11 Strange Habits of Geniuses

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Mental_Floss presents 11 Strange Habits of Geniuses.  Here are three of my favorites…

7. EDGAR ALLAN POE WROTE ON SCROLLS.
Edgar Allan Poe often wrote on thin strips of paper, which he glued together and rolled into scrolls for easier storage. He felt the medium better contributed to a work’s flow than a regular old manuscript (and, presumably, looked spookier).

8. DA VINCI AND TESLA SHUNNED EIGHT-HOUR SLEEP SCHEDULES.
Leonardo da Vinci and Nikola Tesla adhered to alternative sleep schedules. Leonardo was said to have followed the polyphasic cycle, which means he took multiple short naps every 24 hours. Meanwhile, Tesla only rested two hours a day.

10. BEN FRANKLIN TOOK “AIR BATHS.”
Before he began the day’s work, Benjamin Franklin would spend up to an hour taking naked “air baths” at his open window.

Twilight Zone: “Elegy” [Season 1, Episode 20] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Elegy” [Season 1, Episode 20]
Original Air Date: February 19, 1960

Director: Douglas Heyes

Writer: Charles Beaumont 

Starring: Cecil Kellaway, Jeff Morrow, Don Dubbins and Kevin Hagin.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Three astronauts land on a planet with two suns, but in all other aspects (save one) appears to be Earth of the past.  The buildings, signs, way people dress all look right except for the fact that the people are motionless… except for one!

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11 Well-Drawn Facts About The Etch A Sketch

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Kristen Fawcett and Mental_Floss present 11 Well-Drawn Facts About The Etch A Sketch.  Here are three of my favorites…

4. TOY MANUFACTURERS ORIGINALLY REJECTED THE ETCH A SKETCH.
The Etch A Sketch was showcased at the 1959 Nuremberg Toy Fair, but toy companies didn’t want to pay a steep fee for the rights. Eventually, Ohio Art—who is said to have also passed on the Etch A Sketch—reconsidered and acquired the invention.

7. IT FOUND A MARKET VIA TELEVISION.
Production of the Etch A Sketch began on July 12, 1960. America soon caught wind of the toy thanks to a televised marketed campaign featuring a little girl named Pernella who hides underneath a basket with her Etch A Sketch because everyone wants to play with it. She eventually emerges and announces that her favorite toy “is magic!” The ads were such a hit that, come holiday season, Ohio Art was hard-pressed to fill orders.

8. IT’S A BEST-SELLER.
In 1998, the Etch A Sketch was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, cementing its place in history alongside inventions like the Slinky, the skateboard, and Silly Putty. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association ranked it as one of the 20th century’s hundred best toys. According to CNBC, more than 100 million Etch A Sketches have been sold since its introduction in 1960.

Twilight Zone: “The Purple Testament” [Season 1, Episode 19] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Purple Testament” [Season 1, Episode 19]
Original Air Date: February 12, 1960

Director: Richard L. Bare

Writer: Rod Serling 

Starring: Dick York, William Reynolds, Barney Phillips and Warren Oates.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Lt. Fitzgerald [Reynolds] believes he has the ability to know who will die before a mission.  Although he shares the information no one believes him.  Is he crazy or a psychic?

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20 Epic Facts About “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy

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Rebecca Pahle and Mental_Floss present 20 Epic Facts About The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. SEAN CONNERY DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPT.
Sean Connery read for the role of Gandalf but admitted that, “I never understood it. I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don’t understand it … I would be interested in doing something that I didn’t fully understand, but not for 18 months.” Connery’s deal, if he had taken the role, would have been for a small fee plus 15 percent of the films’ income. Incidentally, the entire trilogy went on to earn just shy of $3 billion worldwide.

