Stately People (Part 4): Fictional Characters Quiz

Answer: Flying Tigers

Interestingly, Gordon Jones, not only played the "stately-named" pilot, Alabama Smith, in this film, "Flying Tigers", he played another stately pilot in a film called "Tokyo Joe" opposite Humphrey Bogart as Joe Barrett. In "Tokyo Joe" (1949) Gordon Jones played a pilot named 'Idaho'.

The first significant aviation event in Alabama was on March 10, 1910 when a biplane made by the Wright Brothers was flown by Orville Wright in Montgomery. Five days later the Wright Brothers founded the country's first civilian flying school in Alabama.

Answer: Ricky Nelson

In this Western, the Duke plays a sheriff who gets help from an old crippled man (Walter Brennan), the town drunk who was a former deputy (Dean Martin) and a young gunslinger named Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson) all in an effort to keep villain Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) in jail. But Joe has a lot of henchmen-friends and it will be a tough job keeping them from busting Joe out. The film is directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, one of my favorite directors, and that's why the film has become such a classic western action/adventure flick. Howard Hawks actually didn't want to cast Nelson as Colorado; Hawks's first choice was Elvis Presley. Hawks felt Nelson was too young--Ricky did after all turn 18-years-old during filming.

The eight longest rivers in Colorado are The Rio Grande (1900 miles), The Arkansas River (1470 miles), The Colorado River (1450 miles), The Canadian River (900 miles), Green River (730 miles), The North Platte River (720 miles), The Cimarron River (700 miles), and The Smoky Hill River (575 miles.)

Answer: Hoodlum

In 1930 Harlem, African-American gangsters led by Bumpy Johnson (played by Laurence Fishburne) fight with rival gangster Dutch Schultz over rights to illegal gaming operations. Illinois Gordon is Bumpy's cousin and longtime friend. Illinois and his girlfriend are both eager to get Bumpy back into the racket, and they reunite him with crime boss Madame Queen, played by the recently later Cicely Tyson.

In Illinois, the minimum age to gamble is 18 for lottery games and betting on horse racing. The minimum age however, for casino games is 21-years-old. It is a Class A misdemeanor to engage in illegal gambling.

Answer: Chuck Jones

The 7-minute short cartoon is about a man who hopes to strike it rich with a frog that can sing and dance. The trouble is, Michigan J. Frog will only sing and dance when he is alone. Michigan's singing voice was uncredited, but performed by William Roberts. The frog was given the name Michigan because of the song "The Michigan Rag"--it's the one song he sings in the cartoon that was written by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese especially for him. Chuck Jones came up with the middle initial J. after he was interviewed by a journalist named Jay Cox.

In Michigan, frogs and toad begin breeding in late winter, or in the case of some species, in early summer. Male frogs hop on over to breeding sites which are in shallow water areas, and they call out to the females. Males may even fight with other males territorially over breeding sites. Breeds of frogs in Michigan include Blanchard's Cricket Frog, the Bullfrog, the Eastern American toad, Fowler's toad, Gray Tree Frog, Green Frog, Mink Frog, Northern Leopard Frog, Northern Spring Peer, Pickerel Frog, Western Chorus Frog, and Wood Frog.

Answer: Hope Lange

Missouri Martin, played by Glenda Farrell in the original film, was based on real-life woman Texas Guinan who was a New York actress in the 1920s and owned a speakeasy. For the remake, Capra had wanted Shirley Jones for the Queenie role, but when studio turned down his choice of Steve McQueen for the male lead, Glenn Ford was then cast and because he helped finance the film through his production company he made Capra cast his girlfriend, Hope Lange as Queenie. Although this angered Capra, it shouldn't be forgotten that back in 1933, during casting for "Lady for a Day", Glenda Farrell got the part of Missouri Martin because she was the girlfriend of screenwriter Robert Riskin. So, Columbia Pictures borrowed her from Warner Brothers to play Missouri Martin.

Queen City in Schuyler County of the Kirksville Micropolitan Statistical Area in Missouri, had a population of 598 according to the 2010 census. June, September and May are purportedly the most pleasant climatological months there, while January and December are the least pleasant, weather-wise.

