a year, though.

11. I feel like I have been cursed by the numbers 666 for half my life. Like, I would randomly look at a car's license plate, and it has 666 as part of the license plate number. Or when I look at how many likes a video on YouTube has that I just watched, it usually shows 666 likes. Sometimes 667. Also, at work all machines have digital number displays for how many parts they just produced and it shows 666 when I randomly look at one. Not sure if it is a subconscious thing?

12. Years ago, when we drove home from our vacation in Italy, it was storming with heavy rainfall. We saw a huge object with a row of blinking lights slowly floating about 30 meters above the freeway. I pulled out our VHS cam and filmed it through the windshield. When we got home we checked the footage but couldn't see much due to late afternoon darkness and heavy rainfall in the video. We could see the blinking moving lights. Sadly, the tape got lost over the years.

13. When my oldest sister was living in another town, she heard knocking coming from an antique closet she and her husband had bought recently. When she went in the room where the closet was, the knocking had turned into violent banging. My sister was scared but still opened the closet doors, but nothing was inside except for a few small items. At that time, my sister and her husband were living in a penthouse above an old people's retirement home. Her husband was the nursing home manager. My sister ran out the apartment and went one floor down to the nurse's break room, where she told a nurse she had befriended what just happened. The nurse told my sister that she has experienced similar things. She got holy water from the nursing home's own chapel, and they went upstairs to my sisters' apartment. There was no banging anymore, but the nurse sprinkled holy water on the closet and said a prayer. My sister thinks the banging had to do with the young, troubled caretaker of the home, who had committed suicide two days earlier.

13 facts about The Prophecy (1995)

1. Filmed and completed as God's Army in 1993. Released as The Prophecy in 1995.

2. After completing their scenes in Pulp Fiction (1994), Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer and Eric Stolz started filming God's Army (1993) the following week.

3. Third horror movie for Virginia Madsen. She had been in Candyman (1992) and Zombie High (1987) prior.

4. The God's Army (1993) version was released in a few European markets. It was shot open matte, but most likely intended for a 2.35:1 widescreen release.

5. Christopher Walken would eat raw garlic before shooting dialogue scenes.

6. Many believe God's Army (1993) is the original director's cut version.

7. For The Prophecy (1995) version, a different opening and ending was added.

8. The Prophecy (1995) version has newly added f/x.

9. Some dialogue and scenes from God's Army (1993) were trimmed for The Prophecy (1995).

10. Color filters were added to The Prophecy (1995) version. The God's Army (1993) version does not have color filters.

11. When director Gregory Widen wrote the script, the film's title was 'Daemons'.

12. It was well known in the industry that the Weinsteins would give films they released a final "make over". They usually did final editing, and other stuff they deemed 'necessary'. Because of that, movies were held back, sometimes up to two years and longer. It is unknown if director Gregory Widen was involved or approved the changes made for The Prophecy (1995).

13. The Prophecy II (1998) was intended for theatrical release, but went straight to video. This was followed by The Prophecy 3: The Ascent in 2000. Two more sequels were made without Christopher Walken: The Prophecy: Uprising (2005) and The Prophecy: Forsaken (2005) both filmed back to back in Romania.

Quote from: claws on December 17, 2023, 02:34:21 PM
13 facts about The Prophecy (1995)

1. Filmed and completed as God's Army in 1993. Released as The Prophecy in 1995.

2. After completing their scenes in Pulp Fiction (1994), Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer and Eric Stolz started filming God's Army (1993) the following week.

3. Third horror movie for Virginia Madsen. She had been in Candyman (1992) and Zombie High (1987) prior.

4. The God's Army (1993) version was released in a few European markets. It was shot open matte, but most likely intended for a 2.35:1 widescreen release.

