Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (94 page)

JUNE 6

1916
T
HOMAS
D
IXON TRIES
to cash in on the success of 1915’s
The Birth of a Nation,
based on his Klan-glorifying novel
The Clansman,
by producing a follow-up called
The Fall of a Nation.
Though the film is lost today, it’s considered the first sequel in movie history.

ON-SCREEN SEX(TETS)

What do these sets of movies have in common?

1.
Blowup, The Bridges of Madison County, Funny Face, Rear Window, Salvador, Spider-Man

2.
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Forrest Gump, Lolita, Match Point, A Matter of Life and Death, Two for the Road

3.
Flash Gordon, From Hell, Ghost World, A History of Violence, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, Road to Perdition

4.
Donnie Darko, Fatal Attraction, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Roger and Me, The Rules of the Game, Song of the South

5.
Good Night and Good Luck, Grand Hotel, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, My Little Chickadee, The Red Shoes, SpiderMan

6.
Airplane, I Want to Live, Moulin Rouge, Oklahoma!, Safety Last, That Thing You Do

7.
Die Hard, Edward Scissorhands, Eyes Wide Shut, The Lion in Winter, Moonstruck, The Thin Man

8.
Beauty and the Beast
(1991),
King Kong
(1933),
Little Miss Sunshine, The Matrix, Mister Roberts, Singin’ in the Rain

9.
Far from Heaven, The Great Gatsby, The Music Man, Panic Room, Some Like It Hot, Sullivan’s Travels

10.
Chasing Amy, Harvey, House of Frankenstein, Rebecca, Rosemary’s Baby, Waiting for Guffman

11.
The Hours, The Hustler,
“One Froggy Evening,”
Raiders of the Lost Ark, Scarface
(1983),
A Star Is Born

12.
Casino Royale
(2006),
Don’t Look Now, Everyone Says I Love You, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Top Hat, Trouble in Paradise

13.
Brighton Rock, Chinatown, A Civil Action, Five Graves to Cairo, Stalag 17, The Third Man

14.
Arthur, G.I. Jane, Hannibal, Live and Let Die, Ordinary People, A Walk to Remember

15.
The Big Sleep, Far and Away, Gattaca, The Great Dictator, Shanghai Surprise, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

16.
Apocalypse Now, Fantasia, Gangs of New York, Last Action Hero, Punch-Drunk Love, The Ring

17.
Andrei Rublev, Pleasantville, Schindler’s List, Wings of Desire, The Wizard of Oz, The Women

18.
The Godfather Part II, On the Town, Planet of the Apes, Saboteur, Splash, X-Men

19.
Before Sunset, Cleo from 5 to 7, High Noon, Rope, The Set-Up, Timecode

20.
Batman Begins, Dead Again, Dr. Strangelove, Gone With the Wind, Quiz Show, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

JUNE 7

1926
A
NTONIO
G
AUDI IS RUN OVER
by a Barcelona tram. Cab drivers think the impoverished architect looks like a bum and refuse to pick him up, so he is finally taken, unrecognized, to a pauper’s hospital, where he dies. He is buried in the crypt of his still-unfinished masterpiece, the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral.

MASTER BUILDERS

1.
Architect Walter Gropius founded what famous German art school in Weimar in 1919?

2.
What toy was invented by the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, who said he was inspired by his father’s earthquake-proof foundation for Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel?

3.
The title of Morris Lapidus’s memoir
Too Much Is Never Enough
is a stab at what famous aphorism of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe?

4.
The architect known as “Le Corbusier” took that pseudonym in part because, in French, it suggests what animal, which he believed he resembled in profile?

5.
The Da Vinci Code
repeats the untrue myth that the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre consists of how many panes?

6.
The Oscar-nominated film
My Architect
was made by the son of what Estonian-born architect, who died in a Penn Station bathroom in 1974?

7.
Whose design for Seattle’s Experience Music rock museum is meant to recall smashed electric guitars, though some locals call it “the Hemorrhoids”?

8.
What country was the birthplace of architects Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen?

9.
Architect Daniel Libeskind became famous overnight in 2003 when he won the commission to design what?

10.
What Chinese-born architect designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

1989
D
ON THE
B
EACHCOMBER,
the “tiki” restaurateur who introduced America to the cocktail umbrella, dies in Honolulu.

LET A SMILE BE YOUR UMBRELLA

1.
What animal’s head appears on the handle of Mary Poppins’s umbrella?

2.
In 1991, who erected three thousand blue and yellow umbrellas on the coasts of California and Japan?

3.
What city’s umbrella pines inspired the most famous work of composer Ottorino Respighi?

4.
Farnsworth Bentley became famous for holding whose umbrellas?

5.
Why were the earliest English umbrellas nicknamed “Robinsons”?

1993
P
RINCE ANNOUNCES HE WILL
B changing his name 2 an unpronounceable symbol. The word “glyph,” previously just a very good Scrabble play, begins to appear in
People
and
Parade
magazines for the very first time.

THE ATHLETES FORMERLY KNOWN AS

What are the current names of the sports teams with these onetime names?

Easy

1.
Montreal Expos

2.
Houston Oilers

3.
Quebec Nordiques

4.
Baltimore Bullets

5.
Cleveland Browns

Harder

1.
Winnipeg Jets

2.
Washington Senators (two answers)

3.
Minnesota North Stars

4.
Hartford Whalers

5.
Baltimore Orioles

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Seattle Pilots

2.
Syracuse Nationals

3.
Decatur Staleys

4.
Portsmouth Spartans

5.
Cincinnati Royals