7. VIN DIESEL, LIAM NEESON, AND UMA THURMAN WERE UP FOR ROLES.
Among other could-have-beens in the casting department: Vin Diesel auditioned for Aragorn; Jackson called his performance “very compelling” but said that it didn’t “feel like Aragorn.” Jackson approached Richard O’Brien, best known as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which he also wrote), for the role of Gríma Wormtongue, but his agents turned it down, believing the films would be unsuccessful. Liam Neeson passed on the role of Boromir.

There were also “discussions,” recalls Jackson, about then-married couple Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman playing Faramir and Éowyn; “Ethan was a huge fan of the books and was very keen to be involved. Uma was less sure and rightly so, because we were revising how we saw Éowyn’s character literally as we went. In the end, Ethan let it go—with some reluctance.”

5. VIGGO MORTENSEN TOOK SEVERAL BEATINGS.
A variety of injuries beset the cast during production, but Mortensen had it particularly hard: inThe Two Towers, that scream he let out upon kicking a helmet after discovering the burnt corpses of the Orcs who abducted Merry and Pippin might have something to do with the fact that he had just broken two of his toes. “Normally, an actor would yell ‘Ow!’ if they hurt themselves,” noted Jackson. “Viggo turned a broken toe into a performance.” Elijah Wood remembers Mortensen “getting half of his tooth knocked out during a fight sequence, and his insistence on applying superglue to put it back in to keep working.”

Twilight Zone: “The Last Flight” [Season 1, Episode 18] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Last Flight” [Season 1, Episode 18]
Original Air Date: February 5, 1960

Director: William F. Claxton

Writer: Richard Matheson 

Starring: Kenneth Haigh and Alexander Scourby.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When Lt. William Decker [Haigh] lands his WWI fighter plane at an American Air Force base in France no one believes he’s found his way there from 1917.  Decker explains he and another pilot, Alexander Mackaye, were outnumbered in a dog fight and he turned tail and ran leaving his friend to a certain death.

This only adds to the confusion as Mackaye, now a ranking officer is on his way to the airfield!

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18 Simple Facts About “Tropic Thunder”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 18 Simple Facts About Tropic Thunder.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. ROBERT DOWNEY JR. BASED KIRK LAZARUS ON THREE ACTORS.
At a press conference, Downey said he based Lazarus on three actors: Russell Crowe and Daniel Day-Lewis, “with a little” Colin Farrell. Lazarus was originally written as Irish; Downey changed him into an Australian because he was more comfortable improvising in that accent. When Stiller first pitched the idea of the character, Downey called it “The stupidest idea I’ve ever heard!” Stiller screened the movie to the NAACP, and received mostly positive feedback.

5. TOM CRUISE CAME UP WITH THE IDEA OF HAVING A STUDIO HEAD CHARACTER.
Stiller approached Cruise about playing the agent Rick Peck and sent him the script. Cruise thought it was funny, but wondered what the studio would be doing while all of the film’s events transpired, so the role of studio head Les Grossman was created. It was also Cruise’s idea to give Grossman really big hands. After four days of makeup tests, Grossman’s look was finalized.

15. CRUISE’S INVOLVEMENT WAS MEANT TO BE A SURPRISE.
Cruise wasn’t in the trailer and no images of Grossman were in the press kits on purpose. Cruise’s lawyer threatened legal action to media outlets that posted leaked images of Cruise as Grossman before the movie debuted. It was traced back to an INF staff photographer.

Twilight Zone: “Fever” [Season 1, Episode 17] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Fever” [Season 1, Episode 17]
Original Air Date: January 29, 1960

Director: Robert Florey

Writer: Rod Serling 

Starring: Everette Sloan and Vivi Janis.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Franklin Gibbs [Sloan] begrudgingly accompanies his wife, Flora, to Las Vegas, for a two night expense-free trip that Flora won.  Franklin views gambling as a fool’s game until a drunk gives him a silver dollar for a free pull on a slot machine.  Soon Franklin has the fever and is gambling away their life savings… and more.

Final Thoughts: Fever is one of my least favorite Twilight Zone episodes.

