MUSIC HALL SEES FIRST FILM

The first film to debut in New York’s Radio City Music Hall was Frank Capra’s “Bitter Tea of General Yen,” starring Barbara Stanwyck. The year was 1933.

The standard piano has 88 keys: 52 are white, and the remaining 36 are black. But that has not always been the case. Until the 1880s, Steinway’s grand pianos had no more than 85 keys. And the Boesendorfer Concert Grand has 94.

Social researchers note that American bars almost always have television sets but rarely if ever turn on the sound. In a recent study, at least one bartender claimed the TVs provide patrons “something to do with their eyes,” a kind of visual Muzak.

Pope John II, in A.D. 533, may have been the first pope to change his given name. The pope’s actual name, Mercurio, after the pagan god Mercury, wasn’t deemed suitable for the head of the Church.

After Parker Brothers bought the rights to Monopoly in 1934 the company introduced the board game with no tokens, instructing players to use buttons or pennies as markers. The first tokens, added in 1935, were modeled after chess pieces. And in 1937, brand new, die-cast tokens included a car, purse, flatiron, lantern, thimble, shoe, top hat and rocking horse.