When a young writer and activist named Stetson Kennedy decided to expose the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, he looked to a certain superhero for inspiration. ]]> In the 1940s, The Adventures of Superman was a radio sensation. Kids across the country huddled around their sets as the Man of Steel leapt off the page and over the airwaves. Although Superman had been fighting crime in print since 1938, the weekly audio episodes fleshed out his storyline even further. It was on the radio that Superman first faced kryptonite, met Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen, and became associated with “truth, justice, and the American way.” So, it’s no wonder that when a young writer and activist named Stetson Kennedy decided to expose the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, he looked to a certain superhero for inspiration.

In the post-World War II era, the Klan experienced a huge resurgence. Its membership was skyrocketing, and its political influence was increasing, so Kennedy went undercover to infiltrate the group. By regularly attending meetings, he became privy to the organization’s secrets. But when he took the information to local authorities, they had little interest in using it. The Klan had become so powerful and intimidating that police were hesitant to build a case against them.

Struggling to make use of his findings, Kennedy approached the writers of the Superman radio serial. It was perfect timing. With the war over and the Nazis no longer a threat, the producers were looking for a new villain for Superman to fight. The KKK was a great fit for the role.

In a 16-episode series titled “Clan of the Fiery Cross,” the writers pitted the Man of Steel against the men in white hoods.

As the storyline progressed, the shows exposed many of the KKK’s most guarded secrets. By revealing everything from code words to rituals, the program completely stripped the Klan of its mystique. Within two weeks of the broadcast, KKK recruitment was down to zero. And by 1948, people were showing up to Klan rallies just to mock them.

This piece originally appeared last year in mental_floss magazine, in an article titled “Comic Superheroes Who Made a Real-World Difference.”

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Most famous actors have been normal people like everyone else. But just so you don’t lose your faith in movie stars, here are some who actually were heroic. ]]> For over a century, movie stars have brought countless screen heroes to life – but of course, there has usually been a slight gap between the actors and the heroes they played. Yes, we know that a third of Angelina Jolie’s income goes to charity, that Sean Penn took a canoe to help Hurricane Katrina victims, and that Tom Cruise once stopped to help a hit-and-run victim and paid her hospital bills. Nonetheless, most famous actors have been normal people like everyone else. But just so you don’t lose your faith in movie stars, here are some who actually were heroic.

1. Marion Davies

Much as we admire the charitable acts of Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and others, Marion Davies was the pioneer. Best remembered as the lover of media baron William Randolph Hearst, this silent movie comedienne was also described by one Hearst biographer as “one of the most generous and warm-hearted women alive,” known in Hollywood for her personal kindness and her work with several charities. In the 1920s and 1930s she treated underprivileged children in Los Angeles to a Christmas circus on the MGM studio lot (providing them with gifts, and food baskets to their families, at her own expense). During World War II she emptied her living room, had sewing machines installed and arranged teams of Hollywood wives to sew bandages. She also paid the hospital bills of sick children, and even today many people owe their lives to her. Admirably, most of her good deeds were not well-known at the time; they were acts of kindness, not publicity stunts.

2. Florence Lawrence

The world’s first movie star (or at least, the first one whose name had marquee value), Florence Lawrence also appears in our list of actors who made a difference for her prowess as a part-time inventor. Her film career, however, ended after a studio fire in 1915, while trying to rescue someone from the flames. Her courageous act caused her to fall and suffer a back injury. This kept her out of the movies for a year, but she returned to make her first feature film. Sadly, the strain of her injury took its toll and she was paralyzed for four months. By the time she attempted a return to the screen in 1921, at the age of 35, she had already been forgotten by the public. Losing her fortune after the 1929 stock-market crash, and in chronic pain, she committed suicide in 1938.

3. Brigitte Helm

Another silent movie star – but one who is still familiar to many young film buffs, thanks to one role: Maria, the world’s sexiest robot woman, in Fritz Lang’s 1926 German masterpiece Metropolis. This role made her a star at 19, and though you probably can’t name a single one of her later films, she became the great statuesque beauty of Germany’s silent cinema – and Hitler’s ideal Aryan woman. However, she refused to make any more movies when the Nazis took over the film industry. Unlike many other German filmmakers, fleeing Nazi Germany, she didn’t move to Hollywood in the 1930s. Instead, to really get up the Fuhrer’s nose, she briefly married a Jew – and was found guilty of “race defilement,” which ended her short-but-dazzling film career overnight. She defiantly stayed in Germany until 1935, then moved to neutral Switzerland. (She was tough, not suicidal.)

4. Paul Robeson

This important actor – famous for his powerful bass singing voice (his version of “Old Man River” in the 1936 movie version of Show Boat, is still considered the best) – must rank as one of the most amazing people to ever work in Hollywood. Valedictorian at Rutgers University, politician, elite player of at least four sports, the first African-American to be named a college football All-American, the first black actor to play Othello on-stage (in London, 1930), fluent in over 20 languages… but most importantly, a voice against discrimination. As one of most respected African-Americans of the 1930s and 1940s, he had great box-office appeal. Nonetheless, he publicly quit movies in 1942, unhappy with Hollywood’s portrayals of African-Americans. (Though he lived another 34 years, he never made another movie.)

Robeson continued to speak out for racial equality, alienating himself from some white Americans. He also visited the Soviet Union, believing that their socialist ideology might be a solution (though he slowly became disillusioned with this idea). As the Cold War deepened, he was marked as a Communist, and his passport was revoked. Although this embittered him, he did not renounce his American citizenship, and remained a symbol of pride for many African-Americans. Years before Martin Luther King revealed his dream, Robeson’s speeches had their own rousing sentiments: “My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail.”

5. Jimmy Stewart

When John Wayne and Errol Flynn tried to enlist in World War II, they were deemed unfit for combat. Instead, they played several military heroes, inspiring the audiences at home. Jimmy Stewart, meanwhile, is perhaps best known for two roles: the hero of It’s a Wonderful Life (who, due to partial deafness, is also unfit for combat) and the lead character of Vertigo (who suffers from a fear of heights).

The real-life Stewart had no such issues. He was the first Hollywood star to sign up for the war, the highest-ranked (Colonel), and the most decorated (including the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Croix de Guerre and seven battle stars). He did this to serve his country; he found no joy in killing, or in watching his friends die. Disturbed by the memories, he rarely mentioned the war. When he returned, he made fewer of the wholesome, light-hearted roles that had won him his reputation, in favor of darker fare.

6. Audrey Hepburn

Apart from being the epitome of Hollywood style, Audrey Hepburn is also admired by her many fans because of her childhood struggles in Nazi-occupied Holland, where she ate tulip bulbs to survive, and witnessed Nazi soldiers executing people on the streets and herding Jews into railway cars. Despite suffering from malnutrition and depression, she became a volunteer nurse and eventually worked for the Dutch Underground. She was an inspiring and powerful lady, even decades before her tireless work as a UNICEF ambassador.

