It's a Wonderful Life Facts

1.  Sesame Street characters Bert & Ernie were not named after the police officers Bert and Ernie in "It's a Wonderful Life".

2.  The Charleston scene where Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed's characters dance was filmed in a Beverly Hills high school.  The gym floor really did open up to reveal a swimming pool.

3.  Usually painted snowflakes were used as snow for movies.  However they were too noisy.  For "It's a Wonderful Life" the crew used a combination of ice, gypsum plaster and formite-soap-water mixture.

4.  Jimmy Stewart's daughter, named Zuzu, brought home a flower from school, its petals falling off.  Zuzu's Petals became the name of a rock band, a character in the movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and a Far Side comic.

5.  In 1943, writer Philip Van Doren penned the story "The Greatest Gift" as a Christmas card to family and friends.  Frank Capra renamed the tale "It's a Wonderful Life".

6.  RKO bought the movie rights to "It's a Wonderful Life" for $10,000 in 1946.

7.  Little Rascal "Alfafa", Carl Dean Switzer, played the ill-fated dance partner of Donna Reed's character.

8.  The bridge scenes were actually filmed during a California heat wave.  As Jimmy Stewart contemplates jumping off the snow covered bridge, he is actually sweating.

9.  "It's a Wonderful Life" was actually a box office bomb, costing 3.7 million to make, but generating only 3.3 million in sales.  It wasn't until the movie was replayed on television in the 1970's that it developped a true following.

10.  Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland and Jean Arthur all turned down the starring role of Mary Bailey because it was too "bland".

For more information visit http://www.families.com/blog/10-fun-facts-about-its-a-wonderful-life.

www.musicboxtheatre.com

The Boston Tea Party

Here are ten facts you may not know about the Boston Tea Party.

1.  On December 16, 1773, dozens of Colonists boarded three ships and threw 342 crates of tea overboard into the Boston Harbor in an act of political protest.

2.  The Tea Act of 1773 left the three pence per pound duty on tea.  It irked the Colonists that they had no say in creating the Act.

3.  The Tea Act was really an attempt to bail out the fledgling East India Tea Company and gave them a monopoly on the tea market.

4.  George Washington condemned the Boston Tea Party and thought the perpetrators should compensate the East India Tea Company for damages.

5.  For decades, the identity of the Boston Tea Party participants was shrouded in secrecy.

6.  The event was not called the Boston Tea Party until a newspaper account of 1826.  Until then, it was referred to as "the destruction of the tea".

7.  Three months later, there was a sequel to the Boston Tea Party; however, this time only 30 crates of tea were thrown overboard.

8.  Subsequent tea parties were held in New York, Annapolis and Charleston, South Carolina.

9.  It is estimated that the perpetrators poured 92,000 pounds of tea overboard, enough to fill 18.5 million tea bags.  The present day value of the destroyed tea is $1 million.

10.  One man, John Crane, was knocked unconscious by a falling crate of tea.  Thought to be dead, he was hidden by his fellow saboteurs and woke up hours later.

Boston Tea Party courtesy 

http://www.cr-cath.pvt.k12.ia.us/lasalle/Resources/8th%20Websites%202013/Josh%20Sophia%20Brylie%20Nicole%20Rev%20War/Sophia%20Maher%20Rev.%20War/Boston_Tea_Party.html.