So You Want to Know What Happened in 1955 Quiz

Answer: Winston Churchill

In May 1940, the then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, resigned his position. King George VI asked Churchill to take over. Churchill, with a military background and a gift for oratory, was undoubtedly the best choice. He had foreseen the German military build-up and had the ability to bolster citizen morale with speeches such as his "we shall never surrender" and "if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'this was their finest hour'." The first was given after British troops had successfully been withdrawn from Dunkirk in the face of a massive German onslaught. The second was given at the height of the Battle of Britain.

He was elected to his second term as Prime Minister, at the age of 76, in the 1951 general election. Two years later he suffered a stroke which affected his speech and movement. Realizing that his faculties were failing, Churchill resigned in 1955, to be succeeded by Anthony Eden.

Did you know Winston Churchill, in referring to Charles de Gaulle, said that he looked like a llama that had been surprised in the bath? What do you suppose Mr. Churchill had against llamas?

Answer: Salk

Poliomyelitis, or polio, primarily strikes children up to nine years of age. The U.S. saw its worst outbreak of polio in 1952 with almost 58,000 cases. Over 3,100 died. Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh worked to create a vaccine to prevent this crippling and killing disease. He developed an injectable vaccine in 1952. After it became commercially available in 1955, polio incidents dropped by almost 90% by 1958.

Albert Sabin developed an oral polio vaccine in 1957 while working at the University of Cincinnati. It became available in 1962. It was later discovered that, in rare cases, the oral vaccine could result in another form of polio: vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis. While Sabin's vaccine continues to be used in some parts of the world, by the year 2000 it was out of use in the U.S. for that reason.

Did you know that when Dr. Salk needed to hire a new secretary he blood-tested all the applicants? He wanted to eliminate type-Os.

Answer: Marty

"Marty" covered three days in the life of Marty Piletti. At 34 he still lived with his mother. Despite encouragement from his family and friends to get married, Marty was of the opinion that "sooner or later, there comes a point in a man's life when he's gotta face some facts. And one fact I gotta face is that, whatever it is that women like, I ain't got it." That is, until the night he went out and met an unattractive 29-year old schoolteacher named Clara who was in the same night club on a blind date. Clara's date offered Marty $5 to take her off his hands. He refused, saying "you can't just walk off on a girl like that." When Clara ran from the room in tears, Marty followed and comforted her. After talking through the night they realized they were soulmates.

The movie garneed three Oscars. Paddy Chayefsky won for Writing Adapted Screenplay, Delbert Mann won for directing the movie and Borgnine won for Best Actor.

As a side note on Ernest Borgnine, he was married to Ethel Merman for 32 days. He was her fourth and last husband.

"Love is a Many Splendored Thing" was another nominated film from 1955. Borgnine appeared in "Go Naked in the World" in 1961. "Bedazzled" had nothing to do with Borgnine or 1955. The original "Bedazzled" was a 1967 comedy starring Dudley Moore as Stanley Moon and Peter Cook as the devil who was after his soul. The 2000 remake starred Brendan Fraser in Moore's role and Elizabeth Hurley as the devil, marking quite an improvement over Peter Cook in appearance.

I heard they cut out the last scene in "Marty." They had Ernest Borgnine back into a meat grinder at the butcher shop and get a little BEHIND in his work.

Answer: McDonald's

Ray Kroc sold mixers. Not just any mixers, he sold five spindle Multimixers. One of his biggest customers was the McDonald Brothers restaurant chain where the machine was used to make milk shakes. The restaurant also featured a hamburger assembly line. Kroc believed that he could sell more Multimixers if the McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac, would expand their operations. They did not want to, being content to operate a small string of restaurants in California. So Kroc talked them into letting him set up some restaurants. The first one he set up, on April 15, 1955 was in Des Plaines IL. Eventually Kroc bought out the brothers but kept the "McDonald's" name. Today there are over 31,000 McDonald's restaurants in 119 countries.

Did you know that Kroc was originally against having his restaurants open all night? He didn't want to be known as a fry by night operator.