7. Christopher Reeve

Reeve was best-known for playing Superman, the most robust superhero of the movies. This led to super-typecasting. How can any role surpass the so-called “greatest of all heroes”? Sadly, Reeve himself did not share Superman’s invincibility. In a 1995 horse-riding accident, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Though he was not expected to survive, he became a powerful advocate for people with spinal injuries. With his courage and determination, he easily outclassed his greatest movie role, even appearing on the cover of Time magazine, which dubbed him “Super Man.” It’s fine being a tough guy if you’re bulletproof and super-strong, but if you can fight for a cause as a quadriplegic… now that’s heroism.

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During World War II, a Christian mystic named Peter Deunov conjured up a plan that rescued 50,000 Jews from Hitler. Was it a miracle, or just good people skills? You decide.]]> World War II Bulgaria didn’t have a Schindler, and it didn’t have a list. It had a white-bearded mystic named Peter Deunov and an entire nation standing behind him. Together, they saved Bulgaria’s 48,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

Bulgaria wasn’t in the best position during the Second World War. Fenced in by the Soviet Union on one side and Europe on the other, it was forced into the middle of the action. That’s why it’s all the more impressive that Bulgaria is one of only three mainland European nations where the entire Jewish population survived the Holocaust. (Denmark and Finland were the other two, but their relatively small Jewish populations were geographically isolated.) For staying strong in the face of Hitler and his Nazi directives, the Bulgarians credit one man—Christian mystic Peter Deunov. As Albert Einstein would later say, “The whole world bows down before me. I bow down before the master Peter Deunov.”

Philosophical Fitness

Peter Deunov’s philosophy wouldn’t appear to be anything revolutionary at first. He based his beliefs on those of Christ and preached universal love and religious tolerance—only with a more mystical, cosmic slant. Known as Master Beinsa Douno, he garnered a following in Bulgaria in the early 20th century for his teachings, now known as Esoteric Christianity. In fact, during Deunov’s time serving as the Vatican’s ambassador to Bulgaria, the future Pope John XXIII called him “the greatest philosopher living on the Earth.”

But Deunov had his controversial qualities, too. A strong believer in astrology and phrenology (determining personality traits based on the shape of people’s skulls), Deunov also considered physical fitness to be crucial to spiritual development. He designed health camps for his disciples that included climbing to the 9,600-foot summit of Musala, Bulgaria’s highest peak. In addition, he promoted strict vegetarianism and liberal doses of water. But perhaps most controversial was his belief in Paneurhythmy (“sublime cosmic rhythm”), sacred dances Deunov invented to utilize “positive energies.” Unnerved by some of his more unusual ideas, the powerful Bulgarian Orthodox Church went so far as to denounce his teachings.

But far beyond scaling mountains and preaching the joys of good health, Deunov advocated world peace. Unfortunately, that too was seen as contentious by some. During one of his lectures in 1917, he spoke out against Bulgaria’s entry into World War I on the side of the Central Powers. Although Deunov would later prove to be right about that decision, that didn’t stop the government from exiling him for a year.

Avoidance Tactics

At the start of World War II, Bulgaria picked the losing side again. Hoping to reclaim the ancestral lands it’d lost during WWI (Thrace and Macedonia), Bulgaria joined the Axis powers in 1941. And although the Nazis did gain control of those territories, Bulgaria reclaimed them in name only. What’s worse, Hitler forced the Bulgarian government to pass oppressive laws against its Jews as part of the deal.

Thanks to a tolerant national population, Bulgaria’s Tsar Boris III was able to avoid enforcing anti-Semitic policies—at least for a while. Eventually, though, the political and military pressure from Hitler became too great.

In March 1943, Boris was bullied into signing off on the deportation of 11,343 Jews from Thrace and Macedonia to Auschwitz. Of them, only 12 survived.

When the deportation became public knowledge, most Bulgarians were so outraged that Boris went into hiding. Anything he faced would be a lose-lose situation—whether it was the wrath of the Nazis or the wrath of his own people. When Hitler demanded the deportation of all Bulgarian Jews, Boris caved.

Hide and Go Seek

What happened next was one of the most fateful strokes of luck in history. The signed directive from Boris passed through the ranks and into the hands of one of Deunov’s followers, who quickly informed his guru. Eager to stop the deportation, Deunov sent one of his most trusted devotees, a senior official named Lyubomir Loulchev, to try and change Boris’ mind. Deunov knew that Boris respected him (in large part because Deunov had “predicted” the devastating results of WWI), but he also knew the tsar respected Loulchev. Deunov told Loulchev: “Find the tsar and tell him that if he lets Bulgarian Jews be sent to Poland, that will be the end of his dynasty.”

Unfortunately, locating the tsar wasn’t an easy task. Boris was still in hiding, and not even his most trusted advisors knew his whereabouts. Loulchev desperately searched the country, but he was running out of time, so he returned to Deunov for help. According to one biographer, Deunov meditated on Boris’ location in his room for a few minutes, then opened the door and said one word: “Krichim,” the name of an obscure town in southern Bulgaria. Loulchev left for the town immediately and arrived to discover a very surprised tsar.

Not long after, Boris called for the release of all Bulgarian Jews awaiting deportation. It’s uncertain whether the about-face was the result of Loulchev’s appeal to Boris’ conscience, the power of Deunov’s advice, or the pressure he discovered he was receiving from other top Bulgarian officials. Members of the parliament had banded together to try and protect their Jewish population, but with the tsar in hiding, their hands were tied. Deunov’s involvement changed all of that.

The Fury of a Führer

Hitler was more than a little irritated by this turn of events, as well as by Boris’ refusal to engage in war with the Soviet Union. In August 1943, the Führer summoned the tsar to a private meeting in East Prussia—a trip from which Boris never recovered. He returned exhausted and depressed, and died mysteriously just days later, at age 49. It’s widely suspected (but still unproven) that foul play was involved.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a happy ending for Deunov, either. In 1944, Soviet forces invaded Bulgaria, and the Christian guru died two days before Communist authorities could arrest him for his spiritual teachings. The government continued to harass and persecute his followers until the fall of Communism in 1989.

Since then, however, there’s been a rise of interest in Deunov’s philosophies, and his teachings have slowly spread throughout Europe. But even those Bulgarians who aren’t particularly inspired by his religion still respect Deunov for his vital role in saving 48,000 Bulgarians from the Holocaust. But perhaps the main reason he’s remembered so fondly is because he inspired his nation to do the right thing. In 1998, the Anti-Defamation League honored the entire country of Bulgaria with its Courage to Care Award. And while due credit has been given to Boris III, Bulgarians also remember that the tsar could just as easily have allowed his Jewish subjects to perish (as he’d done to Jews in the ancestral lands) were he not convinced otherwise. Of all the Bulgarians who played a role in their nation’s proudest moment, none are more esteemed than Peter Deunov.

This article originally appeared in the September-October 2007 issue of mental_floss. Learn more about the magazine, or just go ahead and subscribe.

