It's Curtains for You! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film, "Psycho", featured a murder in a shower at the Bates Motel. Anthony Perkins starred and Janet Leigh was his victim. The film was re-made in 1998 by Gus Van Sant.

Answer: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

German-born Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is known for using the curtain wall -- creating buildings with an internal steel frame and external skin of non-load bearing glass walls. After establishing himself as an architect in Germany, Mies moved to the US at the age of 57, escaping the pressure of the Nazis.

He became the head of the Chicago Institution now known as the Illinois Institute of Technology. The United Nations Secretariat building (designed by Le Corbusier and others) and New York's he Seagram Building (designed by Mies and Philip Johnson) are examples of a glass curtain buildings.

Answer: Edward G. Robinson

There is some controversy over the origin of this expression, but it definitely appeared in the 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon "Racketeer Rabbit" featuring Bugs Bunny and a gangster named Rocky, modeled after actor Edward G. Robinson. In the cartoon, after a series of mishaps involving a robbery and quest for the loot, Bugs tells Rocky, "It's curtains for you." Not only is Rocky knocked out but in wonderful cartoon fashion, a small curtain rod hangs from his dazed head, with little yellow curtains hanging beside each ear. (If you have seven free minutes you can view the cartoon on YouTube.)

Answer: True

"Curtains For You" is a five piece swing/indie/rock band from Seattle, Washington which dates to 2005. The website of Spark and Shine (their record label) says "They self-describe their sound as "The Beatles meets Vaudeville meets the Muppet Show."

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock

This 1966 Cold War thriller starred Paul Newman as a rocket scientist and Julie Andrews as his fiancée and research assistant.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, delivered his famous speech "Sinews of Peace" on March 5, 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. He used the term to "iron curtain" to describe the proliferation of communist rule in Eastern Europe. Churchill's speech popularized use of the term.

Answer: Irish

This term developed after Irish immigrants came to the US during the potato famine of 1845-1849. In the face of prejudice against these immigrants, some acquired enough money to buy the trappings of wealth displayed by British-descended White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPS).

This term can be seen in opposition to the term "shanty Irish" which referred the origins of the poorest immigrants from the Emerald Isle.

Answer: In an orthodox Jewish synagogue

A mechitza is a wall used to separate Jewish men and women during a prayer service. The simplest mechitza can be a curtain at least five feet tall made of opaque or semi-opaque material and strung on a piece of rope stretched between two poles. Men would pray on one side and women on the other. Architectural versions include a closed off balcony in the back of a synagogue or a partial wall.

In the 21st century there is debate among various branches of orthodox and conservative Judaism about the modern implementation of this practice which was defined in Talmudic times.

Answer: Frank Sinatra

One of Frank Sinatra's signature songs was "My Way."

In part, the lyrics are:

"And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way"

These English lyrics were written by Paul Anka. The song was originally written in French by Jacques Revaux.

Answer: Actor

In theatre parlance, the curtain call is what occurs at the end of a performance when all the cast members line up to take their bows. The curtain rises and falls and the performers rearrange themselves for bows with the supporting cast bowing first and the leads bowing last and then the whole company joins hands and bows again.