Answer: Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was so named because the signatory countries met in Warsaw Poland to draw up the pact. The seven countries were joined by East Germany in 1956. It was in opposition to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which formed in 1949 and which originally included the UK, France, USA, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Iceland. West Germany joined in 1955, prompting the Warsaw Pact countries to get together. The Pact ensured that member countries would come to each other's aid in times of war.

Technically the Warsaw Pact was called the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. It was dissolved in 1991.

Answer: Rock Around the Clock

Teenagers would actually leave their seats and dance in the aisles of the movie theater when "Rock Around the Clock" came on with the film's opening credits.

"Rock Around the Clock" was not the first rock and roll record. It was not even Bill Haley and the Comets' first rock and roll record. They had their first chart success in 1953 with "Crazy Man, Crazy." They followed that up with "Shake, Rattle and Roll" a year later. It was "Rock Around the Clock" that became their signature tune, however. And it was the huge success of the record that brought rock and roll into the mainstream. While sales figures for the single are unreliable, the Guinness Book of World Records, which incidentally was first published in 1955, listed the song as second in popularity to "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby.

"That'll be the Day" was by Buddy Holly and the Crickets. "Johnny B. Goode" was from Chuck Berry. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" was Jerry Lee Lewis. Do you remember the scene in "Blackboard Jungle" where Glenn Ford's character went crazy while doing math problems on the blackboard? He really did a number on it, didn't he?

Answer: Disneyland

The park was designed by Walt Disney himself. From his dedication speech upon the park's opening: "To all who come to this happy place - welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America ... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world."

Disneyland features rides, live entertainment, shopping and eating. The original five "lands" or areas have been joined by New Orleans Square, Mickey's Toontown and Critter Country. I was kicked out of Disneyland after I remarked "What kind of Mickey Mouse operation is this?"

Answer: Brooklyn Dodgers

A "subway series" is a series in which both ballparks are connected to the same subway system. The 1955 World Series was a "subway series" because both teams were in New York. Brooklyn won the best of seven series four games to three. Johnny Podres of the Dodgers was the Most Valuable Player as he pitched two complete games, winning them both while only allowing two earned runs. This was the fifth time in nine years the two teams battled for World Series honors. The Yankees won the first four times.

The only other team presented that was in existence in 1955 was the New York Giants. The Brooklyn Dodgers became the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. There was a team in the 19th century named the Worcester Ruby Legs. They were in existence from 1880-1882. Although they had a short tenure, the Ruby Legs did make history. In 1880 Worcester pitcher John Lee Richmond threw the first perfect game in major league history. A perfect game is when no opposing batter reaches base safely during the entire game. Worcester was also instrumental in having the Cincinnati Reds thrown out of the league before the 1881 season for selling beer in their ballpark.

Answer: Rosa Parks

At that time buses in Montgomery as well as other places in the segregated South had separate sections for whites and blacks. When this particular bus driver saw three white passengers without seats, he moved the "blacks only" sign back another row. He told the four blacks in that row they had to stand so the whites could have the seats. Three of them did. Rosa Parks had had enough injustice and refused to stand. She was arrested for disorderly conduct and for violating Montgomery's segregation law. Black civic and religious leaders enjoined their fellow blacks not to ride the buses. The subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days until the City of Montgomery did away with the ordinance segregating city buses. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and President of the Montgomery Improvement Association at the time. The publicity from this event burst him into public prominence.

Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to get a pilot's license. Dorothy Dandridge was an actress who starred in "Carmen Jones" and "Porgy and Bess" among other movies. Althea Gibson was a professional tennis player.

Answer: Polykarp Kusch

One would think Polykarp translates to "many fish" but it is actually from the Greek for "many fruits." From time to time it has enjoyed a certain popularity in German-speaking countries.

Archibald Leach is the real name of teammate PDAZ's favorite actor, Cary Grant. Roy Hinkley was the given name of the character of the Professor on the TV show "Gilligan's Island." Richard Dean Anderson is an actor, best known for the TV shows "MacGyver" and "Stargate SG-1." Teammate baban has a thinly-veiled fascination with Richard Dean Anderson.