True Celebrity Names (Born in the 1910s) Quiz

Answer: Arthur Jacob Arshawsky

Born May 23rd, 1910 in New York, New York, Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (AKA Artie Shaw) was a jazz clarinetist and bandleader, who also delved into authoring, both fiction and non-fiction.

Shaw began as a session musician, performing with many bands and orchestras, but in the mid-1930s he began to stand out above the crowd, became a bandleader in his own right, and toured with some of the biggest names of the era. He signed Billie Holiday to a contract, and had the legendary Buddy Rich as his drummer. Shaw expanded his influence into radio, television and movies, served in the navy during the war, and continued to be active as a musician and bandleader even past the decline of the big band era. He passed away in 2004 at the age of 94.

Shaw shortened his name to Art Shaw at the age of 15 when he joined a band led by Johnny Cavallero. At the time, Shaw played the ukulele and the saxophone, and it was Cavallero who started him on the clarinet.

Answer: Virginia Katherine McMath

Born July 16th, 1911 in Independence, Missouri, Virginia Katherine McMath (AKA Ginger Rogers) was an singer, dancer and actor who was perhaps best known for her association with Fred Astaire in many films.

Rogers was not just a dancing partner, however, and she showed her acting chops with her Best Actress Oscar win for 1940's "Kitty Foyle". She got her start in vaudeville and moved to Broadway before her film career. After her movie stardom faded in the 1950s, she returned to Broadway and off-Broadway shows for the bulk of the remainder of her career.

As a child, Virginia earned the nickname 'Ginga' when a little cousin could not pronounce her name properly. When she was nine, her mother married John Logan Rogers, and Ginger took her stepfather's last name. Thus, 'Ginger Rogers' was born.

Answer: Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon

Born October 25th, 1912 in Centerville, Tennessee, Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon (AKA Minnie Pearl) was a comedienne who was best known for the character she created (whose name she adopted) and more than 50 years with the Grand Ole Opry (and 22 years on the television show "Hee-Haw".

The character of 'Minnie Pearl' was developed as part of her job promoting a touring theater company. She adopted the speech and mannerisms of a mountain woman she met in Alabama and created 'Cousin Minnie Pearl'. The act caught the attention of an executive of the Tennessee-based WSM radio station, and she was given the opportunity to perform in the Grand Ole Opry (which was started by their station), debuting on November 30th, 1940. She would remain a part of the show until 1991, when she suffered a stroke that would end her performing career. She passed away in 1996.

Answer: Joan Boniface Winnifrith

Born January 2nd, 1913 in Ightham, Kent, Joan Boniface Winnifrith Cannon (AKA Anna Lee) was a British actress who started her long career at the age of 19, becoming known as the 'British Bombshell' before relocating to Hollywood in 1940.

Anna Lee acted in a number of John Ford films after moving to the USA, including "How Green Was My Valley", and played opposite such acting luminaries as John Wayne and Walter Brennan, but never earning quite the same star status as she had had in England. In 1980, she became paralyzed from the waist down due to a car accident, but she did not stop acting. In the last years of her life, she was the family matriarch Lila Quartermaine on the soap operas "General Hospital" and its spinoff "Port Charles".

According to her biography on TheFamousPeople.com, Anna Lee's stage name was derived from a combination of Anna Karenina and Robert E. Lee.

Answer: George Keefer Brewer

Born January 5th, 1914 in Woolstock, Iowa, George Keefer Brewer (AKA George Reeves) was an actor best known for playing Superman in the 1950s, the first 'live action' portrayal of the character.

Reeves had a rough start to his career, but within a few years found some stability, acting in five "Hopalong Cassidy" films before filming "So Proudly We Hail!" in 1942 to great accolades. This film inspired him to join the army for the latter part of the war. After returning to acting, Reeves struggled to find significant roles, and even when he was offered the part of Superman, he was hesitant, considering television an unimportant medium. But, he took the job and stuck with it for six years. Unfortunately, this typecasting led to more difficulty finding different roles afterwards. In 1959, Reeves died of an apparent suicide (gunshot), although some uncertainty still surrounds the events that led to his death.

