Tell Me Something I Don't Know

[fireheart]

In L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s slippers were silver. They were changed to “ruby” in order to take advantage of the Technicolor wow factor. Multiple sets were created for the film. A pair of the ruby slippers were stolen in 2005, but several others remain under lock and key.


The shabby coat that Frank Morgan’s Professor Marvel/The Wizard wore was a thrift store find. It was discovered later that it used to belong to Oz author, L. Frank Baum (his name was sewn into the garment). Baum’s widow and tailor confirmed the find.

Apparently they gave the coat to his widow afterwards as well.

As for "method acting", in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film, the reactions of the cast when they walk into the "chocolate room" are genuine. They were forbidden to look upon the set to ensure that their reactions were priceless. Apparently the Oompa-Loompa reactions were the same.

Another "you don't know this moment's going to happen" part came during the scene when Wonka goes off at Charlie. He hadn't told him in advance what was going to happen and as a result, Charlie's reaction is genuine. He even kept his distance off-screen to enhance the effect.

On top of that, when the crew were setting up Wonka's office and cutting things in half, someone accidentally cut through a coffee cup that WASN'T being used in the film and didn't realise his mistake until coffee started spilling out of it. They also wanted to cut through the light bulb, but couldn't figure out a way to do this safely.

ETA: More Wizard of Oz Trivia!

-Apparently the snow used in the poppy scene was actually asbestos
-Judy Garland had to wear a very tight corset around her chest to indicate that she was younger...
-The Lion apparently could not eat regular food once his prosthetics were put on, so instead he'd eat lunch and have the prosthetics redone afterwards.
-In the scene where the witch leaves munchkinland, the smoke came before the actress could leave. When they reshot the scene however, the actress actually caught fire! (her makeup had copper in it)
-If you look closely at the scene where Dorothy sees Miss Gulch transform into a witch (during the tornado scene), her shoes end up changing into the red ones. The inside joke is that she's meant to be the Wicked Witch of the East (ie the one that they start singing "Ding dong the witch is dead" over)
-ALL of the Munchkin voices were dubbed, due to many of the actors not understanding English and/or singing well. The exceptions are hte girls that hand flowers to Dorothy. (admittedly, I do believe it is quite hard to dance en pointe and sing "the lullaby league" at the same time)

[KhirasHY]

Movie trivia edition!

In Dr. Strangelove, Peter Sellers was paid $1 million for his performances (just over half the budget). He was initially also going to play the role that went to Slim Pickens (of the man who rode the bomb), but was injured on set and could not do so.

Additionally, many of the Dr. Strangelove cast members were not aware the movie was a black comedy, and would not have agreed to be in the film had they known. Kubrick tricked them by doing "serious takes" of each scene, then doing a "goofy take" to lighten up spirits from the dark subject matter. When George C Scott saw the movie in complete form, and saw which takes were used, he stormed out of the theater and refused to speak of the movie ever again.

In order to properly look like a drugged up felon, Charlie Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours prior to filming his scenes in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If only he'd waited a couple decades...

In the movie Alien, when the creature bursts out of John Hurt's chest/stomach, the other actors were not informed this was going to happen to catch their actual shocked reactions on film at the surprise.

While under contract as the James Bond actor, Pierce Brosnan was contractually prohibited from wearing a tuxedo in any other film.

The line-up scene in The Usual Suspects was originally meant to be serious, but things kept going wrong. Benicio del Toro kept farting during the scene, causing everyone to laugh repeatedly. Additionally, each actor completely ad libbed the line "Give me the keys you mother fucker", which only made everyone laugh harder. Benicio del Toro had the idea during the line-up to speak almost unintelligibly, and when the officer in charge says "In English, please", that is actually the director telling him to repeat the line. After filming, the take looked so natural, they decided to keep it.

The original, raw footage from Apocalypse Now included over 230 hours of footage, over 1,250,000 feet of film. Naturally, this was edited down slightly for the actual movie.

[celticgrl]

In L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s slippers were silver. They were changed to “ruby” in order to take advantage of the Technicolor wow factor. Multiple sets were created for the film. A pair of the ruby slippers were stolen in 2005, but several others remain under lock and key.


The shabby coat that Frank Morgan’s Professor Marvel/The Wizard wore was a thrift store find. It was discovered later that it used to belong to Oz author, L. Frank Baum (his name was sewn into the garment). Baum’s widow and tailor confirmed the find.

[bhskittykatt]

The Lady Washington has been featured as The Interceptor from Pirates of the Caribbean, the Enterprise at the beginning of Star Trek: Generation, as the Jolly Roger on the series Once Upon a Time, and as herself in Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us" music video. In the first three, she is shown with a steering wheel. You guys, the steering wheel is a lie! The Lady Washington is steered with a tiller, which is basically a really big pole that controls the rudder. The steering wheel is simply a prop that they pull out for the purpose of filming.

The Lady Washington has a sister ship: The Hawaiian Chieftain. The Hawaiian Chieftain actually does have a functional steering wheel. The two ships sail together, offering tours and mock sea battles. The quickest way to annoy one of The Hawaiian Chieftain's crew is to ask them "So, what movies has your ship been in?"

[KhirasHY]

Comedian history!

The "Dirty Old Man" George Carlin himself was once a major character on a children's TV show, as Mister Conductor.