5. Christopher Walken would eat raw garlic before shooting dialogue scenes.

6. Many believe God's Army (1993) is the original director's cut version.

7. For The Prophecy (1995) version, a different opening and ending was added.

8. The Prophecy (1995) version has newly added f/x.

9. Some dialogue and scenes from God's Army (1993) were trimmed for The Prophecy (1995).

10. Color filters were added to The Prophecy (1995) version. The God's Army (1993) version does not have color filters.

11. When director Gregory Widen wrote the script, the film's title was 'Daemons'.

12. It was well known in the industry that the Weinsteins would give films they released a final "make over". They usually did final editing, and other stuff they deemed 'necessary'. Because of that, movies were held back, sometimes up to two years and longer. It is unknown if director Gregory Widen was involved or approved the changes made for The Prophecy (1995).

13. The Prophecy II (1998) was intended for theatrical release, but went straight to video. This was followed by The Prophecy 3: The Ascent in 2000. Two more sequels were made without Christopher Walken: The Prophecy: Uprising (2005) and The Prophecy: Forsaken (2005) both filmed back to back in Romania.

My metal nerdliness compels me to add a bonus fact:  Glenn Danzig has a very small acting role in The Prophecy II

Quote from: Paquita on December 24, 2023, 08:07:35 PM


My metal nerdliness compels me to add a bonus fact:  Glenn Danzig has a very small acting role in The Prophecy II

My metal ignorance probably never notice  :buggedout: I am familiar with Danzig by name, never heard a song of theirs intentionally.

The 13 Best Numbers of 2024:

13. 6
12. 12
11. 6,664
10. 5
9. 33
8. 75
7. 9,000,000
6. 18
5. 3
4. 2
3. 7
2. 1
And for the forty-fifth year in a row:
1. 42

Friends, you read it here first....

13 even more things you didn't know about Prince

1. When Prince recorded his first album (For You, 1978) he prank-called Chaka Khan on the phone pretending to be Stevie Wonder. He asked her to come to the recording studio. When Chaka Khan arrived and realized she was pranked, she called Prince all sort of names, but she eventually stuck around listening to Prince recording his album.

2. Prince recorded his vocals for his second album (Prince, 1979) laying underneath a piano with a microphone attached nearby.

3. His record label Warner wanted Prince to explore different music styles, prompting Prince to create a band called 'The Rebels'. The idea was that no names and pictures would be on the album. He recorded several songs with future The Revolution band members, mostly rock, punk and new wave. The Rebels project was canned when Prince started working on his Dirty Mind (1980) album.

4. Prince went on a small club tour through Europe in 1980, to promote his Dirty Mind album. In England, he was invited to a party hosted by Steve Strange (Visage). Prince would later say that the people of the New Romantic scene are beautiful, but he was disappointed they only played old R&B songs at the party. He was hoping they would play some of "their" music.

5. When Prince performed in a club in Paris, he wasn't told that it was Drag Queen night. Apparently, Prince was amused when he realized who his club audience was.

6. Prince met Bob Marley backstage in 1980. The meeting was awkward because Bob Marley was irritated by Prince's outfit.

7. In 1981, Prince was attempting to make a movie called 'The Second Coming'. He was hush about the plot. They shot several scenes, but it is unknown how much footage was actually filmed.

(https://theiconicprince.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/calhoun-square-the-second-coming-2.png?w=702)
(The Second Coming)

8. Prince was booed off-stage when he was the opening act for the Rolling Stones in October 1981.

(https://media.apoplife.nl/nl/2021/11/Prince-op-het-Rolling-Stones-podium-oktober-1981.jpg)

9. Prince created the band The Time in 1981, as an outlet for his funky side. He did so as a fictitious character, a music producer named Jamie Starr.

10. When Prince was on concert tour with The Time in 1982, they would get into devastating food fights after each show. Bodyguards had to protect Prince with umbrellas when he left the stage. They had to pay hefty cleaning bills in several hotels, where the food fights continued.

11. Prince would organize food drives for the homeless during his Purple Rain concert tour.

12. Prince supported and was best friends with Marva Collins, the creator of the Westside Preparatory School.

13. Prince wanted Madonna to play the female lead in his movie Graffiti Bridge. After reading the script, she threw it at Prince and called it a piece of trash.