A few months ago, Mark Juddery looked at some uncanny celebrity birth twins, like Sylvester Stallone and George W. Bush (July 6, 1946). He's back with a look at some pairs (and trios) who died on the same day.]]> “Death comes in threes” is a popular maxim. In the world of fame and celebrity, however, it seems that death usually comes in twos. Some unusual duos have died on the same day: Mahatma Gandhi and Orville Wright, Jayne Mansfield and Primo Carnera, Luis Bunuel and David Niven. A few months ago, I looked at some uncanny celebrity birth twins. Here are some of those who were linked by death.

1. John Adams & Thomas Jefferson (July 4, 1826)

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, of course, were among the greatest of America’s founding fathers. They worked together on the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and would become the second and third Presidents of the United States. Over the next few decades they would have a changing relationship, in which they frequently switched between close friendship and bitter political rivalry, before keeping an affable correspondence in their final years. In 1826, as he lay dying, 90-year-old Adams’ final words were: “Thomas Jefferson survives.” In fact, Jefferson had died, aged 83, only hours earlier. Significantly, it was July 4 – exactly 50 years since the Declaration of Independence was approved. (Another former president, Jefferson protégé James Monroe, would died on the same date in 1831 – suggesting that “died on the fourth of the July” might be a more fitting motto for patriots.)

2. Aldous Huxley, President John Kennedy & CS Lewis (November 22, 1963)

Despite all the tributes that are bestowed the newly departed, death can occasionally be very humbling. On any other day, the deaths of British authors like the beloved fantasy writer CS Lewis (best-known for the Narnia series) and novelist Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) would have been big news. However, the deaths of the two gentlemen were upstaged, like anything else that happened that week (or that year), by the shocking assassination of President Kennedy.

3. Jean Cocteau & Edith Piaf (October 11, 1963)

Of all modern French artistes, probably none have the same legendary status as songbird Edith Piaf and multifaceted genius (poet, novelist, artist, filmmaker, actor, singer, stage and fashion designer) Jean Cocteau. Fittingly, the two legends converged on a few occasions. In 1940 Cocteau wrote the play Le Bel Indifférent (The Beautiful Indifferent) for Piaf and her then husband, Paul Meurisse. (The play was credited with the end of their marriage, which perhaps was Cocteau’s plan.) In the early 1950s, after Piaf’s career had faded, Cocteau saw her singing in a Parisian dive, and wrote an article about her talents that revived her career. According to legend, Cocteau found out about Piaf’s death on the morning of October 11, said “Ah, la Piaf est morte. Je peux mourir aussi” [“Ah, Piaf's dead. I can die too”], and promptly died of a heart attack. This might not have been his smartest move, as Piaf upstaged him, closing down the streets of Paris as 40,000 fans mobbed her funeral. Cocteau’s own passing could not compete with that. (He was 74, while she was a tragically young 47.)

4. Orson Welles & Yul Brynner (October 11, 1985)

The great actor and filmmaker Orson Welles was known for his mammoth ego – something he had no trouble admitting. “I wouldn’t act a role if it was not felt as dominating the whole story,” he once said. Chances are, he wouldn’t have been happy that his death didn’t take up the entire obituary sections, sharing them with another great Hollywood scene-stealer, Yul Brynner. To make things worse, Brynner continued to appear regularly on television, reminding everyone of his death. As he was dying of smoking-related cancer, he had recorded a public service announcement with a simple message: “Don’t smoke. Whatever you do, just don’t smoke.” As Welles famously enjoyed puffing on cigars, this would have annoyed him even more.

5. Milton Berle, Dudley Moore & Billy Wilder (March 27, 2002)

When legendary comedian Milton Berle died in 2002, it was a double bill with another theatre and television comedy star, British musician and actor Dudley Moore. To add even more misery for comedy fans, film director and writer Billy Wilder – not exclusively a humorist, but also known for great comedies like Some Like It Hot and The Apartment – also died that day. “I hear you, Milton,” said comedy writer Larry Gelbart at Berle’s funeral. “Sorry, I know you work alone.”

6. Diana Kraft & Kent Kraft (February 9, 2008)

Unlike most people on this list, these two were not celebrities. However, few lives have been so intertwined as in the curious case of Kent Kraft and Diana Schroder. Both born on September 2, 1941 (in different parts of South Dakota), they married in Sioux Falls in 1964. Diana had been suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease for some time when she passed away in 2008. Kent, who had been briefly ill, died the same day, right next to her – ensuring that, when they died, they were the same age to the day.

7. Michelangelo Antonioni & Ingmar Bergman (July 30, 2007)

These two directors, giants of European arthouse cinema, were often mentioned in the same breath during their lifetimes. They both directed their first features in 1950, became commercially successful with “difficult” films, and were noticed in the US through university film societies (in which many students worshipped Antonioni and despised Bergman, or vice versa). When they died on the same day (Bergman at 89, Antonioni at 94), New York Times film reviewer A.O. Scott wrote that: “In their prime, Mr Antonioni and Mr Bergman were seen as the twin embodiments of the idea that a filmmaker could be, without qualification or compromise, a great artist.”

8. Tom Hanson & Richard Nicholas (March 10, 2009)

Canadians are probably familiar with at least one photo from the impressive portfolio of award-winning Canadian Press photojournalist Tom Hanson. In 1990, during a tense standoff with police in Quebec, Hanson snapped a masked Mohawk warrior – arm raised, rifle in hand – standing atop an overturned police van. This was land rights campaigner Richard Nicholas, and the photo became a famous symbol of the campaign. Less than 20 years later, both men died on the same day – and both at the young age of 41. Hanson collapsed playing hockey and died a few hours later. Meanwhile, Nicholas (whom he never actually met) was killed in a car crash. “To think that the very man who took that picture died on the same day at the same age — how miraculous is it that something like that would happen?” said Nicholas’ cousin Sonya Gagnier. “At that pinnacle moment in 1990 they crossed paths, and then they crossed paths again. It’s another pinnacle point.”

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Over the years, a handful of actors have truly made a difference in the world – and in some cases, they did so in ways that you wouldn’t expect. From inventors to troublesome mistresses to Kevin Bacon, here are seven examples.]]> Many famous actors aren’t satisfied with their stardom, and they want to do something more. Over the years, a handful of actors have truly made a difference in the world – and in some cases, they did so in ways that you wouldn’t expect. From inventors to troublesome mistresses to Kevin Bacon, here are seven examples.

1. Lola Montez – She Ended an Empire

Few 19th-century entertainers were as colorful as Irish actress and dancer Lola Montez (born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert), who appeared in Broadway shows and performed around Europe as a “Spanish” dancer. She was also banished from Warsaw for publicly criticizing the ruling despot, attacked a newspaper editor in Australia when he published a bad review of her show, gossiped with the Tsar, and was the lover of composer Franz Liszt. In her most notorious episode, she became mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1846, despite a 35-year age difference. Her fierce temper and arrogance made her very unpopular with his subjects, who were furious to see the influence she held over the famously amorous king, especially when he made her Countess of Landsfeld. Noble or not, her scandalous behavior contributed to the fall from grace of the popular king (who had ruled for 22 years), inspiring thoughts of revolution. Ludwig was forced to abdicate in 1848. Montez died in 1861 at age 39.