Lewis Black was a playwright before becoming a comedian.

Ellen Degeneres was a door-to-door vacuum saleswoman before her career took off.

Jim Carrey was working as a Janitor, starting at 15 years old to support his family, before becoming nationally recognized on In Living Color.

Jon Stewart was a puppeteer, who put on shows for disabled children on most work days. Rumor has it that any puppet shown on the Daily Show is controlled by Stewart.

Zach Galifianakis used to be a bus boy in strip clubs, and had to clean up after men who...er...yeah. As a result, he despises strip clubs to this day.

Long before comedy and The Price is Right, Drew Carey worked as a waiter in Denny's. As a result, he reportedly never leaves anything under a $100 tip.

Kevin Hart was once a shoe salesman; by comparison, his Laugh At My Pain tour made over $15 million.

Gabriel Iglesias was a cell phone salesman at Wal-Mart before attending an open mic night, and being asked back.

Jerry Seinfeld had one of the toughest gigs: selling light bulbs to people...over the phone.

Whoopi Goldberg's former job was working as a make-up applicator in a mortuary, preparing corpses for funerals.

Bobcat Goldthwait was once approached by a woman in an airport, who told him "I don't want to insult you, but you look a lot like Bobcat Goldthwait." He's admitted that he was caught off guard so badly that he was unable to think of a response for several hours to that one.

Sam Kinison used to be an Evangelical preacher before losing his faith and turning to comedy, one of the reasons he was always so brutal towards religion.

Louis C.K. was originally born in Mexico, living there until he was 7. Spanish was his first language, and he still has Mexican citizenship.

Doug Benson was once a backup dancer in "Captain EO", Michael Jackson's Disneyland movie adventure.

[KhirasHY]

The full list of injuries that would have been caused if the movie Home Alone had happened in real life:

1) Laceration to the forehead (shot from BB Gun)
2) Skull fracture leading to possible blindness or vision impairment, or death (Iron dropped on to face, assuming drop distance of 15 feet and an iron weight of 4 pounds)
3) Critical third degree burns, likely resulting in infection and contracture, limiting flexibility and movement in hand. Possibly will result in amputation of the hand (grabbing heated doorknob - if it glows red, it is approx. 751º Fahrenheit, nearly enough to cause his hand to burst into flames outright)
4) Necrosis of the skull (exposure to lit blowtorch on top of head for approx. 7 seconds) - bone tissue on the skull would likely be so damaged and rotted that it would require a transplant.
5) Multiple lacerations to feet, unlikely for any to be severe (walking barefoot on Christmas decorations)
6) Multiple fractures of facial bones, likely loss of teeth, probable unconsciousness. Possibility of death due to cranial injury (swinging paint cans to face, assuming paint cans are full and weighing approx. 10 pounds, with a 10 foot long rope, equaling a 2 kilo-newton hit to the face)
7) Concussion and possible head contusion (shovel to head/face)
8) Possibility of broken leg/hip/ribs (slipped down stairs due to ice)
9) Puncture wound of foot, possibility of tetanus (stepping on nail with bare foot)
10) Possible, though unlikely chance of heart attack (Tarantula placed on face resulting in severe panic attack)
11) Broken ribs, possible misc. other broken bones including spinal injury (fall from 2nd story when suspension line is cut)

[Jay 2K Winger]

Or the same word that is an antonym to itself! This is one of my favorites:

Resigned. As in to re sign a contract, extending one's employment. Pronounced with the s sound.
Resigned. As in to walk away from a position, terminating one's employment. Pronounced with the z sound.

This very thing has led to so many arguments on one of the wrestling forums I frequent. It's gotten so we now spell "extending employment" as "re-signed" to avoid confusion.

[fireheart]

Austin Powers once French kissed a horse (sorry if i got that wrong I haven't seen that movie in forever ) if it helps my case Mike Myers' friends thought his dad was weird

He open-mouth kissed a horse.

If you watch the DVD they actually did several takes of that scene, each one with a different line from Mike. The lines were things like "he once had a bath with Basil" "kangaroos make me horny" "I can make my nipples wink" "From time to time my nipples will lactate".

[Jester]

Homonyms that are antonyms:

Raised - Razed

Or the same word that is an antonym to itself! This is one of my favorites:

Resigned. As in to re sign a contract, extending one's employment. Pronounced with the s sound.
Resigned. As in to walk away from a position, terminating one's employment. Pronounced with the z sound.

[KhirasHY]

The "sucking" noise that Anthony Hopkins used in The Silence of the Lambs was completely ad-libbed; the director liked it, so they kept it in the final cut.

Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions.

"Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully."

"Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language - 823 words without a period

[darkroxas45]

Well, I've had a horse's tongue in my mouth, but not vice versa. (Yes, there was a lot of spitting and cursing involved. )

I've had a cow's in mine, only it was boiled for 3 hours and tasty with mashed potatoes

[Kittish]

The tarantula hawk is apparently reckoned to have the second most painful sting of any insect.

Thankfully, they also seem to not be very aggressive, unlike some of the bees around here.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Words that have meanings that are complete opposites:

Cleave,Resigned

[sms001]

Austin Powers once French kissed a horse

Well, I've had a horse's tongue in my mouth, but not vice versa. (Yes, there was a lot of spitting and cursing involved. )

[dalesys]

Homonyms that are antonyms:

Raised - Razed