Josy and Shelley Trivia Quiz

Answer: Josephine de Beauharnais

Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie was born in 1763 in Martinique where her family owned a plantation. In 1779, she moved to France and married Alexandre de Beauharnais, an aristocrat. Alexandre lost his head - in company with several hundred other aristocrats - in 1794, after the French Revolution, leaving Josephine and their two children in very straitened financial circumstances. Josephine, who was bright as well as beautiful, escaped sharing her husband's fate, and eventually became the mistress of Paul Barras, a member of the Directoire and a friend of Napoleon.

The rest is history. Napoleon and Josephine married in 1796, and were divorced in 1810 (Napoleon needed an heir and Josephine, who was by then 47, was not going to be able to give him one).

She died in 1814. One of her descendants is fashion designer Egon von Furstenburg.

Answer: Diane

Poor Diane. She saw herself as a gifted writer and intellectual. Everyone else, eventually even Frasier, saw her as a pretentious twit! I'm always surprised that Carla never did away with her. Just imagine, if Diane had married Cliff, they would have had the world's most boring children.

Answer: Josephine Baker

Somebody should make a blockbuster movie about the life of this fascinating woman, once rated "the most sensual performer in the world". Baker was born in St. Louis, MO in 1906, and by age 13 she was already a professional dancer. In the early '20s she appeared on Broadway, and in 1925 she went to France with the "Revue Negre".

She fell in love with France, where people didn't care about the colour of her skin, only about her talent. (The French called her "the Black Venus".) She starred in the Folies Bergere, and became one of France's highest paid performers. Artists like Georges Roualt and Alexander Calder claimed her as an inspiration, and poet e.e. cummings and novelist Ernest Hemingway were also among her biggest fans. With the onset of the Second World War, Baker worked with the French Red Cross, and after the fall of France in 1940, she joined the French Resistance.

She served as an intelligence agent, using her career and fame as cover, smuggling messages and information written in invisible ink on her sheet music to other agents.

In 1946 she received the Medal of the Resistance and the Croix de Guerre, and in 1961 Charles de Gaulle made her a member of the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honour. In the 1950s, she became a civil rights activist and it was Baker who was partly responsible for integrating the clubs in Las Vegas because she refused to perform in theatres and clubs that barred blacks. She had twelve adopted children from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds - she called them "my rainbow family". Baker died in 1975. What a woman!

Answer: Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, MO in 1922. By the time she was 16 she was already working on Broadway, and through the years she has garnered rave reviews for her work in theatre, film and television. One of my favourite Shelley Winters' film roles is that of the ill-fated Alice Tripp in 'A Place in the Sun', in which she managed to upstage both Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor! No mean feat, wouldn't you agree?

Answer: Louisa May Alcott

Alcott's 'Little Women' was published in 1869 and has remained on bestseller lists ever since. The fictional Jo (Josephine) is based on Louisa herself, while Meg, Beth and Amy are modelled on her three sisters. Unlike Jo, Louisa May never married, and supported her parents and siblings with the income from her writing.

Answer: Miss Josephine Barry

Did you think it might be Josie Pye? Every 'Anne' fan knows that Josie Pye never took a liking to Anne! Miss Josephine Barry is the wealthy great-aunt of Anne's best friend, Diana Barry. Anne and Miss Barry meet when Anne, staying overnight with Diana and overjoyed at the prospect of "sleeping in a spare room", jumps onto the bed in that spare bedroom, only to find it occupied by the aforementioned Great Aunt. Mr. and Mrs. Barry are mortified (they were hoping that Miss Barry would offer to pay for Diana's piano lessons, but Anne's hoydenish behaviour could well have put paid to that fond dream!).

However, Anne wins over Miss Barry when she apologizes and they become what Anne calls 'kindred spirits'. It is a legacy from Miss Barry that enables Anne to pursue her dream of university and a teaching career. I confess that I have read all of the 'Anne' books at least once a year ever since I discovered them when I was nine (and I'm closer to 70 than nine these days!) I agree with Mark Twain, who said that Anne was the "most delightful child in fiction since the immortal Alice."

Answer: Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. When Mary was 16 she fell in love with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and eloped with him, choosing to ignore the fact that Percy was already married! After Shelley's wife committed suicide in 1816 (she drowned herself), Mary and Percy married and moved to Italy. Mary started writing her famous novel while she and Percy were visiting Lord Byron at his villa on Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1815. Byron, Mary, Percy and Byron's personal physician, John Polidori, had been reading 'Fantasmagoria', a collection of German ghost stories, and Byron challenged each member of the house party, including himself, to write a ghost/horror story. Nobody knows what Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Polidori wrote, but we've all been frightening ourselves with Mary's gem for years. 'Frankenstein or A Modern Prometheus' was completed in 1817, when Mary was only 21. Life was no bed of roses for Percy and Mary, however. Two of their three children died in infancy, and only their son Percy survived. Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned on a sailing trip in 1822. Mary died in 1851.

Answer: Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey was born in Inverness in 1896, and trained as a physical education teacher in Birmingham. Her teaching career was cut short when she had to return home to take care of her invalid father. I am grateful, because that's when she took up writing.

She wrote several mystery novels under the pseudonym Josephine Tey, many of which featured Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard. They're all very good stories, but my favourite book of Tey's is 'The Daughter of Time' in which Alan Grant is laid up in hospital and uses the time, with the aid of some friends, to prove conclusively that Richard III did not murder the Princes in the Tower, despite what Shakespeare and Tudor historians would have us believe.

The book is meticulously researched and a cracking good read! She also wrote plays, under the pen name Gordon Daviot. Tey died in 1952, shortly after 'The Daughter of Time' was published.

Answer: Shelley Duvall

Shelley Duvall was indeed born in Houston, and has scads of movie and TV credits on her resume. She is perhaps best known for her delightful 'Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre' which gave us some wacky takes on well known fairy tales, and also for hosting 'Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories' and 'Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales and Legends'. And who could forget her marvellously insipid Olive Oyl opposite Robin Williams as 'Popeye' in the film of that name? (Oh, rats! Now I've got the tune of 'Sweet, Sweet, Sweethaven' running through my brain!)

Answer: Shelley Berman

Shelley Berman was born in 1926, and started his show business career as a serious actor. However, his funny bone got in the way and he's been making the world laugh for over 40 years. When he's not doing wonderful bits about getting spinach caught in his teeth on a dinner date with a girl he's trying to impress, he's teaching a writing course at USC.