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Mike Torrance Presents: Jack Carter & Digger McCrae in “Who Killed Pinky Savage?”

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Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd is back and he’s outdone himself with his faux Thrilling Mystery cover featuring Sly as Jack Carter and Lee Marvin as Digger McCrae in “The Man Who Killed Pinky Savage.”

Mike is a great guy and his commissions are always a blast!

You can see more of Mike’s art at his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.

 

16 Ear-Tugging Facts About “The Carol Burnett Show”

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Kara Kovalchik and Mental_Floss present 16 Ear-Tugging Facts About The Carol Burnett Show.  Here are three of my favorites…

8. HARVEY KORMAN WAS THE FIRST CAST MEMBER HIRED.
The producers wanted a “Harvey Korman-type” for Burnett’s second banana, but didn’t bother to actually ask Korman if he was interested in the job because he was already a regularon The Danny Kaye Show, and most likely he wouldn’t leave a steady job for an unproven new show. Burnett herself spotted Korman in the CBS parking lot one day and “practically threw him over the hood of a car” begging him to join her show. Unbeknownst to her, Kaye’s show was about to get the axe after a four-year run, so Korman cheerfully accepted her offer shortly after that first meeting.

9. TIM CONWAY RARELY FOLLOWED HIS SCRIPT.
Conway had been a frequent guest star on the show and when Lyle Waggoner decided to leave the show in 1974 (he felt that he was being “underused”), Conway was hired to replace him the following year. Conway was legendary for veering off-script and ad-libbing for lengthy stretches, to the amusement of some of his co-stars (Korman) and annoyance of others (Lawrence, who sometimes resented Conway’s disruptions and spotlight-hogging). Lawrence finally slipped her own ad-lib in on one memorable occasion, as Conway rambled on and on about an elephant during a “Family” sketch. Her NSFW remark brought the rest of the cast to their knees and was said to be Dick Clark’s favorite all-time outtake on his Bloopers and Practical Jokes TV show.

16. THERE WAS ONLY ONE CELEBRITY GUEST THAT BURNETT WAS NEVER ABLE TO BOOK.
Over the 11 seasons the show ran, a veritable “Who’s Who” of the entertainment industry did a guest turn, from Steve Martin to Julie Andrews to then-governor Ronald Reagan to Robin Williams to Ethel Merman. The only guest who Burnett dearly wanted to have but never did get was Bette Davis. Davis was willing to appear but demanded more money that the show had budgeted. Joe Hamilton advised his wife that if they gave in to Davis’ demand, it would set an unpleasant precedent.

The Twilight Zone: “The Hitch-Hiker” [Season 1, Episode 16] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Hitch-Hiker” [Season 1, Episode 16]
Original Air Date: January 22, 1960

Director: Alvin Ganzer

Writer: Rod Serling based on the radio play by Lucille Fletcher

Starring: Inger Stevens, Adam Williams and Leonard Strong.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Nan Adams [Stevens], a young woman driving cross-country alone, becomes unnerved when a hitch-hiker continues to approach her for a ride no matter how many times she passes him and no matter what roads she takes.

Final Thoughts: After a string of strong episodes, The Twilight Zone comes up with an average offering.  Not great and not bad… but good.

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The Twilight Zone: “I Shot an Arrow in the Air” [Season 1, Episode 15] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “I Shot an Arrow in the Air” [Season 1, Episode 15]
Original Air Date: January 15, 1960

Director: Stuart Rosenberg

Writer: Rod Serling based on an idea by Madelon Champion

Starring: Dewey Martin, Edward Binns and Ted Otis.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When a U.S. spacecraft crash lands on a barren wasteland leaving only four surviving crew members, the Commander of the expedition has his hands full when one of the crew wants to make it every man for himself.

Final Thoughts: Another classic Twilight Zone twist ending.  Madelon Champion met Rod Serling at a party where she suggested her story idea.  Rod Serling bought it on the spot and fleshed it out into I Shot an Arrow in the Air.

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