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Few figures loom larger in modern history than Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96 on September 8, 2022, after reigning for a record-setting 70 years. A symbol of duty and stability both in her native England and abroad, the monarch born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was a ubiquitous presence even as she remained unknowable — an aura that allowed for a great deal of artistic license in fictional depictions such as the 2006 movie The Queen and Netflix’s historical series The Crown. From serving in World War II to creating her own breed of dog to favoring the same $9 nail polish for more than 30 years, here are some fascinating tidbits about Her Royal Highness, whose impact on the world will be felt for generations to come.

She Probably Met More People Than Anyone Else in History

With royalty comes ceremony, and the queen attended more than her fair share of them throughout her seven-decade reign. With all the weddings, foreign tours, and other public events that filled her calendar, it’s probable that she met more people than anyone else in history — including 13 Presidents of the United States. Whether you consider meeting so many people a pro or con of her position likely depends on your own attitude toward large gatherings.

She Celebrated Two Birthdays

While the queen’s actual birthday fell on April 21, she also had a second “official” birthday in the summer. It was marked with a ceremony called Trooping the Colour, a practice that has existed for over 260 years to ensure that British sovereigns whose birthdays fall during colder months also have a ceremony that happens during nicer weather. More than 1400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians participated in the military parade, which usually happened in June. (The “colors” in the ceremony’s name refers to the hues of the flags used by regiments in the British Army; “trooping” refers to officers marching up and down waving the flags.) The public turn out in droves to take part, and members of the royal family also joined the procession on horseback or in carriages.

She Never Went to School

British royals throughout history were often educated at home, and that included Queen Elizabeth. She was taught by private tutors, with a focus on British law and history. The young Elizabeth also learned to ride horses, and was privately instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The queen also studied music, art, and French throughout her life. (She spoke fluent French, often switching between English and French while delivering speeches in French-speaking countries.)

She Served With the British Army During World War II

In 1945, Queen Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) — the women’s branch of the British Army — to serve as a subaltern (or junior officer) during World War II. During her time in the army, the queen learned to drive and to maintain vehicles as a truck driver and mechanic.

When the war ended, the then-princess and her sister, Princess Margaret, secretly joined revelers in the street to celebrate the Allied victory. She even did the conga at the Ritz. The queen later called it “one of the most memorable nights of my life.”

90% of All Living People Were Born After She Became Queen

There are many statistics that put the record-breaking length of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in focus, but none quite like the fact that nine in 10 living human beings were born after she became queen. The vast majority of people in the world, whether in England or anywhere else, had literally never known another British monarch until her son became king.

She Didn’t Need a Driver’s License or Passport

While the queen was often chauffeured around in a custom Bentley limousine, she also once enjoyed driving herself around in her beloved Range Rover. But unlike every other person who drives in the U.K., Her Royal Highness did not require a driver’s license nor a license plate on her car. As the name in which British passports are issued, she also did not require a document of her own for international travel.

She Once Acted With James Bond

In 2012, the queen acted in a short video segment with Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond. Filmed for the London Olympics, the Danny Boyle-directed clip showed the queen doing her best 007 as she skydived from a helicopter into the stadium where the opening ceremony was being held. While the queen did have her own lines for the appearance — and was said to be a natural — the actual jump was performed by a stuntman.

She Didn’t Eat Pasta, Potatoes, or Garlic

Darren McGrady, who served as the queen’s personal chef for 15 years, revealed in 2017 that Her Royal Highness stayed away from starchy foods unless they were served at a state dinner. Instead, she ate an abundance of grilled fish, chicken, and vegetables, as well as salad and fresh fruit. McGrady also said that she did not like food prepared with garlic or too many onions. Her daughter-in-law Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed the anti-garlic stance during an appearance on MasterChef Australia, saying it is common among royals due to their frequent public appearances.

Her Favorite Nail Polish Was a $9 Bottle of Essie

Since 1989, the queen preferred Essie’s “Ballet Slippers” as her nail polish of choice. The pale, almost translucent shade of pink became standard within the royal family, where it is reportedly against the dress code to wear dark or bright nail polish. According to Essie, “Ballet Slippers” remains one of the company’s most popular colors, and a bottle of it is sold every two seconds.

She Owned More Than 30 Corgis and Invented the “Dorgi”

Throughout her life and reign, Elizabeth always kept corgis. She got her first corgi in 1933, when her father brought one home as a family pet. When she was 18, she got her own pet corgi, Susan, from which all her other dogs over the years would be descended. She has also owned almost a dozen “dorgis” — a cross between a dachshund and a corgi that was first introduced to the royal household when one of the queen’s dogs mated with Princess Margaret’s dachshund.

She Used Her Purse To Send Signals to Her Staff

The queen was hardly ever seen without one of her signature Launer handbags; she was said to own about 200 of them. While she reportedly used her purse to carry a mirror, lipstick, mints, and reading glasses, she also discreetly sent signals to her staff with it. According to one royal historian, Her Royal Highness would switch her purse from her left arm to her right if she wished to be politely ushered away from a conversation. If she placed her purse on the floor, it meant she needed saving from an uncomfortable situation. And if the handbag ended up on the table at dinner, it reportedly meant she wished to be whisked away within the next five minutes.

She Drank a Glass of Champagne Before Bed

It’s only fitting that the queen of England would choose a classy nightcap. Her first cousin Margaret Rhodes reportedly once said that Queen Elizabeth ended most days by enjoying a glass of Champagne before going to sleep — most likely Bollinger Champagne, the official supplier to the royal household. Her Majesty also reportedly enjoyed a gin and Dubonnet with a slice of lemon before lunch, a glass of wine with lunch, and a dry martini in the evening.

15 Prime Ministers Served Under Her

Beginning with Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss, whom the Queen met just two days before her death, 15 prime ministers served under Queen Elizabeth II. The other 13 are, in order, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major (the first PM who was younger than the Queen), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson. After retiring, Churchill said of the Queen that “All the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part.”

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Some of the most enduring scenes in cinematic history come from unscripted moments when directors or stars dared to veer off-book and go with the flow of spontaneity. Here are eight such moments that weren’t part of the original plan, but unquestionably turned into movie magic for appreciative audiences.

“You Talkin’ to Me?” in “Taxi Driver”

While Robert De Niro had a pretty good idea of how to play troubled veteran Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, he was unsure of how to approach a part in which his character “looks in the mirror and plays like a cowboy, pulls out his gun, talks to himself.” Ultimately, the actor locked himself in a room with director Martin Scorsese to figure out how to tackle the scene. “He kept saying, ‘You talkin’ to me?'” Scorsese later remembered. “He just kept repeating it, kept repeating it. … It was like a jazz riff. Just like a solo.” The end result was one of Hollywood’s most iconic scenes and, for De Niro, a lifetime spent listening to well-intentioned and less-talented imitators throw the line back at him.

