Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

March 2, 1962, was one of the most unbelievable, unforgettable nights in professional sports history. This was the night Wilton Norman "Wilt the Stilt" Chamberlain scored 100 points in a professional basketball game.

The 7'1" star center of the Philadelphia Warriors was then in his third season of complete NBA domination, leaving opposing centers in the dust in the face of his awe-inspiring presence. Chamberlain had already set several scoring records in his first two seasons, including averaging 37.6 and 38.4 points a game respectively. Wilt had also set the single game scoring record less than three months previously, pouring in a record 78 points in an overtime game on December 8, 1961.

When Lakers star Elgin Baylor, whose record of 73 points Wilt had broken, was asked if he was upset, Baylor answered as if he had a crystal ball. "Someday that guy's going to score 100," he prophesied, almost eerily.

Wilt had already broken several records, but the 1961-62 season was to be his crowning glory, a season in which he would average a jaw-dropping 50.4 points per game.

The night before Wilt's historic game, he was in New York, having spent the night (not unusually) in the company of a female companion. At 6 AM on the morning of March 2nd, Wilt dropped his lady friend off at her home. He hadn't slept a wink and was suffering from a hangover. He boarded the train to Philadelphia at 8 AM.

After meeting several friends at the Philly train station, he had a long lunch with them and almost missed the team bus to Hershey. The night's scheduled game at the Hershey Sports Arena was an unimportant one. Wilt's Warriors had a record of 46 wins and 29 losses and were entrenched in second place, a full 11 games behind the champion Boston Celtics. The game promised a dull time for all. Wilt's teammate, York Larese, commented, "There was nothing exciting about the Knicks playing the Warriors in Hershey. Chocolate was more exciting."

On that cold, rainy night only 4,124 fans showed up (the Hershey Arena seated 8,000). The game was so unimportant, only two photographers showed up to cover it. The Knicks' starting center, Phil Jordan, was out sick and was replaced by second-stringer Darrall Imhoff. Also, tellingly, the third-string center was Cleveland Buckner, who had "defended" Wilt just two days earlier and was smoked for a record 28 points in one quarter.

The game began and Wilt got out of the gate quickly, scoring 23 points in the game's first quarter. Even stranger, he was nine for nine at the free throw line. A notoriously poor free throw shooter, Wilt's first thoughts that night were of possibly setting some kind of free throw record.

(vimeo link)

The filmmaker who just goes by the name Mark wandered into an interesting storefront in Manhattan thinking it was an antique shop. It was not. It was this guy's home. It was so interesting that he filmed the man and his fascinating home. -via reddit

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

(Image: Anne Baxter wins in 1948)

Okay, maybe it's pure sexism, but the surest way an actress can grab a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress Academy Award is by playing a prostitute. Whether a "hooker with a heart of gold," a high-class call girl, or a destitute woman who turned to the streets, any actress knows well that if she takes on a role dealing with this occupation, she had a better shot at an Oscar win.

Sexism? Hmmm... well, I may be wrong on this count, but I don't think any guy has ever won an Oscar for playing a male prostitute. Jon Voight was nominated for his male hooker role in 1969's Midnight Cowboy, and I think that's as close as it ever got. Well, let's not digress into social discourse about "why women become hookers" right now. Suffice to say that the social structure through the ages has definitely made it harder for women than for men to go out and earn an honest living. And of course, there is the obvious (to any fair-minded observer) difference in the sexual makeup of men and women.

By the way, it's not just Oscar "wins" -many of movie's well-known "women as hookers" performances, i.e. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990), Shirley MacLaine in Irma la Douce (1963), and Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) did not win Oscars (I mistakenly thought both Julia and Elisabeth had won for their roles), but they did get nominations.

So far, 13 known actresses have taken home an Oscar statuette for playing "a woman of questionable repute" (okay, I think I've about exhausted the list of hooker metaphors). Let's take a look at these 13 actresses. Eleven of the 13 definitely played prostitutes; two are a bit nebulous.  

1. Janet Gaynor in Street Angel (1928)

 

At the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, Janet received the first-ever Oscar, but for three different movies, not just Street Angel. Interestingly, for the only time in Oscar history, an actress got an Oscar for three different films. So, although Street Angel was only a partial contribution, Janet still was technically the first.

2. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) A very melodramatic old movie where Hayes' main character suffers nine misfortunes, one of which was becoming a prostitute.

3. Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge (1947) Anne plays tragic alcoholic Sophie Nelson. She was a "thrown-away woman who turns to prostitution." Pretty overwrought, huh?

4. Clare Trevor in Key Largo (1948) This is one of two nebulous prostitution labels on the list. Clare plays a boozy, broken-down torch singer in this, one of my favorite Humphrey Bogart films. Although Clare may or may not have been a hooker in this film, she did specialize in playing the "hooker with a heart of gold." In the classic Western Stagecoach (1939) she played a frontier prostitute "reformed" by John Wayne. Also, in the wonderful 1937 film Dead End, Clare played Bogie's ex who was forced into prostitution by unforeseen circumstances. Clare received Oscar nominations for both roles.

5. Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity (1953) It's a long way from playing Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) to playing an Oscar-worthy hooker seven years later. (Maybe it took more money than George thought to pay back the Building & Loan!) Now, to be fair, this designation is nebulous, too. Donna pays a "dance hall girl" in the film. She is obviously very "friendly" and "entertains" her guy customers who "visit" her, but she is not a definite hooker. Remember, too, this was the Fifties, a very conservative era in movies. It wasn't like most scripts could openly say a woman character was a prostitute. They relied, usually, more on intimation. So I can't honestly say Donna was a hooker here, but her character acted in that direction.

(YouTube link)

Today's Google Doodle is a video Valentine story of how a guy learns the way to a girl's heart. Music by Tony Bennett.

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

The Monkees were a Beatles-inspired TV pop group consisting of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith. For two seasons (1966-1968) the band starred in a very entertaining, creative, and ground-breaking TV series, based mainly on the Beatles' hit movie A Hard Day's Night, and featuring the band's zany comedy and some excellent songs.

The genesis of Head, which was to be the one and only film made by The Monkees, was a weekend in early 1968, spent in Ojai, California, in which the four Monkees, plus Bob Rafelson and then B-movie actor Jack Nicholson, turned on a tape recorder and randomly took turns verbally tossing ideas into it. These "ideas" were to become the basis and script for Head.

The ill-fated movie got off on the wrong foot from the first day of filming on February 11, 1968. A rock-bottom budget of $750,000 was scraped together to finance Head (during production, the film had the working title Changes).

The four Monkees wanted a writing credit for the ideas they'd contributed to the script, but producers Rafelson and Bert Schneider denied them their request. This caused an upset resulting in three of the four group members not showing up on the set for the first day of shooting. Only Peter Tork was present, as Davy, Micky, and Mike staged their revolt and stayed home. The three did show up the next day, but the damage was done. The "three Monkee revolt" severely damaged the working relationship (and friendship) between the group and the producers.



The semi-hostile relationship was characterized by Rafelson and Schneider playing cutting edge albums loudly on the set and saying things like "Now that's really rock and roll!," in order to bait the Monkees about their pop, bubblegum-style music and image.

The cast of Head was quite eclectic and included Annette Funicello (just two years from her last "beach party" film), boxer Sonny Liston, singer Frank Zappa, a young Terri Garr, Green Bay Packer linebacker Ray Nitschke, and the Radio City Rockettes, plus Mike Nesmith's wife and Davy Jones' wife (both in uncredited cameos). Veteran actor Victor Mature signed on, too, after reading the script, which he admittedly did not understand at all: "All I know is, it made me laugh." Mature's character in Head was "the Big Victor." This was reportedly a jab at RCA Victor, the company that released the Monkees' records and who owned and aired the TV show The Monkees. Even Jack Nicholson and friend Dennis Hopper made brief cameos. But even this mixed group of talented people could not save Head.

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Fast-Acting Long-Lasting Bathroom Reader.

Born into bondage, Robert Smalls rose from slavery to the Halls of Congress. In between, he helped the Union win the Civil War by doing what no black American had ever done before -he commanded a naval vessel.

AT HOME ON THE WATER

Robert Smalls was born a slave on April 5, 1839, in the coastal town of Beaufort, South Carolina. His first taste of a sailor's life came at 12 years old when his master hired him out to work at a shipyard in Charleston Harbor. Smalls took to it, displaying a natural talent for seamanship. By 19, he had risen to the highest sea rank available to a slave: a ship's pilot. Although Smalls could neither read nor write, his photographic memory recalled every bar, shoal, and current in Charleston Harbor.

