Allegedly... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Walt Disney World

In search of an East Coast location for a second Disney theme park, Walt overflew the Orlando area in 1963, noticing the mostly undeveloped area which however already featured an already advanced road network including Interstate 4, then under construction. Buying out the land with several dummy corporations to avoid the inevitable price increase that a sudden, obvious demand for the land by a major company would have caused, Disney ultimately secured over 27,000 acres (111 km²) at a low price before announcing his grand and ultimately vastly successful plans.

Answer: Las Vegas

The history of Las Vegas began as a small outpost which, in the early 1900s, grew in importance due to the expansion of well water infrastructure, making it an important water stop on the way to or from California. However, the city only really began its miraculous growth in 1930, first as a camp for Hoover Dam laborers and then later benefiting from the almost unlimited electric power available to the city. Up to the mid-1960s, the city was in the hands of organized crime, a fact that changed only after Howard Hughes purchased large portions of it and began the development of the city into today's assembly of resorts and casinos.

Answer: Europa Park

Founded by the Mack family in 1975, Europa Park was initially not much more than a testing ground for the company's new rides in theme park form. Once a ride worked as a fixed installation in the park, movable versions were built and traveled fairs across Germany and Europe.

However, due to its beautiful design and atmosphere the park very quickly became more than a regional attraction and has grown to be the third most visited theme park in Europe (behind Disneyland Paris and Copenhagen's Tivoli)

Answer: Coney Island

Sure, Coney Island, home to the well-known resort and amusement area is a part of New York, but it's on its own island in the borough of Brooklyn and not part of Manhattan. The other destinations are all good albeit expensive places to spend an evening in the most densely built area of the United States.

Answer: Movies

The letters were of course "HOLLYWOODLAND", of which the "LAND" is no longer a part today. The remaining letters - erected in 1923 and rebuilt many times since - have become one of the world's most famous landmarks. While Hollywood is no longer the active center of the movie industry that it once was - the focus has shifted to secondary services such as special effects as well as television - it is still synonymous with the silver screen.

Answer: None at all

As part of the concept of turning from a nation depending on its declining amount of oil into a sustainable and growing tourist destination, Dubai planned a huge resort area greater than Orlando with at least 15 major theme parks. However when the real estate crisis of 2008 hit, all of these projects faltered and while some are still being discussed with opening dates from 2012 to 2015 and beyond tentatively being announced, none of these endeavors had restarted any serious development by the end of 2011.

Answer: A spa and indoor water park

The seismic exploration of the Erding site promised a significant and exploitable oil deposit, but the liquid that came up was thermal mineral water of the highest quality. Architect Josef Wund and his son Jörg took over the site and developed a 145,000 square meter (as of 2011 - the complex is still undergoing expansion) water park, health spa and sauna area.

It has surpassed 1.5 million visitors per year. All heating of the complex - even that of the saunas - is provided by the geothermal heat of the water which makes the bath extremely climate-friendly for an installation of its size. Chemical water treatment is also almost unnecessary as the flow rate of the reservoir is high enough to exchange the entire facility's water several times each hour.

Answer: Time Warner and AOL

When Time Warner and AOL merged in early 2001, the network company had grown to over 20 million subscribers and was growing at a rate of 20 percent per annum. However, the concept of AOL to maintain its own network of content and offer internet access as a bonus failed to sustain a consistent member base and by 2009, the remaining subscriber base of AOL was less than a quarter of what it once had been.

The business model of providing entertainment of all sorts over the internet has however established itself as a major market and by 2010, the development had come full circle with large internet and cable TV providers once again, but this time successfully, merging the internet infrastructure and media sales and delivery businesses. Also, many features that we see now in social networks had crude but functional equivalents in AOL's proprietary portal.

Answer: Their focus on guitars in the lineup

While Pete Best was indeed dismissed from the band partially at the request of their eventual label EMI for failing to meet the same performing standard as the other three members, this was not the primary factor in the Beatles' failure to succeed at the Decca audition.

Instead, their lineup of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums was considered too old-fashioned and they were passed over for the Tremeloes, a band already using the lineup that would become the standard for many bands in the 1970s and 1980s - guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.

The Tremeloes were still a success for Decca - just not as famous as the Beatles.

Answer: 1941's "Rebecca"

In order to stop Academy Award statues from being sold as collector pieces, all winners from 1950 onward has to sign a contract that they would not be allowed to sell them unless first offering them back to the Academy for a symbolic price and that this stipulation would also apply to any heirs.

The clause was tested when the grandson of award winner Michael Todd tried to sell the statuette that had come into his possession and was thwarted by a successful legal injunction on part of the Academy.

However, pre-1950 awards are fair game for collectors with sufficiently deep pockets.