The Necklace Scene in “Pretty Woman”

It’s a small and relatively unimportant moment in Pretty Woman, yet nonetheless provided a hint that its fresh-faced female lead was going to become a huge star. Intending to shoot footage for a gag reel, director Garry Marshall told Richard Gere, as businessman Edward Lewis, to snap a jewelry box shut as Julia Roberts, playing call girl Vivian Ward, reaches for the necklace inside. Roberts responded with her now well-known whopper of a laugh, drawing a sheepish chortle from Gere, and Marshall was so happy with the sincerity of the interaction, he wound up leaving it in the movie.

The Quickly Dispatched Swordsman in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”

One of the funniest moments of Raiders of the Lost Ark comes when Indy, facing off with a fearsome sword-fielding foe on the streets of Cairo, simply pulls out his gun to shoot the guy. As originally conceived, this was meant to be “the most definitive ‘whip against the sword’ fight,” in the words of director Steven Spielberg. However, after coming down with a case of dysentery that all but kept him tethered to the nearest restroom, star Harrison Ford began examining whether an extended fight sequence was really necessary at this point of the story. Ultimately, Spielberg agreed that the narrative would be better served by a quick, physical punchline, with the added bonus that the change suddenly left his production ahead of schedule.

The Uncredited Cat in “The Godfather”

The opening scene of The Godfather, in which Vito Corleone opines on the meaning of friendship to a justice-seeking Amerigo Bonasera, was part of the script. The friendly cat nestled into star Marlon Brando’s lap? Not so much. Director Francis Ford Coppola recalled he “saw the cat running around the studio, and took it and put it in [Brando’s] hands without a word.” But while the feline’s presence helped magnify the tension of the scene, its incessant purring reportedly drowned out much of Brando’s distinct mumbling, forcing sound editors to redub the dialogue.

“We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat” in “Jaws”

Well before Jaws set the standard for summer blockbusters and scared a generation of vacationers away from the beach, it was a production marked by logistic challenges that threatened to sink the fortunes of everyone involved. One of its problems was an overloaded equipment barge, and the way-too-small support boat that failed to adequately steady its larger companion. Eventually the phrase, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” became a running gag among the set workers, inspiring co-star Roy Scheider to slip the line into a few of his takes. Although they were mostly excised in the final cut, editor Verna Fields wisely kept the line when Scheider’s Chief Brody (and the audience) gets the first good look at the underwater killer.

Willy Wonka’s Introduction in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”

When we finally meet the titular candy kingpin of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, he inches toward the crowd with a pronounced limp and falls over, before somersaulting back to his feet with a burst of joyous energy. This was entirely the brainchild of star Gene Wilder, who devised the dramatic entrance of his character after sensing “something missing” from the original script. When asked for his motivation behind this particular introduction, Wilder explained that it would serve to keep audiences on their toes: “I knew that from that time on no one would know if I was lying or telling the truth.”

The “Cinderella Story” in “Caddyshack”

The juvenile humor of Caddyshack isn’t for everyone, but even the harshest of critics can applaud Bill Murray’s improvised performance in the “Cinderella story” scene. Provided minimal instruction — the script simply reads, “The sky is beginning to darken. CARL, THE GREENSKEEPER, is absently lopping the heads off bedded tulips as he practices his golf swing with a grass whip” — Murray proceeded to narrate an imaginary broadcast about an underdog who wins golf’s prestigious Masters Tournament with a miracle finish. If not quite as powerful as, say, Sidney Poitier’s “You don’t own me” speech from Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, the monologue encapsulates the delightfully goofy mindset of Murray’s minor but memorable character.

“I’m the King of the World!” in “Titanic”

Yet another entry on the list of “endlessly quoted movie lines that were made up on the spot” comes courtesy of Titanic, when Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack gazes over the doomed ship’s bow, throws out his arms, and declares, “I’m the king of the world!” This time, it’s director James Cameron who takes credit for the last-minute addition; after shooting the scene several times with alternate lines that didn’t seem to be landing, Cameron finally told the actor, “All right, I got one for you — just say, ‘I’m the king of the world.'” DiCaprio allegedly was puzzled by the choice, but he committed to its delivery, producing an indelible moment in the record-breaking film that transformed him into a bona fide movie star.

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While many types of apparel go in or out of fashion, blue jeans retain a timeless appeal. Denim pants are not only versatile, fashionable, and comfortable, but they also have a rich history dating back to the 1800s, evolving from a workwear staple into one of the world’s most popular clothing items. From the U.S. President who once banned them in the Oval Office to the legendary crooner who inspired the Canadian tuxedo, zip up these six fascinating facts about blue jeans.

Blue Jeans Were Initially Called “Waist Overalls”

When businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davies received their patent for denim pants with metal rivets at the stress points to make them more durable on May 20, 1873, they marketed the trousers as “waist overalls,” intended for miners and other workers. The utilitarian pants underwent their first marketing shift in 1890, when the company introduced Levi’s 501 waist overalls made from blue denim, a move to widen their appeal in advance of the patent’s imminent expiration. (Why Levi’s chose the number 501 is unclear; many of the company’s records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.)

This marked the start of a shift in blue denim’s fashionability. In the following decades, the pants began to grace the silver screen, worn by movie stars such as Marlon Brando (in 1953’s The Wild One) and James Dean (in 1955’s Rebel Without A Cause). As the product garnered mainstream attention, the focus of marketing campaigns transitioned away from the working man to a wider audience interested in everyday fashion. By 1960, the pants became known as  “blue jeans” — a term that originally referred to a type of twilled cloth from Genoa, Italy — replacing the “overalls” designation for good.

George W. Bush Banned Blue Jeans From the Oval Office

Shortly after assuming the presidency in 2001, George W. Bush banned jeans from the Oval Office, reverting to a dress code that was set in place during his father’s administration but had been relaxed during the Clinton years. (The stricter dress code also required men to wear neckties and women to wear “appropriate business attire.”) Prior to Bush taking office, several Presidents publicly sported blue jeans, including Jimmy Carter, who donned the pants to embrace his farming roots, and Ronald Reagan, who owned a ranch in California and was frequently seen wearing blue jeans while riding on horseback. President Clinton was the first to flaunt blue jeans around the White House, and he was even known to wear them while working from the Oval Office on weekends.

While Bush’s executive order sought to restore more of a classic formal atmosphere for official business at the White House, he was often seen wearing blue jeans at his Texas ranch. And he did make at least one notable exception to the White House dress code — in 2005, he welcomed U2 lead singer Bono to the Oval Office, despite the rocker being clad in black jeans and sunglasses.