In 1858 Smalls married another slave, Hannah Jones, and two years later they had a son, Robert, Jr. Being a respected sea pilot, Smalls life was better than that of most slaves ...but he was still a slave. Longing to be his own master, he set out to buy his family's freedom. And he almost did it -Smalls had saved $700 of the $800 purchasing price when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Then everybody's life was put on hold.

STEALING A SHIP

The Confederate army immediately put the 22-year-old Smalls to work doing what he did best: piloting a vessel. He was given the wheel of the CSS Planter (formerly the USS Planter), a 147-foot-long steamboat. With Smalls at the helm taking order from Captain Charles Relyea, the ship hauled ordnance and supplies to the rebel forts guarding Charleston. A few miles offshore lay a fleet of blockading Union ships, and Smalls knew that freedom awaited him in that blockade. He formed a plan.

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

The incredibly strange life of Boston Corbett.

Abraham Lincoln, our 16th U.S. president, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. He died the next day. Okay, what is this, a history class? Everybody knows that! But who shot Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth? Well, let's find out by looking into the life of one of the strangest, little-known men who had a part in United States history. Let's look at the strange life of Boston Corbett. Thomas Corbett was born in England in 1832. He immigrated to Boston where he became a born-again Christian. He adopted the city's name in honor of his conversion. But Corbett wasn't your normal convert. His religious zeal knew no bounds. Fearing temptation by prostitutes, he used a pair of scissor to castrate himself. After which, he casually attended a prayer meeting (he did receive medical attention afterwards). Corbett had been married earlier, but his wife died in childbirth. During the Civil war, Corbett became a Cavalry sergeant. After the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln, his unit took part in the search for John Wilkes Booth. On April 26th, his unit surrounded the barn where Booth was hiding and set it on fire. Corbett saw Booth through a crack in the barn and fired a single shot, mortally wounding him. "Providence guided my hand," Corbett told his commanding officer. By an odd coincidence, Corbett's bullet had struck Booth in the same spot Booth's shot had hit president Lincoln. When told of this, Corbett said, "What a fearful God we serve." His reward money for killing Booth was $1,653.84, the exact same amount as every other man in his unit. Corbett instantly became famous as "Lincoln's Avenger." He was flooded by requests for autographs and cheered when he walked the streets. But fame, once hot and heavy, gradually died down. Boston Corbett started suffering from severe delusions. He imagined John Wilkes Booth's men were stalking him and thought he was in grave danger. He fled to Kansas. In 1887, he was given a job as doorman to the Kansas House of Representatives. One day he showed up waving a gun, declaring the House adjourned. Corbett was declared insane and sent to an asylum. The following year he escaped, and no one ever heard of Boston Corbett again. He is thought to have settled and spent the final part of his life in the forests of Hinckley, Minnesota. There is no conclusive proof of this, but the Great Hinckley Fire of September 1894 lists a "Thomas Corbett" on the list of the dead or missing. Corbett was a hatter by trade. The mercury used to cure beaver pelts is thought to have contributed to his madness. Visit guest author Eddie Deezen at his website.

 

(YouTube link)

Colin Furze takes his souped-up mobility scooter for a spin in the snow, reaching speeds up to 50 miles per hour! If this kind of thing catches on, a stroll through the local mall could become a dangerous excursion. -via BroBible

These sleeping positions may be awkward to us, but cats are liquid, so they settle in just fine anywhere. The real reason you should check out this collection of cat pictures is because they are both funny and adorable. Link 

Aric S. Queen was on a quest to be the first person at the ancient Inca city of  Machu Picchu, Peru, on January first. However, that involves some high-altitude walking uphill first thing in the morning, and he despaired as other hikers passed him by. But at the gate, serendipity gave Queen the opportunity to go first.

Ten-plus years of travel, forty-plus countries, countless marvels, but this is the only place I cried at seeing.

One photo was snapped from my phone — those four seconds were the maximum amount of time I wanted to take my eyes off of it.

For 30 seconds, I sat in silence – not even realizing what I had just done.