2. John Wilkes Booth – The President’s Toughest Critic

Many actors have strongly condemned the president of their time, but only one actually shot his commander in chief. John Wilkes Booth’s most dramatic performance, leaping to the stage after killing President Lincoln in 1865, might have overshadowed his acting pedigree. Despite the legend, he was not a failed actor. Born in Maryland, he was the younger brother of Edwin Booth, who brought class to the American theatre with his intense renditions of Shakespeare. John won his own renown as a dashing Romeo, and made a popular tour of the South in 1860-61 at the onset of the Civil War. The brothers (along with a third brother, Junius) also did a memorable version of Julius Caesar (with John playing, you guessed it, Brutus) not long before the assassination. John had entered into a conspiracy plot, and he famously shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. Though he escaped on a getaway horse waiting at the back of the theatre, he was shot twelve days later at age 26.

For the record, Edwin’s career went from strength to strength, despite the stigma of being an assassin’s brother. His later renditions of Othello in Britain, alongside the great English actors Sir Henry Irving and Dame Ellen Terry, won large audiences and rave reviews.

3. Florence Lawrence – Auto Pioneer

Canadian-born Florence Lawrence is mostly forgotten, but devoted film buffs remember her as the world’s first movie star. Initially, like all movie actors in the early days, she was uncredited for her work, and known to her fans as “the Biograph girl” (named after the studio that made her films). Though her face became famous, her name was unknown until Hollywood mogul Carl Laemmle brought her to his new IMP Company in 1910, revealing her name in big newspaper ads. At her first public appearance, in St. Louis, the crowds she drew were bigger than those that had greeted President Taft the previous week.

In her spare time, however, Lawrence was a tinkerer. The daughter of inventors, she was one of the first car-owners and a true automobile geek, inventing such accessories as the “auto signaling arm,” a forerunner of the turn signal (she placed an arm on the back of the fender that could be activated with the push of a button) and the automatic “full stop” sign, an early version of brake lights.

Sadly, like Erno Rubik and the inventor of the wheel, her genius didn’t extend to filling our patent forms, so others became rich by enhancing her inventions. Nor did she realize that popular film stars could demand ridiculously high salaries. She eventually died in poverty in 1938.

4. Zeppo Marx – The Cleverest Brother

Of all the Marx Brothers, the youngest, Herbert (alias Zeppo), got the raw deal. In the early movies, he played the straight man who usually didn’t do much. He left the team when they moved to MGM in 1934 (when, it so happened, their box-office improved greatly). But before labeling him as “the boring brother,” note that, as the baby of the family, he was stuck with that role. The others said that, in private, he was easily the funniest Marx. When Groucho was in hospital during one of their vaudeville shows, Zeppo would take over his role – and did it so well that some in the audience thought he was the “real” Groucho. (The cigars made him sick, however.)

Moreover, he was a brilliant engineer who always had a love of motor cars and machines. After leaving the Marx Brothers, he formed an engineering company, Marman Products, which manufactured coupling devices for aircraft. During World War II, most of his work was top-secret, but it was said that one of Marman’s devices was used to hold the first atom bombs in place. Some years later, he invented and patented a wrist device for cardiac patients that measured their heartbeats, sounding an alarm if the wearer went into cardiac arrest.

5. Hedy Lamarr – Mastermind of the Wireless

There must be something about movie stars and inventiveness. Hedy Keisler made history with her teenage nudity in the daring Austrian film Ecstasy (1932), and won even greater fame when she moved to Hollywood and took the name Hedy Lamarr. In films like Algiers (1938) and Samson and Delilah (1950), she was known as one of the most sultry and beautiful women in the movies.

But Lamarr had brains as well as beauty. During World War II, she invented a radio guidance system for torpedoes, which she developed with the help of another clever Hollywood friend, composer George Antheil. Known as “frequency hopping,” it consisted of two synchronized pianola rolls, allowing technicians to switch control frequencies so the torpedo could escape enemy tracking. Though they received a patent in 1942, the War Department declined to use it. It was later adapted for satellite communications, and is now widely used in cellular phones and other modern technology. As the patent had expired before most of this, neither Lamarr nor Antheil profited from their cleverness, but Lamarr was given due recognition before her death in 2000.

6. Eva Peron – Argentina’s National Heroine

Not every world leader has a movie star background, but as the current French president has proven, it doesn’t hurt to marry a popular entertainer. Argentina’s Eva Duarte, the illegitimate child of a farm laborer and a coachman’s daughter, escaped her village at age 15 for a career in show business. Her acting skills were nothing special, though she made six movies and became a popular radio broadcaster. Soon she was hobnobbing with political big shots, marrying revolutionary Juan Peron in 1945. They were a popular pair, with her good deeds (including work for charity and women’s suffrage) softening his image as a charismatic but tough soldier. Her humble background was frowned upon by the upper classes, but it made her a hero to the poor. Within a year, Juan Peron was elected president, thanks in no small part to the popularity of “Evita” (Little Eva). Politically astute, Eva had a strong influence in her husband’s government, and he wanted her to run as his vice-president in the 1951 election. Sadly, she had been stricken with uterine cancer and was too ill. She died, aged 33, in 1952. Naturally, she remained a folk hero in Argentina, and became even more famous as the heroine of the rock musical Evita (1978), which was filmed in 1996, presenting Madonna’s best-ever film performance. When the movie was released, Madonna was already four years older than the real Evita had ever been.

7. Kevin Bacon – He Might Save the World Someday

Well, sort of. Remember the 1990s party game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which players try to link any given movie actor, through a short chain of films, to Kevin Bacon, the star of Footloose and Mystic River? Bacon once commented in an interview that he’d worked with everyone in Hollywood, and three Albright College students created and popularized the game.

Of course, the idea of networking (getting a job from the friend of a friend) was nothing new, but around the time Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon originated, scientists Duncan Watts and Steve Strogatz were exploring the world of network theory, a new field of scientific research suggesting that large groups (be they viruses or football crowds) don’t connect randomly, but are structured around nodes. The theory was all well and good, but they needed to prove it by studying some real networks. Strangely, few networks had been mapped – but then they discovered The Oracle of Bacon, a cheat-sheet website for the Kevin Bacon game, created by student Brett Tjaden and linked to the Internet Movie Database.

Tjaden’s program, in the hands of the scientists, advanced the research considerably. Network science principles have already led directly to the capture of Saddam Hussein, as the military moved through the dictator’s social networks. But there are hub networks everywhere from computer chips to human cells. In the future, it is hoped, scientists will map out networks to combat terrorism, predict pandemics, even cure cancer. When this happens, remember to thank a certain Hollywood star for an off-hand comment he once made in an interview.

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From Casablanca to Indiana Jones, the scenes you remember aren't the ones anyone wrote. ]]>

Here are five great unscripted scenes that our movie memories couldn’t do without.