A Denim-Themed Car Hit the Market in the 1970s

In 1970, the American Motors Corporation unveiled an unusual-looking two-door subcompact car called the Gremlin, which was met with mixed reactions. Three years later, the company debuted an even more distinctive version of the vehicle that was the result of a partnership with Levi’s. The new automobile was advertised as an “economy car that wears the pants,” and featured Levi’s-inspired trim lining each seat along with orange stitching, copper buttons, and denim pockets affixed to the blue color-coordinated doors. Due to concerns regarding denim’s flammability, AMC and Levi’s were forced to use a lookalike material in lieu of actual denim, though the visual similarities were spot-on. The AMC-Levi’s partnership would further extend into the motor company’s Jeep division years later, and limited-edition denim-themed cars were also introduced by other brands including Mitsubishi.

Bing Crosby Helped Define the “Canadian Tuxedo”

Legendary crooner Bing Crosby wasn’t just a music icon — he inadvertently popularized the “Canadian tuxedo,” an all-denim outfit that consists of blue jeans and a blue jean jacket. The reason the outfit boasts its regional moniker is because its creation was inspired by a 1951 incident in which Crosby attempted to check into a hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia — only to be turned away by the front desk for wearing Levi’s jeans. Because denim went against the hotel’s dress code, the staff refused to admit Crosby, despite his megastar status. When Levi’s caught word of the kerfuffle, the company designed a custom full-body denim outfit for Crosby, which would later come to be known as the Canadian tuxedo. The jacket even featured a message inside stating, “Notice to All Hotel Men: a perfectly appropriate fabric and anyone wearing it should be allowed entrance into the finest hotels.”

The FBI Analyzed Faded Blue Jeans To Catch Criminals

Forensics analysts at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have examined the unique patterns of faded blue jeans in an effort to nab fugitives. The method was first developed in 1996 after a series of bombings and bank robberies in Spokane, Washington, and the findings played a part in the successful conviction of a group responsible for the crimes. Knowing that blue jeans fade in unique patterns after being washed, the FBI analyzed fade marks and dark splotches on the hems of jeans seized during a search warrant and matched them to photographs taken from the crime scenes. While the FBI has employed the technique in other investigations, its usefulness is often limited because it requires high-quality photographic surveillance. The reliability of the technique has also recently come under scrutiny.

The Largest Pair of Jeans Ever Made Was Over 200 Feet Tall

Measuring 214 feet and 10 inches tall by 140 feet and 1 inch wide, a pair of jeans sewn together by the Paris brand department store in Lima, Peru, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest pair of jeans ever created. The trousers were unveiled on February 19, 2019, in a mall parking lot, where they remained on display for the following week. It took a team of 50 people around six months to craft the enormous pair of pants, which weighed a whopping six tons. Beyond just a publicity stunt, the effort had a positive environmental impact: The giant jeans were subsequently broken down and converted into 10,000 reusable bags to be sold at Paris’ line of department stores in an effort to promote the reduction of plastic bag use.

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You’ve heard them a million times. You may even know all of the lyrics. But no matter how often you’ve encountered these songs, there’s a good chance you’ve been interpreting them incorrectly. The “hidden” meanings and stories behind these six tunes will make you think twice the next time they cross your path.

“Walk This Way,” Aerosmith (1975)

In late 1974, Aerosmith was messing around during the soundcheck at a show where they were opening for the Guess Who. They managed to land on the iconic guitar riff and drum beat that would eventually become “Walk This Way.” The lyrics, however, took a little longer.

For a while, as they worked on the song, Steven Tyler would just scat nonsensical words — but then Mel Brooks came along. After seeing Brooks’ Young Frankenstein in early 1975, the band members were quoting lines from the movie at each other, including the part where Marty Feldman’s Igor tells Gene Wilder to “walk this way” and Wilder begins to imitate Igor’s hunched steps. Aerosmith’s producer heard the quote and suggested that it could make a great title for the song. Tyler worked his spontaneous scatting into lyrics, and a classic tune was born. When Run DMC covered the tune a decade later, it became a hit all over again — and helped revive Aerosmith’s sagging career.

“Philadelphia Freedom,” Elton John (1975)

With lyrics like “From the day that I was born/I’ve waved the flag/Philadelphia freedom,” and because the song came out just a year before America’s bicentennial, it’s easy to assume that Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” is about patriotism. In reality, it’s about tennis legend Billie Jean King.

After becoming friends with King in the early ’70s, the British-born John told her that he wanted to write a song in her honor and came up with the idea to name it after her tennis team, The Philadelphia Freedoms. He debuted the rough cut of the song for King and her team during the 1974 playoffs; King immediately fell in love. “He said, during the part where he goes ‘Philadelphia’… ‘That’s you getting upset with an umpire.’ Walking up to the umpire … stomping: ‘PHIL. UH. DEL-phia.’ I was laughing so hard,” she said in an interview with eltonjohn.com.

King knows most people don’t know the song was written for her — and she doesn’t care. “We didn’t want it to be anything about tennis. No, it’s a feeling. It’s a great song for a team. It’s a great song if you’re not a team.”

“Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Bonnie Tyler (1983)

This epic ’80s ballad is certainly a heartbreaker, but the lyrics are just vague enough that it’s not entirely clear what the heartbreak is. In 2002, lyricist Jim Steinman — who was also responsible for Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983) and Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” — came clean about the song’s origins to Playbill. “I actually wrote [“Total Eclipse of the Heart”] to be a vampire love song. Its original title was ‘Vampires in Love’ because I was working on a musical of ‘Nosferatu,’ the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in [the] dark.”

Steinman revived the idea for a musical called Dance of the Vampires that opened on Broadway in December 2002, but despite starring the legendary Michael Crawford (of Phantom of the Opera fame), the brief, 56-performance show was a flop. Costing $600,000 per week to produce, and ultimately producing a loss of $12 million, the New York Times deemed Dance one of the most expensive Broadway flops of all time.

“Sweet Caroline,” Neil Diamond (1969)

The story of “Sweet Caroline” seems to be ever-evolving. For decades after the song first charted in 1969, no one knew who the mysterious Caroline was. Diamond managed to keep his inspiration a secret until 2007, when he played at a very famous 50th birthday party and revealed that the woman of the hour — Caroline Kennedy — had been his muse all of those years ago after he saw a picture of her riding a horse in a magazine.

The claim was a little suspect; Caroline was only nine in the photo, and the song contains some decidedly adult lyrics. But the rest of the story came together in 2014 when Diamond told the Today show that the song itself was about his then-wife, Marsha. Because the two syllables in her name didn’t fit the scheme of the song, the singer racked his brain for a three-syllable substitute that would roll off the tongue. He recalled the famous photo of the young Caroline Kennedy, and that’s when he realized that her name was so good, so good, so good.

