69 Fun Facts About Animal House

The Deltas' road trip to find dates takes them to a women's college named for which poet?

Emily Dickinson College is where Otter wins the Deltas their dates by posing as the grieving fiancé of a student who has just died.

What is the name of the Delta fraternity's rival house?

Omega Theta Pi, the most prestigious house on campus, became the clear villains after John Landis insisted a script full of unlikeable frat boys needed good guys and bad guys.

What do Otter and Boon hit at Neidermeyer and his ROTC cadets in Animal House?

Golf balls: the two are practicing their swings when they spot Neidermeyer tormenting Flounder on the drill field, and they agree that nobody but the Deltas gets to do that to a Delta pledge.

Dean Wormer warns Flounder that being "fat, drunk and" what "is no way to go through life"?

Stupid completes the dean's verdict on Flounder's 0.2 grade average, and producer Matty Simmons later took the whole line as the title of his book about making the film.

Animal House shares its 1962 setting with which earlier nostalgia hit?

American Graffiti had asked "Where were you in '62?"; Animal House's writers picked the same year as the last innocent one before the Kennedy assassination.

What special status does Dean Wormer put the Deltas on?

Double secret probation is the dean's instant comeback on being told the Deltas are already on ordinary probation; he backs it with a "little-known codicil" in the college constitution.

What do the Deltas hum as Otter leads them out of their disciplinary hearing in Animal House?

The Star-Spangled Banner: Otter recasts the charges as a slur on the whole country, announces that the Deltas won't sit and listen to it, and marches them out, leaving a furious dean vowing to revoke their charter.

Which future star made his big-screen debut in Animal House as fraternity pledge Chip Diller?

Kevin Bacon was still at acting school when he was cast, and the hit changed nothing at first: he went straight back to waiting tables at the bar where he worked.

Before Animal House, the actor who plays Flounder tried to get discovered by tucking his headshot into what?

Pizza boxes: he delivered for a pizzeria and slipped his photo into orders he hoped were bound for producers, and the story goes that the film's producer, Matty Simmons, opened one.

Which actress plays Katy, Boon's exasperated girlfriend, in Animal House?

Karen Allen's Katy gets a wry send-off in the closing title cards: she and Boon marry in 1964 and divorce in 1969.

Which star plays Dave Jennings, the pot-smoking English professor in Animal House?

Donald Sutherland spent just two days on set and insisted on a flat fee rather than a share of the takings, a choice that cost him millions once the film became a hit.

Which 1950s screen star did John Landis hope to cast as Dean Wormer's wife, Marion?

Kim Novak fitted Landis's plan to fill the comedy with serious actors who would play it straight; he didn't get her, and stage actress Verna Bloom took the part.

Animal House's parade finale was filmed on the Main Street of which Oregon town?

Cottage Grove, some twenty miles south of the Eugene campus, lent its Main Street for the homecoming chaos, and the closing credits thank the town's people by name.

The man who opened his Oregon campus to the Animal House crew had once misjudged which earlier hit?

The Graduate was turned away from Berkeley while he was an administrator there and went on to be a classic, which is said to have made him slower to refuse a second raunchy script.

Whose real office on the Oregon campus doubles as Dean Wormer's in Animal House?

The university president's own office became Dean Wormer's, even though he had agreed to the shoot only on condition that the school was never named on screen.

Animal House took more than $140 million at the box office on roughly what production budget?

$3 million was all the studio would risk on what it saw as a silly little movie that might make a couple of bucks; the film took more than forty times that.

Which later comedy co-written by Animal House's Harold Ramis went on to out-gross it?

Ghostbusters, which Ramis also starred in for Animal House producer Ivan Reitman, took far more; it was not the first comedy to pass the film, though, since Tootsie, released in 1982, got there first.

According to Animal House's closing title cards, what became of the motorcycle-riding Delta known as D-Day?

Whereabouts unknown is all the cards say of Daniel Simpson Day, the only Delta they lose track of; fittingly, the dean had already found he had no grade point average, with every course incomplete.

Larry Kroger, the freshman hero of Animal House, first appeared in a humor magazine's parody of what?

A high school yearbook: the magazine's hit 1964 High School Yearbook Parody was presented as Larry Kroger's own copy, and its everyman owner was later sent to college as the film's hero.

Which Delta is played on screen by Animal House co-writer Doug Kenney?

Stork is Kenney's cameo, with co-writer Chris Miller alongside him as Hardbar; the third writer, Harold Ramis, lost the part he wanted and was too proud to appear as an extra.

What was Ramis and Kenney's early Animal House treatment, putting Charles Manson in a high school, called?

Laser Orgy Girls went nowhere: publisher Matty Simmons balked at putting sex and drugs among high-schoolers on film, so he had the writers move their story to college.

Which comedy star was the producers' first choice to play Otter but turned Animal House down?

Chevy Chase chose Foul Play with Goldie Hawn instead, to the relief of a director who wanted unknowns and thought so big a star would unbalance the film.

The writers wanted which Saturday Night Live star to play the motorcycle-riding D-Day in Animal House?

