Who Said That? - Twentieth-Century Edition Quiz

Answer: Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem was born in 1934, and during the 1960s and 1970s became a notable figure in the US feminist movement. She said this a couple of decades later, during a speech at Yale University in September 1991. The point she was making is that women were at one time encouraged to marry successful men and fulfill their lives through his efforts. Now, they were becoming successful themselves, so were achieving fulfillment through their own efforts - a key feminist aim.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is acclaimed as the father of modern psychoanalysis. Born in Freiburg, he studied at the University of Vienna, and worked in that city for most of his life, before escaping to England in 1938 following the Nazi Anschluss. This quotation relates to his theory that an individual's sex ("anatomy" refers to the sexual organs) plays a significant role in determining their future.

Modern psychoanalysts mostly take a more nuanced view, but Freud's theories remain influential even today.

Answer: David Frost

David Frost (1939-2013) is perhaps best remembered these days for his 1977 television interviews with US President Richard Nixon, in which he coaxed Nixon to speak candidly about the Watergate affair. Before then, he began his TV career presenting the BBC satirical programme "That Was The Week That Was" between 1962 and 1963.

The show is regarded as ground-breaking in its attacks on politicians and members of the royal family, who had until then been treated with a deference that their actions often didn't deserve.

After making merciless fun of a politician for some misdemeanour, Frost would ironically conclude with these words.

Answer: John Lennon

John Lennon (1940-1980) was a member of "The Beatles" from 1960-69. These words appear in his post-Beatles song "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)", from the 1980 album "Double Fantasy", and are often directly attributed to him. However, researchers have traced the specific words back to a January 1957 "Reader's Digest" magazine, in which they are attributed to "Allen Saunders" - a contemporary writer of comic strips.

In an interesting twist, the words do not appear in any of Allen Saunders's written works.

Answer: Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby certainly knew both success and failure. Born in 1937 in Philadelphia, he began his public career as a stand-up comedian in the 1960s, before achieving massive fame and popularity on American television in the 1970s and 80s, especially with "The Cosby Show" (1984-92).

However, numerous allegations of serious sexual misconduct which emerged from around 2014, and dating back to the 1960s, led to the dramatic collapse of his career. More than 60 women made a range of accusations, all of which (for the record) Cosby has denied.

Answer: Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller (1917-2012) didn't make her stand-up debut until the age of 37, at a time (1955) when other female stand-ups were few and far between. Very soon she was successfully touring America, as well as appearing in films and on television (where she appeared as a guest on a huge number of shows, from the "Ed Sullivan Show" in the 1950s, right through to "Family Guy" in 2006).

Many of her comedy routines made reference to her fictional husband, who she referred to as "Fang".

Answer: Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (1925-2012) is now perhaps best remembered as an essayist and social commentator, although his novels were well-received during his lifetime. His 1968 sexual satire "Myra Breckenridge" was made into a film in 1970, starring Raquel Welch, which was described by Time Magazine as "about as funny as a child molester... an insult to intelligence, an affront to sensibility and an abomination to the eye." Apparently, the book is better.

Answer: Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters (1920-2006) had a long career in films, starting in the 1940s with supporting roles in several Columbia pictures, through to the late 1990s. She won two "Best Supporting Actress" Academy Awards; in 1959 for "The Diary of Anne Frank" and 1965 for "A Patch of Blue". She was also Oscar-nominated for her role as Belle Rosen in the 1972 version of "The Poseidon Adventure".

Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-73) was Kennedy's vice-president and was sworn in as president in November 1963 after JFK's assassination. He then won election as president in his own right the following year.

One of his main presidential campaigns was a "War on poverty", and he made this assertion during a "Special Message to Congress" on 16 March 1964. While it is certainly an arresting soundbite, I think most people would agree that it is unachievable in practice, at least on a national basis, not least because it is always possible to disagree about the definition of "poverty".

Answer: Joseph R. McCarthy

In 1952, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-57) said this about his own virulent campaign against Communist sympathisers in the US government. This argument - that his anti-communist "witch-hunt" was the tough response that was needed to a serious problem for America - at first resonated with many Americans.

However, in the end he took the whole thing too far, and in 1954 was formally censured by the US Senate, an event which effectively ended his official campaign. He died, probably of an alcohol-related condition, at the age of 48.