Santa's Reindeer Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chicago Bulls

Carl Lewis was a nationally recognised athlete while in high school, specialising in the long jump, for which in 1979 he broke the national high school record, ending the year as the fifth ranked long jumper internationally. Recruited by the University of Houston, in 1980, despite suffering from the effects of an old knee injury, he won the NCAA long jump title, and qualified for the US Olympic team in the event, as well as forming part of the 4 x 100m relay squad. While initially a long jump specialist, he began to improve as a sprinter, by 1982 being ranked as the number one 100m runner.

The years 1983 and 1984 cemented Lewis's domination of his chosen arena, as he won three gold medals at the inaugural World Athletics Championships, followed a year later by emulating Jesse Owens through his four golds at the Olympic Games. However, despite having only concentrated on track and field while in college, in 1984 he was drafted by two separate sports teams in two sports he had never played. The Dallas Cowboys drafted him as a wide receiver in the 12th round of the 1984 NFL Draft, which was held on May 1-2, while six weeks later at the NBA Draft, he was selected as a 10th round pick by the Chicago Bulls, whose West Coast scouts chose him as "the best athlete available". In a poll subsequently conducted by the NBA, Lewis was ranked as the second most unique draft pick.

Answer: History of the World, Part I

Gregory Hines began tap dancing at the age of two, beginning an act with his older brother Maurice while still a child. It was initially as a dancer that he started his professional career, making his Broadway debut in 1954 in the musical comedy, "The Girl in the Pink Tights". In the 1970s, he turned to music as the lead singer of a rock band called Severance in 1975 and 1976, before returning to the stage in a number of musical revues, earning Tony Award nominations in successive years from 1979 to 1981 for "Eubie!", "Comin' Uptown" and "Sophisticated Ladies".

In 1980, Mel Brooks was preparing his new film, an historical epic spoof entitled "History of the World, Part I". As part of the cast, Brooks planned to include Richard Pryor to play the Ethiopian slave Josephus. However, three days before shooting was due to start, Pryor was badly injured in a fire and hospitalised. With Brooks ready to write the part out of the script, another of the actors in the cast, Madeleine Kahn, suggested that he try Hines instead. Hines immediately got on a flight to California, met Brooks, and was immediately cast. The success of "History of the World, Part I", released in 1981, saw Hines achieve success during the 1980s, subsequently appearing in a number of films including "Wolfen", "The Cotton Club", "White Nights" and "Running Scared".

Answer: A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Iggy Pop is often regarded as the "Godfather of Punk", first as the vocalist of the proto-punk band The Stooges, and then as a solo artist. As the group's front man, Iggy Pop pioneered a type of confrontational performance style, being one of the first performers to undertake the stage dive; among the theatrics that he would often undertake as part of the group's act were self-mutilation, rolling in broken glass, and even exposing himself. Additionally, the singer had a worsening drug problem from the late 1960s onwards, to the point where he not only entered a mental institution, but also lived with David Bowie for a period in 1976, in an effort to beat his addiction.

In 1982, Iggy Pop had returned to touring, and was also dealing with a relapse in his addiction. While touring the American South, in an effort to alleviate his boredom, he purchased an abridged version of Edward Gibbons' seminal piece of historical scholarship, "A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", originally published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789. Reading the work proved cathartic, and the singer noted down his reflections on the work, and the influence that it had, in an article titled "Caesar Lives" that was submitted to, and published in "Classics Ireland", the journal of the Classics Association of Ireland, in 1995.

Answer: Germany

Dita von Teese began her career as a burlesque performer in 1992, and was a major part of the revival of the art form. Often undertaking long and elaborate performances inspired by 1930s and 1940s films, her routines have often featured elaborate props, including the world's largest feather fans for her fan dance. She has also performed away from the burlesque stage, having done fashion, glamour and fetish modelling, as well as acting in both television shows and alongside music acts - she was featured in George Michael's 2008 live tour, and appeared in videos for acts such as Green Day and Marilyn Manson.

In 2009, Alex Christensen and Oscar Loya, performing as 'Alex Swings, Oscar Sings', were selected as the German entry for that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang". The song describes a relationship between the protagonist and a cool and mysterious woman. For their appearance in that year's final in Moscow, Dita von Teese was brought in to perform with the pair on stage, emerging towards the end of the performance from a pair of giant black lips. That year, Germany was placed 20th out of 25 entries, finishing with 35 points.