1. Beginning a beautiful friendship

Perhaps no movie has as many famous one-liners as Casablanca (1942). But they weren’t all the work of screenwriters Julius J Epstein, Philip G Epstein and Howard Koch (who deservedly won an Oscar for their work). Based on Murray Burnett and Joan Allison’s unproduced play Everybody Goes to Rick’s, the script was written in a hurry, and was still going through rewrites when filming commenced. As a result, some of the best lines were improvised. “Here’s looking at you, kid,” Humphrey Bogart’s farewell line to Ingrid Bergman, was a popular quote in the 1930s. Bogart ad-libbed it while filming Casablanca, and it worked so well that was used twice. In 2007, Premiere magazine named it the best greatest-ever movie line. Bogart’s final line, however, was created just for the film. Who can forget that last shot, as Rick (Bogart) and Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) walk away, planning to escape Casablanca after assisting in a noble cause. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” says Rick. The line was created by producer Hal B. Wallis, and dubbed by Bogart after filming was completed.

2. Indy vs. the Swordsman

In one of the coolest and most memorable scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), ready for action, is confronted by an evil-looking swordsman. Rather than engage him in hand-to hand combat, he gives the swordsman a tired, “you must be joking” expression, pulls out his gun and casually shoots him. This funny and clever moment, filmed in Tunisia, might never have happened if Ford and most of the crew weren’t suffering from food poisoning. Initially, Indy was supposed to defeat the swordsman in an extended fight sequence, using his famous whip. However, as he was so ill, the scene just wasn’t working. Instead, director Steven Spielberg allowed him to dispose of his foe in this simpler, but no less effective method. The tired look on Indy’s face, of course, was utterly real.

3. “You ain’t heard nothing yet!”

Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer, immortalized as the first-ever talking picture, was basically a silent film, with just a few moments of synchronised sound. The audio was mainly just a few opportunities for the star, Al Jolson, to sing hit songs like My Mammy and Blue Skies (later a hit for Willie Nelson). The small amount of dialogue was ad-libbed by Jolson and Eugenie Besserer (who played his mother – or his “mammy”). Jolson spoke a grand total of 281 words in the film, and the most memorable line was his final one: “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothing yet!” It was a prophetic quote, and more than 70 years later, it would earn a place in the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest movie lines. Because Jolson’s line was so off-the-cuff, it might have been removed from the final cut if Sam Warner, the driving force behind talking pictures, had not insisted that it stay. Sadly, Warner died of a sinus infection a day before the film’s release, meaning that he would never witness it making history.

4. The Odessa Steps Massacre

One of the most famous and powerful scenes in movie history, still harrowing after 84 years, showed Tsarist troops slaughtering Russian civilians at the port of Odessa during an unsuccessful 1905 revolution. It was part of Bronenosets Potemkin (1925), known to English-speakers as Battleship Potemkin (or simply Potemkin), commissioned by the Bolskevik authorities to a young filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, to fill the public with revolutionary zeal. The sequence originally it took up only three pages of a huge screenplay called The Year 1905 by Nina Agadzhavana-Shutko, a veteran of the 1905 revolution. It was conceived as an eight-part epic, with action taking place at locations around the Soviet Union, but the shooting was interrupted by bad weather (it was winter), making it impossible to meet the deadline. While in Odessa, however, Eisenstein decided to focus on one incident: the mutiny by sailors, and the subsequent massacre of civilians who supported them on the steps at Odessa. To increase the power of the scene, Eisenstein invented “montage”, editing numerous images in a vigorous and dynamic way. Soldiers inhumanly mow down the civilians; people are shot through the head (in close-up); crowds panic, trampling each other; and (most suspensefully) a mother loses control of her baby’s pram, which bounces down the steps before eventually overturning. It’s one of the most influential, imitated (most famously in The Godfather and The Untouchables) movie scenes, but it might have never happened if the weather had been better.

5. The Dance of Death

Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal) is set in medieval Sweden, ravaged by the black plague, where a knight returning from the Crusades (Max von Sydow) challenges Death (Bengt Ekerot) to a game of chess. Inevitably, the knight loses in the end. In one of the final scenes, he and five other characters are led away by Death, in the eerie “Dance of Death” sequence, shot against an ominous, cloudy background as the sun prepares to set. This very famous moment wasn’t in Bergman’s original script (or in his play, on which it was based), but added at the end of the day’s filming, when he noticed the visual effect of the clouds. Showing the doomed “dancers” in silhouette makes for a powerful image, but it was also a practical one. Most of the actors had already gone home, so Bergman arranged some technicians and nearby tourists to throw on the costumes as stand-ins. To the tourists, this must have been a real buzz. Spontaneously appearing in a movie is cool, but appearing in one of the greatest scenes of movie history must have been an incredible thrill.

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Death means nothing for super-heroes, who have a habit of returning to life in various inventive ways. Here are some of the most memorable examples.]]>

In recent months, some popular comic-book super-heroes – including Batman, the Martian Manhunter and the Wasp – have died in the line of duty. Yeah, right. Death means nothing for super-heroes, who have a habit of returning to life in various inventive ways. Here are some of the most memorable examples.

1. Lightning Lad

One of the original members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Lightning Lad (now called Live Wire) was also one of the first super-hero resurrections. When he died in action in 1963, it was a shock to young readers, who weren’t used to seeing a good guy die in the comics. Two months later, however, his comrades found a way to revive him. Through the use of lightning rods, one of them could take their life-force into his body. Being selfless and heroic, six of them volunteered (including the legendary Superboy and the not-so-legendary Chameleon Boy). The cliffhanger: which one would be struck by lightning first, reviving Lightning Lad and sacrificing themselves, thereby becoming (as the title of the story suggested) “The Bravest Legionnaire”? In the end, it was Proty, a blob-like alien who had been Chameleon Boy’s pet. Lightning Lad was alive, and none of the real Legionnaires had to die.

2. Professor X

In the third X-Men film, Professor Xavier, the leader and mentor of the X-Men, was killed by Phoenix, only to return in the end. (You missed that bit? One reason to sit through the closing credits.) In the comics, Professor X was killed in 1967 in a blatant attempt to increase sales (in true TV drama style) by killing off a major character. Two years later, when Marvel Comics’ editors realized that the team still needed his leadership, they decided to bring him back. Readers discovered that it wasn’t Professor X who had died, but the Changeling, a villain who could change his form to look like anyone else. Suffering from a terminal illness, he decided to mend his ways and made a secret deal to replace Professor X while the professor was on a secret mission. Through his sacrifice, the Changeling was redeemed for his crimes.

3. Elektra

You might wonder how, after dying in the awful movie Daredevil (probably of embarrassment), martial arts master Elektra (played by Jennifer Garner) returned for her own, even worse, spin-off movie. In the comics, that was all explained. Elektra, created by writer-artist Frank Miller, was killed by the assassin Bullseye in 1982. She was so popular, however, that another writer resurrected her in an occult ceremony by a mystical ninja cult. Though fans had predicted that she’d return to life, not everyone was happy with it – especially not Miller, who had always wanted to maintain the power of her death.

