Did the star of one of the first movies mocking Adolf Hitler have to finance the movie himself because no studio would touch it?

By JACK BAGLEY
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
Now that it’s officially summer, what are your plans? Do you intend to use that hard-earned vacation time for a trip to the beach, perhaps?
I never go to the beach.  People keep trying to push me back into the water.
How about the mountains? Now there’s a great destination for fun.
At my age, though, climbing mountains is out.  I have trouble with mole hills.
Whatever your plans are for the summer, I do hope they include trivia!  How about a first summer dollop of trivia right now?
Did you know …
… a popular Scandinavian toast has a pretty gruesome history? You have no doubt heard, “Skål!” uttered by people raising their glasses in a toast to someone. The term comes from Scandinavia, and it came about because of a rather dreadful habit of the Vikings. When a Viking battle ended, the winners would drink the blood of their vanquished enemies – from human skulls. That’s where the word “skål” comes from. (I could have gone all day and not known that.)
… the first spacecraft sent to Venus had a rather strange mission? Venera 1, launched in 1961 by the Soviet Union, had equipment on board to scan the surface of Venus for water. Some scientists thought Venus was a very wet and tropical planet, and that was one of the things they wanted to learn with the mission. Venera 1 suffered a communications failure during flight and no data was ever returned. We now know, of course, that Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System, with no liquid water at all and an average temperature of 490° Celsius. (Hot stuff.)
… a Muppet character is based on an actual myth? The “vampire” character of Count von Count, who has helped children learn numbers on Sesame Street for decades, is based on a method supposedly used to deter vampires. The idea is to toss seeds outside a door or place a fishing net against a window. Vampires are compelled to count the seeds or the holes in the net, delaying them until the Sun comes up. (No wonder he never bit Big Bird on the neck.)
… viruses can get viruses? Normally, we think of a virus as a tiny thing, much smaller than a cell. But some viruses are large – large enough, in fact, that other viruses infect them. (There’s a picture to keep you awake at night.)
… a Confederate general’s hat saved his life when he was shot in the head during the Civil War? General Henry Heth (1825-1888) was leading a division at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg when he was hit in the head by a Union bullet. But because Heth was wearing a hat two sizes too large, he had newspaper folded into the sweatband to help keep the hat on his head. The newspaper deflected the bullet enough to knock Heth out but not kill him. The general was unconscious for about 30 hours, then made a full recovery. (I wanted to do a line here about “using your head” but it seemed silly.)
… one of the first movies mocking Hitler was financed by its star? The storyline of 1940’s The Great Dictator pokes thinly-veiled satire at the rise of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) to becoming dictator of Germany. But the star of the film, comedian Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), could not get a studio to finance the movie. Chaplin was told that studios feared losing money if they “took a stand” in the years before the United States entered World War II. Undaunted, Chaplin poured two million dollars of his own money into the production, and The Great Dictator – in which Chaplin plays both a Jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel, the parody of Hitler – became his greatest hit. Chaplin also wrote, produced and directed the film. Additional trivia note: The Great Dictator is one of the few non-cowboy movies enjoyed by Hitler. He was said to have owned a print of the film and liked showing it at his private cinema at his home. (You knew that little mustache he wore would come in handy, didn’t you?)
… despite the huge amount of stuff in orbit around Earth, only one satellite has ever been destroyed by a meteor? It happened in 1993, when the European Space Agency’s Olympus-1 satellite was hit by a meteor during the Perseid meteor shower that year. (Otherwise known as a cosmic bull’s-eye.)
… caffeine acts as a natural pesticide? The powerful drug (yes, caffeine is a drug) paralyzes and kills certain insect pests that may try to feed on its parent plant. (Doesn’t do you and me a whole lot of good, either.)
… the creator of a popular children’s show had a background that helped him with it? Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018), the creator of the popular cartoon series Spongebob Squarepants, had a background that helped with the show – he was at one time a teacher of marine biology at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California. (There’s something fishy about that.)
… you may know someone who is Rabelaisian? To be called Rabelaisian is to be noted as being “grossly or coarsely humorous.” You know, like a comedian who needs four-letter words to be funny. The term is based on the name of François Rabelais (1483-1553), a French humorist and satirist. (I’ve been called many things, but never that.)
… that little loop on the back of some men’s dress shirts has a purpose? That loop, located below the collar and between the shoulders, is there to give you a way to hang up the shirt when a hangar isn’t handy. (Makes a great way to grab the shirt and hang it over your shoulder, too.)
… anteaters prefer termites to ants? (Two out of every three anteaters say so.)
Now … you know!
Copyright © 2025 Jack Bagley