Honda Accord ad done in 606 takes

And you thought those people that set up a room full of dominos to knock over were amazing… believe it or not, just unbelievable!! When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation, including the costs. There are six, and only six, hand-made Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make this film. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time, exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn’t work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again.

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The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it is two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they’re shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp and complete Honda Accord) are parts from those two cars. And how about those funky windshield wipers…?? At a cost of $6.2 million for 90-sec commercial, this is the world’s costliest ad and hands down winner in the world of ads.

East German Steroid Swimmers

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, American Shirley Babashoff was supposed to be the female version of Mark Spitz. Babashoff was a threat to win six gold medals. Instead, she won just one gold medal and four silvers. In every race she lost, she lost to an East German. The star of the East German women’s swimming team was Kornelia Ender (pictured here). Babashoff was immediately suspicious of the East Germans because of their muscular builds and deep voices. She claimed the dressing room ‘sounded like a coed room.’ At the time, Babashoff was criticized as a sore loser. The press dubbed her ‘Surly Shirley.’ After East Germany collapsed in 1989 the truth came out: East German athletes were regularly given steroids via injections to increase their athletic capabilities. Babashoff now campaigns to have the East German medal results nullified.

Undated: Kornelia Ender of West Germany smiles after a swimming event. Mandatory Credit: Tony Duffy/Allsport

Umpire John McSherry Dies During Game

On April 1, 1996, the Cincinnati Reds opened the Major League Baseball season by hosting the Montreal Expos. Seven pitches into the game, 51-year-old umpire John McSherry staggered away from home plate on unsteady legs and collapsed face-first to the ground. He likely died immediately of a massive heart attack, but he was officially pronounced dead an hour later. Another umpire, Tom Hallion, accompanied McSherry to a Cincinnati hospital. The remaining two umpires, after consulting with the Reds and Expos, decided to postpone the game. The decision did not sit well with outspoken Reds’ owner Marge Schott who was unhappy about having to issue rainchecks to the 50,000 spectators. (She later sent flowers to McSherry’s funeral, but reports claimed they were second-hand flowers she herself had received on Opening Day from a local TV station.) McSherry, who tipped the scales at over 300 pounds, was a stereotypical out-of-shape MLB umpire. Beginning in 1997, MLB insisted on tough new physical fitness standards for its arbiters.

Julie Newmar- Then and Now

Born Julia Chalene Newmeyer we know her better as Catwoman in the Batman television series. She stared in 12 episodes. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Newmar appeared in several low-budget films. She also guest-starred on TV shows including The Love Boat, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Hart to Hart, CHiPs and Fantasy Island. She was seen in George Michael’s video clip Too Funky in 1992 as well as appearing as herself in a 1996 episode of Melrose Place. A legal altercation with her neighbor, Jim Belushi, ended amicably with an invitation to co-star with him on his sitcom According to Jim in an episode that poked fun at the feud. Not too bad for being 75 years old!

Jerry Lee Lewis Marriage Scandal

Jerry Lee Lewis was one of early rock-and-roll’s pioneers and leading performers. In December 1957, when he was 22 years old, Lewis secretly married for the third time. The bride was Myra Gale Brown–who happened to be just 13 years and five months old. Myra’s father was Lewis’ cousin, J.W. Brown, a member of Lewis’ band. News of the strange marriage did not surface until May 1958 when a British journalist uncovered the story as Lewis was beginning a tour of England. The adverse publicity caused the tour to be cancelled after just three concerts. The backlash followed Lewis to the United States. Many radio stations refused to play Lewis’ songs. Lewis went from $10,000-per-night engagements to small-time bookings where he was lucky to pick up $250. Moralists declared the scandal was proof of rock-and-roll’s inherent evil. The couple stayed married until 1970. Today Brown is a real estate agent.

Festus Parts the Waters

Gunsmoke, the TV show was based on a Radio show by the same name. Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to 1975, with 635 episodes in total. In this scene, Festus explains the story of Moses, and how he parted the waters.

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NFL Champs Vs. College All-Stars 1934-1976

The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason football tilt played annually (except 1974) from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. (There was one exception: The 1935 game involved the 1934 runner-up Chicago Bears instead of the champion New York Giants.)

The game originally was a benefit for Chicago-area charities. Except for the 1943 and 1944 games which were held at Northwestern University, the game was always played at Soldier Field in Chicago.

The first game, played before a crowd of 79,432 on August 31, 1934, was a scoreless tie between the all-stars and the Chicago Bears. The following year, a game that included future president Gerald Ford, the Bears won, 5-0. The first all-star win was in 1937 for a squad that featured Sammy Baugh.

In the 1940s the games were competitive affairs that attracted large crowds to Soldier Field. But as the talent level of pro football improved, the all-stars had diminishing success. The last all-star win came in 1963, when a team coached by legendary quarterback Otto Graham beat the Green Bay Packers 20-17.

By the 1970s, crowds for the event were dwindling. In addition, NFL coaches were reluctant to part with their new draftees (who would miss part of training camp) for a meaningless exhibition in which the players might be injured.

A players’ strike forced the cancellation of the 1974 game. The last game took place in a torrential downpour on July 23, 1976. Despite featuring stars such as Chuck Muncie, Mike Pruitt, Lee Roy Selmon and Jackie Slater, the collegians were hopelessly outclassed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh was leading 24-0 late in the third quarter when play was suspended due to the awful weather conditions. The game was not restarted. Chicago Tribune Charities Inc., the sponsor of the game, elected not to bring it back for 1977. A program from the 1941 game is shown here.

Overall, the NFL teams won 31 of the 42 games. The all-stars won nine. Two games ended in ties.

Karsten Braasch vs Williams Sisters

One ‘battle of the sexes’ sports event that has curiously not gotten much attention was the impromptu beatdown that an obscure male German professional tennis player named Karsten Braasch handed to both Serena and Venus Williams during the 1998 Australian Open. At that event, the Williams sisters confidently walked into the Australian ATP office and boldly announced that either one of them could beat a top-200 male player. The 30-year-old Braasch, who had been ranked 38th in the world at his peak in 1994 but had dropped to 203rd by 1998, accepted the sisters’ crazy challenge. On January 26, 1998, with no advance publicity, the three of them went to a distant practice court to play a couple of sets. There were no officials and no TV cameras present–and only a smattering of spectators who happened to wander near the court by chance. Serena, then 16, was blasted 6-1 by Braasch. Venus, a year older than her sister, fared only slightly better, losing 6-2. Braasch gleefully rubbed in his dominance by smoking cigarettes and drinking beers during the changeovers. Serena, who would win the women’s title at the U.S. Open later that year, was humbled by the shellacking. “It was extremely hard,” she told reporters who descended upon the challenge match. “I didn’t know it would be that hard. I hit shots that would have been winners on the WTA Tour, and he got to them easily.” When Braasch was asked if either of the Williams sisters could beat a top male player, he opined, “Against anyone in the top 500, no chance–because I was playing like [number] 600 today.”

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