Answer: Brooke Shields

After winning Brooke Shields as the young Wanda Nevada, Demerille proceeds to take her prospecting for gold in the Grand Canyon. Wanda revealed to Demerille that she has run away from an orphanage and has aspirations to become a country-western singer. Demerille informs her that he has no intention of letting her go until she pays back the money that she was the marker for in the poker game. The man Demerille won her from had been shot dead in that card game after accusing Demerille of cheating, and pulling his gun on him.

Located east of Las Vegas, Nevada, Grand Canyon National Park is eighty miles northwest Flagstaff, Arizona. Though the Grand Canyon is located entirely within Arizona, there are places in Nevada to prospect for silver and gold, mostly in the northern part of the state, in Pershing and Humboldt counties between Lovelock and Winnemucca.

Answer: Beach Blanket Bingo

Timothy Carey also appeared in the prequel to "Beach Blanket Bingo" in 1964 called "Bikini Beach." The film was in fact the fifth one of the Beach Party series of films from A.I.P. that starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The 6'4" Timothy Carey with his oddball way of speaking and gloomy eyes was nearly always cast as a villain and the pattern didn't break here for his role as South Dakota Slim. In fact, he is assigned the very obvious time-honored assignment that villains had, and he kidnaps our female damsel in distress, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) and he ties her to a buzz-saw.

There actually are some vacation beaches in the state of South Dakota. Among them are Lewis & Clark Recreation Area Beach in Yankton, Angostura State Recreation Area Beach which also has some hot springs, Ravine Lake Beach, North Point Recreation Area Beach on Lake Andes, and many others that have kayaking, campfires, rental cabins and other amenities.

Answer: Texas King in "The Duellists"

Directed by Ridley Scott, in 1977, "The Duellists" takes place in France in 1801--there was no "Texas King" character. Not just because it took place in France, but also because in the year 1801, the term "Texas" wasn't popularly applied to that part of the U.S. yet, so it's unlikely some cowpoke named Texas would even take a boat over to France. Texas Slim was played by Lochlyn Munro in "Unforgiven" (1992). Famous for playing Corporal Agarn on TV's "F Troop", Larry Storch played Texas Jack in the 1965 comedy, "The Great Race." And Texas Pete is an evil cowboy villain in the British animated series "Superted" about a superhero teddy bear.

At 268,597 square miles, Texas is the largest of the contiguous United States (Alaska being the largest). Texas also has the second largest amount of fresh water, next to Alaska. Texas also has over 191,000 miles of streams and rivers.

Answer: Williams, Warren, Washington, and Geever

Williams, Warren, and the stately-named Washington were Nurse Ratched's daytime orderlies, and Geever was the nighttime aide in the novel. For the movie adaptation by Milos Forman, the Oscar-winning film did not have the characters Williams or Geezer, but the screenplay retained Warren, played by Mwako Cumbuka, and Washington, played by Nathan George. It is against Washington and the orderlies that McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) leads the patients in a game of basketball, boosting their egos via the use of Chief Bromden's (Will Sampson) great height. Washington also steps in during the big cigarette rationing riot that breaks out when patient Charlie Cheswick stands his ground and things become violent.

The state of Washington's population is around 7 million, and of those people, almost 5.1% of the adults have serious mental health conditions according to The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These mental issues include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression.

Answer: Georgia Bottoms

Georgia Bottoms is Childress's lead character, a Baptist Southern belle in Six Points, Alabama. She is described as a lovingly drawn woman, beautiful, rich in charm, well-to-do, hilarious, heart-breaking but also warm and tough. In the story however, it seems the family wealth she has benefited of has gone away, and she must now figure out a way to keep herself in the lifestyle to which she'd been accustomed. She is a single woman, and thus this made things relatively easier for her to tackle the solution she comes up with. She takes on six rich lovers, one for each day of the week, giving herself Mondays off to recuperate. One of those lovers however, a preacher no less, has decided to confess his affair with Georgia in front of all the parishioners, so now now Georgia Bottoms has to try and stop that from happening.

Under Georgia state law, a person commits adultery when he or she has connubial physical relations with a person other than his or her spouse. And this goes for both extramarital heterosexual and homosexual relationships--they both would constitute adultery.