George Reeves' stage name was given to him when he contracted with Warner Bros. in 1939.

Answer: Eleanora Fagan

Born April 7th, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Eleanora Fagan (AKA Billie Holiday) was a jazz singer who got her start as a teenager singing in Harlem nightclubs. After a very rough childhood, her vocal talents lifted her out of obscurity to become known as one of the premiere vocalists in her genre, working with some of the top jazzers in the industry.

Billie Holiday's career did not take long to shoot up to stardom, and she had great commercial success in later years, once she actually started producing records in 1945. Sadly, her life and career would suffer from drug and alcohol abuse, for which she spent time in prison, and which seriously affected her health. In 1959, Holiday died from heart failure due to cirrhosis of the liver.

Holiday's stage name came from a combination of Billie Dove (an actress she admired) and Clarence Holiday (her father... probably).

Answer: Issur Danielovitch

Born December 9th, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, Issur Danielovitch (AKA Kirk Douglas) was an actor and producer who was perhaps best known for his role as Spartacus in the film of the same name (1960), on which he was also the executive producer.

Douglas was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia who eked out a meager living in New York. His father changed their name from Danielovitch to Demsky, so growing up, Douglas went by the name Izzy Demsky. Having decided on a career in show business, he changed his name (legally) to avoid anti-semitism, and soon after, he enlisted with the US Navy. After a long and illustrious career, acting well into his 90s, Kirk Douglas finally passed away at the age of 103, surrounded by his family.

Answer: Dino Paul Crocetti

Born June 7th, 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio, Dino Paul Crocetti (AKA Dean Martin) was a singer, comedian and actor known for his variety shows over the years and his charismatic personality as "The King of Cool".

As a teenager, Martin dabbled in a few different activities, from boxing (billed as 'Kid Crochet') to working at a speakeasy. He also sang with local bands and created the stage name 'Dino Martini', using his first name as a play on the Metropolitan opera tenor Nino Martini. Later, after joining bandleader Sammy Watkins as a singer, he followed the suggestion to Americanize the name to 'Dean Martin'.

Outside of his singing, Martin made his mark in comedy, combining with Jerry Lewis for a time before striking out on his own with "The Dean Martin Show". as an A-lister performer (both live and on film) in the 1960s, he became one of the 'Rat Pack' alongside Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.

Answer: Margarita Carmen Cansino

Born October 17th, 1918 in New York, New York, Margarita Carmen Cansino (AKA Rita Hayworth) was an actress and dancer who became one of the top-billed draws of the 1940s, earning the nickname "The Love Goddess".

Hayworth was thrust into show business by her father at a young age, and she never finished school. Together they were 'The Dancing Cansinos' until she began to delve into film as an older teenager. Taking a contract with Fox, they altered her name to Rita Cansino, and for some time she would be billed as an 'exotic' actress. When Columbia signed her a couple of years later, they wanted to broaden her appeal and Hayworth took on her mother's maiden name to highlight her British heritage. In 1949, Hayworth broke her acting contract to marry Prince Aly Khan (son of Aga Khan III), but returned to acting when they divorced in 1953.

Rita Hayworth's health deteriorated in the late 1970s, and in 1981 her diagnosis of Alzheimer's was made public. She passed away from related complications in 1987.

Answer: Aaron Chwatt

Born February 5th, 1919 in New York, New York, Aaron Chwatt (AKA Red Buttons) was and actor and comedian who ran the gamut of stand-up comedy, Broadway theater, television and film.

As a teenager, Buttons earned his name for his first comedic role dressed as a bellhop, complete with red hair and big, shiny buttons on the uniform. Orchestra leader Charles "Dinty" Moore (working the same venue) dubbed him 'Red Buttons', and Aaron Chwatt would later choose that as his stage name. Red made his debut on Broadway in 1942, but soon got drafted into the military. Following his discharge, he continued on Broadway while also dipping his toes in the film industry. He also added the medium of television with his own variety show in 1952.

Red Buttons earned the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in 1957's "Sayonara" and went on to have a long career, continuing acting until shortly before his passing in 2006 at the age of 87.