Claws - I hope I didn't miss if you mentioned it, but do you think there's any truth to Sinead OConnor's bizarre story about Prince kidnapping her?

Quote from: Paquita on March 08, 2024, 02:48:01 PM
Claws - I hope I didn't miss if you mentioned it, but do you think there's any truth to Sinead OConnor's bizarre story about Prince kidnapping her?

omg I totally forgot about that. I don't think he wanted to kidnap her, but I can imagine that it probably got very weird at some point.

13 facts about ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)

1. Lon Chaney Jr. doubled for Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster in one scene, because Glenn had injured himself.
2. This is only the second time Bela Lugosi played Dracula on the screen after DRACULA (1931).
3. Bela Lugosi Jr. visted the set for much of the shoot.
4. The original title was the BRAIN OF FRANKENSTEIN, and posters still exist with that title.
5. Lou Costello hired a burlesque comedian to play gags on the other actors on the set.
6. It was the last Universal Monster film using Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein.
7. Vincent Price shows up at the end of the film as the voice of the Invisible Man.
8. Boris Karloff was approached to play the Monster, but declined.
9. The Mummy was to be in the film also, but the idea was cut.
10. This was the 5th time Lon Chaney played the Wolf Man on screen. It was Glenn Strange's 3rd time playing the Monster, and Bela's second as Dracula.
11. Jack Pierce, who had done all of the make-ups for the Universal Monsters in the past, was not hired. Wally Westmore did the job this time. Pierce never worked for Universal again.
12. Though Karloff turned down appearing in the film, he later starred in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER BORIS KARLOFF (1949).
13. Lugosi, Chaney, and Strange would never play the Monsters again on screen, thou Chaney palyed a wolf man in the Mexican film FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (1959).

Bela Lugosi Jr. and Lon Chaney on the set.

(https://i.imgur.com/zLNGh5M.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

13 more tv show facts:

1. CAROL BURNETT SHOW (1967-78)
Harvey Korman was very rude to a number of guests, and when Carol Burnett asked what his problem was he said he wasn't happy.  She said "OK, don't come back".  Korman did come to his senses and wanted to return, but her ultimatum was that he come back whistling and skipping.  He did, literally!  He stayed on with the show for most of its run before leaving to do THE HARVEY KORMAN SHOW in 1977, which bombed at only 6 episodes.

2. SILVER SPOONS (1982-87)
Originally intended to be based on the film ARTHUR.

3. GET SMART (1965-70)
Edward Platt (Chief), like Dick York from BEWITCHED, had chronic back pain during the series.  He is not in some episodes and is sometimes just sitting in others.

4. INSPECTOR GADGET (1983-85)
Obviously based on Inspector Clouseau from THE PINK PANTHER films, but also voice actor Don Adams' Maxwell Smart from GET SMART.  For the pilot episode, Gadget sports a moustache.  United Artists, who had produced the Panther films, felt that made him look too much like Clouseau and it was removed for the series.

5. CHARLIE'S ANGELS (1976-81)
John Forsythe (Charlie) was never on the set, and only recorded his voice for use in the show.  Another actor is sometimes shown with his back to the camera, intended to be Charlie.  Actor Gig Young was initially supposed to be Charlie but his drinking problem made him undependable.  Forsythe was a last-minute replacement.  He liked the idea of usually just hearing his voice in the show to add mystery to the character.

6. THE BIONIC WOMAN (1976-78)
Lindsay Wagner was in a serious car accident when she was driving with her boyfriend (later husband), actor Michael Brandon.  She got a deep cut on her upper lip which left a permanent, noticeable scar.  This delayed production of the first season so she could recover.

7. THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (1974-78)
Lee Majors' then-wife Farrah Fawcett, who appeared in a handful of episodes, was pushed by Majors to be the Bionic Woman, but lost out to Lindsay Wagner.  Amid a contract dispute with Majors in the show's final season, the producers reportedly considered replacing him with a different actor-- Gil Gerard, (then) Bruce Jenner, or Harrison Ford.

