1 hour ago
4
1. Disneyland had lone been unfastened for 5 years erstwhile what was believed to beryllium the park's archetypal and lone armed robbery took spot connected Aug. 21, 1960. Restaurant cashier Richard Lowry was carrying astir $10,000 successful currency (about $113,217 successful today's wealth erstwhile adjusted for inflation) from the Red Wagon Inn to Disneyland's on-site Bank of America branch. At the time, formed members regularly walked ample sums of wealth done crowded impermanent areas. Lowry claimed that a gunman stopped him connected Main Street, forced him into a restroom, and stole the wealth earlier escaping.
Avalon / Getty Images
However, the constabulary rapidly became suspicious due to the fact that his communicative kept changing, with details astir the fig of robbers and the weapons progressive shifting from 1 relationship to another. After failing a lie-detector test, Lowry admitted helium knew wherever the wealth was hidden and led constabulary to a linen closet wrong the edifice wherever the currency had been stashed. The expected holdup turned retired to beryllium an wrong occupation alternatively than a existent robbery.
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
2. Speaking astir the aboriginal days of Disneyland, aft the parkland opened successful 1995, Japanese businessman Kunizo Matsuo visited and became convinced that a Disney-style taxable parkland would beryllium a immense occurrence successful Japan. He reportedly approached Walt Disney with the thought of bringing the conception to the metropolis of Nara. According to accounts of the project, Disney was interested, and Imagineers adjacent worked with Matsuo connected aboriginal plans for a Japanese Disneyland. The archetypal imaginativeness was to licence Disney's characters and brand, akin to the statement that would aboriginal beryllium utilized for Tokyo Disneyland and the OLC Group.
However, supposedly, negotiations with the Walt Disney Company yet broke down implicit licensing fees, causing the concern to collapse. Rather than wantonness the idea, Matsuo moved guardant connected his ain and opened a parkland called Nara Dreamland successful 1961. The parkland intimately copied Disneyland's design, featuring a Sleeping Beauty-inspired castle, a bid presumption entrance, a Main Street, a cardinal hub layout, and attractions resembling Disneyland favorites specified arsenic the Jungle Cruise, Submarine Voyage, and Matterhorn-style bobsled coaster, but featured its ain archetypal characters. The parkland was popular; however, erstwhile Tokyo Disneyland opened successful 1983, visitors dropped drastically, and the parkland yet closed successful 2006.
3. In 1962, 20th Century Fox was facing a fiscal situation arsenic the fund for the epic movie Cleopatra spiraled wildly retired of control, yet becoming 1 of the astir costly movies ever made astatine the time. With the workplace hemorrhaging money, executives became progressively acrophobic astir delays connected different production, Something's Got to Give, starring Marilyn Monroe successful what would beryllium her last movie project. Monroe's wellness problems and predominant absences from the acceptable caused accumulation to autumn down schedule, putting adjacent much unit connected a workplace already struggling nether Cleopatra's mounting costs.
©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
Fox fired Monroe successful June 1962 and publically blamed her for the delays, though galore historians judge the workplace lone truly did it 'cause it was looking for ways to chopped costs wherever it could due to the fact that of Cleopatra. The troubled romanticist drama is possibly champion remembered contiguous for Monroe's celebrated skinny-dipping excavation scene, successful which she appeared nude successful footage and a colour photograph sprout that generated tremendous publicity. Eventually, co-star Dean Martin said helium would enactment with Monroe connected the movie only, starring 20th Century Fox to hold to prosecute her back. The workplace scheduled for accumulation to resume successful October 1962; however, Monroe would dice successful August of that year. Instead of canceling the movie, the workplace recast it with Doris Day and James Garner, and changed the sanction to Move Over, Darling.
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
4. Mild spoilers ahead: If you've seen Disclosure Day, past you astir apt retrieve the country showing information footage of President Richard Nixon taking an unnamed "old TV star" to presumption recovered alien bodies. What you mightiness not cognize is that the country is based connected a decades-old UFO legend involving comedian Jackie Gleason, who was famously fascinated by UFOs and the paranormal, and amassed a ample postulation of books and probe connected the subject. According to a communicative aboriginal told by Gleason's ex-wife Beverly, Nixon, who was a bully person of the entertainer, drove him to Homestead Air Force Base successful Florida connected Feb. 19, 1973, and showed him what were supposedly the preserved bodies of extraterrestrials recovered from a crashed UFO.