4. Superman

Superman is the most famous comic-book superhero, and some would say he’s the greatest. Whatever the case, his death was certainly the most profitable. The Death of Superman, a 1993 story in which he died in his girlfriend Lois Lane’s arms (after saving the world, naturally), made front-page newspaper headlines and sold 100 times more Superman comics than usual. Nobody really expected DC Comics to kill him (not permanently, at least), but the question was: how will he return? DC kept readers waiting for several months, in which other heroes tried to step into his shoes. Eventually, one of these heroes, the Krypton Man (a less ethical version of Superman), used Kryptonian technology to return the original guy to life. He also sacrificed himself in the process, so if Superman dies again, he’ll have to find some other way to come back.

5. Hellcat

Patsy Walker has one of the most interesting histories of any comic-book character. She started in 1945 as the wholesome, popular heroine of a humorous comic for girls. In the 1970s, she became a super-hero called Hellcat, fighting alongside the Avengers. She later married a superhero called Son of Satan, which was probably not a smart idea. As her enemies became more demonic, she was driven insane, eventually killing herself in 1994. Another bad move. In 2000, we discovered that she was trapped in Hell, in the “arena of tainted souls.” A super-hero team called the Thunderbolts, using magical powers, entered Hell to save another dead superhero, Mockingbird (the wife of their leader, Hawkeye). In a story like the Thracian myth of Orpheus in the Underworld, they were tricked into saving Hellcat instead. (For the record, Mockingbird was also resurrected in a recent comic.)

6. Bucky

When World War II hero Captain America returned in 1964 (having been frozen in ice for 20 years), it was thought that his young sidekick, Bucky Barnes, had died in action. This gave the good Captain several years of angst, in which he blamed himself for Bucky’s death. In 2005, however, it was revealed that Bucky was found during the war by the Russian Army, who had “reprogrammed” him as a Soviet assassin during the Cold War. (He still hadn’t aged much, because he’d been kept in “stasis” between assassination gigs.) Last year, when Captain America was shot by government agent Sharon Carter (who was under the control of the dastardly Red Skull), Bucky took over as the new Captain America. As Bucky, Sharon and the Red Skull have all “died” in the past, only to return to life, we can probably assume that the original Captain America will also be back.

7. Dupli-Kate

Some heroes’ powers make them easy to resurrect. Introduced in Image Comics’ Invincible, the Chinese-American adolescent heroine Dupli-Kate had the power to make several copies of herself. She soon struck up a romance with the title hero, the teenage Invincible, until she was killed fighting the Lizard League in 2007. She returned a few months later, however, revealing that only some of her duplicates had died, while the original was hiding somewhere… which doesn’t seem terribly heroic, but at least it makes some kind of sense. If you were being chased by a gang called the Lizard League, you’d probably hide somewhere too.

8. Aunt May!

Non-superhuman characters don’t get resurrected quite as often, but Spider-Man’s loving Aunt May is an exception. When she died peacefully in 1995, fans didn’t rush out to protest. She had been an old woman for the past 33 years of comics, and as Spider-Man had been married for some years, she no longer needed to look after him. Her final scenes with Spidey and his wife were actually very poignant. But while fans didn’t complain en masse about her death, they weren’t happy with other changes that were happening to Spider-Man at the same time. Faced with plummeting sales, Marvel Comics set about fixing things, which included changing just about everything else they had recently done. Hence, it was revealed that Aunt May had been kidnapped and replaced by an actress, who was given plastic surgery to impersonate her, as part of a scheme by the villainous Green Goblin (who, as you might guess, was thought dead). As the actress had fooled Spider-Man and his wife, even on her deathbed, that was one heck of a performance!

A few special mentions:

Freedom Fighters
Some deaths are simply needless. Three members of this team, after fighting evil since World War II, were killed in 2006. They weren’t exactly resurrected, but were replaced by a new group of Freedom Fighters with the same names, similar costumes, similar powers and no great difference in personality. Cool death scene, though.

Hawkeye
Killed in battle, he was resurrected when his ex-girlfriend, the Scarlet Witch, used her magical powers to create an alternative world in which (among other things) he still existed. Even though that world was later destroyed, Hawkeye somehow managed to survive.

Iron Fist
He was thought to have died in 1986, but he had actually been ambushed by plant-based aliens, who replaced him with another plant-based alien which had taken his form. Got that?

Jocasta
As a robot, this super-heroine has been destroyed no less than four times, but is still fighting fit. They have plenty of electronic geniuses with soldering irons over at Marvel Comics!

Metamorpho
This DC Comics hero, able to change his body into practically any material, was sliced in half with a sword. Fortunately, he was able to join himself together again – one of his powers that had never previously been revealed (but was very convenient).

Phoenix
The super-hero and powerful cosmic being killed herself (to save the universe from her destructive power) in 1980. But like the original Phoenix, she rose from the ashes (for reasons too complicated to explain). She’s now dead again, but X-Men readers don’t believe it for a minute.

Supergirl
She died saving the universe, with great hoopla, back in 1985. Soon after, however, the entire history of the universe was changed. Years later, it was revealed that she was still alive after all.

Thing
When the most popular member of the Fantastic Four was killed in a battle with the nefarious Doctor Doom, his teammates followed his spirit to the gates of Heaven itself, where he was restored to life by a powerful cosmic being called the Creator.

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Before every Oscars, critics complain about how predictable the results will be. But sometimes the Oscars can surprise. Here are some of the more memorable occasions.]]>

Every year during Oscar season, you can always safely guess one thing: Before the awards are presented, critics will complain about how predictable the Oscars are. But while every year seems to have a few obvious results, you do get the occasional shocker. Take the 1996 awards, for example, when Lauren Bacall was expected to be named Best Supporting Actress because, frankly, she was getting old. Instead, young Juliette Binoche’s name was announced, which was a problem, because she hadn’t even prepared a speech. “I don’t know why I got this,” she apologized. “I thought Lauren would win.” Yes, sometimes the Oscars can surprise. Here are some of the most memorable occasions.

1. Katharine Hepburn (1932-33)

As a young actress, Katharine Hepburn was dubbed “box-office poison,” and wasn’t well-liked in Hollywood, so just being nominated for Morning Glory was surprising enough. She didn’t even show up to the Oscars ceremony, which she might have found entertaining. Host for the night was liberal satirist Will Rogers, joking about Republicans, Hollywood big shots, even Oscars lobbying (predating Jon Stewart’s Oscar night banter by 73 years). His rudest joke, however, was reserved for the Best Actress award. Upon opening the envelope, he summoned the other two nominees, May Robson and Diana Wynyard. They rushed up excitedly, assuming that it was a tie (as had happened with the Best Actor prize the previous year). Instead, Rogers thanked them for their performances and announced that the winner was their rival, Katharine Hepburn. (Funny, perhaps… but what a creep!) The stunned crowd replied with a half-hearted applause.

Hollywood later warmed to Hepburn, eventually giving her another three Oscars – more than any other actress. Though she never bothered to show up, Hepburn confessed in 1998 that she felt touched by her Oscars. “They gave me their respect and their affection. It was a revelation – the generous heart of the industry.” Even after her death, she proved that she could still win Oscars, when Cate Blanchett took home a statuette for playing her in The Aviator (2004).

