50 Fun Facts About Around the World in Eighty Days

Which vehicle did the 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days add that Jules Verne's novel never had?

A balloon flight is one of the film's most famous sequences, created to show off scenery on its giant curved screen. In the book the travellers never take to the air.

Phileas Fogg believes he reached London too late, so what lets him win his wager after all?

A day gained going east saves him. Travelling toward the sunrise, his party saw 80 dawns while London saw only 79, so he was home a day sooner than his diary said.

Which New York World reporter beat Phileas Fogg's fictional record by circling the globe in 72 days?

Nellie Bly had a rival she did not know about until she reached Asia: a magazine had sent Elizabeth Bisland the opposite way around the world to beat her.

How much does Phileas Fogg wager that he can circle the globe in eighty days in Jules Verne's novel?

£20,000 was half of Fogg's fortune, and he took the other half along in banknotes to pay his way, so losing the bet would have meant ruin.

What does Phileas Fogg buy in India when the railway to Calcutta turns out to be unfinished?

An elephant named Kiouni costs him a small fortune, because its owner refused point-blank to hire the animal out.

What is the name of the French valet who travels with Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's novel?

Passepartout translates literally as "goes everywhere", and in French the word is also an idiom for a skeleton key.

At which London gentlemen's club does Phileas Fogg make his famous wager in Jules Verne's novel?

The Reform Club is a real place on Pall Mall, founded in 1836, and it began admitting women as members on equal terms in 1981.

The detective chasing Phileas Fogg around the world believes he robbed which institution of £55,000?

The Bank of England lost a bundle of notes from a cashier's table, and the thief's description happened to fit Fogg, who left London in a hurry a few days later.

Which martial-arts star played Phileas Fogg's valet in the 2004 film Around the World in 80 Days?

Jackie Chan's valet is really a Chinese thief seeking refuge after a robbery, and the film has the travellers meet the Wright brothers on their way across America.

Which former Doctor Who star played Phileas Fogg in the 2021 BBC series Around the World in 80 Days?

David Tennant's Fogg travels with his valet and a journalist named Abigail, who takes the place of the novel's pursuing detective.

Which young Indian widow does Phileas Fogg rescue and take back to London in Jules Verne's novel?

Aouda, the daughter of a rich Bombay merchant, was given a thoroughly English education before being married against her will to an elderly prince.

How does Phileas Fogg's valet save an Indian widow from being burned on her husband's funeral pyre?

Posing as the dead rajah, he rises from the pyre through the smoke like a ghost and carries her off while priests and soldiers lie with their faces to the ground in terror.

Which card game is Phileas Fogg's only pastime besides reading newspapers in Jules Verne's novel?

Whist is his passion, and his regular partners at the card table, among them an engineer and a brewer, are the very men who take his bet.

Why does Phileas Fogg dismiss his previous valet on the morning Jules Verne's story begins?

Shaving water too cold by two degrees, 84°F when Fogg required 86, was enough to cost James Forster his place.

What does Phileas Fogg's valet forget to turn off in his room before leaving London for eighty days?

A gas burner stays alight for the whole journey, and at the end Fogg deducts the bill from the valet's share of the leftover money.

In which British colony does a detective drug Phileas Fogg's valet in an opium den?

Hong Kong was the last British soil the detective would touch in Asia, so he needed to keep the travellers there until his arrest warrant caught up with him.

Stranded without money in Yokohama, what work does Phileas Fogg's valet take in Jules Verne's novel?

Circus acrobat suits a man who once vaulted for a living: he becomes the base of a human pyramid, then brings it down like a house of cards when he spots Fogg in the audience.

How does Phileas Fogg's party reach Omaha after being stranded at Fort Kearney?

A sledge with sails, rigged like a sloop, skims over the hardened snow at forty miles an hour to reach the next railway station.

What blocks the track for three hours as Phileas Fogg's train crosses the American West?

A herd of buffalo, ten or twelve thousand strong, ambles across the line while the engine waits, and it is night before the way is clear.

Which Native American nation attacks Phileas Fogg's train near Fort Kearney and seizes his valet?

Sioux raiders carry off three passengers, and Fogg gives up a day he cannot spare to lead thirty volunteer soldiers after them.

On an American train, Phileas Fogg's valet sits through a lecture on the history of which faith?

Mormonism gets a whole chapter: an elder named William Hitch preaches in a railway car as the train nears Salt Lake City, while his audience slowly drifts away.

In which British port is Phileas Fogg arrested just hours before his deadline to reach London?

Liverpool is where the detective finally serves his warrant, only to learn that the real thief had been caught three days earlier.

When coal runs out in mid-Atlantic, what does Phileas Fogg order the crew to burn to keep steaming?

The ship's woodwork goes into the furnace bit by bit, cabins, bunks, masts and spars, after Fogg buys the vessel from her captain so that he may strip her.

What is the surname of the Scotland Yard detective who shadows Phileas Fogg around the world?

Fix first spots Fogg on a quay in Egypt and dogs him across three continents, forever waiting for an arrest warrant that has not caught up with him.

After Phileas Fogg returns to London, what does he send his valet to arrange with a local clergyman?

