Curated playlist
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
- Bill WeisbandWhy did the U.S. never charge Bill Weisband with spying? A spy trial would have exposed its codebreaking methods.
- Bob DylanAt a 1966 Manchester concert, Bob Dylan told his band to play loud after a heckler called him Judas.
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
- Mel BrooksMel Brooks was 14 years old when he climbed onto a diving board at the Butler Lodge, a second-rate hotel in the Borscht Belt. He worked there as a pool-side tummler, an entertainer hired to keep the guests amused. On this day he wore a…
- Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone has said that he once slept for three weeks in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Decades later, he is one of only two actors in history, alongside Harrison Ford, to have starred in a box-office number one…
- George GershwinGeorge Gershwin's last words were "Fred Astaire." He collapsed at age 38 while working on a film score.
- Mila KunisMila Kunis was seven years old when she started school in Los Angeles without knowing a word of English. She has described how fast it all happened. "We arrived in New York on a Wednesday and by Friday morning my brother and I were at…
- Carl SaganCarl Sagan once asked a librarian for a book on stars and got one about movie stars.
- Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky wrote his first article at age 10, about the fall of Barcelona.
- Paul KrugmanPaul Krugman turned to economics because psychohistory was fiction. Asimov's novels inspired him.
- Norm DruckerNorm Drucker is the only referee ever to eject Wilt Chamberlain from an NBA game. It happened on January 3, 1962.
- Neil DiamondNeil Diamond, born on the 24th of January 1941, once stretched his food budget to just 35 cents a day. Decades later, the American singer-songwriter had sold more than 56.5 million records in the United States alone. That total places him…
- Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand once filed a lawsuit that sent a crowd of strangers to look at a single photograph. In 2003 she claimed that a website documenting coastal erosion had invaded her privacy. Among its more than 12,000 images, one happened to…
- Winona RyderWinona Ryder once believed that a hit film would rescue her from the school playground. In 2017 she recalled her thinking when Beetlejuice topped the box office: "Ooh, it's like the number one movie. This is going to make things great at…
- Herb AlpertHerb Alpert is the only musician to top the Hot 100 as both a singer and an instrumentalist.
- Joe ShusterSuperman's city of Metropolis was modeled on Toronto, where artist Joe Shuster grew up.
- Irvin KershnerIrvin Kershner once asked George Lucas a direct question: "Of all the younger guys around, all the hot-shots, why me?" Kershner told the story himself, and Lucas had an answer ready: "Well, because you know everything a Hollywood director…
- Wilhelm ReichIn 1956, a United States court ordered six tons of Wilhelm Reich's books and papers burned.
- Harold BloomHarold Bloom argued that every poet struggles to escape the shadow of earlier poets.
- Armie HammerArmie Hammer was hand-picked in 2007 by the filmmaker George Miller to play Batman. The actor, born in 1986, had been chosen after a long search. The film was Justice League: Mortal, and Miller was set to direct it. It never reached…
- Armand HammerArmand Hammer was buried across the street from the oil company he ran for 33 years. He never practiced medicine.
- Jeff GoldblumIn July 2018, a statue of Jeff Goldblum stood 25 feet tall beside London's Tower Bridge. It was a temporary installation, built to mark 25 years since the release of Jurassic Park. Goldblum, born Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum on the 22nd of…