2. Luise Rainer (1937)

When Luise Rainer was nominated as Best Actress for The Good Earth (1937), she didn’t even bother to show up to the Oscars, opting to stay home instead. She had won the previous year, and was convinced (like most people) that no actor could ever win consecutive Oscars. Besides, she was up against the revered Greta Garbo, who had never won, for her acclaimed performance in Camille. However, their boss, tycoon Louis B. Mayer, used his considerable power to get an advance peek of the winners’ names on the night – and found that Rainer had indeed beaten the great Garbo! At the last moment, she was ordered to throw on a gown and rush to the awards ceremony, with no time even to apply her make-up. When her second victory in a row was announced, the audience was somewhat taken aback.

While it was a great honor, it didn’t do her much good. Within a year, her career had fizzled. “I have often heard the Academy Award to be a bad omen,” she later said. Still, she is the oldest living Oscar winner (at 99), so it’s not all bad news.

3. An American in Paris (1951)

The bookies could have made a killing during the 1951 Oscars, when it was assumed that A Streetcar Named Desire would sweep the field. Easily the favorite, it would win four Oscars, including three of the acting awards. A major upset happened, however, when the Best Director award went not to Streetcar director Elia Kazan, but to George Stevens for the long shot A Place in the Sun. Of course, the Best Director usually directs the Best Film. After this shock, all bets were off. It could go either way: A Streetcar Named Desire or A Place in the Sun. When the envelope was opened, at one of the most suspenseful Oscar nights ever, the winner was… An American in Paris.

There was an audible gasp from the audience, followed by loud applause. People who were already leaving suddenly stopped near the exit, wondering if their hearing was all right. Back then, musicals never won the Oscar for Best Film. (The only exception was The Broadway Melody, way back in 1928.) Gene Kelly, the star of An American in Paris, had even been presented with an honorary Oscar that night, which is usually a consolation prize for people who will never win a “real” Oscar. Now his producer, Arthur Freed, was proudly holding one of those statuettes.

4. Grace Kelly (1954)

Judy Garland was a lock for the 1954 Best Actress award for the musical A Star is Born. Not only was it a fine performance, but she was one of Hollywood’s best-loved stars. Most of all, this was her great comeback, after years of breakdowns and personal struggles. On the night itself, she was in hospital recovering from her latest drama: the premature birth of her son. A camera crew was at her bedside, she was wired for sound, and her hair and make-up were done for the inevitable announcement.

To everyone’s shock, the Oscar instead went to 26-year-old former model Grace Kelly, for The Country Girl. To this day, critics call this one of the strangest decisions in Oscars history. Once again showing her acting prowess, Garland smiled graciously at the news, while being secretly heartbroken. Kelly would retire from acting two years later to become Princess Grace of Monaco.

5. Marisa Tomei (1992)

At the 1992 Oscars, the favorite for best supporting actress was esteemed Australian actress Judy Davis, nominated for Husbands and Wives. Still, she had some fine competition from classical British thespians Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave and Miranda Richardson. With such an outstanding field, many were flabbergasted when Jack Palance opened the envelope and announced that the winner was… cute young Brooklyn-born actress Marisa Tomei, for her funny performance in My Cousin Vinny. To this day, film buffs can’t believe it. It was unkindly suggested that, upon opening the envelope, 74-year-old Palance didn’t actually read it, but absent-mindedly repeated the name of the last nominee. For the record, many safeguards are in place to ensure that flubs don’t become official results.

But how could Tomei have won against such a prestigious group? Well, the Academy is famously patriotic. The British vote would have been split – but as the only American nominee, perhaps it should have been surprising if Tomei had not won.

6. Roman Polanski (2002)

Few film directors are as notorious as the French-born, Polish director Roman Polanski. His outspoken opinions about Hollywood have upset many people. His dark and disturbing films, like Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, are not exactly date movies. Oh, and he has been a fugitive from justice since fleeing the US in 1978 while facing statutory rape charges. So when he was nominated for his movie The Pianist, he was not considered a serious prospect, especially against Martin Scorsese, who (as the Academy was often reminded) still didn’t have an Oscar after many years as one of Hollywood’s great directors. Scorsese didn’t have a lock on the award, however. As Chicago swept the field, things were looking good for Rob Marshall, director of that crowd-pleasing movie. But while Chicago would be named Best Film, it was Polanski who would take the Best Director prize – and despite his sordid past, this was greeted with a warm applause. Of course, he couldn’t be there to accept it. His friend Harrison Ford accepted it on his behalf.

7. Marlon Brando (1972)

Let’s save perhaps the biggest surprise for last. When Brando was announced as the Best Actor winner for The Godfather, it was no surprise. Even though his Don Corleone wasn’t really the lead actor (he died somewhere in the middle of the film), he was expected to win for his unforgettable performance. The surprise wasn’t in the result, but in the acceptance of his award. Instead of the man himself, a Native American woman in tribal regalia introduced herself as Sacheen Littlefeather. “I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you that he very regretfully cannot accept this generous award – and the reason for this, being the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.” After she left, to a stunned audience, presenter Clint Eastwood had to follow her. “I don’t know if I should present this award on behalf of all the cowboys shot in John Ford westerns over the years,” he said.

It was later discovered that Littlefeather was actually an actress named Maria Cruz, and reported that Brando still received the award, displaying it proudly next to his other Oscar. Still, it goes down one of the great surprises of Oscar night history.

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Mark Juddery is here to remember ten people who passed away in 2008, including a Civil War widow, the world's oldest blogger and the man behind the McMuffin.]]>

At the end of each year, the media reflects on the famous people who died over the past 12 months. This year’s notable losses include Paul Newman, Edmund Hillary, Tim Russert and Arthur C. Clarke. But many others have been ignored by most news outlets. Here are ten more people who passed away in 2008 who are certainly worth remembering, including a Civil War widow, the world’s oldest blogger and the man behind the McMuffin.

1. Irena Sandler: Cunning War Hero

During World War II, Catholic social worker Irena Sandler saved some 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Disguised as a nurse, she would smuggle them out through the sewer, or in sacks, coffins, suitcases and – for one baby – a mechanic’s toolbox. In 1943, she was captured by the Gestapo and tortured. Her legs and feet were broken, and her body suffered permanent scars, but she refused to identify the children (now living new lives) or her accomplices. She escaped after a guard was bribed, returning to work under a different identity.

Though she later won Poland’s highest honor, and was nominated last year for a Nobel Peace Prize (she lost to Al Gore), she still suffered from Oscar Schindler-like feelings of guilt. “We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes,” she said in 2005. “That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death.”

2. Maudie Hopkins: The Last Civil War Widow

Maudie Hopkins was almost certainly the last surviving widow of a Confederate soldier – and as the Civil War came to an end in 1865, it was no small achievement that she made it all the way to 2008. OK, it helps to know that her husband, widower William M. Cantrell, was only 16 when he enlisted. In 1934, 86-year-old Cantrell and 19-year-old Hopkins entered a marriage of convenience, as he offered to bequeath his land and home to her if she looked after him in his final years. He died only three years later, and she lived off his land, marrying three more times. It might have required a 67-year age difference, but Hopkins seems to have been the last surviving Civil War widow – and she was born 50 years after the war!

