On 23 February 1965 comedian Stan Laurel, of Laurel and Hardy fame, died in California.
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Q1. Tulsa
Q2. Gene Pitney
“Oh, I was only twenty four hours from Tulsa
Ah, only one day away from your arms
I saw a welcoming light
And stopped to rest for the night”
The song, titled Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa, achieved international stardom for Pitney due to its chart success peaking at number five in the UK and seventeen in the US. Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the song is featured on Pitney’s fifth album, Blue Gene.
The lyrics narrate a man’s journey home to his beloved, where he stops at a motel for the night and falls in love with a woman who takes him to a café, ultimately abandoning his return home.
Read “24 Hours From Tulsa” by Gene Pitney on Genius
“Oh, I was only twenty four hours from …
Ah, only one day away from your arms
I saw a welcoming light
And stopped to rest for the night”
The above lines are taken from a Burt Bacharach and Hal David song that achieved chart success in 1963—a top five hit in the UK and a top twenty hit in the US.
Q1. What US city was the singer only twenty-four hours away from?
Q2. Who is the singer, born on 17 February, who achieved the chart success mentioned above?
The answers will be posted later today.
JM Barrie
…is the writer who created Peter Pan
In April 1929, J. M. Barrie granted the copyright of his Peter Pan works to the hospital, requesting that the income remain undisclosed. This decision allowed the hospital to control the rights and receive royalties from performances, publications, and adaptations of the play and novel. Over the years, numerous performances and adaptations have been produced under the hospital’s license. Additionally, the hospital’s trustees commissioned a sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, by Geraldine McCaughrean, which was published in 2006.
After the copyright expired the hospital was granted a perpetual right to collect royalties by the UK government.
Further information can be found at Great Ormond Street Hospital’s website.
On February 14, 1852, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, the first in England to offer inpatient beds for children, opened its doors in London.
In 1929, a writer generously donated all his rights to Peter Pan to the hospital, and they continue to receive royalties from the work to this day. Can you name the generous writer?
The answer will be posted later today.
C. 17,897
The final Peanuts strip, as illustrated here, was published on 13 February 2000, the night after Charles M. Schulz succumbed to a heart attack.
When the final Peanuts strip ran on 13 February 2000 how many strips had been published in total?
A. 11,231
B. 14,564
C. 17,897
The answer will be posted later today.
Firstly: A. 1938
Secondly: C. Robot
On February 11, 1938, BBC Television broadcast a 35-minute adaptation of a section of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R.—thus becoming the first science fiction piece ever aired on television. Although some low-quality still photographs survive, no recordings of the production are known to exist.
R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti—(English: Rossum’s Universal Robots)) is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. It introduced the word ‘robot’ to the English language and popularised science fiction as a genre. R.U.R. quickly gained influence and was translated into thirty languages by 1923. It was a commercial success in Europe and North America during its time.
In 1948, the BBC aired another adaptation, this time the entire play, running for 90 minutes but unfortunately, no audio or visual recordings of this version survive either. Patrick Troughton who played the robot Radius in this latter production played another sci-fi character when he became the Second Doctor in the BBC’s Doctor Who in 1966.
Firstly, on 11 February in which year did the first science fiction piece ever aired on television make its debut?
A. 1938
B. 1945
C. 1950
Secondly, the play that was adapted for this television programme had, when originally published in 1920, introduced a new word to the English language. What was that word?
A. Cyborg
B. Droid
C. Robot
The answer will be posted later today.
C. Jasper
Puss Gets the Boot is a 1940 American animated short film, the first in the Tom and Jerry series. It is based on the Aesop’s Fable, The Cat and the Mice. It was released to cinemas by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on 10 February 1940.
Jasper, a cat, torments a mouse, leading to a series of misadventures. The mouse outwits Jasper, framing him for breaking a flowerpot and later dishes, resulting in Jasper being kicked out of the house. The mouse celebrates his victory, enjoying the spoils of his triumph.
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