Brotherly Love, Quaker Oats & Willy Wonka

OK so my first question was where did the phrase "City of Brotherly Love" come from. As most folks know, this is the nickname of Philadelphia. Turns out, it's pretty simple. William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania was a Quaker who had been persecuted for his faith back in England and wanted a colony where you could worship freely. Philadelphia, is greek for brotherly love (philos=love/friendship and adelphos=brother). Done.

Which made me think of Quakers - and oatmeal. They have an image of a Quaker gentlemen on his package of oats. Turns out, Quaker Oatmeal has nothing to do with the "Religious Society of Friends" but the founders selected the the quaker name and image to portray good quality and honest value. It was the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal back in 1877.

Boring so far, right? OK, so I was looking at some info about the Quaker Oats Company and found out they actually funded the production of the 1971 cult-classic film - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The reason for the arrangement? Quaker Oats wanted to put out a new chocolate bar - bought the movie rights and name of the bar - The Wonka Bar. An early example of product placement that's actually integrated into the plotline.

Quick Quiz

What were the four ways that the kids in the movie met their demise? (answer below)

So to the name of the movie - some may know that the book that the move is loosely based on is called "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - why the name change? A) To further promote the new candy bar B) "Charlie" was the nickname of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War ongoing during production.

In the end, the movie was initally considered to be a box office failure despite good reviews and apparently, it didn't work out too well for Quaker Oats either...because of a mistake in the formula of the chocolate bar, they melted to easily, even on the shelf! They were shortly removed from the market. The movie didn't become popular until the 80s, when people started watching movies on VHS tape.

A few tidbits courtesy of wikipedia:

- The chocolate river was only 2 feet deep and was created by adding chocolate ice cream mix to 150,000 gallons of water - apparently after a few days of shooting, it reeked.

-The combination to the first door in the chocolate factory is 99-44/100% pure, which was an ad slogan for Ivory Soap.

- Peter Ostrum, who plays Charlie Bucket, made no other films. He later became a veterinarian.

- In the scene where Willy Wonka drinks from a flower-shaped cup and then eats the cup, the cup itself was made of wax. Gene Wilder had to chew the wax pieces until the end of the take, at which point he spat them out.

-During the "Wonka Wash" car scene, the foam used to spurt out was compiled from basic fire extinguishers, but what was unknown to the cast and crew was that the foam itself was potent skin irritant, so after shooting the scene, the actors were left in considerable discomfort when their skin puffed up and required several days to receive medical treatment and recovery.

-The musical code for entering the Chocolate Factory played by Wonka is identified by Mrs. Teevee as "Rachmaninoff" when it is actually the opening strains of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".

OK the answers to the trivia question...1) Augustus Gloop falls into the two-foot deep chocolate river and is sucked up the pipe to the fudge room.

2)

Violet Beauregarde, who is obsessed with chewing gum, chews a piece of the experimental
three-course dinner" gum and subsequently turns into a blueberry.

3) Veruca Salt, is determined to be a "bad egg" and is sent down the garbage shoot

4) Mike Teevee the TV-obsessed kid is shrunk down to 6 inches tall by "Wonkavision"

And as a parting gift - the website of the actress who played Veruca Salt - wow, is all I have to say. Seriously?

I learned something new today!