Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (134 page)

AUGUST 12

1801
G
ROCER-TO-BE
J
OHN
C
ADBURY
is born in Birmingham, England. A strong believer in the temperance movement, Cadbury will begin manufacturing his own brand of chocolate in the hope of tempting drinkers away from the demon alcohol.

CHOCOLATE THUNDER

1.
In 2006, what surpassed
Like Water for Chocolate
to become the top-grossing Spanish-language movie in U.S. history?

2.
What animal shape are the chocolate pieces in Ben & Jerry’s flavor “Vermonty Python”?

3.
What famous event in sports history happened in Hershey, Pennsylvania, of all places, on March 2, 1962?

4.
What top-selling candy bar in the world was named for a beloved horse of the Mars family?

5.
Chocolate’s addictive properties are due to what alkaloid, whose name means “food of the gods”?

1958
P
HOTOGRAPHER
A
RT
K
ANE,
for his first photo shoot, crowds fifty-seven jazz legends in front of a New York brownstone and takes the famous shot now called
A Great Day in Harlem.

JAZZ HANDS

1.
What musician had a first name from Roman myth and the even more unusual middle name “Sphere”?

2.
What jazz innovator claimed that his cosmic philosophy was born in 1936 when aliens abducted him and took him to Saturn?

3.
What 1959 Dave Brubeck Quartet piece borrows its name from its unusual time signature?

4.
What instrument did Lionel Hampton introduce to jazz in 1930?

5.
What 1959 album, in which the sidemen include John Coltrane on tenor sax, is the bestselling jazz LP of all time?

1969
I
N
C
HICAGO, THE
G
UESS
W
HO
record “American Woman,” which will become the first song ever to top the American and Canadian singles charts at the same time.

NORTH AMERICAN IDOL

Name these U.S. bands from their lone Canadian member.

1.
Denny Doherty

2.
James LaBrie

3.
Neil Young

4.
Melissa Auf der Maur

5.
Zal Yanovsky

AUGUST 13

1902
A
CCORDING TO HOTEL LORE,
Singapore’s last wild tiger is shot to death under the Bar and Billiard Room of the luxurious Raffles Hotel.

INN-TERNATIONAL

Answer these questions about world hotels.

1.
What chocolate cake is named for the Vienna hotel that keeps its recipe secret?

2.
What city’s Hotel Adlon was the site of Michael Jackson’s 2002 baby dangling?

3.
What fashion icon died in 1971 at the suite at Paris’s Hotel Ritz, now named for her, where she’d lived for decades?

4.
What’s now the more common nickname for Africa’s Belgian-owned resort Hotel des Mille Collines?

5.
What are the hotel-inspired names of the two old men who heckle
The Muppet Show
?

6.
Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, or Dubai—where will the Asia-Asia Hotel, the world’s largest, be completed by 2016?

7.
According to graffiti in room 652 of Edinburgh’s Balmoral Hotel, what literary milestone was reached there on January 11, 2007?

8.
What city is home to the Ryugyong Hotel, an unfinished 105-story pyramid abandoned in 1992?

9.
At what New York hotel was Sid Vicious accused of killing Nancy Spungen?

10.
In what city is the Schloss Cecilienhof, site of a historic 1945 conference?

1976
T
WO YEARS BEFORE HITTING
it big on
Taxi,
a starry-eyed young boxer named “Dangerous” Tony Danza, in his first fight, scores a knockout over Earl “Shotgun” Harris.

DANZA IN THE DARK

As an actor, Tony Danza appears to have a hard time answering to any other first name than his own. Match the last name of each fictional “Tony” to the show in which he appeared.

Bonus Danza!
In what Best Picture Oscar–winning film does Tony Danza appear?

2004
A
LIEN VS
. P
REDATOR HITS THEATERS!
No matter who wins, whoever pays $10.50 to see this crap loses!

SMASHED HITS

Make new movie titles by combining two others. For example, the answer to “Arnold Schwarzenegger
+
The Monkees
=
David Lynch” would be “Eraser
+
Head
=
Eraserhead.”

1.
Irene Jacob + Al Pacino = Jim Belushi

2.
Warren Beatty + Burt Reynolds = Scott Baio

3.
Demi Moore + Jack Lemmon = Bill Cosby

4.
Tom Cruise + Jeremy Irons = Arnold Schwarzenegger

5.
Cary Grant + Samantha Morton = Sergio Leone

6.
Bette Midler + Bruce Dern = Anna Magnani

7.
Bob Hoskins + Bruce Dern = Julia Roberts

8.
Abel Gance + Cecil B. DeMille = Jon Heder

9.
Halle Berry + William Katt = Sony Pictures Animation

10.
Peter Lorre + Woody Allen = Alec Baldwin