Answer: Surveyor

Eugene Shoemaker was something of a prodigy as a young man, enrolling in high school at the age of thirteen and gaining his diploma in three years, before then getting into Caltech at the age of sixteen to study geology in 1944. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1948 at the age of nineteen, before then studying for a master's the following year. In 1950, he was hired by the US Geological Survey, with one of his first assignments being to study volcanic processes, which led him to a site in Northern Arizona close to what was then known as Barringer Crater. At the time, accepted wisdom stated that the crater had been created by venting of volcanic steam. In 1960, while in the process of undertaking his Ph.D at Princeton, Shoemaker proved that the crater had in fact been created by a large explosive impact, as it shared features with the craters formed at the atomic bomb testing grounds in Nevada.

Shoemaker's discoveries led to his being put as the head of a USGS team asked to produce the first geologic map of the Moon, while he also founded what became known as the Astrogeology Research Program, becoming one of the pioneers of the field. As part of this, between May 1966 and January 1968, he was the principal investigator for the television camera experiment of NASA's Surveyor program. This saw a total of seven unmanned spacecraft launched to land on the Moon, of which five were successful. One of the major experiments on each spacecraft was a television camera, capable of operating at both 200- and 600-line resolution, which provided among the first high quality images from the surface, as both still and moving images.

Answer: San Francisco

Jim Lange initially started his broadcasting career as a teenager, first on radio in his home town of Saint Paul, before appearing on television as the host of the children's show "Captain 11". After graduating from college, and completing his compulsory military service in the United States Marine Corps, Lange then moved to San Francisco, where he began to work in radio, initially on KGO, before moving to the afternoon slot on KSFO in 1960, which, at the time, was the most popular radio station in the Bay Area, featuring a full service format of middle of the road music, local news and local sports. In 1962, Lange made the move to network television when he was hired to serve as the announcer for and sidekick to singer 'Tennessee' Ernie Ford on "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show", a variety show broadcast by KGO-TV in San Francisco for ABC.

Three years after making his debut on network television, Lange was selected to be the host of a new game show for ABC. "The Dating Game" was developed by Chuck Barris, with the format of a "bachelorette" asking questions to three hidden bachelors, before choosing one to go on a date with. Lange was selected as the host despite the logistical issues - he continued to present his afternoon show on KSFO radio in San Francisco at the same time as taping "The Dating Game", which was produced at the ABC Television Center in Los Angeles. Lange remained as host of "The Dating Game" for its entire run on ABC network television, and also during two periods it was produced for syndication in the 1970s. In 1970, to limit the time needed for commuting, Lange moved to KMPC in Los Angeles, before returning the following year to KSFO, where he remained following the end of his time hosting "The Dating Game".

Answer: The Omen

While Richard Donner initially had ambitions to be an actor, early in his career he encountered director Martin Ritt, who encouraged him to follow the path of directing. Donner was initially hired as Ritt's assistant, before being taken on by Desilu Studios as a staff director, initially directing commercials before moving into television dramas in the late 1950s. It was during this period that Donner became a prolific director of major television shows of the time, including "Have Gun - Will Travel", "The Man from UNCLE", "The Wild, Wild West" and "The Twilight Zone" - the first of six episodes of the latter that Donner was responsible for was perhaps the most famous of its original run, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", starring William Shatner.

Donner directed his first feature, "X-15", a dramatization of the experimental aircraft project of the same name, in 1961, while his second, "Salt and Pepper", starring Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford, was released in 1968. Neither gained much traction at the box office, and it wasn't until 1976 that Donner had a success in cinemas, when he directed "The Omen", a supernatural horror film starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. Made in the wake of the success of 1973's "The Exorcist", the film proved to be a massive success, taking more than $60m at the box office on a budget of less than $3m, and being nominated for two Academy Awards. The success of "The Omen" saw Donner engaged in the planning for a sequel, which eventually became "Damien: Omen II". However, during the process, he was approached by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who were developing a movie featuring the character of Superman. In January 1977, the Salkinds hired Donner to direct both "Superman" and "Superman II" back-to-back for a salary of $1m.

