Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. This English-born comedian was a member of Fred Karno's Vaudeville company. He was Charlie Chaplin's understudy and made a few trips to the U.S. He stayed out there on one trip and made a few cinema shorts before making "The Lucky Dog" (1921), his first film with Oliver Hardy, with whom he made films for over 20 years.
2. Son of a silent movie producer, this film producer was responsible for some of the greatest Hollywood films such as "King Kong" (1933), "Gone With the Wind" (1939), "Rebecca" (1940) and "Spellbound" (1945). Clue: His father was Russian.
3. This Black American singer was born in Montgomery, Alabama, son of a Baptist minister. In 1939, his publicist put a tin foil crown on his head and proclaimed him 'King'. He was a very successful and much loved singer who made a few films too, his last one being "Cat Ballou" (1965). He has a famous daughter called Natalie.
4. This English politician is widely regarded as one of the greatest Englishmen ever to have lived. In 1899 he became a War Correspondent for "The Morning Post" to report on the Second Boer War in South Africa between the British and the Boer republics. He was captured and put in a POW camp from which he escaped and had to travel 300 miles to safety. He became a national hero. He did become an MP serving in several senior positions in the government. He is of course best remembered as the Prime minister of the UK and war-time leader during the Second World War.
5. This American broadcast journalist came to global prominence when he broadcast his war reports to the U.S. starting each one with "This is London" with emphasis on the word "This". When the war ended, he became a Vice President of CBS. In 1954, his TV programme "See it Now" took on Senator Joe McCarthy who had accused many people of disloyalty, subversion and even treason without having any evidence in support of his claims. Many people had their careers ruined by these baseless attacks. He used McCarthy's own words to show how he had contradicted himself and this was the start of McCarthy's fall from popularity.
6. This producer won eight Oscars for "Best Short Subject, Cartoons", four of them in consecutive years 1944-47. He was nominated for six other Oscars in the same category. He is best known as producer of the "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.
7. This American playwright/poet moved to the UK when he was 25 years old and became a naturalised British subject. His poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. His best known play is "Murder in the Cathedral" (1935). Today's audiences will know his name as the author of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" (1939) which is the basis for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Cats".
8. This Polish-born American businesswoman founded a company which made her one of the world's richest women. She moved from Poland to Australia in 1902 when she was 32 years old and soon found a market for her jars of beauty cream which she made from the grease (lanolin) found in the wool of merino sheep which were all over that land. She moved to New York at the outbreak of WWI and started a cosmetics salon in 1915.
9. This actress made 58 films between 1922 and 1933. As a 'flapper', she became the personification of the Roaring Twenties. She is best known for the film "It" (1927), which resulted in her becoming known as the "It Girl".
10. This animal actor looked like a horse, acted like a horse but was in fact a... horse. A Golden Palomino stallion to be exact. He appeared in dozens of westerns with his owner, Roy.
Source: Author
Spontini
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bloomsby before going online.
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