Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Read Online Free PDF Page A

that received American Bandstand ’s lowest rating ever: “The Chipmunk Song” (1958).
    The Muppet named Animal was modeled after the Who’s drummer, Keith Moon.
    MTV’s first guest VJ: Adam Ant.
    Twilight Zone ’s well-known theme was composed by an American named Marius Constant. He didn’t find out his music was used until after the show aired.
    Frank Sinatra’s last appearance on a TV show was on the sitcom Who’s the Boss? in 1989 (though he didn’t sing).
    MTV aired its millionth video in March 2000.
    Vinnie Vincent of KISS was a staff songwriter for TV’s Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi .
    In 1991, Data (Brent Spiner) of Star Trek: The Next Generation released an album titled Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back .
    Number 16 on Billboard ’s Hot 100 for the week of September 26, 1970: “Rubber Duckie” by Ernie ( Sesame Street ).

Dead Ends
    Because Spencer Tracy died 17 days after filming Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , Katharine Hepburn never watched the completed film— she thought it would make her too sad.
    Marlon Brando kept the ashes of his friend, comedian Wally Cox, in his Tahiti home.
    Art Scholl, a stunt pilot, was killed during the filming of Top Gun (1986).
    Singer Tom Jones was on Charles Manson’s hit list.
    Archaeological studies show that 1 in 25 coffins from the 16th century has scratch marks on the inside.
    Swedish confectionery salesman Roland Ohisson was buried in a coffin made of chocolate.
    Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died at 27.
    In 1968, Samuel L. Jackson was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.
    Aimee Semple MacPherson, an early 20th-century evangelist, was buried with a working telephone. When she didn’t call after seven years, the line was disconnected.

Leading Ladies
    In Cold Mountain , Nicole Kidman did all of her own piano playing.
    Salma Hayek is of Lebanese and Mexican descent.
    Country singer Tonya Watts was a body double for Pamela Anderson in the 1996 film Barb Wire .
    Actress Goldie Hawn worked as a can-can dancer at the 1965 World’s Fair in New York.
    Before she appeared in Splash , Daryl Hannah was in an allgirls band called Psychotic Kindergarten.
    Before she became famous, Michelle Pfeiffer worked as a supermarket cashier.
    Julia Roberts played clarinet in her Smyrna, Georgia, high school band.
    Cyd Charisse had to be taught how to smoke for a dance sequence in Singin’ in the Rain .
    According to one of the dancers on her early films, Joan Crawford loved to tell dirty jokes.
    Before she took the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago , Renee Zellweger had only sung in public twice.
    Kate Winslet didn’t win an Oscar until 2008, but she took home a Grammy in 2000 for her performance in the spoken word recording “Listen to the Storyteller.”
    Linda Fiorentino won her role in Men in Black in a poker game with the director, Barry Sonnenfeld. (She also won about $1,200 in cash.)
    A newspaper critic on Faye Dunaway’s first movie: “[Her] rib cage looks marvelous.”
    Susan Sarandon is one of only two actresses to win an Oscar for playing a nun. (The other was Jennifer Jones in 1943’s Song of Bernadette .)

Leading Men
    George Clooney campaigned for the lead role in 2004’s Sideways , but director Alexander Payne thought he was too big a star for the small film.
    Before he became famous, Keanu Reeves managed a pasta restaurant in Toronto, Canada.
    Christopher Walken has worked as an actor, a catalog model, and a lion tamer.
    Tom Hanks collects typewriters from the 1940s.
    Robert Redford didn’t see The Sting (1973) until June 2004.
    Before becoming an actor, Humphrey Bogart played chess for money; he usually won about $1 a game.
    Clark Gable’s birth certificate originally listed him as a girl.
    Johnny Depp played slide guitar on the 1997 Oasis album Be Here Now .
    Harrison Ford played the school principal in E.T. , but his back was to the camera.
    Jack Nicholson’s first job in Hollywood: office boy in MGM’s cartoon