50 Fun Facts About Before and After

Which before-and-after joins the star of 1984's Footloose to a plate on a diner breakfast menu?

Kevin Bacon and Eggs owes its second half to publicity: Edward Bernays, hired to sell more bacon, helped convince Americans that this was the true all-American breakfast.

Which before-and-after joins Pat Sajak's long-time game show to a treat with a paper slip inside?

Wheel of Fortune Cookie ends on a staple of Chinese restaurants in the United States that most likely began with cookies made by Japanese immigrants.

Which before-and-after joins the Roman killed on the Ides of March to a romaine and crouton dish?

Julius Caesar Salad honours the wrong Caesar: the dish is credited to Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant restaurateur, who created it in Tijuana, Mexico.

Which before-and-after joins the Louvre portrait stolen in 1911 to Springfield's young saxophonist?

Mona Lisa Simpson gives Springfield's young jazz fan a painting whose worldwide fame stems partly from that theft, carried out by Vincenzo Peruggia in the name of Italian patriotism.

Which before-and-after joins the singer of 'Superstition' to the Amazon with the Lasso of Truth?

Stevie Wonder Woman ends with a heroine built for honesty: her creator, psychologist William Moulton Marston, also devised the blood pressure test that became part of the modern polygraph.

Which before-and-after joins the star of Top Gun to the car feature invented by a blind engineer?

Tom Cruise Control owes its second half to a bumpy ride: family lore says inventor Ralph Teetor got the idea from his lawyer, who slowed while talking and sped up while listening.

Which before-and-after joins the rhyme's climber of the water spout to Marvel's Peter Parker?

Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man nearly lost its hero: Stan Lee recalled his publisher objecting that nobody likes spiders, then allowing a tryout in a comic's final issue.

Which before-and-after joins the monarch who married Prince Albert to an American lingerie chain?

Queen Victoria's Secret is no accident: the store was named in reference to the monarch, to borrow the refinement of her era, while the 'secret' was hidden under the clothes.

Which before-and-after joins the Muppet diva who pursues Kermit to a child's coin container?

Miss Piggy Bank stars a diva performed for a quarter of a century by Frank Oz, the same puppeteer George Lucas hired to bring Yoda to life.

Which before-and-after joins Mendeleev's chart of the elements to the sport nicknamed ping-pong?

Periodic Table Tennis starts with a chart that Mendeleev published with gaps in it, then used to predict the properties of elements nobody had yet found.

Which before-and-after joins the band behind Rumours to a comfort food Kraft sells in a blue box?

Fleetwood Mac and Cheese salutes a band that recorded Rumours while its members were breaking up with one another, then saw the album sell over 40 million copies.

Which before-and-after joins a region no light can escape to a golfer's perfect tee shot?

Black Hole in One opens with a surprisingly young term, used in print by Life and Science News magazines in 1963 and soon after by science journalist Ann Ewing.

Which before-and-after joins France's gift in New York Harbor to Philadelphia's cracked icon?

Statue of Liberty Bell ends on a bell that first cracked when it was rung after arriving in Philadelphia, so two local workmen had to recast it twice.

Which before-and-after joins the home of the Whopper to the ape atop the Empire State Building?

Burger King Kong starts with a chain that trades as Hungry Jack's in Australia, because a restaurant in Adelaide already held the Burger King name.

Which before-and-after joins the children's show that made Elmo a star to Capcom's arcade brawler?

Sesame Street Fighter throws in a series whose second game was the best-selling arcade title since the golden age, bringing an arcade renaissance in the early 1990s.

Which before-and-after joins the icon of Paris's 1889 World's Fair to the home of the Crown Jewels?

Eiffel Tower of London begins with a structure designed to be easily dismantled, which was spared demolition once it proved useful for radio telegraphy.

Which before-and-after joins Gotham City's Dynamic Duo to the outlaw archer of Sherwood Forest?

Batman and Robin Hood is a family reunion: the sidekick's name and the medieval look of his first costume were inspired by the Sherwood outlaw.

Which before-and-after joins Minnie's big-eared Disney sweetheart to a chain-reaction board game?

Mickey Mouse Trap closes with a game in which players first cooperate to build a contraption in the style of a Rube Goldberg machine, then try to catch one another with it.

Which before-and-after joins a fairy tale's straw, stick and brick builders to sausages in pastry?

Three Little Pigs in a Blanket recalls the Disney cartoon whose song 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?' became something of an anthem of the Great Depression.

Which before-and-after joins the singer of 'Rocket Man' to a maker of green and yellow tractors?

Elton John Deere hitches a singer born Reginald Dwight to a firm founded by a blacksmith, who invented the first commercially successful steel plow.

Which before-and-after joins Ted Mosby's sitcom to the winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize?

How I Met Your Mother Teresa ends with a laureate honoured for work 'in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress', then canonised in 2016 as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

Which before-and-after joins Rick Grimes's AMC drama to the film set at Welton Academy?

The Walking Dead Poets Society closes with a film whose title club is a band of schoolboys who sneak off campus to a cave to read poetry.

Which before-and-after joins Marvel's shield-throwing soldier to Simon Cowell's NBC variety contest?

Captain America's Got Talent starts with a hero shown punching Hitler on a comic cover, a real-life villain his creators chose because everyone in the free world hated him.

Which before-and-after joins the singer of 'Billie Jean' to an American pioneer of drip painting?

Michael Jackson Pollock ends with a painter who laid his canvases on the studio floor and poured household paint over them; Time magazine dubbed him 'Jack the Dripper'.

Which before-and-after joins Dickens's orphan who asks for more to an Isley Brothers hit the Beatles covered?

Oliver Twist and Shout finishes with a song the Beatles caught in one go: a second take was abandoned because Lennon's hoarse voice had nothing left.