“Blackbird,” the Beatles (1968)

The lyrics “Take these broken wings and learn to fly” have inspired many people from many different walks of life in the 50-plus years since Paul McCartney wrote “Blackbird.” But at a concert in 2016, he revealed that he had written the song with a very specific issue in mind: civil rights in the U.S. Although he has mentioned the connection several times over the decades, it was particularly poignant when he talked about his inspiration during a 2016 concert in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock,” McCartney said. “We would notice this on the news back in England, so it’s a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started,” he told the crowd, which included two members of the Little Rock Nine (a group of Black students whose enrollment at a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 drew national attention). “We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit, and that’s this next one.”

“Sabotage,” the Beastie Boys (1994)

The subject of this 1994 classic with the even more iconic video was a mystery until the Beasties’ memoir was released in 2018. As it turns out, it was their creative response to a producer who was rushing them to finish Ill Communication. While working on their fourth album, the group was having some trouble making decisions about their songs, and producer Mario Caldato was over it. In order to move things along and complete the album, he pushed on tracks that weren’t ready or good enough — much to the Boys’ chagrin. To protest, Ad-Rock penned the famous “I can’t stand it” opening scream with Caldato in mind. “I decided it would be funny to write a song about how Mario was holding us all down, how he was trying to mess it all up, sabotaging our great works of art,” he wrote.

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Most of us are inundated with brand logos almost every day. And while their designs are often memorable for their original fonts, catchy slogans, or cute mascots, some logos also have hidden details that make them even more interesting. Here are nine U.S. brand logos that have “hidden” messages you might not be aware of.

Amazon

When Amazon.com first launched in the 1990s, the company focused on books. Its initial logo had an image of the Amazon river, with a tagline saying, “Earth’s biggest bookstore.”

Of course, it’s been quite a while since Amazon sold only books. The company’s current logo debuted in 2000 and contains a message that reflects the company’s wide range of business interests. In the logo, which originally had “.com” appended to the end, an arrow swoops from the first “a” to the “z” to demonstrate that the company sells everything from A to Z. The arrow also looks like a smile to symbolize the ease and happiness the company wants customers to associate with shopping on Amazon.

Baskin-Robbins

While most other ice cream shops were selling vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors, Baskin-Robbins thought that people deserved more options, and set out to have a different flavor for every day of the month. In 1945, founders Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins launched their ice cream store with 31 flavors of ice cream to choose from.

Baskin-Robbins has since created thousands of different flavors, but always makes sure to have 31 of them available to customers at any given time. In 2007, the company updated its branding, including a new logo with a large, pink-and-blue “BR.” The curved part of the “B” and the left line of the “R” are pink. Look at them together to see the number “31.”

Cisco

Cisco is a giant in the field of IT and networking, and at first glance, the light blue lines that float above the company’s name in the logo seem to be an appropriate choice for a digitally focused company. However, Cisco’s logo contains a hidden message about its origins. The company was founded in San Francisco (hence “Cisco”), and the lines are based on the shape of the Golden Gate Bridge.

FedEx

Federal Express began shipping products in 1971 and quickly became a household name. Its original logo was a box with “Federal Express” in white and red. As the brand gained popularity, it was shortened to “FedEx,” and its logo was adapted to fit the nickname.

The current FedEx logo has been around since 1994, and its hidden message is still relevant to the company’s business. Designer Lindon Leader shaped the negative space between the “E” and “x” into the shape of an arrow.

The FedEx logo has won several awards. Its development demonstrates that sometimes the best ideas take time. Leader said that when he started to work on the logo, the “farthest from our minds was the idea of an arrow.” But, he added, “after a few days, it dawned on me that if a genuine arrow could be introduced into the letterforms, it could subtly suggest getting from point A to point B reliably, with speed and precision.”

Hershey’s Kisses

Hershey Kisses were first produced in 1907; today, more than 70 million Hershey’s Kisses are made every single day. In addition to being one of America’s most popular candies, they are sold globally, so it’s safe to say that Kisses are just about everywhere — including in the logo. There’s a hidden kiss in the gap between the “K” and the “I.” If you need a little help seeing it, simply tilt your head to the left.

Levi’s

The Levi’s logo has a tie to the company’s long history. Since 1873, when Levi’s first started selling denim jeans, a double arc has been stitched onto the back pockets. The company has dubbed this shape “the arcuate,” which Levi’s began incorporating into its logo in 1967.

The logo, aka the “batwing,” has a straight line at the top like the back pocket of a pair of 501® jeans. The bottom of the logo is shaped like the arcuate, a nod to how integral the shape is to the company’s history.

Pinterest

The hidden message in the Pinterest logo can be found in the very first letter of its name. The straight line in the letter “P” is shaped like a pin. As Pinterest is an online pinboard site, this is an appropriate choice.

For Michael Deal, the co-designer of the logo, including a pin was perhaps too on the nose, and he initially shied away from incorporating one. But in the end, he couldn’t resist, explaining, “The ‘P’ started to lend itself too well to the shape of a map pin.”

Tostitos

Tostitos products include chips, salsas, and other dips. These items are often enjoyed at parties or with friends, so it’s not surprising that Tostitos wanted to include the concept of a friendly get-together in its logo. What’s notable is how subtly Tostitos incorporated the idea.

The dot over the “i” in the company’s name is a bowl of salsa, and above that is a tortilla chip. But it doesn’t stop there. On closer examination, the two “t’s” that surround the “i” look like two people enjoying chips and salsa.

Wendy’s

The Wendy’s logo gets a special mention for its hidden message. The company updated its logo in 2013, and in the redesign, pigtailed redhead Wendy appears slightly older and is wearing a new version of her blue and white outfit, with only the collar visible. The lines and waves on her collar spell out the word “mom.”

According to Wendy’s, this hidden message was not a planned one. After a design website pointed out the hidden word in July 2013, a Wendy’s executive stated, “We are aware of this and find it interesting that it appears our Wendy cameo has ‘mom’ on her ruffled collar. We can assure you it was unintentional.”

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Headline maker. Timeless beauty. Academy Award winner. Tireless activist. Savvy businesswoman. Global icon. These are only a few of the many phrases to describe golden age movie star Elizabeth Taylor

Born in London in February 1932 to American parents, Taylor and her family packed up and moved to the United States in 1939, where the actress soon began her film career. Taylor made her big-screen debut with a small role in 1942’s There’s One Born Every Minute but gained popularity after scoring the lead role as a horse-crazed girl in 1944’s National Velvet.

Throughout her illustrious career, Taylor starred in more than 50 movies, and was never afraid to take a chance in both her personal and professional lives. “I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them,” she once said.

Read below to learn how Taylor’s life was as epic as the roles she played.

Taylor Had “Violet” Eyes and a Double Set of Eyelashes

In 1970, when Hollywood Reporter film critic Todd McCarthy first met Taylor, he was stopped in his tracks by “a pair of eyes unlike any I’ve ever beheld, before or since; deep violet eyes of a sort withheld from ordinary mortals.”