Niko Tavernise / © Universal Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
As the communicative goes, Gleason returned location visibly shaken and, aft swearing her to secrecy, told his woman astir seeing "six oregon eight" small, managled non-human bodies stored successful cases that "looked similar glass-topped Coke freezers." Supposedly, helium couldn't devour oregon slumber for weeks aft that. The communicative past goes that Beverly would "tell" the communicative the pursuing twelvemonth successful an interrogation with Esquire, pursuing their divorce. For his part, Gleason, who would dice successful 1986, ne'er mentioned it publicly, but allegedly told the communicative successful 1985 to Larry Warren, a erstwhile Air Force information serviceman who witnessed a UFO landing successful Rendlesham Forest successful the UK.
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Now, determination are immoderate problems with the sources here. Beverly ne'er told Esquire that story; she really told it to the National Enquirer successful 1983. While the communicative of Gleason confirming that helium saw the alien bodies doesn't travel from Warren himself, but alternatively from UFO-ologist Timothy Green Beckley. For the record, Nixon and Gleason were unneurotic connected Feb. 19, 1973 (the photograph beneath is from that), but, according to the records, it was lone for a play tournament.
HUM Images / HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
5. If you representation an old-fashioned accountant, banker, oregon bookkeeper, there's a bully accidental you're picturing them wearing a distinctive greenish eyeshade. While it yet became a ocular stereotype for radical who worked with numbers and paperwork, the accessory really served a practical purpose. In the precocious 19th and aboriginal 20th centuries, offices were often lit by harsh state lamps, lipid lamps, oregon aboriginal electrical bulbs that produced important glare. Employees spent agelong hours speechmaking ledgers, balancing accounts, and reviewing documents by hand, which could origin oculus strain and fatigue.
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
The green-tinted visors (though they came successful different colors) helped trim glare and filter immoderate of the agleam airy without making it hard to work paperwork. Green was fashionable due to the fact that it was thought to beryllium easier connected the eyes than different colors and provided a comfy opposition against achromatic paper. As bureau lighting improved with fluorescent lights, the request for eyeshades disappeared; the visor has lived connected successful fashionable civilization to this time arsenic a ocular awesome of accountants and bureau workers.
Cmannphoto / Getty Images
6. If you were chronically online betwixt 2013 and 2015, you astir apt came crossed this fashionable "You had 1 job!" meme astir Phil Tippett, the "dinosaur supervisor" credited successful the extremity credits of Jurassic Park. Well, Tippett was really an Oscar-winning peculiar effects shaper who was brought connected to enactment connected Jurassic Park due to the fact that helium specialized successful stop-motion animation. Originally, Steven Spielberg had thought each the up-close shots of the dinosaurs would beryllium done by puppets and animatronics (which they did use), and each the afloat shots and moving sequences would beryllium done utilizing models and stop-motion animation.
Universal Pictures
However, the squad astatine Industrial Light & Magic told Spielberg that CGI exertion had improved significantly, and they could make dinosaurs that could fool the eye. Once Spielberg saw the CGI dinosaurs, helium knew that was the mode to go. When Spielberg told Tippett that helium had decided to spell with CGI, Tippett replied, "I’ve conscionable go extinct!" (a enactment that Steven would really extremity up utilizing successful the movie). However, it was the nonstop opposite. Spielberg knew Tippett had a peculiar accomplishment set: He knew however animals behaved and moved. So alternatively of letting him go, Spielberg made Tippett the "dinosaur supervisor," a relation that had him overseeing animation astatine ILM to guarantee the dinosaurs looked arsenic existent and moved arsenic realistically arsenic possible. He besides created stop-motion scenes for the movie truthful they could representation retired what they would look similar earlier filming them.
7. Mountain Dew was primitively created arsenic a mixer for whiskey. In the early '30s, 2 brothers from Georgia, Barney and Ally Hartman, moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. After moving, the 2 missed their favourite mixer, a section soda called Natural Set-Up, which they couldn't get successful Knoxville. So they decided to make their ain mentation of it to premix with their hard-to-drink whiskey (which they mightiness person been making themselves astatine location since it was inactive Prohibition).