8. THE FALL GUY (1981-86)
The opening theme is sung by star Lee Majors.  The line "I'm not the kind to kiss and tell, but I've been seen with Farrah" is a reference to his ex-wife Farrah Fawcett.  A shot in the opening is from the film SILVER STREAK (1976), where Gene Wilder dangles from a train signal bridge.

9. SOLID GOLD (1980-88)
Andy Gibb was heavily abusing drugs and was often either late or didn't show up at all.  He would be fired after only 20 episodes and also from the Broadway play JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT.  His drug abuse would lead to a weakened heart (he died in 1988 at only 30 years of age) and the destruction of his relationship with actress Victoria Principal (DALLAS).

10. THE WONDER YEARS (1988-1993)
The breakup of Kevin and Winnie was implemented due to actress Danica McKellar's growth spurt, making her even taller than Fred Savage, who was already shorter than her, making them look odd next to each other.  When Fred himself went through a growth spurt of his own, their characters reconciled.

11. FAME (1982-87)
Janet Jackson appeared in one season of FAME before she quit.  She felt the producers mistreated the young actors/actresses.  Shortly after she quit in 1985 she released her album CONTROL and hit the big time.

12. MAUDE (1972-78)
Co-star Bill Macy made a scene during the 1974 Emmy Awards when he dropped his trousers and told a dirty joke.  This upset the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to the point where they would not give the show any Emmys, up until 1977 when star Bea Arthur won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

13. HAPPY DAYS (1974-84)
Though Fonz loved to ride motorcycles, Henry Winkler was terrified of them.
BONUS: The term "jump the shark" grew from a 3-part HAPPY DAYS season 5 opener, in which Fonz jumps over a shark while water skiing.  The series' quality was seen to have deteriorated at this point forward.

". THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (1974-78)

"Bruce Jenner, "

That would make him the Bionic Woman, now!

13 things you should know about The Time and Morris Day.

(https://i0.wp.com/pressrewind.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/thetime2-e1527018299496-2.jpg?resize=344%2C211&ssl=1)

1. R&B band created by Prince. The concept was a 'street wise' band in fancy suits and flashing cash, stepping away from typical R&B bands from the early 1980s wearing fantasy costumes still influenced by the 1970s like Earth, Wind & Fire.

2. Prince wanted a charismatic lead singer for the band. R&B singer Alexander O'Neal was up for the part, but he demanded more money and wanted to write his own songs, something Prince didn't want. Instead, Prince choose Morris Day, who was a drummer in a local band and running errands on Prince's concert tours. During the meeting to discuss The Time at a diner, everyone ordered the usual, normal stuff except Prince. He ordered soup, a cheeseburger, eggs and apple pie. He only took one bite from each.

3. Prince recorded The Time's first album on his own, just like all The Time albums. Morris Day was then brought in to replace Prince's vocals.

4. The Time's first album was released July 29, 1981. From wiki:

QuoteThe album peaked at number 50 on the Billboard 200 and number seven on the Top Soul LPs charts. The album spent a total of 32 weeks on the Billboard 200 and 45 weeks on the R&B Albums chart. The album was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States.

5. The Time's second album, 'What Time Is It?' was released August 25, 1982.

QuoteThe album peaked at number 26 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Top Soul LPs. It spent a total of 33 weeks on the Billboard 200 and 38 weeks on the R&B Albums chart. The album's peaking was more successful than the group's previous release. The album was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales over 500,000 copies in the United States.

When the album was finished, Prince gave every The Time member cassettes of 'What Time Is It?' Prince threw a tape at bassist Jesse Johnson to catch, and said "You play the bass really good on the album". Jesse Johnson was an excellent bassist, but Prince played all instruments on the album. It was Prince's way of saying 'Good job, puppets'.