However, while Taylor’s eyes are typically credited as violet, they were more likely a deep blue with an uncommon amount of melanin in the irises, which made them appear violet when she wore specific colors. This inspired her to often wear black eyeliner with blue, purple, or dark brown eyeshadow to bring out her trademark color.

Framing those famous eyes were Taylor’s double row of eyelashes, known as distichiasis, the result of a mutation of FOXC2, a gene responsible for embryonic tissue development. While this heavy, second set of eyelashes can cause complications for some, they quickly became a notable part of Taylor’s beauty at a young age. When she was filming Lassie Come Home (1943) at the age of 9, Taylor was accused of wearing too much mascara, and when production members tried to clean it off, they realized the dark shade was her own eyelashes. As Taylor’s Lassie co-star Roddy McDowall remembered, “Who has double eyelashes except a girl who was absolutely born to be on the big screen?”

Taylor Was Married Eight Times

The star famously said “I do” eight times to seven different men: Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, Michael Wilding, Michael Todd, Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton (twice), John Warner, and Larry Fortensky.

While many of these marriages seemed out of a movie, it was her first wedding that was a direct part of a Hollywood production. In 1950, at the age of 18, Taylor — who had already been engaged twice before — wed hotel heir Hilton at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Taylor wore a $3,500 gown gifted by MGM as part of a promotional effort for her film Father of the Bride, which premiered the following year.  Designed by MGM’s chief costume designer Helen Rose, the high-collared, long-sleeved gown was covered with pearls and with a 15-foot train. MGM added more movie magic by selecting studio stock players as Taylor’s bridesmaids, and set designers decorated the church. In attendance were 700 guests including Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire, and waiting outside were 3,000 cheering fans. Lauded as the social event of the year, MGM boasted that at the wedding were “more stars than there are in heaven.” No matter the fairy-tale event, the tumultuous marriage lasted less than nine months.

Taylor Was the First Actress To Earn $1 Million

Taylor was the first actress to earn more than $1 million for a single movie, for 1963’s Cleopatra. When the movie was first planned, her $1 million salary was half of the original budget. As the film’s budget boomed to $31 million, Taylor’s paycheck did as well — to $7 million (around $54 million in 2022).

From her youth, Taylor had been a bold negotiator and wasn’t afraid to ask for what she was worth or to end a negotiation that wasn’t going her way. Originally, she had little interest in starring in Cleopatra, which inspired her bold pay request of $1 million and 10% of the box office gross, thinking there was no chance 20th Century Fox would agree to her terms. To everyone’s surprise, they did. As she would later say, “If someone is dumb enough to offer me a million dollars to make a picture, I’m certainly not dumb enough to turn it down.”

Taylor Popularized Celebrity Perfumes

When Taylor’s debut fragrance, Passion, hit shelves in 1987, it was not the first celebrity fragrance — but it was the start of the first celebrity perfume franchise in a line ultimately made up of 16 perfumes.

Her most popular scent, White Diamonds, generated more than $1.5 billion in the 25 years after it appeared on the market in 1991. With a $20 million marketing budget, White Diamonds was launched with a cross-country tour, lavish magazine ads, and a cinematic black-and-white commercial that aired both on television and in movie theaters. Featuring Taylor at a high-stakes poker game where she tosses one of her diamond earrings into the pot, the actress improvised the now-iconic line: “These have always brought me luck.”

Taylor’s a Dame

One of the most legendary stars of Hollywood’s golden age, Taylor was nominated for four Academy Awards, won two — for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf — and ranks as the seventh-greatest female American screen legend by the American Film Institute.

Her star power was felt across the pond in her native U.K. and in 2000, the actress was designated Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. Considering it one of the great honors of her life, Taylor humorously said of the event, ​​”Well, I’ve always been a ‘broad.’ Now it’s a great honor to be a dame!”

Taylor’s Jewelry Collection Was Worth More Than $100 million

Tayor loved jewelry and had a deep knowledge of the pieces in her collection. Despite W magazine naming her collection the third-most important in the world, as she once explained, “I’ve never thought of my jewelry as trophies. I’m here to take care of it and to love it, for we are only temporary custodians of beauty.”

The icon died in March 2011, age 79, from congestive heart failure. Her famed jewels were auctioned by Christie’s that same year for $115.9 million and broke the record for the most valuable private collection of jewels sold, with 26 pieces selling for more than $1 million and six for more than $5 million.

Many of the pieces were given to Taylor by her seven husbands. Among the record-breaking highlights was Taylor’s 19th-century tiara given to her by third husband, Mike Todd. The sparkling headpiece was worn several times in 1957 and became a cherished object to her after his fatal plane crash in 1958. Additionally, Taylor’s Cartier pearl necklace, named La Peregrina, sold for more than $11 million, setting the record for the most valuable pearl sold at auction at that time. Given to her as a Valentine’s Day gift by her most legendary love, Richard Burton, the 1-inch long natural pearl is one of the world’s most famous, once belonging to Spanish monarchs and appearing in portraits by Peter Paul Rubens and Diego Velázquez.

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Who doesn’t love music? Musical instruments touch our everyday lives, whether you’re a musician, an aspiring musician, or just listening to your favorite songs. Each instrument has its own amazing collection of facts and stories, too: Ever wonder about the world’s oldest flute, or how big a tuba can really get? Find out the answer to these questions — and other astounding facts from the world of musical devices, both familiar and unusual — below.

The Piano Defies Classification

What type of musical instrument is a piano? When a piano is played, each key controls a hammer that strikes a tuned string inside, which puts it in a uniquely complicated category. The sound resonates from strings, making it a stringed instrument like a harp or a guitar — but the action that produces the sound is a strike, putting it in the percussion category, along with other melodic instruments like the xylophone or steel drum.

Since it actually doesn’t have to be one or the other, pianos are largely considered to be both a percussion and stringed instrument. Both describe how the piano works. Some consider the piano to be a form of hammered dulcimer, another hammered-string instrument that’s hard to pin down. It’s also a keyboard instrument, which are never just keyboard instruments alone — that would also include the pipe organ (wind), harpsichord (string), glockenspiel (percussion), and synthesizer (electronic).

The World’s Biggest Known Tubas Weigh at Least 100 Pounds

There are at least six extant contenders for the world’s largest tuba, depending on which measurement you’re using — and while they were all built as novelties, some are more functional than others. The most recent giant tuba is perhaps the most functional: It’s around 110 pounds and just under 7 feet tall, and yet someone managed to play “Flight of the Bumblebee” on it. Twenty different German instrument makers collaborated to create it in 2010.

Giant tubas don’t come around too often: The rest are more than a century old, unless someone is hiding a big brass masterpiece in an attic somewhere. They include the 100-pound, 8-foot-tall Big Carl, a former display piece for the Carl Fisher music store in Manhattan. It has no valves, but can produce some rumbling notes.

