(image borrowed from Gatorade)
Dr. Robert Cade was studying a football team in 1963 at the University of Florida to examine the effects of heat exhaustion. When he he analyzed the body liquids lost when sweating he came up with a drink formula that would replace them. With two years Gatorade was a 50 million dollar business. Cade named the drink after the team he was studying, the Florida Gators.
Naturally when reading this and then looking for this nifty picture, my mind went to this...
(image borrowed from Chowhound)
In the late 19th century, second-rate actors couldn't afford cold cream to remove their makeup so they had to use ham fat. They earned the nickname "hamfatters" until the early 20th century when bad actors were just called "hams." Physical comedy became known as "slapstick" because of its use of crude sound effects; such as two sticks being slapped together to accentuate a comedian's onstage pratfall (prat was an Old English term for buttocks).
I guess I never connected a bad actor to being a "ham". I mean, I know I've seen some movies or TV shows were a character was called a "ham" but I didn't think it was because they were being a bad actor at the time.
(image borrowed from Nonsensical and Miscellaneous Nonsense Wiki)
In the beginning days of theater, the "stage crew" (basically whatever you want to call that term way back when it all first started! Lol) had to use gas lamps as spotlights. In the early 20th century it was discovered that if you use a stick of lime in the gas the light would become more intense. The crew would use the "limelight" to illuminate the spot on stage that was most important for the play. It would later become known as the "spotlight" but whatever its name, it's where the actors always wanted to be!
That was an interesting factoid!
(image borrowed from Pinterest)
Teenagers became they own culture in 1941 when the word "teenager" first appeared. This was due to the emancipation of that age group around 1900 when new laws freed children from hard labor and kept them in school. Before that, there was only childhood and adulthood. At the age of 13 girls became women and boys became men and could get married and/or enter the workforce.
(image borrowed from Tuxedo Unmasked)
In 1886 Griswald Lorillard, the heir to a tobacco fortune shocked the country club he was attending while wearing a dinner jacket without tails. Back then it was more custom to have a dinner jacket with long coattails. The fashion statement caught on and the suit became known as a tuxedo for the club Lorillard wore it at was located in Tuxedo Park, New York.
Very interesting! And I couldn't resist showing Tuxedo Mask for this one! At least I am hoping the picture appears for you guys! Wiki didn't have a good one--the agony!
I wonder if all Gators students tell that story. Haha. And so interesting about the term "ham".
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