6. Prince's firm grip over the band started to cause friction during Prince's '1999' concert tour, with The Time as the opening act. The Time became an audience favorite at concerts with a huge fan base in New York, Detroit and L.A..The Time were basically kicking Prince's ass during the tour. A bizarre situation since The Time was his creation playing his music.

7. Things started to escalade in 1983. Morris Day was sick and tired of being bossed around by Prince. They had a falling out before filming Purple Rain. Morris would intentionally show up late for filming his scenes, with the delays costing Prince lots of money.

8. Morris had signed a contract with Prince's management in 1981, which expired in June 1984. Morris didn't have enough money to buy himself out of the contract, and had to complete a third The Time album, which he did reluctantly.

9. Morris rented a limousine on his own for the premiere party of the movie Purple Rain, since Prince wasn't supporting him anymore. Nobody expected Morris to show up.

10. The Time's third album 'Ice Cream Castles' was released July 2, 1984.

QuoteThe album peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top Soul LPs charts. The album spent a total of 57 weeks on the US Billboard album charts and had reached its peak position in early March 1985. The album was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over a million copies in the United States. This remains the group's best selling album to date.

Even though it was the group's best selling album so far, it was also the only album that got mostly negative reviews.

11. Morris parted ways with the Prince camp after the release of their third album. Morris did promise he would return for a few concert gigs, but never did. Prince wanted The Time member Jesse Johnson to be the new lead singer of the band, but he declined. The Time officially disbanded in early 1985.

12. Before signing a record deal with Warners, Morris would call up former band members, telling them that Prince was trying to destroy him. During concerts in 1986, Prince would mock Morris' first solo single released in 1985, The Oak Tree, by dancing and singing in a silly manner, repeating the "Oh Wee Oh" line from the Oak Tree song.

13. Prince and Morris settled their differences in 1990, and The Time released their final album Pandemonium.

QuoteThe album was certified Gold by the RIAA and "Jerk Out" became one of the band's biggest singles. The second single, "Chocolate" did not fare as well.

More horror film trivia:
1. PHANTASM (1979)
Enough footage was shot for a 3 hour film, but obviously was cut down to 1 1/2 hours.  Some of the extra scenes were used in PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION (1998).  The rest are presumed lost.  Also, Angus Scrimm is just a stage name (real name: Lawrence Rory Guy).

2. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II (1981)
When Jason makes his first appearance outside Alice's apartment (BTW, Adrienne King herself had been stalked by an obsessive fan after the release of the first film, making her brief appearance in this film likely very uncomfortable for her), you only see his legs.  This part is played by costume designer Ellen Lutter (the only time to date Jason was played by a woman).

3. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING (1985)
Corey Feldman was only available at the very beginning during the Jason resurrection nightmare because he was busy filming THE GOONIES.

4. HALLOWEEN (2018)
When Michael kills a woman in her home and walks by a baby's crib, the baby's cries are actually the voice of Jamie Lee Curtis.

5. DEADLY BLESSING (1981)
When John and Martha meet in town near the theater, the marquee displays the movie SUMMER OF FEAR.  This was actually a made-for-TV movie that director Wes Craven also helmed.   John is played by Jeff East, who was also in SUMMER OF FEAR.

6. THE GRIM REAPER/ANTHROPOPHAGUS (1980)
The "fetus" the Grim Reaper (George Eastman) removes from a victim and bites into is actually a skinned rabbit.  Also, the Italian title ANTHROPOPHAGUS refers to Anthropophagy (cannibalism).  Tisa Farrow effectively retired from acting after this film.

7. PHENOMENA/CREEPERS (1985)
The chimpanzee that lead actress Jennifer Connelly had to work with was hostile towards her, and at one point bit part of her finger off.  She had to go to a hospital and have it re-attached!  She would go on to win an Academy Award for the film A BEAUTIFUL MIND.