In a Harvard University basement, the King Tuba, possibly commissioned by John Philip Sousa, is about 7 feet tall and 100 pounds. It was restored in 2019 and occasionally makes appearances at performances.

Like Big Carl, the “gilded monster bass,” a former sign outside the Besson & Co. brass instrument factory, has no functioning valves but can play a few notes. That one lives at the Horniman Museum & Gardens in London, is around 6.5 feet tall, and weighs in at around 110 pounds. A similarly-sized tuba was used by tuba player and humorist Gerard Hoffnung for a 1956 performance and is now apparently in a private collection.

Yet another tuba, the Reisen-Kontrabass, is in storage at the Amati instrument factory in the Czech Republic. It’s around 8 feet tall and weighs more than 115 pounds!

None of them compares to the size of the earliest known subcontrabass tubas, one by Adolphe Sax and the other by Gustave Besson. Both of them were on display at exhibitions in 19th-century Paris, but neither of them survives today.

A Classical Album Introduced the World to Synthesizers

The synthesizer was popular in experimental music and sound effects before 1968, but it took a collection of Johann Sebastian Bach music to propel it into the mainstream. Released at the end of that year, the groundbreaking album Switched On Bach, by electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos, used a Moog synthesizer to show mainstream music fans and executives alike that the technology had more universal applications.

“Bach seemed to be an ideal type of music to use,” Carlos explained in an interview. The multi-track recorder allowed her to layer the melodies, she said, and Bach’s music used only one note at a time, which accommodated the limits of the synthesizer back then. “It was the perfect marriage of the right technology, the right techniques,” she noted.

The album features 10 compositions by Bach, and won multiple Grammy Awards in 1970: Classical Album of the Year, Best Classical Performance by an Instrumental Soloist, and Best Engineered Recording, Classical. Its follow-up, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, was nominated for two.

Even if you’re not familiar with Carlos, who has also released albums of original works, you may have heard her music in the chilling scores for A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.

Leo Fender Didn’t Play Guitar

Fender is one of the most popular guitar and amplifier brands, perhaps best known for its enduring classic the Stratocaster electric guitar. The founder’s interest and expertise, however, was solidly in creation, not performance. Before founding his company and inventing the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar, Leo Fender was a radio repairman who sometimes tinkered with his musician friends’ instruments. When he started actually creating them, he relied heavily on their feedback during development.

While he briefly played piano and saxophone as a youth, even after decades in the guitar business, he never actually learned how to play the instrument. Legend has it that he couldn’t even tune one. He was too busy tinkering with them: Country music guitarist Bill Carson (who has been dubbed the “test pilot of the Stratocaster”) told Reverb that Fender would show up to his gigs to swap out equipment.

“Leo would visit the clubs pretty often where I was working, and sometimes he would bring another amplifier in at that time and want me to exchange it for the one that I had,” he recalled. “He’d take the other one, and take it back to the shop sometimes in the middle of the night to work on it. I just never knew anybody that was as involved in what they were doing and [lived] it 24 hours a day.”

The Oldest Known, Near-Complete Flute is 35,000 Years Old

Flutes were among the earliest musical instruments, and were present in ancient cultures throughout the world. The oldest one that modern archaeologists have discovered so far is 35,000 years old, uncovered in the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm, Germany. It was created in the middle of the last Ice Age.

The flute, which was found in 2008, is made of griffon vulture bone and in excellent condition. Researchers were even able to produce a modern copy of the instrument to figure out how it might have sounded, which you can listen to here.

Two Massive Organs Are Played By Waves

At least three large-scale, interactive art installations have greeted visitors with music made by the waves and tides — and two of them survive today.

The Wave Organ by Peter Richards and George Gonzalez was built in 1986 on a jetty made from material from a demolished cemetery. Twenty-five PVC organ pipes are scattered at varying heights above the water, and make sound when the waves hit them below. The best time to visit is during high tide, when higher waves create more frequent notes.

Another example, the Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia, by Nikola Bašić, was constructed in 2005 on a new jetty for receiving cruise ships. In this case, the tubes run beneath a series of steps descending into the water. Thirty-five polyethylene pipes use the motion of the tide to create tones from hollowed-out squares at the base of the steps along nearly 230 feet of waterfront; the sounds change the farther you travel along the jetty. Similar to the Wave Organ, when the tide is low, the sounds are more subtle, becoming more lively as the tide gets higher.

A third, the High Tide Organ by Liam Curtin and John Gooding in Blackpool, England, was torn down in late 2021. Curtin, who said he was doing some repairs himself, called for its demolition, citing neglect — but considering it outlasted its planned lifespan by several years, it had a good run. The metal structure, completed in 2002 as part of a larger sculpture installation along the seafront promenade, was a single, tall steel sculpture that hooks at the top. A series of valves beneath organ pipes were manipulated by the high tide below, with the metal creating a more whistle-like sound than the large-scale plastic installations.

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Paul Newman is an icon of the silver screen, a 10-time Oscar nominee who brought to life such memorable characters as Hud Bannon, “Cool Hand” Luke Johnson, Butch Cassidy, and Doc Hudson over a half century of box-office hits. But Newman was far more than an actor who wielded piercing blue eyes and a cutting wit to maximum effect, and he left a sizable impact on many areas of life beyond Hollywood. Grab a bowl of popcorn — preferably Newman’s Own — and settle in to learn six facts about the pride of Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Paul Newman Narrowly Avoided Death in World War II

Newman spent the bulk of his World War II service time as a radioman and aircraft gunner, and while his duties kept him away from major combat action, he narrowly avoided a truly disastrous outcome. As described in Shawn Levy’s Paul Newman: A Life, the future actor was assigned to flight exercises off the USS Bunker Hill aircraft carrier in the Pacific, but his plane was grounded when the pilot developed an ear infection. That meant Newman missed the action that happened a few days later: On May 11, 1945, nearly 400 servicemen were killed by a pair of Japanese kamikaze attacks on the Bunker Hill, including every present member of Newman’s squadron.

Newman Publicly Apologized for His First Film Role

While many actors dream of landing their first featured film role, the experience was a nightmare for Newman. Tapped to star in The Silver Chalice (1954) as a Greek silversmith who fashions a cup to commemorate Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, the Hollywood newcomer butted heads with director Victor Saville and never found a comfort zone in matters ranging from delivering dialogue to riding a camel. He later called it “the worst film to be made in the entirety of the 1950s.” While Newman eventually overcame this early career hurdle, the rising star was aghast to learn that a Los Angeles television station was airing The Silver Chalice in 1963. As a result, according to A Life, Newman took out ads in two local papers begging people not to watch the movie. (The ads backfired, as curious viewers tuned in to see what all the fuss was about.)