It took the sound of footsteps behind me to bring everything back to the present. And it took the sounds of voices to realize that when I had first gotten up – there were none.

An estimated 1.2 million people this year, and I was visitor no. 0,000,000,001.

Read Queen's story and see a video of the adventure at Intelligent Travel magazine. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Aric S. Queen)

The following is an article from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader. When people enter the federal government's Witness Protection Program, they're supposed to hide, right?

1. WISEGUY: Henry Hill, a member of New York's Lucchese crime family and participant in the $5.8 million Lufthansa heist from New York's Kennedy Airport in 1978, the largest cash theft in U.S. history.

IN THE PROGRAM: The Witness Protection program relocated him to Redmond, Washington, in 1980, and Hill, who's changed his name to Martin Lewis, was supposed to keep a low profile and stay out of trouble. He wasn't very good at either -in 1985 he and writer Nicholas Pileggi turned his mob exploits into the bestselling book Wiseguy, which became the hit move Goodfellas.

WHAT HAPPENED: When the book became a bestseller, "Martin Lewis" couldn't resist telling friends and neighbors who he really was. Even worse, he reverted to his life of crime. Since 1980 Hill has racked up a string of arrests for crimes ranging from drunk driving to burglary and assault. In 1987 he tried to sell a pound of cocaine to two undercover Drug Enforcement officers, which got him thrown out of the Witness Protection Program for good. "Henry couldn't go straight," says Deputy Marshal Bud McPherson. "He loved being a wiseguy. He didn't want to be anything else."

2. WISEGUY: Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno, mafia hit man and acting head of the Los Angeles mob. When he entered the Witness Protection program in 1977, Fratianno was the highest-ranking mobster ever to turn informer.

IN THE PROGRAM: Fratianno had another claim to fame: he is also the highest-paid witness in the history of the program. Between 1977 and 1987, he managed to get the feds to pay for his auto insurance, gas, telephone bills, real-estate taxes, monthly check to his mother-in-law, and his wife's facelift and breast implants.

WHAT HAPPENED: The Justice Department feared the payments made the program look "like a pension fund for aging mobsters," so he was thrown out of the program in 1987. But by that time, Fratianno had already soaked U.S. taxpayers for an estimated $951,326. "He was an expert at manipulating the system," McPherson said. Fratianno died in 1993.

3. WISEGUY: James Cardinali, a five-time murderer who testified against Gambino crime boss John Gotti at his 1987 murder trial. Gotti, nicknamed the "Teflon Don," beat the rap, but Cardinali still got to enter the Witness Protection Program after serving a reduced sentence for his own crimes. After his release, federal marshals gave him a new identity and relocated him to Oklahoma.

IN THE PROGRAM: Witnesses who get new identities aren't supposed to tell anyone who they really are, and when Cardinali slipped up and told his girlfriend in 1989, the program put him on a bus to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and told him to get lost.

Look at the size of this moth -it's 11 inches across! This is the Atlas moth, the largest moth species in the world. The wings have transparent "windows" that are not holes, but translucent tissue. See many more pictures of this gorgeous moth at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user fabianfred)

Hans Feldmeier received a can of lard from supplies distributed to Germans by the United States after World War II. He stashed it away and never opened the can. Feldmeier, who lives in Warnemünde, Germany, near the Baltic Sea, recently found the can and took it to authorities to see if it was still edible.

“Overall, the product has a degree of freshness and material composition necessary to be assessed to be satisfactory after 64 years,” according to the State Office for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Security.

The authorities did, however, find minor deficiencies in the lard’s smell and taste, discovering that it was slightly gritty and appeared old, meaning it could not compete with the quality of a fresh sample. Still, it appeared to be fit for human consumption, they said.

The office credited the air-tight US can and preservatives for maintaining the lard in such pristine condition over the years.

Feldmeier was delighted to hear of the unusually successful preservation, but when he requested his can back from the agency, they gave it back to him empty. Link

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This post contains spoilers.

Almost everyone loves the movies, and along with viewing our personal favorites and other movies, most of us enjoy discussing the subjects and contents of films. Opinions and tastes, of course, vary. But almost everyone I know loves, or at least likes, Bill Murray's best film, Groundhog Day.