8. SUSPIRIA (1977)
The original story involved children, not young women, at the ballerina school.  Though the age of the girls was changed to late teens/20, the dialogue stayed the same and made the girls sometimes seem childlike or naive.  Director Dario Argento not only liked this angle, but moved the doorknobs on doors higher to make the girls further childlike.

9. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE/DAY OF THE WOMAN (1978)
Lead actress Camille Keaton was director Meir Zarchi's wife.  The four actors portraying the rapists felt bad about Keaton's frequent nude scenes and asked to be nude themselves to assuage her embarrassment.  The film was re-named I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE in 1980 after its initial release of DAY OF THE WOMAN received little attention.  One of Siskel and (especially) Ebert's most despised reviewed films.

10. BLOOD FEAST (1963)
Author Stephen King cites this as the worst horror film he's ever seen.  It was shot in Miami in only 9 days and cost $60,000 or less.  It was very profitable as the first gory slasher film, which director Herschell Gordon Lewis tried his hand at after making a bunch of "nudie cutie" films, and seeing the novelty of them wearing off in theaters.

11. TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964)
The 2nd gore film by Herschell Gordon Lewis (which was inspired by the play BRIGADOON (!)) also features him singing on the film's theme song.  The band 10,000 Maniacs based their name off this film.  Actors Connie Mason and William Kerwin were married.  Though Mason had been a model (Playmate of the Month in June 1963), her footwork appeared clumsy and her acting awful.

12. DEADLY FRIEND (1986)
The fake Anne Ramsay head that actress Kristy Swanson splatters with a basketball contained cow brains.  The B.B. robot, voiced by Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), cost $20,000 and could actually lift 750 lbs.  Director Wes Craven originally wanted this to be a PG sci-fi thriller movie, but poor test screenings prompted Warner Bros. to demand the film be made much more violent.

13. NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988)
Actress Linnea Quigley and SFX artist Steve Johnson would marry.  He made the mold cast of her breasts for the scene where she puts a cigarette out in one.

13 US Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries

1. Mountain Dew

Countries like Japan have decided to ban Mountain Dew because it's made with an ingredient called BVO, or brominated vegetable oil. BVO contains bromine, which is a natural element that can nonetheless be hazardous to humans in large quantities.

2. Skittles

Norway and Sweden have banned the product because it contains dyes like yellow 5 and yellow 6.

3. Maraschino Cherries

They contain red 40, a dye that's banned in places like the UK and Switzerland. Some people suffer from allergic reactions when they eat the dye, which is why some countries have decided that it's just not worth the risk.

4. Frosted Flakes

They contain a chemical called BHT, which is short for butylated hydroxytoluene. There's some evidence that the chemical may be a carcinogen, so other countries have decided it's best not to allow it in their food products. Banned in Europe and Japan.

5. Twinkies and Little Debbie Swiss Rolls

Banned in Norway and Austria because they contain certain dyes that are prohibited in the European Union.

6. Ritz Crackers

Banned in some European countries because of their high levels of trans fats, considering there's evidence that eating too much trans fat can lead to health conditions like heart disease.

7. Instant mashed potatoes

Some instant products like Hungry Jack's Mashed Potatoes contain a preservative that may be linked to carcinogenic effects. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is an additive that keeps the fat in certain food products from going bad on the shelf.

8. Boxed Mac N' Cheese

Banned in Norway, Finland, and a handful of other countries, because of yellow #5 and #6. These two dyes are known to cause hyperactivity in children.

9. Sugar Cane

American sugar cane is treated with the weedkiller Atrazine. Linked to birth defects, reproductive tumors, skin sensitization, and muscle degeneration, it is banned in the European Union. It also easily leaks into waterways where it harms wildlife and the environment.

10. American Cheese

Many US dairy products, including cheese, contain the hormone Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). This hormone is a synthetic version of the natural one used to increase milk production. In cows, it can cause inflamed udders and infertility. Not only is it inhumane, but in humans, it can cause various types of cancer. It is banned in 30 countries.