Newman Was Named to the “Enemies List” of President Richard Nixon

By the late 1960s, Newman was secure enough in his life and career to speak up about his political beliefs. This placed him at odds with the agenda of Richard Nixon, and in both 1968 and 1972, the actor campaigned for Nixon’s Democratic opponents in the presidential elections. Newman’s public advocacy was such that he was included on White House special counsel Charles Colson’s list of 20 “enemies” who presented a threat to Nixon’s reelection hopes in ’72. While Newman often downplayed his acting accolades, he reportedly was thrilled to be considered among the chief antagonists of the Nixon administration.

Newman Was a Successful Race Car Driver and Team Owner

While Newman’s turn as an auto racer in 1969’s Winning generally isn’t counted among his top screen efforts, it is significant for fueling his longtime love affair with the track. After launching a part-time racing career in 1972, Newman claimed the first of four national amateur titles in 1976, and finished second in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1979. Meanwhile, he began funneling his considerable resources into auto racing ownership, building a team that scored more than 100 wins from 1983 to 2008. Retaining the need for speed even in his advanced years, the 70-year-old Newman became the oldest driver to be part of a winning team in a sanctioned race with his victory in the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona. He continued racing professionally into his 80s.

He Earned Two Oscar Nominations for One Character

Newman is one of just six actors to receive Academy Award nominations for playing the same character in two separate films. He first earned a nod for the role of ambitious pool shark “Fast” Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961), and later won his first and only competitive Oscar after returning as an aging Nelson in The Color of Money (1986). The other five actors with this distinction are: Bing Crosby, as Father Chuck O’Malley in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945); Peter O’Toole, as King Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968); Al Pacino, as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974); Cate Blanchett, as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007); and Sylvester Stallone, as Rocky Balboa in Rocky (1976) and Creed (2015).

He Gave Away a Fortune to Charities

For all his success as an actor, Newman’s most enduring accomplishments may well have come as a philanthropist. In 1982, he teamed with writer A. E. Hotchner to market Newman’s Own salad dressing, with a pledge to donate all profits to charity. When that proved a hit, the brand grew with the additions of pasta sauce, popcorn, lemonade, and more goodies. In 1988, Newman opened his Hole in the Wall Gang Camp to provide a fun respite for sick children; that enterprise, too, quickly became successful enough for expansion. By the time of Newman’s death in September 2008, Newman’s Own Foundation was operating 11 such camps around the world, and had awarded some $250 million to charities since the first bottle of salad dressing was plucked from a store shelf.

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When I Love Lucy first hit the airwaves in 1951, its multicultural plot and unconventional filming techniques broke the television mold both on-screen and behind the scenes. But those daring moves paid off, turning the CBS sitcom, starring Lucille Ball and her real-life husband Desi Arnaz, into one of the most successful shows of a generation — and one that transformed the standards of the television industry forever.

With moments made memorable by Ball’s knack for physical comedy, evident in scenes where she’s struggling with a candy factory conveyor belt or stomping grapes in a giant barrel, the show went on to win five Emmys, mega-ratings, and the hearts of fans across the country. Here are 13 surprising facts that make the show even more lovable.

“I Love Lucy” Was a Breakthrough for Interracial Marriage

Ball married Cuban American bandleader and actor Arnaz in 1940, and together they came up with the concept for I Love Lucy. But the idea of them playing a couple on TV was immediately met with resistance from her talent agency. “The people there said the public wouldn’t believe I was married to Desi,” she told Saturday Evening Post. “He talked with a Cuban accent, and, after all, what typical American girl is married to a Latin? American girls marry them all the time, of course, but not on TV.”

The Pilot for “I Love Lucy” Was Lost for Four Decades

I Love Lucy’s pilot episode, shot March 2, 1950, couldn’t be found for about 40 years. But one of Arnaz’s collaborators, Pepito Perez, later found a 35-millimeter version of it in his house nearly 40 years later. Though some of it was damaged, most of the footage aired as part of a 1990 CBS special.

Ball and Arnaz Insisted on Filming in Los Angeles

At the time, New York City was the place to be for live television productions, because it had the proper facilities. But Ball and Arnaz were insistent on filming in Los Angeles, both for personal reasons and because they wanted to take advantage of using the movie industry’s facilities for heightened quality. As part of the deal, they had to take the additional production costs upon themselves, so their production company, Desilu, was given full ownership of the series, which eventually made the couple the TV industry’s first millionaires.

The Original Opening Sequence Was Animated by Hanna-Barbera

An agent called up famed Tom and Jerry animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to create both the opening credits and interstitials for the show in 1951. They originally drew up stick-figure versions of Ball and Arnaz for the opening sequence, but stick figures were removed in later airings of the show.

Ball Was Only the Second Woman to Appear Pregnant on Network TV

When Ball became pregnant in real life, she and Arnaz considered taking a hiatus from the show — but then thought it would be an opportunity to break the mold again. “We think the American people will buy Lucy’s having a baby if it’s done with taste,” Arnaz said. “Pregnant women are not kept off the streets, so why should she be kept off television? There’s nothing disgraceful about a wife becoming a mother.” She ended up being the one of the first women to appear pregnant on a major television network and received more than 30,000 supportive letters from fans, despite the fact that the cast wasn’t allowed to say the word “pregnant” on-screen.

The Show Was Perfectly Scripted

So much of the appeal of the show comes from the natural dialogue that often seemed ad-libbed, especially in scenes between Ball and Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz. Yet none of the words ever went off-script. “We knew what we were going to say and because we were thinking, we were listening to each other, and then reacting and then acting, it came out like may we’d made it up,” Ball said. “We never ad-libbed on the set when we were putting it together. It was there.”

The Sitcom Pioneered the Three-Camera Television Format

To capture Ball’s comedic performances from every angle, the show started the three-camera format, which first required developing a new lighting system to keep the look consistent from each camera. Cinematographer Karl Freund was brought in to create the technique, which is now widely used in the television industry.

Baseball Took Precedent Over the Show for William Frawley

William Frawley, who played landlord Fred Mertz, was such a dedicated Yankees fan that his contract stipulated he wouldn’t work on the show whenever his beloved New York team was in the World Series. As the Yankees went on a winning streak in the ’50s, making it to the series in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, and 1957, the clause was enacted a couple of times, with Fred not appearing in two episodes.

Cher’s Mom Appeared on an Episode in a Potato Sack

Before Cher became a household name, her mother, Georgia Holt, was a model who made a few TV cameos, including one memorable — but brief — appearance in a 1956 episode where the crew goes to Paris and is baffled by the avant-garde fashion. At the end, Holt is seen walking by as a model in an outfit inspired by the potato sack.

Ball’s Mom Was at Every Single Taping

Holt wasn’t the only famous mom seen on set. Ball’s mother, DeDe Ball, went to every single taping of her daughter’s sitcom. In fact, her laughter can often be heard coming from the live audience — and she can even be heard saying, “Uh oh!” at times.

