Portal:The arts/Did you know archive

2007

...that English book collector Sir Thomas Phillipps acquired some 40,000 printed books and 60,000 manuscripts over the course of his lifetime?

...that the image of Benjamin Franklin on the U.S. hundred dollar bill (pictured) is based on a painting by the French artist Joseph Duplessis?

...that 1971's Out of the Darkness was the first Thai science fiction film?

...that Blackadder II, the second series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, contains many tongue-in-cheek references to the plays of William Shakespeare?

...that Ken Richmond, the last gongman of the Rank Organisation, was a 1952 Summer Olympics wrestling medalist and actor in Jules Dassin's Night and the City?

...that in 1661, Lisle's Tennis Court in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London became the first public theatre in England to feature moveable scenery on sliding wings?

...that voice artists who made Gavrilov translations of foreign movies in Russia were once thought to have used a noseclip to conceal their identity?

...that the artist Sigrid Hjertén, a crucial figure in Swedish modernism, tragically died following a poorly performed lobotomy?

18 July 2006

...that one architectural style of 18th-century Spanish Baroque (pictured) was named after a candy made from egg whites and sugar?

...that Ash Lawn-Highland, the former home of U.S. President James Monroe, has been transformed into a 535-acre working farm, museum, and site for the performing arts?

...that composer Veniamin Fleishman was killed early in WWII before he could complete his opera Rothschild's Violin, but that his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich rescued his sketches from besieged Leningrad, and completed the opera?

...that openly gay novelist Gordon Merrick's book The Lord Won't Mind spent 16 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list in 1970, at a time when most authors would not write about homosexual themes for a mass audience?

...that the Polaris Music Prize is awarded annually to the best Canadian album, regardless of genre, sales, or record label?

3 July 2006

…that the 1625 work La liberazione di Ruggiero by Francesca Caccini (right, in a painting by Orazio Gentileschi) was the first opera written by a woman?

…that Russian General Denis Davydov was also a celebrated poet who created a specific genre, known as hussar poetry?

…that English architect Richard Roach Jewell designed many of the important public buildings in Perth, Western Australia during the latter half of the 19th century?

…that Russian modernist writer Aleksey Remizov was also an expert calligrapher who sought to revive this medieval art form in Russia?

…that the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band played a record-setting 10-hour drum roll in 1934?

15 June 2006

…that the Chartered Society of Designers is the world's largest and oldest chartered body of professional designers, and is unique in having designers of all disciplines?

…that the works of Polish poet Jerzy Ficowski were banned for several years in the People's Republic of Poland, following his criticism of the government?

…that former movie actress Vera Ralston personally insulted Adolf Hitler in the 1936 Winter Olympics, and won a silver medal?

…that a cento is a poetic work composed entirely of verses taken from other authors?

…that British architect Ron Herron proposed building massive robotic walking cities in 1964?