Hooray for Hollywood; Tinsel Town Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Albert Lawrence Einstein was born in 1947. When deciding to change his last name in order to avoid confusion with the other Albert Einstein, he selected 'Brooks' in honor of his idol, Mel Brooks. He appeared in such films as "Real Life" (1979), "Lost In America" (1985), and "Finding Nemo" (2003).

In 1987, he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in "Broadcast News". His father, Harry Parke, introduced Albert to show business at an early age. Parke had a starring role as Parkyakarkus on Eddie Cantor's radio program.

Answer: Slim Pickins

Other screen roles included "One-Eyed Jacks" (1960) and "Will Penny" (1968). Pickins was also memorable in "Blazing Saddles" (1974), especially in the famous campfire and beans scene. Born in 1919, Slim Pickins was a professional rodeo clown for many years; during this time, someone suggested that he try his hand at acting since rodeo work provided 'slim pickins'.

His brother was also an actor, known as "Easy Pickins". Pickins was known as a reliable and professional actor, sought after by such directors as John Ford and Mel Brooks.

Answer: Chill Wills

Chill Theodore Wills was born in Texas in 1903. For a while, he was content to be a singer in the group known as "Chill Wills and the Avalon Boys". One of his accomplishments as a singer was to provide the voice for Stan Laurel in the comedy "Way Out West" (1937).

In 1960, he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor in "The Alamo", but his blatant campaigning for the award alienated many voters and probably cost him the Oscar. The first of the "Francis" movies appeared in 1950 and Wills continued to voice the sarcastic mule in five more films. George 'Gabby' Hayes' (1885-1969) was a popular sidekick to such cowboy stars as Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Hopalong Cassidy, and Gene Autry. "Meet Corliss Archer" was a 1954 radio show featuring Ann Baker as the teenage Corliss who found herself in typical teen girl angst.

Answer: Horror

Eugene Maurice Orowitz, otherwise known as Michael Landon, began acting in TV shows in the early 1950s. His first film, "The Wilder Years" (1956), featured him in a bit part, but his first starring role was that of Tony Rivers, the tortured teen in the camp classic "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" (1957).

Despite appearances in a couple of other films, Landon found his stardom in television, most memorably "Little House On The Prairie" (1974-1982) and "Bonanza" (1959-1963). Born May 31st 1930, Clinton Eastwood, Jr., fared even worse in his first two movie roles.

The 3-D horror flick "Revenge of the Creature" (1955) featured him as an 'uncredited' lab technician, while "Tarantula" (also 1955) portrayed him as a jet squadron leader - also uncredited. Fortunately, "Rawhide" came by in 1959 and the rest is history.

Answer: Hedy Lamarr

This is a tough one; all of these ladies were considered Hollywood beauties. However, Mayer and Sanders were smitten with Hedy Lamarr, star of "Ziegfeld Girl" (1941) and "Tortilla Flat" (1942). Hedwig Eva Maria Kieser was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1913 and soon became a celebrated star of German and Czech films.

In 1919, while in Paris, she met Louis B. Mayer, who immediately wanted to sign her up for MGM, but insisted she change her name. She selected Hedy Lamarr, partly as an homage to a silent film actress who died in 1929.

Her first U.S. film was 1938's "Algiers". Miss Lamarr was more than just a pretty face. In 1942, she and a fellow scientist patented a device known as the "Frequency-Hopped Spread Spectrum" which made it difficult for radio-controlled torpedoes to be detected or jammed.

Not much was done with this complicated invention during World War Two, but it saw extensive use during the naval blockage of Cuba in the early 1960s.

Answer: Librarian

Doris Day, born in 1924, started life as Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff. "The Glass Bottom Boat" (1966) featured Doris as a 'mermaid' performing at Catalina Island, "Teacher's Pet" (1958) saw her trying to instruct Clark Gable in the finer points of journalism and "Storm Warning" (1951) gave her a chance to perform with her screen idol, Ginger Rogers, but it's the only time Doris ever 'died' in a movie role. For the first three years of the 1960s, Doris Day reigned as Queen of the Box Office, but saw her popularity wane as fewer 'girl-next-door' or even 'virgin-next-door' films were made.

After a successful television program, she retired to her home in Carmel, California, and became an advocate for animal rights.

Answer: Clint Eastwood, Fred Grandy, Martin Sheen

Clint was mayor of Carmel, California 1986-1988. "The Love Boat's" Fred Grandy served as a Representative from Iowa from 1987 to 1995. Grandy's involvement in politics came long before his 'Gopher' fame. In 1968, he was Best Man at David Eisenhower's marriage to Julie Nixon.

Although he's from Iowa, Malibu has had Martin Sheen as its 'honorary' mayor since 1989. The outspoken liberal ruffled a few feathers when shortly after his appointment, he declared the trendy beach-side city a 'sanctuary' for homeless and aliens.

Answer: Mae West

Many Jane West was born into a vaudeville family in 1893 and began performing as a child. Her suggestive innuendos and voluptuous figure made her a star in such films as "She Done Him Wrong" (1933) and "My Little Chickadee" (1940) with W.C. Fields. In the late 1950s, a popular psychic, 'The Amazing Criswell', predicted that Mae would win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960 and that she would fly to the moon (with Liberace!) in 1965.

Answer: Marlon Brando

Born April 3rd, 1924, Omaha native Brando had a well-deserved on-set reputation for being obstinate, rebellious ... and brilliant. Often referred to as the greatest actor in America, Brando starred in such classics as "On The Waterfront" (1954), "The Godfather" (1972) and "Apocalypse Now" (1979).

Although referred to as a method actor because of his mumbled and unorthodox reciting of his lines, he never liked the title. In fact, he never understood the adulation he received as an actor, asking once "Would people applaud me if I were a good plumber?"

Answer: Jerry Lewis

Poor Jerry. After director Jerry Wald cut a number of production numbers from the Oscar telecast believing that the show would run overtime, he found out that he ended it too early. Jerry Lewis tried to fill the time by telling corny jokes and urging members of the audience to come on stage and join him in a ragged rendition of "There's No Business Like Show Business". Even though he was considered a master of ad-libs and improvization, Lewis was sweating buckets by the time NBC mercifully pulled the plug on the show.