Entertainment
How Super Mario Helped Nintendo Conquer the Video Game World
Super Mario, one of the most iconic characters in video game history, made his inauspicious debut in 1981. He wasn’t much—just a handful of colored pixels on a grainy screen, a figure trying to save his girlfriend from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. But by the time the 1990s came ...read more
What Happened When Hugh Hefner Invited 20 Sociologists to the Playboy Mansion
In August 1965, the American Sociological Association convention was held in Chicago. Playboy’s Mansion was then located in Chicago, and Hugh Hefner invited about twenty sociologists to the mansion. I was one of them. When we arrived at the mansion, an aide met us at the door and ...read more
Hollywood
Hollywood is a neighborhood located in Los Angeles, California, that’s also synonymous with the glamour, money and power of the entertainment industry. As the show-business capital of the world, Hollywood is home to many famous television and movie studios and record companies. ...read more
Golden Age Hollywood Had a Dirty Little Secret: Drugs
Debbie Reynolds had just landed the role of a lifetime—and she was exhausted. The 19-year-old had been cast as Kathy Selden, the female lead in Singin’ in the Rain, and she had big shoes to fill. Her partner was none other than the very seasoned, astonishingly talented Gene ...read more
How TV Killed Hollywood’s Golden Age
If you consider films like Rebecca, Citizen Kane or All About Eve to be cinematic masterpieces, you’re not alone. All three were born during Hollywood’s Golden Age, a wildly creative era in which movies dominated mass entertainment and their glamorous stars entranced the public. ...read more
How Donald Duck and Peanuts Saved Trick-or-Treating After WWII
Today, it’s hard to imagine a Halloween not filled with doorbells, costumes and treats. But while trick-or-treating is many children’s favorite pastime, it hasn’t been a pastime for all that long. The tradition didn’t make its way to North America until the 1920s and 30s, first ...read more
The Deadliest Roller Coaster Accident in America
For over a century, roller coasters and other amusement park rides have provided thrills by walking the line between scary and fun. Yet for almost as long, these rides have led to accidents that are scarily dangerous. Most recently, an Ohio State Fair attraction known as the Fire ...read more
The People v. Betty Boop
One after another, voice actors appeared before the judge. This was no ordinary courtroom testimony—they were there to squeak Betty Boop’s signature “boop-boop-a-doop.” It was 1934, and Betty Boop was on trial. The cartoon vixen was an unlikely candidate for a lawsuit—and for ...read more
Who are the Tonys named after?
The effect a Tony Award has on a Broadway production is similar to what an Oscar can do for a Hollywood film. It’s the industry’s highest honor, and can make or break a play when it is given—or not. Although it may seem like a mainstay now, the Antoinette Perry Award for ...read more
7 Early Daredevils Who Risked Their Lives for Glory
1. Sam Patch Rhode Island native Sam Patch had a hardscrabble upbringing as a child laborer in a cotton mill, but he later became America’s first celebrity daredevil after he discovered he could draw a paying crowd by staging terrifying leaps off waterfalls, bridges and river ...read more
Were MTV’s awards the first gender-neutral ones?
MTV made waves when Emma Watson was awarded a non-gender specific “Best Actor” award for her performance in “Beauty and the Beast.” But while this may be a first for the MTV Movie & TV Awards, it’s not a first for the entertainment industry. For the top honors in film and ...read more
9 Groundbreaking LGBT Characters
1. 1934: The Children’s Hour At the time of the Broadway premiere of “The Children’s Hour,” making any reference to homosexuality on stage was illegal in New York. The three-act drama was set in an all-girls boarding school where a disgruntled, runaway student makes a shocking ...read more
Remembering Hands Across America
Along with perms, mix tapes and denim jackets, the mid-1980s saw a rash of celebrity activism against hunger. From Band Aid to Live Aid, musicians around the globe lent their voices to raise money for famine-stricken Africa. After USA for Africa garnered $53 million with its 1985 ...read more
10 Things You May Not Know About Harry Houdini
1. He named himself after another magician. Houdini was born Erik Weisz, but his name was altered to Ehrich Weiss after his family emigrated from Hungary to Wisconsin when he was 4 years old. Young Ehrich—nicknamed “Ehrie” or “Harry”—had a fascination with magic, particularly ...read more
8 Legendary Circus Performers
1. Isaac Van Amburgh—“The Great Lion Tamer” From his humble origins as an assistant at a menagerie called the Zoological Institute of New York, the flamboyant Isaac Van Amburgh grew into the most famous lion tamer of the 19th century. His act was renowned for its extreme daring. ...read more
9 Things You Might Not Know About “Peanuts”
1. Schulz’s lifelong ambition was to be a cartoonist. A Minnesota-born barber’s son, Schulz dreamed of becoming a cartoonist from a young age. He had a less-than-distinguished academic record, but outside the classroom he drew constantly and read newspaper comic strips with his ...read more
Disneyland’s Glitch-Filled Opening Day
Whether or not Walt Disney wished upon a star, his dreams were about to come true as nearly half of the United States gathered around black-and-white televisions on July 17, 1955. After more than two decades of planning and a breakneck year of construction, the Mickey Mouse ...read more
10 Things You May Not Know About P.T. Barnum
1. Barnum was an entrepreneur from an early age. Barnum’s knack for moneymaking first manifested during his youth in Bethel, Connecticut. The future showman sold snacks and homemade cherry rum during local gatherings, and by age 12, he had made enough money to purchase his own ...read more
7 Things You May Not Know About Walt Disney
1. Disney came from humble beginnings. Born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, Walt Disney, the fourth of five children, moved with his family to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, when he was four. It was in Marceline—a small-town community Disney remembered as an adult as having been ...read more
Comedy legend Joan Rivers dies
On September 4, 2014, Joan Rivers, one of the best-known comedians of her era, dies at age 81 in a New York City hospital, a week after she went into cardiac arrest while undergoing a medical procedure on her vocal cords at a Manhattan clinic. During a showbiz career that spanned ...read more
6 Early Amusement Parks
1. Steeplechase Park Opened in 1897 by entrepreneur George C. Tilyou, Steeplechase Park was the first of three major amusement parks that put New York’s Coney Island on the map. The park took its name from its signature attraction, a 1,100-foot steel track where patrons could ...read more
8 Things You May Not Know About Superman
1. Superman’s creators first envisioned him as a villain. Recent high school graduate Jerry Siegel self-published a story in January 1933 called “The Reign of the Superman,” featuring a mad scientist who plucks a vagrant from a bread line and gives him telepathic capabilities. ...read more
History of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
In early 1914, the White House announced that Woodrow Wilson would hold a series of regularly scheduled press conferences. To the dismay of career White House reporters, whispers swirled that a congressional committee would determine which journalists deserved invitations. Eleven ...read more
First modern circus is staged
Englishman Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in London. Trick riders, acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other familiar components of the circus have existed throughout recorded history, but it was not until the late 18th century that the modern spectacle of the ...read more