AMAZING FACTS

The largest movie theatre in the world, Radio City Music Hall in New York, opened in 1932 - it seats almost 6,000 people.

The longest movie in the world according to Guiness World Records is The Cure for Insomnia, directed by John Henry Timmis IV. Released in 1987, the running time is 5220 minutes (87 hours).

The first film animation was "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" made in 1906 by American J. Stuart Blacton.

In 1919, 18-year-old Walt Disney teamed up with Ub Iwerks, to produce a series of cartoons entitled "Alice in Cartoonland."

The Walt Disney company was founded in 1923, and in 1927 Walt came up with the idea for an animated mouse called Mortimer Mouse. His wife Lillian convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse.

In 1937 Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, created Tom and Jerry in 1939.

The first Best Picture Oscar for an animation was awarded in 1991 for Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Mel Blanc, who played the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots.

Jack Mercer was the voice of Popeye the Sailor for 45 years.

The video recording machine was invented by the Ampex corporation of California in 1956. The first video recorder, the Ampex VR1000, stood 1,1 m (3 ft 3 in) high and weighed as much as a small car: 665 kg (1,466 lb).

The home video recorder was introduced in 1972 by Philips of the Netherlands.

Japanese company JVC introduced the VHS system in 1976.

About 80% of VCRs are made by Japanese companies.

The first pop video was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, released in 1975.

On average, a movie makes about 5 times more from its video sales than ticket takings.

About one quarter of movie videos sold are animations.

In the 1926 film version of Don Juan actor Lionel Barrymore set the record for the most kisses ever in a single film. Barrymore embraced Mary Astor and Estelle Taylor 127 times.

The longest kiss in a movie is in Andy Warhol's Kiss. Rufus Collins and Naomi Levine kissed for the entire 50 minutes of the movie.

The first porn movie was the 1908 Fench film al'Ecu d'or oula bonne auberge.

The first movie to use sound was "The Jazz Singer," released in 1927: the first words, spoken by Al Jolson, were: "Wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet."

The 1967 Russian movie War and Peace had 120,000 extras. The South Korean movie Monster Wang-magwi from the same year featured 157,000 extras. The 1945 German movie Kolberg had 187,000 and the movie with the most extras, the 1982 British movie Gandhi, featured 300,000 extras.

The Titanic was designed to hold 32 lifeboats, though only 20 were on board; White Star management was concerned that too many boats would sully the aesthetic beauty of the ship.

Survivors were rescued by the Carpathia, which was 58 miles southeast of Titanic when it received the distress call.

Titanic boasted electric elevators, a swimming pool, a squash court, a Turkish Bath, and a gymnasium with a mechanical horse and mechanical camel.

The wreckage of Titanic was located in 1985, 12,500 feet down, about 350 miles (531 km) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada

A first class (parlor suite) ticket on Titanic cost $4,350, which translates into $90,000 in 2006 USD.

Lillian Gertrud Asplund, the last American survivor of the Titanic tragedy, died in Massachusetts on May 6, 2006, at age 99. Her mother and a brother also survived, but her father and three other brothers perished.

Two other survivors live in England.

Eleanor Shuman, who was the inspiration for Kate Winslet's Rose, died on March 7, 1998, at age 87.

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets in the world.

Today there are more than 1,5 billion TV sets in use.

China has the most TV sets (300 million).

US citizens watch the most TV. By age 65, an American would have watched the equivalent of 9 years uninterrupted screening, viewing more than 20,000 TV commercials per year.

In the US there are more TV sets than telephones.

The first TV interview was made with Irish actress Peggy O'Neil in April 1930.

The first daily broadcast was started by the BBC in November 1936.

The first TV commercial was a 20-second ad for a Bulova clock, broadcasted by WNBT, New York during a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies in July 1941.Bulova paid $9 for that first TV spot. Bulova also was the first watch in space.

The first regular TV soap was DuMont TV's A Woman to Remember, which began its run in February 1947.

The first televised sporting event was a Japanese elementary school baseball game, broadcast in September 1931.

The world's first TV news helicopter was introduced by KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles on 4 July 1958.

In the film, 'Titanic', when Jack walks through the french doors for dinner with Rose and her family, a camera man's reflection can be seen on the glass.

During one scene in 'The Sound of Music', an orange box can be clearly seen stamped with the words 'Produce of Israel'. The film was set in 1938, ten years before Israel was founded.

Some of the chariot racers in 'Ben Hur' were seen to be wearing wristwatches.

In the 1985 movie, 'Falling in Love', a reflection of the camera can be seen in a mirror.

Esteemed actor Richard Harris was seen wearing an elastoplast on his neck when playing King Arthur in the film 'Camelot'

Edward G Robinson's character in 'The Last Gangster' gets sent to Alcatraz in 1927. This was probably not as bad a sentence as you might imagine since the prison wasn't opened there until 1934.

In one scene from this movie a young boy who is nothing to do with the film is scene moving across the set. Later, when this was discovered, no-one knew who he was and rumours started to spread about a possible haunting.

Television ariels can clearly be seen on the roofs of Victorian London in the comedy, 'The Wrong Box'.

A red London bus can be seen in the background of one of the battle scenes from the Arthurian legend film, 'Excalibur'.

Nicolas Cage started life as Nicholas Coppola, but changed it to disassociate himself with famous film director Uncle Francis Ford Coppola. The name 'Cage' came from the comic book character 'Luke Cage'.

Red Buttons was originally known as Aaron Chwatt. The idea for his new name came from his hair colour and the 48 buttons on his bellboy's uniform.

Bette Davis started out as Ruth Davis but changed to Bette after Balzac's cousin Bette

The Phantom of the Opera star was once called Michael Dumble-Smith. The unsurprising desire for a name change was concluded after he saw a passing Crawford's buscuit lorry.

The former Roy Scherer became Rock Hudson after his agent searched the globe for an alternative, coming up with an amalgamation of the Hudson River and the Rock of Gibraltar.

Orginally Susan Weaver, Sigourney picked out her unusual new name from a character in the novel, The Great Gatsby.

Oprah is actually a typo. Her parents wanted to use the biblical name Orpah, but the midwife couldn't spell so it became Oprah.

Friends star Luke Perry was originally Coy Luther Perry but changed to Luke after the character in his favourite movie, Cool Hand Luke.

Originally Doris Von Kappellof, Doris followed the wise advice of band leader Barney Rapp and changed her name. She used to sing the song 'Day after Day' for him.

Born Frank Cooper, his agent persuaded him to change to Gary after the agent's home town - Gary, Indiana.