TIL that Kermit the Frog used to do a drag act .
1.Titanicwasoriginally supposed to openin the summer of 1997, but the movie went over schedule and was delayed until December of ‘97. This advance poster, which was created for its summer release date, marketed the film more in the style of an action summer blockbuster:
2.James Cameron had a 2/3 scale of theTitanicbuilt for the movie in Mexico. These images show just how huge the ship set was:
3.Coincidentally, CBS aired a two-part made-for-TV movie titledTitanica little bit over a year earlier, in November of ‘96. The movie starred a then-unknown Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tim Curry, Peter Gallagher, George Scott, and Marilu Henner as Molly Brown:
4.Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of Dave Prowse in the Darth Vader costume, trying to cool off during the filming ofStar Wars: A New Hope:
5.The veryfirst Star Wars spoofwas on the Season 3 premiere of theDonny & Marieshow in September of 1977 (the film, which opened in May, was still theNo. 1 movie in theatersthen, andStar Warsmania was in full swing). It featured Donny and Marie as Luke and Leia, Kris Kirstofferson as Han Solo, and Redd Foxx as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and featured dancing Stormtroopers, cheesy jokes, and Chewie hugging Darth Vader:
The spoof was made with theapproval of George Lucas, who allowed the show to use the original Stormtrooper and Darth Vader costumes. Along with the authentic costumes and props (including the actual R2-D2 used in the movie), Anthony Daniels played C-3PO, and Peter Mayhew played Chewbacca:
6.Revenge of the Jediwas the original working title ofReturn of the Jedi, the change in the name was so last-minute that a (now rare) pre-release poster andteaser trailerfor the movie both had the titleRevenge of the Jediin it:
7.These are a couple of photos of Sarah Jessica Parker filming theveryfirst episode ofSex and the Cityin June of 1997:
8.Here’s a promotional photo taken of Jonathan Taylor Thomas while he was recording the speaking voice of Young Simba forThe Lion King:
9.Gone With the Windis a classic and considered one of the greatest films of all time. The film also did a lot offirsts, including being the first color movie to win the Best Picture Oscar and having the first Black actor to be nominated and win an Oscar — which was Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress. However, one first you might not know is that it was thefirst film to have its premiere televised(and yes, TVs existed back in the ’30s, but they were EXTREMELY rare).Gone With the Wind’s New York premiere was televised, and below is a photo from the premiere announcing it:
10.Speaking of firsts, in 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became thefirst US presidentto appear on TV — FDR gave a speech to open the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, which was televised. It also wouldn’t be the only timehe appeared on TV:
11.The original opening credits forI Love Lucythroughout its run were actually animated. They werechangedto the classic satin and heart credits when the show was syndicated (put into reruns), as the animated credits wouldn’t work because they incorporated whichever brand was sponsoring that week’s episode:
12.The very first issue of TV Guide, released on 6 May 2025, featured Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s newborn son, Desi Arnaz Jr., on the cover:
13.In 1977, 26 years after first costarring together onI Love Lucy, Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball would costar together one last time in the TV specialLucy Calls The President:
14.Before Kermit the Frog became famous as the leader of The Muppets, he was actually well-known for hisdrag act! He went by “Kermina” and performed a lipsync-comedy act to Rosemary Clooney’s “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face.” Here’s a screenshot ofhim performing itonThe Steve Allen Showin 1956:
And here is a screenshot of Kermitperformingthe lipsync-comedy act onThe Ed Sullivan Showin 1967:
15.Here is a rare color photo of Coco Chanel at her 1958 Chanel Spring-Summer collection show:
16.This is what the set of the Petries’ living room onThe Dick Van Dyke Showlooked like in color:
17.The iconicHollywood signwas actually built in 1923 to advertise the Hollywoodland real estate development in the hills below it. The sign was originally only supposed to be up for18 months, but it became a visual symbol of Los Angeles. Throughout most of the Golden Age of Hollywood the Hollywood sign read “Hollywoodland,” with the “land” part only being removed in 1949:
If you look at this photo of Hollywood (looking up Vine St.) from 1949, you can see that the sign still spells out “Hollywoodland” in the distance:
18.In 1992, a seductive 75-foot cartoon cutout of the character of Holli Would from the movieCool Worldwasplaced on top of the “D"in the Hollywood sign as part of the publicity stunt for the film. People who lived in the area were not happy:
The movie was an adult animated/live-action film, in the vein ofWho Framed Roger Rabbit, and starred Brad Pitt and Kim Basinger as Holli Would:
19.This is what the Bayside High set fromSaved by the Belllooked like behind-the-scenes (which, TBH, looks a lot smaller than I imagined):
Also,Saved by the Belldidn’t use canned laughter; it was filmed before a live studio audience:
20.Jean Stapleton and Carroll O’Connor were actually not that old whenAll In The Familypremiered in 1971. Stapleton was 48, and O’Connor was 46 — for context, Reese Witherspoon is currently 48, and Ashton Kutcher is 46:
21.This is what a 20-year-old Madonna looked like in 1978, when she first moved to New York:
22.While filmingScooby-Doo, the actors employedvarious methodsto help them act opposite a CGI Scooby. One method was to memorize exactly where (the creepy) Scooby’s head on a stick — which was used for camera placement — was during the set-up:
In case you were wondering, the scene in the airport where Scooby is in disguise as a grandma was filmed using a man dressed in costume and wearing a green screen hood:
23.Here’s Cameron Diaz…
And Eddie Murphy recording their lines forShrek:
24.Michael Keaton’sBatman wears Nike shoesinBatmanandBatman Returns,but there are contradictory reasons why that came to be. According to the assistant costume designer on the 1989Batmanfilm, one of the producers had struck a product deal with Nike and needed them in the movie, and because they didn’t fit stylistically with any of the other characters or background actors, they incorporated them into Batman’s costume. While the lead costume designer on the 1989 movie remembers Nike gifting it to them without a tie-in:
25.You might have never noticed, but Jack Nicholson gets top billing on the poster and opening credits ofBatman(over the lead, Micheal Keaton). This was part of Nicholson’s list ofdemandsfor signing on to play the Joker:
26.This promotional photo of Jack Nicholson in the “Here’s Johnny!” moment inThe Shiningwas what got him cast as the Joker. In 1980,Michael Uslan, who would go on to executive produce all theBatmanfilms, picked up a copy of the New York Post, and when he opened up the movie section, he saw this photo of Nicholson, which was advertising thatThe Shiningwas opening that weekend. Uslan, who had bought the film rights forBatmanthe year prior, immediately thought that Nicholson was the only one who could play the Joker. When he got home, he tore the photo from the paper anddrew the Joker’s face over itusing Wite-Out and markers. The drawing, indeed, looks a lot like the Joker from the film:
27.Here’s what Humphrey Bogart looked like in color as hisCasablancacharacter Rick Blaine:
28.If you’ve ever seen Billy Wilder’sSome Like It Hot, then you know it’s one of the funniest movies ever and has aged surprisingly well. This is what Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis looked like in color as their drag characters Josephine and Jerraldine/Daphne:
29.While here’s a color photo of the rehearsal on the train scene in fromSome Like It Hot:
And here’s a color photo of Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane:
30.Popular Hollywood movies being adapted into Broadway musicals is not a new phenomenon. In 1970, one of the greatest films of all time,All About Eve, was adapted into the popular musicalApplause,with Lauren Bacall in the role of Margo Channing (who was iconically portrayed by Bette Davis in the film). Below are some photos of the production when it was adapted for a CBS television special:
31.In 1966,Breakfast at Tiffany’swas adapted into a musical, with Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain as Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak. The show was a huge failure, closing quickly after only four previews on Broadway. Here are a couple of photos of Moore and Chamberlain rehearsing for the show:
32.These clay models of Woody and Buzz’s faces werecreatedforToy Storyso that they could be scanned into the computer whenever needed so that animators could always get the right shape, depth, and scale when animating them:
33.To promote the remake ofChild’s Playin 2019, promotional posters of Chucky killingToy Storycharacters were released:
The poster designs were based on the promotional character posters forToy Story 4 —which was released on the same day asChild’s Play:
34.Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews rehearsing a dance number forMary Poppins:
35.Here is a screenshot of Britney Spears and Madonnarehearsingthe iconic kiss they did during the 2003 VMA’s “Like A Virgin”/“Hollywood” opening performance:
And here’s a screenshot of Christina Aguilera kissing Madonna during rehearsal, which wasn’t seen during the original telecast because the camera people cut to Justin Timberlake to get his reaction:
36.This is Ronald Reagan modeling for a sculpture class in 1939-ish:
37.Here’s a photo of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks putting their handprints and signatures in cement outside the Chinese Theater in 1927. They were the first two celebrities to ever do it:
38.This is an awesome (at least to me) photo of George Lucas, David Bowie, and Jim Henson taken to promoteLabyrinth:
39.Here’s Princess Diana at the London premiere ofLabyrinth, alongside Jim Henson, as she meets Ludo:
40.And here’s Princess Di at the London premiere ofJurassic Parkin 1993, warmly greeting her longtime friend, actor-director Sir Richard Attenborough, who played John Hammond in the film:
41.In fact, thelast premierePrincess Di attended was for Attenborough’sIn Love and Warin February of 1997:
42.Here’s Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger in 1967, having a conversation as they wait for their train to depart:
43.These photos are of theApple Boutique, a short-livedLondon storeowned by the Beatles. The store was open from December 1967 to July 1968 — closing for several reasons, including too much shoplifting and not being able to make a profit because they sold rather expensive to produce clothes at low prices:
But the shop was open long enough for a young Maggie Smith tofilm a scenethere for the movieHot Millions, where her character goes shopping at the Apple Boutique for psychedelic clothing:
44.WhenForrest Gumpwas released in 1994, the special effects scenes that incorporated archived footage with Forrest in them were pretty mind-blowing. Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of how the scene where Forrest meets Richard Nixon was filmed:
And here’s how the scene looked in the film:
45.This is what the mysterious and spooky, and all together ooky cast ofThe Addams Familylooked like in color:
46.While Salvador Dalí is an artist who is most associated with the surrealism movement of the ’20s and ’30s, he was actually still averyactive artist at the same time Andy Warhol was in the ’60s and ’70s (in fact, Dalí outlived Warhol). Below is a photo of the two in 1975, at a screening of the filmShampoo:
47.Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of theCluelesscast with the movie’s director, Amy Heckerling, taken while they filmed the movie’s final scene:
48.Jackie Kennedy’s iconic pink suit is, of course, forever linked to JFK’s assassination. However, shewore the suitpubliclyat least six timesbefore that day. Below is a photo of her wearing it to visit her sister, Lee Radziwill, in London in March 1962, and when the the Maharajah and Maharani of Jaipur visited the White House in October 1962:
49.WhenThe Wizard of Ozstarted filming, the Wicked Witch of West was not as menacing looking as she would be in the final film, with Margaret Hamilton wearing less makeup and a long bob wig. While Judy Garland’s Dorothy wore a strawberry blonde wig and a lot of makeup to give her a “baby-doll” look:
Two weeks’ worth of footage was shot with the characters having these looks until the film’s director,Richard Thrope, waslet gofrom the film, after MGM executives thought that the scenes he shot “did not have the right air of fantasy about them.” The movie was paused and Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West’s costumes were redesigned to what we saw in the final film:
50.This is what the mainstage ofSNLlooks like with nobody on it:
51.Here’s a photo of Martin Luther King Jr., along with his kids, Yolanda and Martin Luther III, in 1964, riding the Ford Magic Skyway attraction that was built by Disney for the New York World’s Fair:
52.It’s A Small World was actually an attraction that Disney originally built for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and this is what the exterior of the ride looked like:
53.Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of Alfred Hitchcock directing Janet Leigh in the iconic shower scene inPsycho:
54.This is a marketing poster forPsychofeaturing Alfred Hitchcock telling people they needed to arrive at the movie on time or else they wouldn’t be allowed to be let in. Before the 1970s, it was common for people to buy tickets and drop into a theater at any point during a movie. The poster was created because Hitchcock wanted to ensure that people didn’t have the plot twists spoiled by showing up late — and thecampaign worked:
55.If you’ve been on TikTok, then you might have stumbled upon avideoof some younger people who didn’t know that we used to have commercial supersonic planes. This is a photo of Queen Elizabeth on a charteredConcordeon her way back to London in 1977, after her Silver Jubilee tour of Canada and the West Indies:
56.Did the late Queen Elizabeth ever watch a Lindsay Lohan movie? The answer is YES! Here’s the Queen meeting Natasha Richardson atThe Parent Trap’s Royal Premiere in London in 1998:
57.This is how the water balloon scene was filmed inThe Parent Trap:
58.Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of director Mark Waters showing Daniel Franzese how to grab Lindsay Lohan’s hair in the “Is that your natural hair color” moment inMean Girls:
59.And here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of Tina Fey filming the gym scene inMean Girls:
60.And lastly, here are Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Daniel Radcliffe at a photo-call in London, in August 2000, after it was announced that they would be playing Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter in the upcomingHarry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stonefilm:
