All of These Answers... Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Archies

'The Archies' was a fictional band from a cartoon TV show, 'The Archie Show'.

It released several singles, with the biggest hit being 'Sugar Sugar' in 1969, which reached number one in the US and the UK.

Answer: Bernard Leach

Born in Hong Kong in 1887, Leach studied his craft in Japan. He set up a pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, in 1920 with a view to producing high quality, affordable pieces. He became the greatest artist/potter of his time, receiving honours from the British and Japanese states. He died in 1979.

Answer: Bristol

Bristol has been an important part of the UK for over eight hundred years. It became a city in the sixteenth century and grew in size and wealth through exploration and Atlantic trade, including the slave trade.

Brunel had a great impact on Bristol in the nineteenth century, also building two pioneering ships, the SS Great Britain and the SS Great Western, in the city.

Answer: The Acrobat's Family with a Monkey

This work dates from 1905, midway through his Rose Period, in which Picasso painted a lot of performers such as actors and harlequins. It shows a couple of acrobats with their child as a monkey looks on, almost proprietorially.

Answer: Mae West

Andrew Toti (1915-2005) was sixteen when he invented his inflatable lifejacket. It saved many sailors and airmen, including George H. W. Bush. He was the owner of 500 patents at the time of his death.

Mae West (1893-1980) was enormously popular and a trailblazer for women in the movies. She had a constant battle with censors, and produced a raft of great quotes.

Here's one: "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better."

Answer: Topper

Top hats started to be worn towards the end of the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century they became popular on both sides of the Atlantic with style icons such as Abraham Lincoln and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In the twentieth century the topper reduced in both height and popularity.

Answer: Gunga Din

The poem tells of the lowly water bearer who turned out to be more noble and braver than the soldiers who abused him.

'You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!'

Along with the other three answers, this was part of the collection of poems, 'Barrack-Room Ballads', written in the vernacular, which raised Kipling's profile as a poet when it was published in 1892.

Answer: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' started on FX in 2005. It starred and was created by Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie Day.

DeVito joined the show in its second series.

Answer: Arsenic

Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to mid-Atlantic island Saint Helena after his final defeat at Waterloo. In February 1821 his health went downhill quickly and he died on 5 May at the age of 51. Analysis of his body indicated high levels of arsenic, and some put forward the theory that he was poisoned, but the consensus is that an ulcer and cancer were the cause of death and the arsenic probably accumulated through his life.

Arsenic compounds are highly toxic, and arsenic contamination of groundwater affects millions of people worldwide.

Answer: Cary Grant

Cary Grant (1904-1986) was one of the greatest movie stars of the twentieth century.

He was born Archibald or ARCHIE(1) LEACH(2) in BRISTOL(3). He left school early to train and work in music hall as an ACROBAT(4) with Bob Pender's Knockabout Comedians, which took him to New York.

Rather than return to the UK with his troupe, he remained in the USA and became an actor. He changed his stage name to Cary Grant on 7 December 1931 when he signed a movie contract with Paramount.

Grant made a mark in two movies with MAE WEST(5) in 1933 - 'She Done Him Wrong' and 'I'm No Angel' - although, contrary to her claims, West didn't discover him.

A further success was in 'TOPPER' (1937)(6) where he played a ghost.

In 1939, in 'GUNGA DIN'(7), he got the chance to emulate his swashbuckling hero, Douglas Fairbanks, Senior.

'The PHILADELPHIA(8) Story' (1940) was his third collaboration with co-star Katherine Hepburn and director George Cukor.

'ARSENIC(9) and Old Lace' (1944) was one of his least favourite movies.

Hope that wasn't too hard for you.

I've just read 'A Class Apart', an excellent biography of Cary Grant by Graham McCann, and have used it as a reference for Grant's timeline.