Q 01/05

On which Mediterranean island was Frank Capra born in 1897?

A) Sardinia

B) Malta

C) Corsica

D) Sicily

Answer · why

D) Sicily

Sicily. The family left when he was a small boy and settled in Los Angeles, where Frank sold newspapers after school to help keep them afloat.

Q 02/05

What does the surname Capra mean in Italian?

A) Shepherd

B) Goat

C) Cape

D) Head

Answer · why

B) Goat

Goat. He was born Francesco Rosario Capra, and chose the name Frank Russell Capra for himself when he became an American citizen in 1920.

Q 03/05

How did the Capra family travel to America in 1903?

A) In steerage on the steamship Germania

B) On a cargo ship via Argentina

C) Second class on the liner Carpathia

D) Working passage on a fruit freighter

Answer · why

A) In steerage on the steamship Germania

In steerage on the steamship Germania, the cheapest way across. Capra remembered 13 days with no privacy or ventilation and called it the most degradi...

Q 04/05

Capra worked his way through which university, graduating in chemical engineering in 1918?

A) Stanford

B) UCLA

C) Caltech

D) USC

Answer · why

C) Caltech

Caltech, then still called Throop College of Technology. He played banjo in bars to help pay his way, and late in life he left the school part of his ...

Q 05/05

Which future Second World War air hero attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles alongside Capra?

A) Jimmy Doolittle

B) Chuck Yeager

C) Eddie Rickenbacker

D) Charles Lindbergh

Answer · why

A) Jimmy Doolittle

Jimmy Doolittle. In April 1942 he led 16 Army bombers off the deck of an aircraft carrier to strike Tokyo, the first American raid on Japan's home isl...