Which before-and-after joins a Milan-born carmaker to Shakespeare's tale of Montagues and Capulets?

Alfa Romeo and Juliet starts with an acronym and a surname: ALFA stood for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, and Nicola Romeo took charge of the company in 1915.

Which before-and-after joins the monument on the US five-dollar bill to a late-May holiday?

Lincoln Memorial Day ends with a holiday that grew from the custom of decorating the graves of Civil War soldiers with flowers, and was long known as Decoration Day.

Which before-and-after joins Colonel Sanders's chain to a stop-motion film about escaping hens?

Kentucky Fried Chicken Run opens with a founder whose title was an honour, not an army rank: the state's governor commissioned Harland Sanders as a Kentucky Colonel in 1935.

Which before-and-after joins the 'Folsom Prison Blues' singer to a saloon's anti-theft invention?

Johnny Cash Register rings up a machine born of suspicion: its Ohio inventor believed his bar staff were pocketing customers' money, and later sold a model called the Incorruptible Cashier.

Which before-and-after joins the Frosted Flakes mascot to the runaway winner of the 1997 Masters?

Tony the Tiger Woods ends with a golfer whose nickname honours his father's friend, a South Vietnamese colonel who was also known as Tiger.

Which before-and-after joins the Sultan of Swat to the Supreme Court's second female justice?

Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg starts with a slugger who began his career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before finding greater fame at the plate in New York.

Which before-and-after joins the quarterback drafted 199th to a sitcom about a blended family?

Tom Brady Bunch starts with a sixth-round pick who came to be called the biggest draft steal in NFL history.

Which before-and-after joins the NBA's first 40,000-point scorer to a Roald Dahl fruit adventure?

LeBron James and the Giant Peach ends with a 1961 story of an orphan who flees two cruel aunts and shares the fruit with seven magically altered bugs.

Which before-and-after joins the singer of 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President' to an 1823 US policy?

Marilyn Monroe Doctrine ends with a policy that treated foreign meddling in the New World as a hostile act, yet it was not named after its president until 1850.

Which before-and-after joins the 1953 Nobel laureate in literature to a Louisville racetrack?

Winston Churchill Downs ends at a track named for a prominent local family, after two of the Churchills leased 80 acres of their land to their nephew, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr.

Which before-and-after joins the saint burned at Rouen to an arch Napoleon ordered in 1806?

Joan of Arc de Triomphe ends with an arch Napoleon never saw finished: begun after his victory at Austerlitz, it was not completed until 1836, in the reign of Louis Philippe.

Which before-and-after joins the Manhattan home of the Knicks to the paradise of Adam and Eve?

Madison Square Garden of Eden starts with the fourth arena to carry that name; only the first two stood on Madison Square, and the 1968 arena was built atop Pennsylvania Station.

Which before-and-after joins NBC's sketch show born in 1975 to a Bond film with a McCartney theme?

Saturday Night Live and Let Die ends with a 1973 Bond film whose theme song was performed by Wings, the band Paul McCartney led after the Beatles.

Which before-and-after joins Mexico's Battle of Puebla holiday to a Minnesota hospital?

Cinco de Mayo Clinic starts with a victory that did not last: a larger French force later won the Second Battle of Puebla and went on to occupy Mexico City.

Which before-and-after joins Judith Sheindlin's court show to the star who played Dorothy in 1939?

Judge Judy Garland ends with a vaudeville performer born Frances Ethel Gumm, who counted the Academy Juvenile Award among her honours.

Which before-and-after joins the BBC home of the Daleks to the film with detective Eddie Valiant?

Doctor Who Framed Roger Rabbit starts with a series that swaps its lead actor through regeneration: a fatally injured Time Lord's cells renew into a body with a new personality.

Which before-and-after joins an organiser of Farm Aid to the prisoner freed in 1990 after 27 years?

Willie Nelson Mandela ends with a former inmate of Robben Island who became South Africa's first head of state chosen in a fully representative democratic election.

Which before-and-after joins the star of The Man Who Fell to Earth to an Alamo defender's blade?

David Bowie Knife is no coincidence: born David Jones, the singer chose his stage name after the American pioneer and the blade he had popularised, to avoid confusion with a Monkee.

Which before-and-after joins the singer of Teenage Dream to Erle Stanley Gardner's defence lawyer?

Katy Perry Mason ends with a lawyer who appears in 82 novels and four short stories, each involving a client charged with murder.

Which before-and-after joins the band behind Wish You Were Here to Manny Pacquiao's 2015 conqueror?

Pink Floyd Mayweather starts with a band named after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, whose records founder Syd Barrett had in his collection.

Which before-and-after joins Jørn Utzon's harbourside venue to the drama about Frank Underwood?

Sydney Opera House of Cards starts with a building its Danish architect never saw complete: he resigned in 1966, left Australia and had not returned when he died at 90.

Which before-and-after joins a board game two Canadian editors devised to a Chris Gardner biopic?

Trivial Pursuit of Happyness keeps a deliberate misspelling: the film's title copies a mural that Chris Gardner sees outside the daycare his son attended.

Which before-and-after joins the man whose 42 all of baseball retired to Daniel Defoe's castaway?

Jackie Robinson Crusoe ends with a 1719 novel whose first edition named its hero as the author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person.

Which before-and-after joins the Duffer Brothers' Netflix hit to Achebe's novel about Okonkwo?

Stranger Things Fall Apart ends with a novel whose title Achebe took from a verse of 'The Second Coming', a 1919 poem by Yeats.

Which before-and-after joins the 14th US president to a star of TV's Remington Steele?

Franklin Pierce Brosnan starts with the first elected president to seek a second term and be refused the nomination by his own party, in 1856.