Archive Photos / Getty Images
The archetypal look was a lemon-lime-flavored, lightly caffeinated portion they called Mountain Dew, a motion to the word for moonshine. While they made the mixer for household and friends, their existent tendency was to mass-market it. They were unsuccessful successful uncovering a institution that would privation to bargain it earlier Barney died of a bosom onslaught successful 1949. Nearly a decennary later, successful 1958, Ally sold the look rights to Tip Corporation, which would aboriginal merchantability them to Pepsi successful 1964. Pepsi would past grow the brand's organisation nationally and usage Mountain Dew's archetypal mascot, Willy the Hillbilly, for its TV commercials.
8. It's casual to deliberation of Sony arsenic 1 of the biggest names successful gaming, but the institution never primitively planned to participate the console/video crippled business. In the precocious '80s, Sony partnered with Nintendo to make a CD-ROM add-on for the upcoming Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a task known arsenic the "Play Station." At the time, CD exertion was seen arsenic the aboriginal of gaming due to the fact that it could store acold much information than accepted crippled cartridges.
So-CoAddict / Getty Images
Sony invested heavy successful the partnership, lone to beryllium blindsided erstwhile Nintendo publically announced a woody with different company, efficaciously abandoning the collaboration. The determination embarrassed Sony executives and sparked a fierce determination wrong the institution to proceed the task connected its ain alternatively than locomotion distant from the gaming manufacture altogether. That determination yet evolved into the archetypal PlayStation, which launched successful 1994 successful Japan and rapidly became a monolithic success. In fact, arsenic of 2025, Sony has sold 84.2 cardinal of conscionable its PlayStation 5 consoles alone.
Robert Lachman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
9. Today, it is precise good known that woolly mammoths and mastodons went extinct thousands of years ago, but successful the precocious 18th and aboriginal 19th centuries, the conception of extinction was inactive comparatively caller and acold from universally accepted. Among those who doubted it was President Thomas Jefferson, who believed that ample prehistoric animals whose bones were conscionable being discovered successful North America mightiness inactive beryllium surviving determination successful the vast, unexplored occidental territories. Jefferson was peculiarly fascinated by mastodons, which helium called the "American incognitum," and helium hoped that grounds of surviving populations would yet beryllium found.
Print Collector
His involvement was fueled successful portion by a fashionable European mentation promoted by French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, who, without evidence, argued that America's acold clime produced weaker radical and smaller animals than those recovered successful Europe. Jefferson took that assertion personally and spent years gathering grounds to beryllium that North America could enactment tremendous and almighty creatures. When helium authorized the celebrated Lewis and Clark Expedition aft the Louisiana Purchase, 1 of the galore objectives helium gave the explorers was to papers chartless animals that mightiness inhabit the West, apt hoping they'd travel crossed surviving mammoths oregon mastodons. When Lewis and Clark returned without ever seeing ample creatures, Jefferson seemed to judge that they were really extinct.
MPI / Getty Images
10. And lastly, the Beatles wanted to prima successful a movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with the iconic Stanley Kubrick arsenic the director. Now, for context, by the mid-'60s, the Beatles had already starred successful 2 deed films, A Hard Day's Night and Help!, some of which fundamentally featured exaggerated versions of themselves. Looking for a bigger originative challenge, the set became funny successful adapting The Lord of the Rings for the surface aft Denis O'Dell, their movie company's head, suggested it. According to assorted accounts, John Lennon was particularly enthusiastic astir the project, and the set adjacent began imagining who would play which characters, with Paul McCartney arsenic Frodo, Ringo Starr arsenic Sam, Lennon arsenic Gollum, and George Harrison hoping to instrumentality connected the relation of Gandalf.
Icon And Image / Getty Images
Kubrick reportedly declined due to the fact that helium believed Tolkien's sprawling phantasy epic was intolerable to accommodate successfully arsenic a movie. Even without Kubrick, the Beatles remained funny successful moving guardant and explored ways to unafraid the rights. Ultimately, though, the task ran into a overmuch bigger obstacle: writer J. R. R. Tolkien himself. Tolkien was reportedly unimpressed by the thought of a hugely fashionable "pop group" turning his beloved phantasy caller into a movie and refused to assistance the Beatles the rights, bringing 1 of oregon perchance the strangest "what if?" projects successful movie past to an extremity earlier it ever got disconnected the ground.
Haywood Magee / Getty Images
English (US) ·