Dan Aykroyd stayed with Saturday Night Live instead, and the part he passed up made the name of stage actor Bruce McGill.

How did John Belushi fit Animal House's Oregon shoot around Saturday Night Live?

He commuted to New York weekly: Monday to Wednesday on set, then a flight east for the live show, which left him little time to hang out with the rest of the cast.

Which singer did Landis meet as a backup in case Belushi turned down Bluto?

Meat Loaf was only insurance: the writers had built Bluto for Belushi from their first meeting, agreeing that every great animal house needs a great animal.

Landis and Belushi described Bluto as a cross between which two characters?

Harpo Marx and the Cookie Monster both have bottomless appetites and sweet natures, which is what Landis wanted from a character who has almost no lines.

Which star of a classic TV crime drama did John Landis meet about playing Dean Wormer, only to be turned down?

Jack Webb, Dragnet's deadpan Sergeant Friday, sat through the meeting with a Scotch and a cigarette while the long-haired young director pitched, then passed on the part.

Who plays Dean Wormer in Animal House?

John Vernon, the mayor in Dirty Harry, was cast because the director wanted real screen heavies rather than comedians, so that the dean's menace would be played completely straight.

In Animal House's closing title cards, Bluto is revealed to have become what?

A United States Senator: the last card reads "Senator & Mrs. John Blutarsky, Washington, D.C.", a fine result for a man whose grade point average the dean reads out as zero point zero.

According to Animal House's closing title cards, Pinto went on to become what?

An editor at National Lampoon is an in-joke: Pinto was the college nickname of co-writer Chris Miller, who really did write for the magazine behind the film.

What have the Deltas hidden inside the cake-shaped float they bring to the homecoming parade?

An armored car, built by D-Day from the wreck of the Lincoln that Flounder borrowed from his brother, bursts out of the cake to lay waste to the parade.

Which band performs at the toga party in Animal House?

Otis Day and the Knights were invented for the film, but actor DeWayne Jessie later bought the rights to the name and toured for years with a real band.

The supermarket cashier Pinto invites to the Deltas' party turns out to be whose daughter?

The mayor's: cashier Clorette is the daughter of Carmine DePasto, the town's mob-connected mayor, which makes her about the most dangerous guest Pinto could have chosen.

Which comedian's approval helped keep Animal House's Dexter Lake Club scene despite racism worries?

Richard Pryor was asked to watch the film after studio bosses feared the scene would cause outrage; by one executive's account he just laughed and said the funny ones in it were the white people.

Who composed Animal House's original score?

Elmer Bernstein, the composer of The Great Escape, was asked to score the comedy with a completely straight face, and it opened a second career for him in film comedies.

Animal House's stately college theme was adapted from a piece by which composer?

Brahms wrote his Academic Festival Overture to thank a university for an honorary doctorate, which made it a fitting model for a college anthem scored with a straight face.

Which singer-songwriter, who also sings Animal House's title song, plays the folk singer whose guitar Bluto smashes?

Stephen Bishop, billed as "Charming Guy with Guitar", is crooning a gentle folk song to girls on the stairs when Bluto takes the instrument and smashes it against the wall.

Which Delta is the fraternity's long-suffering chapter president in Animal House?

Hoover is the one Delta who tries to keep the house out of trouble, and he is still at it in the final scene, asking the dean for one more chance as the parade collapses around them.

Which future blues star plays bass, uncredited, in the band at the Deltas' big party?

Robert Cray was then an unknown bluesman leading his own band in Eugene, Oregon, where the film was shot; five Grammy Awards came later.

What did Universal do to promote Animal House on college campuses?

Helped students organize toga parties: as the craze swept campuses the studio answered requests with free records, T-shirts and posters, and the party-goers queued to see the film again.

Which institution chose Animal House for its National Film Registry in 2001?

The Library of Congress keeps the registry for films it judges culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, quite an honor for a comedy whose host university once tried to hide its part in it.

What did the Animal House cast wheel from their motel lobby into Bruce McGill's room, making it "party central"?

A piano: the actors pushed the lobby's old instrument across the motel car park in the rain, and McGill hammered away at it for the cast every night after filming.

What was the title of the 1979 ABC sitcom spun off from Animal House?

Delta House kept the film's dean and three of its original Deltas, and the film's own writers scripted the pilot, yet ABC still dropped it after barely three months.

Which future star had an early role as "The Bombshell" in Animal House's TV spin-off?

Michelle Pfeiffer is often said to have made her debut here, but an episode of Fantasy Island came first.

In Animal House's TV spin-off, which new character carries on Bluto's tradition while Bluto is in the Army?

His brother Blotto, played by Josh Mostel, transfers in because Bluto has been expelled and drafted; the scripts kept the absent Bluto alive with running jokes about him.

Why do the Deltas have to give freshman Kent Dorfman a hearing when he turns up to pledge?

He is a legacy: his older brother Fred was a Delta, which is why Kent steers his friend Larry to the house after the smartest fraternity on campus gives them the cold shoulder.

