Old Timer Trivia Quiz

Answer: William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison was 68 years old when he became president in 1841. He was the last president to have been born a British subject, and is famous for having served the shortest term in office, only 31 days. He had a distinguished military and political record prior to being elected president. He was also the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, who would become president in 1889.

It is often written that Harrison died because he stood in the rain and cold without benefit of a hat or coat, while giving the longest inaugural speech to date, one that lasted almost two hours. But the facts that surround his death don't really bear this out. Harrison gave his inaugural address on March 4, 1841 and did not fall ill until March 26, over three weeks later. And while pneumonia was given as the official cause of death, his symptoms resembled those of typhoid fever, a disease that was rife in Washington, D.C., which had no sewer system and where sanitary measures were unknown. Presidents James Knox Polk and Zachary Taylor both fell ill with similar symptoms, and Taylor died, as did Abraham Lincoln's beloved son, Willie. It is possible that Harrison's physicians actually caused or hastened his death by treating him for the wrong ailment.

Answer: Grandma Moses

Anna Mary Robertson Moses is one of the best known American artists; her canvasses sell for very high prices when they come to auction. But she was entirely self-taught and only began painting when arthritis made her favorite hobby, embroidery, too painful to pursue.

Despite her late start, Grandma Moses is estimated to have produced over 1,500 paintings prior to her death at age 101 in 1961. She initially sold the paintings for $3 to $5, depending on their size. In 2006, one of her paintings sold for $1.2 million!

Answer: Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish first appeared, along with her sister, Dorothy, in a short film called "An Unseen Enemy" in 1912. She soon became a favorite of legendary director D.W. Griffith, and appeared in many of his classic films, such as "Birth of a Nation" and "Broken Blossoms." One iconic scene that is still remembered is of her being trapped on an ice flow in "Way Down East." There were no stunt doubles used in those days; Gish later said it was so cold she lost all feeling in her hands, and her hair froze while filming the scene.

Gish scaled back her career with the advent of "talkies," appearing in only two films during the 1930s. But she made a comeback in the following decade, receiving an Oscar nomination for her role in "Duel in the Sun" in 1946. She also began doing work on television.

Her final screen appearance came in 1987 at the age of 93, in "The Whales of August," along with fellow old timers Vincent Price, Bette Davis, and Ann Sothern. Gish received a Special Academy Award in 1971, and an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984. She passed away in 1993 at the age of 99.

Answer: Rambling Willie

Harness racing isn't as popular as thoroughbred racing, and its stars are not as well known to the public. But one horse that deserves to be known is the tough old gelding, Rambling Willie.

Rambling Willie was born in Indiana on April 18, 1970. To call his breeding undistinguished would be an understatement. His father, Rambling Fury, had never produced any progeny of note, and his mother, Meadow Belle, had won a grand total of $762 during her brief and unrewarding racing career. Rambling Willie did not show much during his early years, either, mostly racing at county fairs, and seldom winning even those modest events.

But in 1973, legendary harness driver Bob Farrington saw the colt, and purchased him for $15,000, a decision about which he later had second thoughts. He sold a half interest in the colt to his friend, Paul Siebert. Farrington's wife pledged that she would tithe 10% of Willie's earnings to her father's church, an act that would result in him being called "the horse that God loved."

It took a while for even an expert horseman like Bob Farrington to bring out Rambling Willie's hidden talent. He had the colt gelded because of Rambling Willie's notoriously bad disposition. But by the time he was a five year-old, Rambling Willie had started winning. The horse that Farrington called "ugly, lazy, and ill-bred" became the champion North American aged pacer in 1975. And again in 1976 and 1977.

Rambling Willie suffered not one, but two, bowed tendons, an injury that almost always ends a horse's racing career. He also survived a nearly fatal case of colic. But he just kept on winning. By the time of his retirement, Rambling Willie had raced 305 times, winning 128 of his races, with 69 seconds, and 43 third place finishes. He had won purses totaling $2,038,219, more than any other standardbred in history. What makes this even more remarkable is that none of his winnings came in the rich stakes races for younger horses. In his final race, Rambling Willie finished second to a horse named Penn State, who was many years his junior.

Rambling Willie was retired to live out his days at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. He passed away in 1995.

Answer: Hyman G. Rickover

Hyman G. Rickover was born into a poor Jewish family in what is now Poland on January 27, 1900. When he was six years old, his family emigrated to the United States to escape the anti-Jewish pogroms carried out by Russian authorities who controlled the area where they lived. His family eventually settled in the Chicago area, where his father worked as a tailor.

Rickover had to go to work at the age of nine to help support his family. After graduating from high school, he got a job delivering telegrams, and met a Congressman who helped him get an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. After graduating from that institution and obtaining his commission, Rickover earned a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Colombia University.

After serving on various vessels (his only command was a minesweeper), Rickover assumed an important role in Navy's Bureau of Ship's engineering department, where he served during WWII. After the war, Rickover became obsessed with convincing the Navy to build a nuclear powered submarine. His efforts paid off when the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was launched in 1954. He was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and appointed to head the Bureau of Naval Reactors in 1958.

Rickover exercised complete control over his department, personally approving every officer assigned to a nuclear powered ship or submarine. He was extremely demanding of both his sailors and the civilian contractors who built his vessels. His legendary temper made him feared, but his outstanding performance also made him respected. He was promoted to full Admiral in 1973, at an age when most officers would have long since retired.

In 1982, Rickover clashed with Secretary of the Navy John Lehman over a settlement the latter had made with General Dynamics. They had been assigned the task of building the Navy's new Los Angeles class attack submarines, and shoddy work had resulted in huge cost overruns. General Dynamics was eventually awarded a settlement amount to $634 million, a move that infuriated Rickover.

Lehman had never liked Rickover, and upon becoming Secretary of the Navy almost immediately began plotting ways to force him into retirement. An infuriated Rickover told President Ronald Reagan, "That piss-ant [Lehman] knows nothing about the Navy," and "He's a [expletive deleted] liar, he knows he is just doing the work of the contractors . . . I am the only one in the government who keeps them from robbing the taxpayers." Nevertheless, Rickover was forced to retire on January 31, 1982 after 63 years of active service.

It is difficult for anyone who has not served in the nuclear Navy to appreciate how much Admiral Rickover meant to the program. When I was undergoing training at the Navy's nuclear power facility in Ballston Spa, New York in 1975, Admiral Rickover suddenly walked into the control room unannounced while I was standing reactor watch. I have never been so afraid in my life as the two minutes he stood there staring at me. Admiral Rickover passed away on July 8, 1986. If there's a Navy in Heaven, God help those poor souls.

Answer: Practicing medicine

Leila Alice Denmark was born in Portal, Georgia on February 1, 1898. She graduated from medical school in 1928, and specialized in pediatrics. She was instrumental in developing a vaccine against whooping cough. She continued to practice medicine in a clinic in her home until she retired in May 2001.

She wrote an influential book called "Every Child Should Have a Chance," which was published in 1971. She believed that drinking fruit juice and cow's milk was harmful, and refused to eat foods containing refined sugar.

She died on April 1, 2012 at the ripe old age of 114.

Answer: Clara Peller

Clara Peller was born in Russia (not Chicago, as many sources claim) in 1902. She worked most of her life as a manicurist in a beauty salon in Chicago. When she was 80 years old, she was working a temporary job on the set of a television commercial when she was discovered by director Joe Sedelmaier.

She had previously appeared in a commercial for a local moving van company. Her famous commercial for Wendy's first aired on January 10, 1984. After looking at a hamburger that was mostly bun and contained very little meat, she asked "Where's the beef?" The line made her an overnight sensation.

She fell out with Wendy's after making a similar commercial for Prego spaghetti sauce, but continued to appear regularly on television until her death on August 11, 1987.

Answer: Jack LaLanne

Francois Henri "Jack" LaLanne was born in San Francisco in 1914, the son of French immigrants. He became interested in fitness and nutrition at an early age, and in 1936 opened one of the earliest health spas in Oakland, California. His business expanded until he owned over 200 fitness centers.

In 1953, he began a 15 minute exercise program on a local television station, and in 1958 the program was picked up by ABC for nationwide broadcasting. "The Jack LaLanne Show" continued to air until 1985.

LaLanne authored several books, made numerous exercise videos, and started his own line of exercise equipment and nutritional supplements. He often performed feats of strength, such as swimming while towing ships and boats full of people, into his 70s.

LaLanne died of pneumonia after a brief illness on January 23, 2011 at the age of 96.

Answer: Anna Nicole Smith

J. Howard Marshall II was born in Pennsylvania in 1905. After graduating from law school he worked at the Yale Law School and for the Department of the Interior, but in 1935 he went to work for Standard Oil of California. He eventually became a major shareholder in Koch Industries, and amassed a fortune of $1.6 billion.

Marshall met exotic dancer and future Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith at a "gentleman's club" in Houston, Texas in October, 1991. The two began a relationship, and were married on June 27, 1994.

There immediately began rumors that Smith was a gold-digger and after Marshall's money, but she denied them and insisted they were in love and that his age didn't matter. In photographs of the couple taken together after the wedding, he certainly looks happy.

Alas, only 13 months after their nuptials, Marshall died on August 4, 1995. Smith was noticeably distraught, but recovered enough to claim that Marshall had promised to leave her half of his estate. Unfortunately, his will left his entire estate to his son, E. Pierce Marshall, and nothing to Anna Nicole or his other son, J. Howard Marshal III. Nearly two decades of litigation followed, with one court awarding Smith $474 million, but this judgment was overturned. Anna Nicole Smith died in 2007, but the case continued on behalf of her surviving daughter, Dannielynn Hope Birkhead. On August 18, 2014 a federal judge issued a decision that denied Smith and her heirs any share in Marshall's estate.

Answer: Betty White

Betty White was born in 1922, and began performing in 1939. She began as a radio performer and later branched out into movies and television. She may be best known for her roles as Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls." In 2010, at the age of 88, when most people have long since retired, she began starring in "Hot In Cleveland," and won two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2010 and 2011.

She is also the oldest person to have hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live." Quite a career!