Answer: Philadelphia Eagles

Buddy Ryan had built a significant resume as a defensive coach when, in 1968, he got his first job in professional football as the defensive line coach of the New York Jets. Alongside defensive coordinator Walt Michaels, Ryan reasoned that the quarterback was the focal point of the offense, and so developed a programme of different blitzing plays to directly attack the quarterback and negate the opposition's main offensive weapon. Ryan's strategy allowed the Jets to emerge victorious in Super Bowl III, restricting the Baltimore Colts to just seven points. After seven years with the Jets, Ryan left to become the defensive line coach of the Minnesota Vikings, where, under his guidance, the Vikings' defensive line developed into the famed "Purple People Eaters" that helped the team to three Super Bowls in four seasons. Ryan however only remained at the Vikings for two years, before taking over as Defensive Coordinator of the Chicago Bears.

It was at the Bears that Ryan perfected the so-called "46 Defense", featuring eight men along the line of scrimmage and three defensive backs. The formation was intended as a primary means of disrupting running plays, while at the same time allowing players to drop into pass coverage having lined up as if ready to blitz. The "46 Defense" was perfected by 1981, and ultimately saw Ryan turn the Bears into the meanest defensive team in the NFL in 1985, with opposing teams scoring more than 20 points on just three occasions in the regular season, while in the playoffs they conceded just ten points in three games on the way to winning Super Bowl XX. The esteem with which Ryan was held by the Bears players saw him carried off on their shoulders right behind Head Coach Mike Ditka, the first time two coaches had been carried by the Super Bowl winning team. It was following this that Ryan, who had made no secret of his desire to be a Head Coach, and who, in 1982, the Bears' players had favoured for the role prior to the hiring of Ditka, elected to leave having been offered the Head Coach's job at the Philadelphia Eagles. He remained at the Eagles for four years, before being fired in 1990.

Answer: Paris

As a child, Rudolf Nureyev was encouraged to dance in folk dance performances, and showed such talent that his teachers encouraged him to undertake proper dance training. Having been taken on by a local ballet company in Leningrad, he auditioned for Moscow's Bolshoi, but decided instead to join the Kirov Ballet School - in 1955, he was taken on by the Vaganova Academy, one of the Kirov's associate institutions, joining the Kirov Ballet Company upon his graduation in 1958. He was almost immediately given major solo roles as a principal dancer, and was often paired with Natalia Dudinskaya, the Kirov's principal ballerina and wife of the company director.

By the late 1950s, Nureyev's fame had grown within the Soviet Union, to the point where he was one of the most famous men in the country. In 1959, he appeared in Vienna during a tour made by the Kirov, bringing him to the attention of western observers. Although subsequently told he would not be permitted to tour the west again, in 1960, during arrangements for the Kirov to go to France, the Soviet authorities were urged to let him dance in Paris, to which they agreed. During the 1961 tour, Nureyev was frequently seen engaging with the Paris nightlife, alarming both the company and the KGB, who made various attempts to return him home. Having been told that his mother was ill and he needed to return, which he did not believe, he was able to slip away from his KGB minders and requested asylum from the French government. Within a week of his defection, he signed for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, before moving to London to become Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet in 1962.

Answer: Gene Autry

Robert L. May was working as an advertising copywriter for the Chicago-based retailer Montgomery Ward when, in 1939, he was assigned to oversee a new children's book for the store to give away as a promotional item for the Christmas period. Inspired by the fog coming off Lake Michigan that obscured the view from his office window, he hit upon the idea of a reindeer with a bright red nose that could guide Santa's sleigh through similar conditions. In its first year of publication, 2.4 million copies of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" were distributed by Montgomery Ward.

Nine years after the publication of the original story, May contacted his brother-in-law, the songwriter Johnny Marks, with a view to doing a musical adaptation of the story. Marks came up with the song, which included a paraphrased introduction from the Clement Clarke Moore poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (generally known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") that introduced the other reindeer, before sending it to various artists. The song was turned down by a number of popular artists of the day, including Bing Crosby, before Gene Autry's wife persuaded him to record it. Recorded in June 1949, it was initially marketed as a children's record before Columbia Records pushed it as a popular song. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" eventually reached number 1 in the week of 7 January 1950. Since it was first recorded by Gene Autry, hundreds of artists have covered the song, making it the second-most performed Christmas standard after "White Christmas".