Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. While that may be true, Sutton never actually said it — at least, not until after the line was credited to him. He robbed banks because “I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life.” Like many misquoted people, he eventually gave up and cashed in, doing a TV commercial to promote a bank’s photo credit card program.
In 2006, an organization called NOAH complained about the movie version of “The Da Vinci Code.” Why? The movie featured a villainous albino, and NOAH is the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. They said it was the 68th film since 1960 to demonize albinos. This is more serious than it may seem: In Africa, albinos are sometimes murdered.
The only MLB owner to oppose the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington was Peter Angelos. But that makes sense. He owned the Baltimore Orioles, and the Washington Nationals encroached into Baltimore’s fan base. A similar issue is at play in the NHL. Although there have been rumors of moving one of the ailing winter-less franchises to the Toronto area, both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres oppose it.
Sunset Boulevard became known as the Boulevard of Broken Dreams for the failed Hollywood careers that end there. The phrase is popular enough to recur throughout pop culture. It was, for example, a song from the 1934 film “Moulin Rouge” that became a hit for Tony Bennett, and much later it was Green Day’s first top-five song and the winner of the 2006 Grammy for Record of the Year.
In the 1997 British election, the Conservative Party incumbent, Henry Bellingham, was up for re-election in Norfolk North West. One of his opponents was Roger Perceval, a candidate for the Referendum Party. Here’s the really bizarre part. Perceval was descended from Spencer Percival, the only British PM to be assassinated. And he was killed by Bellingham’s ancestor. Perceval won.
Edna St. Vincent Millay was reported named for the hospital that saved her infant life. Some say it was because the hospital saved her uncle’s life just before she was born. Although she won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver,” today she is almost as well known for her bisexuality. As a young woman, for example, her girlfriend was Edith Wynne Matthison, who became an actor.
E-mail Paul Paquet at paul@triviahalloffame.com or visit triviahalloffame.com.