It Was the Top-Rated Show for Four Seasons

After its October 1951 debut, I Love Lucy spent four of its six seasons as the top-rated television show, never dipping below third place. For comparison, 29 million viewers watched President Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential inauguration in January 1953, but the following day, 44 million watched the episode where Ball’s character gave birth.

Ball Thought She Was Going to Die in the Grape-Stomping Scene

In a 1974 Dick Cavett Show interview, Ball revealed that she truly thought she was going to be killed during the grape-crushing scene in the famous 1956 episode “Lucy’s Italian Movie.” The staged fight with fellow actress Teresa Tirelli was supposed to be simulated but may have gone too far. “I slipped and when I slipped, I hit her, accidentally — and she took offense. So, she hauled off and let me have it…it took all the wind out of me,” Ball said. “She kept me down by the throat. And she was choking me, and I am really beating her to get her off. I was drowning in these grapes. She was killing me.”

Eventually, Ball was able to get out from under Tirelli and signal to the director. “She spent so much time beating the hell out of me in the vat, we had to cut half of it,” Ball said. “To drown in a vat of grapes was not the way I had planned to go.”

The Show Was Almost Called “I Love Lopez”

At one point, the characters were going to be Lucy and Larry Lopez and the show would have been known as I Love Lopez.

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Frank Sinatra was a man of many names — “The Sultan of Swoon,” “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” and “Chairman of the Board,” to name just a few — but it was his reputation as “The Voice” that made him one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century. He began his career in 1935 when he joined a local singing group called the 3 Flashes (later known as the Hoboken Four), and within five years, he had recorded his first big hit, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. By 1942, the U.S. was fully in the grips of “Sinatramania.”

His fame continued to grow over the next several decades, thanks to songs such as “My Way,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” and “New York, New York,” as well as acclaimed performances in films including From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, and The Manchurian Candidate. His personal life was the stuff of legend, too — full of glitz, glamour, and controversy. The crooner rubbed elbows with (and even romanced) some of Hollywood’s biggest stars — including actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow, whom he married in 1951 and 1966, respectively — but he also reportedly fraternized with certain unsavory types. Read on for the story behind that and other fascinating facts you may not know about the singular star.

He Was Thought to Be Stillborn at Birth

Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey — and his birth was complicated, to say the least. He weighed 13 pounds and had to be delivered using forceps, which left his face permanently scarred, and when he came out, he was blue and unresponsive, so doctors thought he was stillborn. If not for the heroic efforts of his grandmother, who ran her newborn grandson under cold water and slapped his back, Sinatra might never have lived his remarkable life.

He Was One of America’s First Teen Idols

Fourteen years before Elvis Presley’s swiveling hips incited a frenzy on The Milton Berle Show, 27-year-old Frank Sinatra caused a commotion with his own surprisingly huge teenage fangirl following. On the first night of a series of shows at New York City’s Paramount Theater in December 1942, Sinatra came face-to-face with a throng of screaming girls. “The sound that greeted me was absolutely deafening,” Sinatra recalled years later, adding that he “was scared stiff” by the pandemonium.

That encounter was just the first of many. Young fans — known as “bobby-soxers” because of the ankle socks they often wore — pledged their love and loyalty to the crooner and made a show of swooning over him in public. In the early days of his career, his publicist George Evans added to the hype by auditioning and paying young women to act extra-enthusiastic, but this supposedly faux love affair turned genuine as America fell under the spell of “Sinatramania.”

The FBI Kept a File on Him for 40 Years

Bobby-soxers weren’t the only ones who followed Sinatra’s every move. The FBI kept a massive file on him, detailing his life and relationships for four decades. They were especially interested in his alleged ties to people involved with organized crime. Sinatra reportedly had a friendship with Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana, and was also said to have received gifts from Joseph and Charles Fischetti, who ran an illegal gambling operation. The file even includes an account of him making an appearance in Atlantic City during the wedding of Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno’s daughter.

Sinatra wasn’t exactly shy about his social interactions with mafiosi — they owned many of the establishments where he performed, after all — but he steadfastly denied having any close personal or business connections to the mob, and resented the many rumors implying otherwise. He famously took issue with The Godfather because of the perception that the character Johnny Fontane, a singer with ties to organized crime families, was based on him. According to author Mario Puzo, who wrote the novel that inspired the film, he and Sinatra got into an argument over the insinuation at a restaurant near Beverly Hills.

Sinatra’s FBI file wasn’t just a record of his own comings and goings, of course. It also included threats made against him by would-be extortioners and blackmailers, as well as details of the bureau’s investigation into the 1963 kidnapping of his son Frank Sinatra Jr. (Frank Jr. was rescued, and all three kidnappers were caught and convicted.)

He Was a Member of Two Rat Packs

The Rat Pack is best known as a group of entertainers including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford. They frequently teamed up both on- and off-screen, most famously in the 1960 heist film Ocean’s 11 and as regulars on the Las Vegas circuit. But the Rat Pack most of us know was actually the second iteration of the group.

The first Rat Pack formed in the 1950s around actor Humphrey Bogart, whose wife, actress Lauren Bacall, came up with the name after a wild weekend in Vegas with friends including Sinatra, Judy Garland, and David Niven. The story goes that Bacall took one look at the disheveled and sleep-deprived crew and told them they looked like a “rat pack.” The sobriquet stuck, and a Hollywood legend was born. After Bogie’s death in 1957, Sinatra took over the group and added some of his close friends as members, though they reportedly referred to themselves as “the Clan” or “the Summit.”

He’s Credited With Creating the Modern Concept Album

Sinatra’s contributions to and influence on the music industry cannot be overstated. There’s a reason he was known as “The Voice” — his singular baritone set the standard for many well-known tunes in the Great American Songbook. He is also credited as one of the first artists to pioneer and popularize the modern concept album. Pop records used to be simple collections of songs with one or two hits and little to no connective tissue between them, but Sinatra changed that with 1955’s In the Wee Small Hours. For his ninth studio album, he aimed to create a pervasive feeling of loneliness and heartbreak that stretched from the first song (“In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”) to the last (“This Love of Mine”), and even to the melancholy cover art.

Sinatra went on to create several other thematic albums over the next few decades — standouts include 1956’s Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! and 1970’s Watertown — but eventually artists such as the Beach Boys and the Beatles adopted the idea and cemented the concept album as an indelible piece of rock ’n’ roll canon.

He Has an Asteroid Named After Him

Frank Sinatra left this world on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82, but his star power lives on in an actual celestial body. Named 7934 Sinatra in the singer’s honor, the asteroid was discovered in September 1989 by E. W. Elst at the European Southern Observatory. It’s located in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, where it can “play among the stars” and “see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.”