Entertaining the Rest of the Forties Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. While most of the top hits of 1940 were by big bands, Cliff Edwards (aka Ukelele Ike) also hit number one with this song from the animated film "Pinocchio". Which of these is it, that is so closely associated with The Walt Disney Company?

Answer: When You Wish Upon a Star

"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", sung by James Baskett, is from the 1946 film "Song of the South." It also won the Oscar for Best Original Song. "Hakuna Matata" is from the 1994 Disney movie "The Lion King." It is a Swahili phrase meaning "no worries." "As Time Goes By" is not from a Disney film, but from 1942's "Casablanca." Sung in the movie by Dooley Wilson, it has been tabbed as "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs" as the second-best song in film.

2. The 19th Academy Awards were held in 1947 and made awards for the films of 1946. Which movie received the most nominations (8) and won for Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Frederic March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), and Best Adapted Screenplay? (Geeze, that's a lot of bests, eh?)

Answer: The Best Years of Our Lives

"The Best Years of Our Lives" actually won nine Oscars, including a Memorial Award and an Honorary Award. Besides the five in the question, it also won for Best Editing and Best Score.

"The Grapes of Wrath" earned Best Director for John Ford in 1941, but did not win Best Picture, which was "Rebecca". "All About Eve" won four of the top Oscars (Film, Director, Supporting Actor, and Screenplay) for the films of 1950. "Marty" won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1955, along with three of the other top awards (Director, Actor, Screenplay).

3. Which Arthur Miller play starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman won the 1949 Tony Award for Broadway's best play?

Answer: Death of a Salesman

Cobb made over 30 films, including most notably, "On the Waterfront", "12 Angry Men", and "The Exorcist." He also had lead roles in six major Broadway dramas, including the title role of "King Lear", along with Stacey Keach and Rene Auberjonois in 1968, in a 72-performance run which was Broadway's longest-running drama up to that time.

His performance in "On the Waterfront" earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1954.

4. The 1947 Pulitzer Prize went to Robert Penn Warren's novel whose protagonist was a governor patterned on former Louisiana Governor Huey Long. What was the name of the novel?

Answer: All the King's Men

Rated at number 36 on the list of greatest novels of the Twentieth Century by Modern Library, "All the King's Men" was made into two Hollywood films of the same name, the first in 1949 and the second in 2006. The 1946 film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Broderick Crawford), and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge).

5. Top radio shows of 1946 included comedy/variety series starring such big names as Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, and Fred Allen. But the top-rated show, according to the C. E. Hooper Ratings Service, was headlined by actual husband-and-wife team Jim and Marian Jordan. Which show was this, which also featured Gale Gordon as Mayor LaTrivia?

Answer: Fibber Magee and Molly

"Fibber Magee and Molly" had a radio run of about 25 years, from 1935 to 1959. Other interesting characters of the show included pompous neighbor Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, voiced by Harold Peary, and Beulah, the Magees' black maid, voiced by a white male named Marlin Hurt.

Baby Boomers (like me) may remember Gale Gordon (born Charles T. Aldrich, Jr.) in short TV stints as Lucy Carmichael's banker and employer on "The Lucy Show" and as John Wilson on "Dennis the Menace."

6. In a decade with a variety of sports champions (six different NFL champions, five different World Series winners and collegiate football national champions, and eight different college basketball national champions), one sport had only one world champion from 1937 to 1949. Known as "the Brown Bomber," who was the world heavyweight boxing champion who retired in 1949?

Answer: Joe Louis

One of Joe Louis' greatest fights was the 1938 knockout of the German Champion Max Schmeling, which was highly acclaimed as the victory of the common man over Hitler's so-called "Master Race." Many also point to this fight as the event that made Louis America's first true African American national hero.

After retiring in 1949, financial woes forced Louis to return to the ring on several occasions, including bouts with new heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles and Rocky Marciano.

7. Sticking with sports for one more question, the Upper Midwest dominated college and pro football in the Forties. Which two teams were the NFL and college football champions in both 1940 and 1941?

Answer: NFL's Chicago Bears and college football's Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Bears would win four NFL championships in the Forties, but their 73-0 victory over the Washington Redskins in 1940 was probably their highlight of the decade. Minnesota was one of three colleges to win two or more national titles in the Forties. The others were Army, featuring Heisman Trophy winners Doc Blanchard ("Mr.

Inside") and Glenn Davis ("Mr. Outside") in 1944 and 1945, and Notre Dame, which won four titles: in 1943, 1946, 1947, and 1949.

8. Perhaps the biggest Broadway musical of 1947 ran for 725 performances and won three Tony Awards. Which hit was this whose plot followed the burying of a stolen pot of gold near Fort Knox and featured songs like "How Are Things in Glocca Morra", "Old Devil Moon", and "If This Isn't Love"?

Answer: Finian's Rainbow

"Finian's Rainbow" hit the big screen as a Hollywood musical in 1968. "Brigadoon" was another big hit in 1947, running for 581 performances. It also ran for 685 performances as a West End production beginning in 1949. Like "Finian's Rainbow", it was also made into a hit Hollywood film musical, in its case, in 1954. Based on a comic strip by Al Capp, "Li'l Abner" was made into a musical in 1956 and had a run of 693 performances on Broadway before making a nationwide tour. "Gypsy" was a 1959 Broadway musical which garnered great critical acclaim.

9. Although it did not win the 1942 Oscar for Best Picture, and only won one of the nine categories it was nominated in, this 1941 cinematic opus directed by and starring Orson Welles has consistently been voted "greatest film ever made" and made "Rosebud" an iconic movie tagline. Which film is it?

Answer: Citizen Kane

"Citizen Kane's" only Oscar win was for Best Original Screenplay. "How Green Was My Valley" took the Oscar for Best Picture of 1941 and also won for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.

"Citizen Kane" was based partly on the life of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, and after the film's release Hearst barred any mention of the film in any of his newspapers. However, the movie's plot was also based partly on aspects of Orson Welles' own life, as well as on the lives of Chicago businessmen Samuel Insull, whose business interests collapsed during the Great Depression, and Harold McCormick, board chairman of International Harvester and son of Cyrus McCormick.

10. Having gotten a solid start in the mid-Forties, Television was well underway by 1949. Western series were a TV staple, especially through the '40s, '50s, and '60s, with few being more iconic or popular than one from 1949 through 1957. Which series was this, that was introduced by the music of Rossini's "William Tell Overture" and a voice saying, "A fiery horse with the speed of light..."?

Answer: The Lone Ranger

"The Lone Ranger" starred Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, a Canadian Mohawk who played Tonto, the Lone Ranger's sidekick. Moore became so attached to the Lone Ranger character that he won a lawsuit in the 1980s enabling him to make public appearances as the Lone Ranger until shortly before his death in 1999.

He is a member of four Halls of Fame as a stuntman and portrayer of the Lone Ranger.

Source: Author shvdotr

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

After my other two '40s quizzes ('48 and War Years), let's do the REST of the story, er, decade: '40-'41, '46-'47, and 1949.

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