A wedding is suddenly in prospect: Fogg, believing himself ruined, has just accepted a proposal from the woman he rescued in India.

Which waterway, opened in 1869, helped make Phileas Fogg's fast trip around the globe believable?

The Suez Canal opened in the year America's first transcontinental railroad was finished, and with India's new rail link they made a tourist's lap of the globe possible.

Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days first ran as a serial in which French newspaper?

Le Temps timed the instalments so that the final chapters appeared on 22 December 1872, the day after Fogg's deadline in the story.

While Around the World in Eighty Days ran as a serial, what did some readers do, believing it real?

Placing bets on it was one response; railway and steamship companies went further and lobbied Verne to have their lines written into the story.

Whose tale Three Sundays in a Week did Jules Verne cite as a source for Phileas Fogg's adventure?

Edgar Allan Poe fascinated Verne, who had published a study of the American's stories in 1864, years before he sent Fogg on his way.

Which Monty Python member retraced Phileas Fogg's route without aircraft for a 1989 BBC series?

Michael Palin got the job only after Alan Whicker and other presenters turned it down, and the trip launched his long second career making travel programmes.

Which British actor played Phileas Fogg in the 1956 Best Picture winner Around the World in 80 Days?

David Niven was so keen on the part that he told the producer he would do it for nothing, and later admitted he was grateful not to be held to that.

Which Mexican comedy star played Phileas Fogg's valet in the 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days?

Cantinflas had done some bullfighting, so the film gave him a bullring scene in Spain, and Spanish-language posters billed him above the other stars.

Which actress played the rescued Indian princess in the 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days?

Shirley MacLaine was one of four billed stars in a film that took Best Picture without a single acting nomination.

Which James Bond actor played Phileas Fogg in the 1989 miniseries Around the World in 80 Days?

Pierce Brosnan's Fogg was pursued by Peter Ustinov as the detective, with Monty Python's Eric Idle as his valet.

In the cartoon Around the World with Willy Fog, the hero based on Phileas Fogg is which animal?

A lion plays the punctual gentleman, with a cat as his valet and a panther as the princess, in a Spanish series animated by a Japanese studio.

Which American shipping magnate, who circled the globe in 1870, claimed to be the real Phileas Fogg?

George Francis Train made his dash while campaigning for the US presidency, and counted only his eighty days in motion in a trip that lasted far longer.

Whose round-the-world tour of 1872 may have given Jules Verne the idea for Phileas Fogg's trip?

Thomas Cook's party left in September 1872 and took seven months, and Verne later said a tourist advertisement in a newspaper gave him the idea.

Jules Verne wrote Around the World in Eighty Days soon after serving as a coastguard in which war?

Franco-Prussian War service was one of several troubles: Verne was short of money and his father had recently died when he wrote the book.

In which French city, his home until death, did Jules Verne receive a reporter racing Fogg's record?

Amiens elected Verne to its town council in 1888, and the boulevard where he lived now carries his name.

What single piece of luggage does Phileas Fogg take from London, stuffed with banknotes?

A carpet bag holds just two shirts and three pairs of stockings each for master and valet, because Fogg plans to buy clothes on the way.

Which Looney Tunes bird circles the globe in 80 days in a 2000 animated film?

Tweety makes the trip after Granny wagers that he can, hoping to save a children's park, and he has to gather the prints of 80 cats on the way.

Which comedy team serve Phileas Fogg's great-grandson in a 1963 spoof of Jules Verne's novel?

The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze has them serving Phileas Fogg III, whose rival uses the bet as cover to frame him for a robbery.

Who adapted Around the World in Eighty Days for radio in 1938 and as a Broadway musical in 1946?

Orson Welles wrote the stage show's book and Cole Porter its songs, but the costly extravaganza closed after 75 performances.

The Jules Verne Trophy was first awarded for beating 80 days around the globe in which craft?

A sailing yacht first did it in 1993, in a little over 79 days, and every attempt must be made non-stop and without outside help.

British adventurer Mark Beaumont circled the world in under 80 days in 2017 using which vehicle?

A bicycle carried him 18,000 miles in 78 days and 14 hours, on a ride inspired by Verne that began and ended in Paris.

Jules Verne gives Phileas Fogg a house at No. 7 on which London street near Burlington Gardens?

Savile Row is where Fogg spends ten hours of every day, sleeping or dressing, in a house where, Verne says, the playwright Sheridan died.

Which offence in a Bombay temple gets Phileas Fogg's valet chased by priests and later put on trial?

Keeping his shoes on broke a rule of the pagoda on Malabar Hill; the priests tore them off, and the pair was later produced in a Calcutta court as proof against him.

Which trading steamer does Phileas Fogg buy from her captain during the Atlantic crossing?

Henrietta was bound for Bordeaux until Fogg bribed her crew, locked Captain Andrew Speedy in his cabin and took command himself.

In San Francisco, Phileas Fogg is caught in a brawling election rally held to choose which official?

A justice of the peace is the modest prize, Verne's joke after fists and canes have flown between the supporters of Camerfield and Mandiboy.

How does the American train carrying Phileas Fogg get across the unsafe bridge at Medicine Bow?

At full speed is the engineer's gamble: the train all but flies over, and the ruined bridge crashes into the rapids just behind it.