3. Albert Hofmann: Discovered LSD

Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman made an accidental discovery in 1943, while researching the use of lysergic acid derivatives in medicinal drugs. Absorbing a small quantity through his fingertips, he felt the effects on a bicycle ride home, experiencing the world’s first LSD trip. Three days later, he deliberately consumed larger quantities of LSD, writing of the “remarkable restlessness” and “extremely stimulated imagination” that it gave him. Though it was used successfully in psychoanalysis, it became popular as a recreational drug in the sixties, as Timothy Leary promoted acid tripping as a spiritual experience and countless rock stars used it for inspiration. Hofmann was unhappy with this, feeling that his discovery was being misused by youth culture – and of course, demonized by the authorities for its dangerous side effects. He went on to defend LSD in numerous articles and books, and in an international symposium held on his 100th birthday in 2006.

4. Anita Page: Silent Film Star

Eighty years after the first sound movies (or “talkies”) were made, there is almost nobody left from the silent movie era. Anita Page was one of the youngest silent movie stars, making her first movie (in a small role) at age 15 in 1925. Over the next few years, she would co-star with such silent screen legends as Joan Crawford, Lon Chaney and Buster Keaton. A very pretty blonde best known for playing lively flappers, Page’s fans included Benito Mussolini, who (she claimed) proposed to her several times via fan mail. Page was the last survivor of the original Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, and starred in The Broadway Melody, the first talkie to win an Oscar for best film. She retired from movies at age 26, but made one of the most surprising comebacks in history 60 years later, at age 86, in the obscure thriller Sunset After Dark. When she died at age 98, her last film, Frankenstein Rising, was still in post-production. Not bad for someone who retired in 1936.

So was she the last of the adult silent film stars? You would think so, unless you discover that Barbara Kent, co-star of movies like Flesh and the Devil (1926) and No Man’s Law (1927), is still apparently living in Idaho at age 102.

5. Tony Schwartz: The Man Behind “Daisy”

You might not know the name, but you probably know some of his work. Tony Schwartz was an advertiser, art director and political consultant whose most famous advertisement was “Daisy,” a notorious 30-second spot that helped Lyndon Johnson win the 1964 Presidential election by a landslide. “Daisy” is still remembered today, which is highly impressive because a) it aired 44 years ago, and b) it aired only once during the election. In the days before cable, that’s all it took for one powerful commercial to be effective – and whether you consider this an amazing work of art or a disgraceful piece of fear-mongering, this ad was certainly powerful. It showed a young girl innocently counting the petals on a daisy, while a narrator counts down. The camera ominously zooms into the pupil of the girl’s eye – and a nuclear bomb detonates, releasing a mushroom cloud. “These are the stakes,” says Johnson’s voice, suggesting (convincingly, it would seem) that a vote for his opponent, Barry Goldwater, could lead to ultimate disaster.

Schwartz made many political ads, mainly for Democrats, but in his long career, he also conceived ads for companies like Chrysler and Coca-Cola.

6. Jo Stafford: “G.I. Jo”

If you’ve never heard of Jo Stafford, you’re probably too young… like most other people. While her death at age 90 went unnoticed by many, she was a huge recording star at her peak, known for her pure, melodic and versatile voice. That peak, however, was the early 1950s – so she outlived most of her fans. Starting as a Big Band singer during World War II, she went solo in 1944, recording no less than 93 songs over the years, including chart-topping classics like “You Belong to Me” (1952) and “Make Love to Me” (1954). She also had her own television series and sang for servicemen, who called her “G.I. Jo.” But she didn’t win a Grammy Award until 1960 – and she did it by joking around. After a recording session, she and her husband, musician Paul Weston, did some songs as a truly awful duet called Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, with “Darlene” singing off-key and “Jonathan” playing piano badly. For a laugh, they released a few songs in these personae, winning a Grammy for best comedy album. Silly as it was, it was perhaps Stafford’s most influential work. She is now viewed as a pioneer of musical parody.

7. Herb Peterson: Inventor of the Egg McMuffin

Most great inventors are only known for one invention. Herb Peterson, a food scientist, gave the world one very common innovation, enjoyed by millions of people each day: the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin, first sold in 1972 at a McDonald’s franchise he owned in Santa Barbara, California. A big fan of eggs benedict, he devised the McMuffin as McDonald’s answer to this traditional breakfast dish – although, to the serious café patron, processed cheese might not hold quite the same appeal as rich hollandaise sauce. Nonetheless, it worked for McDonald’s, which soon had a signature breakfast sandwich to complement the burgers. The fast food chain has since earned $4-5 billion from the Peterson’s invention.

8. Del Martin: Gay Rights Activist

Del Martin was a pioneer lesbian rights activist, in the days when women in general (gay or straight) struggled to be regarded as equals. In 1955, she and her partner, Phyllis Lyons, co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian political organization in the US (named after a 19th-century collection of Sapphic love poems). Martin was also the first openly gay board member of the National Organization of Women, and helped form the Council of Religion and Homosexuality in 1964, fighting to ensure that homosexuals were accepted in churches. Her hard work was finally rewarded on June 16, 2008, when the law allowing same-sex marriages was passed in California. She and Lyons were legally wed in California’s first union of that type. They were just in time; Martin was 87. She died in August, only months before the law was rescinded.

9. Clay Felker: Magazine Pioneer

Just as today’s magazine editors worry about the internet, their predecessors of 40 years ago feared losing their readers and advertisers to the growing popularity of television. In fact, Clay Felker is part of the reason there are still so many magazines on the newsstand. As founding editor of New York in 1968, he invented a new style of magazine: chic, energetic, gossipy, civic-minded, cynical and in-crowd. With star writers like Tom Wolfe, Gail Sheehy (whom he later married) and Jimmy Breslin, he pioneered the famous “new journalism.” It changed and revitalized the magazine world. Felker would also edit Esquire, The Village Voice, Adweek and other magazines, and helped Gloria Steinem – one of his staff writers at New York – start the influential feminist magazine, Ms.

10. Olive Riley: World’s Oldest Blogger

Born in 1899 in the Outback mining town of Broken Hill, Olive Riley disproves the idea that older people can’t learn to use new technology. She started her blog, The Life of Riley, in 2006. Over the next two years, she would write 70 posts and – thanks partly to a documentary about her life – accumulated 1.2 million hits. She was even nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award. Though she was probably Australia’s oldest woman, she took more pride in the title of World’s Oldest Blogger. Inspiring as this was, her posts mainly chronicled her declining health. She also spoke about her love of the environment and the importance of saving energy, encouraging tinkerers and inventors to make energy-saving devices. She posted her last blog in April (though her friends kept readers updated in later installments), and died in July at the age of 108.

Mark Juddery is a Australian writer and historian. His latest book, Busted! The 50 Most Overrated Things in History, is published by Random House.

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