11. Pork

American pork is banned in 160 of the 196 countries in the world because much of it contains the growth hormone ractopamine.

12. Chlorine Treated Chicken

According to the US, chlorinated chicken is safe for consumption. The chickens are treated with chlorine in order to remove harmful bacteria. The EU and UK, however, aren't too sure. It's been banned since 1997.

13. American M&Ms

The food dyes used in American M&Ms are banned in Europe.

Life:

1. Time moves more slowly when you are a child.
2. In a way that means you spend most of your life in childhood.
3. The older you get the faster time seems to go.
4. This means life has much in common with those funnels you used to be able to drop pennies into at malls, and watch them spin faster and faster til they fell into unseen nothingness.
5. You have never been this old before.
6. You have never been this close to your own death.
7. You cried to enter this life, you will probably cry to leave it.
8. Most people probably don't spend as much time thinking about you as you spend thinking about you.
9. You don't own your children.
10. There is not one second to waste in your relationship with your dog. Your dog will be leaving you far too quickly.
11. The more you cry, the less you have to pee.
12. Enemies are too expensive.
13. Happiness is not the most important thing in life, but it sure matters.

^ Well, that made me feel so much better!  :bluesad:

Weird s**t About My City:

1. Abe Lincoln 's funeral train passed near where we live, and people have claimed to see a ghostly version of it going by, ever since.

2. Over the hill from the same train tracks for the last sixty or so years people have been claiming to see a man-size frog walking on two legs, living in the river. He now has his own convention every spring.

3. Charles Manson lived in town before he went west, and kicked a dog to death in front of a bar, and for fifty years now someone has left flowers on the spot for that dog.

4. My boyfriend used to go to high school down the street from where Rod Serling lived before he made it in Hollywood, writing some of his best work there. He took me to see it and the house was vacant, so we sat on the front steps and wrote a Twilight Zone style story together before we left.

5. The home of the local symphony orchestra dates from the 1870s, is big enough to hold the Met inside it, and is built atop an 1820s potter's field. Paranormal experiences are so common there they're not even remarkable anymore. There's also a "storm groove" in the ceiling, where a bowling ball can be rolled to simulate thunder for Wagner operas.

6. The prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge was built here, a lovely quarter-mile long suspension bridge, but there are several workers who were left inside the stone foundations, under the river itself, because they were killed in a construction accident and it was deemed to unsafe to get them out. Thousands of cars a day drive past their entombed remains.

7. The prototype for the Empire State Building was also built here and has been struck by lightning over a hundred times since it was put up.

8. Steven Spielberg was born in the city, in what was then a nice Jewish suburb, but which now is a good place to go if you want to get mugged.

9. Jerry Springer used to be our mayor. Really.

10. Mark Twain said if the world ended, he'd want to be in our city, because it always was ten years behind the times.

11. It was voted most livable city in North America for three years in the 1990s. I forget by whom, but it wasn't locals.

12. Larry Flynt and an art museum both got put on trial for obscenity here. Only one was acquitted.

13. The largest collection of intact, preserved 19th century houses is here, and below them are miles of subterranean tunnels  fifty feet tall and lined in stone, built by German-American beer barons in the 1800s, when this city was the beer capital of the western hemisphere. You can tour those tunnels most weekends.

13 more scary movie trivia bits:

1. SHAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)
In the scene where Shawn punches Ed's shoulder through the car seat in anger, Simon Pegg actually hurt Nick Frost to the point where he needed a cortisone shot to continue.

2. THE CREEPING TERROR (1964)
The reason for very little spoken dialogue/sound in the film is that most of the audio was either lost, or replaced with cheesy narration as a cost-cutting move (the latter explanation given by co-star William Thourlby, who played Dr. Bradford).  Shot on the (later) infamous Spahn Ranch.

3. RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
Mac Ahlberg, who directed the Swedish I, A WOMAN sex drama trilogy of the 1960s/70s, was a cinematographer on this film.  Friend David Bowie declared RE-ANIMATOR to be his favorite film.

4. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE (1985)
Star Robert Englund (Freddy) stated that the gay subtext in the film was intentional, so as to help teens struggling with sexual identity cope.  Lead actor Mark Patton (Jesse) was gay.  Some scenes had to be cut because Patton felt they were too gay, like phallic candles or Freddy putting his blades in Jesse's mouth.

5. MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH (1976)
Similar to LORD OF THE FLIES in that the tormented become the tormentors, and there are almost no adults present in the film.  Director Rene Daalder was a cameraman for Russ Meyer.  4 cast members of MASSACRE would either appear or star on EIGHT IS ENOUGH.

6. MADMAN (1982)
Paul Ehlers, who played the titular killer, drove to the hospital still in his Madman Marz makeup/costume when his wife went into labor with his son Jonathan.  In an opposite scenario of HALLOWEEN, leaves on the trees had to be painted green to indicate a summer setting, while the film was shot in the winter of 1981.  MADMAN was supposed to initially be based on the Cropsy legend, but the film THE BURNING was already filmed with that story in mind.

7. HELL NIGHT (1981)
Shot during the winter of 1980/81, the production was very cold and the work days excruciating-- 6 days a week, 18 hour days.  There were neither a cellar nor a hedge maze on the mansion's property, so sets had to be constructed or camera trickery needed to be applied.  The actor who played Andrew, who got killed by gate spears while on top of Marti's car at the end, actually died in a real car crash before the film's release.

8. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III: IN 3-D (1982)
The famed first Jason hockey mask was a modified Detroit Red Wings goalie mask.  3D effects supervisor Martin Jay Sadoff owned it and was a big hockey fan.  This was the first Friday The 13th film to actually be released on a Friday the 13th (August 13).  Filmed in California, where the best experts of 3D technology seemed to be.  Steve Dash, who played Jason in most scenes in part II, was asked to return but living on the East coast he declined.

9. FREDDY VS. JASON (2003)
Stuntman Ken Kirzinger at 6'5 was brought in as a taller Jason to tower over Freddy.  Previous Jason actor Kane Hodder, who would have liked to come back, was 6'2.  The film spent a long time in development hell, being considered as far back as 1987-- the producers then settled on a "Jason vs. Carrie" film instead for part VII.  Actress Katharine Isabelle (Gibb) and director Ronny Yu clashed frequently over her refusal to do a nude scene.

10. I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1970)
Despite the film's title, there is no actual imbibing of blood in the film.  The title was the idea of an ad executive looking for a title to pair with I EAT YOUR SKIN (which is unrelated, far less bloody, and was filmed far earlier than I DRINK YOUR BLOOD) as a double feature.  Shot in a deserted New York village set for demolition, which took place just after filming completed.  The ugly face on many posters/ads for the film are taken from ads for the film IT! (1967).

11. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)
The hitch-hiker from the first film (Chop Top's twin brother) finally has his name revealed: "Nubbins".  The poster is a spoof of THE BREAKFAST CLUB.  SFX legend Tom Savini worked on the film.

12. CREEPSHOW (1982)
An initial ending to the story SOMETHING TO TIDE YOU OVER featured Richard being caught by the police, and eventually being sent to the gas chamber in prison for murder, where he'd utter the famed "I can hold my breath for a long time" line.  Each of the 5 stories feature the marble ashtray in at least one scene, used to kill Nathan Grantham in the first story FATHER'S DAY.  SFX artist Rob Bottin gave Tom Savini advice on how to make the crate monster "Fluffy".  The boy with the Creepshow comic book is Stephen King's son, Joe Hill.

13. BLOOD RAGE (1987)
Actually shot in 1983 but not released in theaters until 1987.  Shortly after, it was re-titled NIGHTMARE AT SHADOW WOODS (heavily cut, and was the cable title).  Actress Louise Lasser was reportedly drunk and difficult to work with.  Ted Raimi's debut.