In the film, Murray plays Phil Connors, an obnoxious, self-centered TV weatherman. Phil wakes up one day and realizes it's actually the same day as it was yesterday -and this occurs over and over and over... Finally, Phil "evolves" and finds his true love (his colleague Rita, played by Andie MacDowell) and his true identity and a "new day" is finally allowed to dawn.

The film is actually a great movie version of The Twilight Zone. The great thing about Groundhog Day (or any other great movie) is that it is endlessly rewatchable (a bit of irony there). Last Groundhog Day, February 2nd, one cable channel played Groundhog Day over and over, for the entire day. Nice gag. Groundhog Day also makes for great discussions, and numerous theories about the movie and its meaning have been put forth.

Is it karma? What goes around comes around? Is it a commentary on man's true nature? His true goodness -reflected by kindness, understanding, and warmth? Some Buddhists have adopted the film as a modern symbol of their religion. One keeps "coming back" until they finally evolve into a "perfect state," at which time the endless "coming back" ceases. All valid and very metaphysical theories.

But why was poor Phil stuck in the "endless" time loop in the first place? This is one thing that the film leaves nebulous and unclear. In one sense, it is "hell," i.e. a world of endless repetition, with no randomness, no unpredictability. But in another sense, this is the situation we all want and need: endless chances to fix and correct our mistakes, and then to understand why they were wrong. In the film, when Phil finally straightens out what he's done wrong, the "endless" loop stops.

But again, why the punishment? After all, Phil is undeniably a jerk, but hey, he never murdered anyone. He's not a rapist. He didn't torture any small animals. Why Phil? Okay, here's the answer.

The second draft of Groundhog Day says, actually, it was caused by Phil's scorned ex-girlfriend Stephanie. The second draft of Groundhog Day is pretty close to what we all see in the film. There is a bit more of Phil in the studio at the beginning, but nothing major. But also in the second draft, Stephanie, Phil's ex-girlfriend, puts a curse on him. Literally, she opens a book of magic spells and does a little ritual that causes him to get stuck in time.

Near the beginning of this script, we meet Phil's girlfriend, Stephanie, who Phil coldly and unceremoniously dumps. Later, as Phil is going to bed in Punxsutawney, we see Stephanie in her room, using Phil's business cards and broken watch (conveniently set at 5:59) to perform a magic spell from a book titled 101 Curses, Spells, and Enchantments You Can Do At Home. This sets the theme of Groundhog Day in motion. There is no "higher purpose" given, just an angry, embittered ex-girlfriend with a little book.

Excerpt from the second Groundhog Day script: Stephanie: Are you saying that our relationship was a waste of time? Phil: Our relationship? We went out a total of four times, and only once did anything happen. It was fun, but I don't see that as a big commitment. Stephanie (closing in again): I had our charts done. My astrologer says we're extremely compatible. There may even be some past lives involved here.

For whatever reason, the director, the writer, or whoever, made the decision to completely excise any mention of Stephanie and her vindictive curse. I guess they just felt it was unnecessary to the movie or that it "slowed down the action" or that it made Phil too sympathetic, or some such Hollywood reason. Well, maybe they were right.

Groundhog Day is Bill Murray's (who is a great actor with a great body of film work to his credit) finest and most memorable film. By the way, I never liked Andie MacDowell as an actress. She seems like a very nice lady, but  just never liked her on screen. But in Groundhog Day she puts in a very likeable performance. Oh, and that's not the only mystery that's solved here.

The screenplay also specifies that Phil will spend the next 10,000 years (Holy cow!) trapped in the time loop. It also has a more definite answer as to why he comes out of it. It was apparently the kiss with Rita at the end of the film that broke the spell, much like a fairy tale. Even in the final filmed version, you can hear a tinkly magic sound as Phil and Rita lock lips.

Oh yes, one last note on Groundhog Day. My friend Kenny had a bit part in the film. I asked him what Bill Murray was like to work with. "Oh, he wasn't that friendly, but he got nicer as the film went along."

"Just like in the film, " I said.

"Yeah," he said (as if it had just dawned on him), "Just like the film."

 

DeviantART member viria13 put modern fashions on Disney princesses (and Anastasia, too). The artwork is lovely, but can someone tell me who "Kida" is? Link -via The Daily What