Which song from Animal House's toga party is now a crowd singalong at Oregon Ducks home football games?

'Shout' gets the whole of Autzen Stadium singing late in every game, a warm embrace from a university that once made the filmmakers promise never to name it.

What was Landis's earlier film that convinced Universal he could direct Animal House?

The Kentucky Fried Movie reached the studio through its script supervisor, who was living with a Universal executive and came home each night with wild stories from the set.

Two years after Animal House, Belushi and Landis reunited on which film?

The Blues Brothers owes a debt to the Animal House shoot: in Oregon Belushi befriended bluesman Curtis Salgado, who is credited with firing his passion for the blues.

Animal House star John Belushi died in 1982 at which Los Angeles hotel?

Chateau Marmont: he died in one of its bungalows of a heroin and cocaine overdose at 33, and the woman who injected him later went to prison for involuntary manslaughter.

Animal House star John Belushi grew up in which Chicago suburb?

Wheaton is where he met Judy Jacklin at high school; she married him, and on the Animal House shoot the couple took a house well away from the cast's all-night parties.

Animal House star John Belushi's parents shared which ancestry?

Albanian: on Saturday Night Live he played the Greek owner of a cheeseburger diner, yet his own father was a restaurant owner who had emigrated from Albania.

Which garage-rock standard do the drunken Deltas slur their way through in Animal House?

'Louie Louie' bends the calendar: the film is set in 1962, but the Kingsmen's hit recording, the one heard on screen, did not come out until 1963.

Which Animal House cast member later played Vice President John Hoynes on The West Wing?

Tim Matheson went from Otter, the Deltas' smooth-talking rule-breaker, to the heart of the establishment, and playing the Vice President brought him two Emmy nominations.

Peter Riegert, who plays Boon, later starred as oil executive Mac MacIntyre in which 1983 film?

Local Hero sends his Houston oil man to buy up a Scottish fishing village for a refinery, only for the dealmaker to fall under the spell of the place.

Which Animal House alumnus was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Amadeus?

Thomas Hulce, the film's Pinto, was nominated for playing Mozart but lost to his own co-star: F. Murray Abraham won for playing Salieri in the same film.

The actor who plays Pinto came to Animal House from the lead in which intense stage drama?

Equus had him playing a deeply disturbed English teenager opposite Anthony Hopkins night after night, and he said a really low comedy looked like a welcome change of pace.

Several Animal House actors were beaten up during the Oregon shoot after turning up at what?

A real fraternity party: invited along by some students, the actors playing the Deltas were met with insults, and a thrown cup of beer started a brawl that left them bruised and one of them needing a dentist.

The 'Faber College Theme' drew late-2000s attention for its purported resemblance to which country's national anthem?

Bosnia and Herzegovina's anthem was written for a 1998 contest; when the likeness to the film's opening music was spotted in 2009, its composer was accused of plagiarism and some called for the anthem to be dropped.

Which critic gave Animal House four stars and put it on his ten-best list of 1978, a first for a Lampoon film?

He called it 'anarchic, messy, and filled with energy'; Time's Frank Rich judged its 'hilarious highs' worth the 'puerile lows'.

According to Animal House's closing title cards, which character ends up as a tour guide at Universal Studios?

Babs, who lures Otter into an ambush by his rivals, gets the least glamorous future on offer, and one that doubles as a plug for the studio that made the film.

What made the University of Missouri withdraw its offer to host the Animal House shoot?

Its leadership read the script and pulled out, and other campuses were no keener; the director said every college with the right look told him no thank you.

Animal House co-writer Doug Kenney came to comedy through the celebrated humor magazine of which university?

Harvard is where he ran the campus humor magazine and presided over an exclusive club; in 1970 he and two fellow alumni launched the professional offshoot whose stories became the film.

What is the official motto of Faber College in Animal House?

Knowledge Is Good is the maxim on the plaque beneath the statue of founder Emil Faber; by the finale the statue has lost its head, which rides into the homecoming parade with the Deltas.

In his speech rallying the Deltas, who does Bluto wrongly say bombed Pearl Harbor?

The Germans, Bluto roars, and when a puzzled Otter starts to object, Boon waves him off with 'Forget it, he's rolling.'

Which food does Bluto spray from his mouth in the cafeteria to impersonate a zit?

Mashed potatoes: he asks Greg Marmalard's table to guess what he is, punches his stuffed cheeks, and the mess sets off the food fight.

Which actor, Flounder in Animal House, plays a school principal in a 1984 Twisted Sister video?

Stephen Furst repeats Flounder's 'Oh boy, is this great!' as he sprays Mark Metcalf's bullying teacher with a water spritzer.

Which Canadian band was first announced in 2012 to write the songs for an Animal House stage musical?

Barenaked Ladies were replaced a year later by Broadway composer David Yazbek, after producer Matty Simmons said of their first songs, 'It just wasn't something we liked.'

What happens to the ROTC horse when Flounder fires a gun in Dean Wormer's office?

It drops dead on the spot even though the gun held only blanks, and a panicked Flounder guesses the horse had a heart attack.