Mental Floss: Instant Knowledge (16 page)

(and the magic of neutering!)

USEFUL FOR:
barroom banter, conversing with bald people, and making friends with women in your Lamaze class

KEYWORDS:
Rogaine, Propecia, or toupee

THE FACT:
Believe it or not, the secret to baldness was discovered at a mental institution, where patients were regularly getting “fixed.”

As late as 1942, male patients in some mental hospitals were castrated to quiet them. As a result, Winfield State Hospital, a mental hospital in Kansas, became a good place for Yale anatomist James Hamilton to conduct a study of castrated men. One day, one of the patients who had been stripped of his manhood received a visitor, his identical twin brother. Dr. Hamilton was struck by the fact that the brother was completely bald, while the inmate had a full head of hair. Could testosterone have something to do with baldness, the researcher wondered? To investigate this possibility Hamilton got permission to inject the castrated man with testosterone. Within six months the mental patient became as bald as his brother who had been progressively going bald over a twenty-year period. Unfortunately, the baldness was irreversible, but Dr. Hamilton had demonstrated clearly that testosterone levels could be linked to hair loss.

(as in Al Jolson, the biggest one of them all)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, wrap parties, and in the middle of really bad shows you wish to God you could walk out on

KEYWORDS:
show stealer, prima donna, or saving grace

THE FACT:
Lots of performers have been labeled “World’s Greatest Entertainer.” But Jolson really,
really
believed it.

Born Asa Yoelson, Al Jolson was known for hijacking the action in the middle of shows, ad-libbing, or just stopping to talk to the audience. During a 1911 performance of the critically hated
Paris Is a Paradise for Coons
(title not edited for political correctness), Jolson stopped and asked the audience if they’d rather hear him sing than see the rest of the play. They roared their approval, and Jolson ditched the whole program and took over. From that moment on, no one else could really share the stage with him. Unlike some on this list, however, Jolson can be forgiven somewhat for his huge ego; from most contemporary accounts, he really
was
the greatest in the world. Despite the enormity of his contributions to stage and screen, Jolson’s image remains a political hot potato because of his use of stage blackface (considered repellent now, but pretty acceptable at the time).

(and the easiest cure on the shelf)

USEFUL FOR:
barroom banter, 21st birthdays, and convincing coworkers to go out on a work night

KEYWORDS:
what’re you drinking, I am so hung over, or I’m never doing that again

THE FACT:
If you avoid whiskeys, and stick to the vodkas, you’re bound to feel better in the morning.

Ever wonder what causes a hangover? It isn’t the alcohol in the beverage. Not the alcohol that most people think of, anyway. The alcohol that intoxicates is ethanol, but the stuff responsible for the hangover is a byproduct of fermentation known as methanol. Dark wines, cognac, fruit brandies, and whiskeys contain the most methanol, while vodka has almost none. Enzymes in the body convert methanol to formaldehyde, which causes the symptoms. These enzymes actually prefer ethanol as their meal—hence the “hair of the dog” treatment for hangovers. Taking another drink provides the enzymes with ethanol, and while they gorge on this, the methanol is excreted. In the doses found in beverages, methanol may be annoying but not dangerous. In high doses methanol can intoxicate and is sometimes passed off as regular alcohol by bootleggers, and in such amounts it can be lethal.

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, chatting up film buffs, assistants to stars, and people in the beef industry

KEYWORDS:
Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, film noir, or cattle

THE FACT:
There’s no doubt about it: Alfred Hitchcock was without question one of the towering geniuses of cinema. But like many a genius, he kind of liked to hog the spotlight.

In fact, he was particularly trying for screenwriters, who never felt he properly credited them for their work, and notoriously hard on actors (he was very outspoken in his negative opinion of Kim Novak’s performance in
Vertigo
). He was even quoted as saying, “Actors are cattle.” The quip stirred up such a huge outcry (actors can be so touchy) that he issued this correction: “I have been misquoted. What I really said is: Actors should be
treated
as cattle.” Although it began by accident (he was short an actor for the film
The Lodger
), he soon made it his trademark to appear in his own films, amassing a total of 37 such cameos over his career.

(and the guy who sort of filmed them)

USEFUL FOR:
impressing students of film and photography, and second-graders

KEYWORDS:
animation, early photography, cinema

THE FACT:
While June 15, 1878, is probably one of the most forgotten dates of all time, it’s the day that made Eadweard Muybridge the Father of Motion Pictures.

The photographer was Eadweard Muybridge and the horse was Abe Edgington. Muybridge was attempting to photograph the horse running in full stride to see whether all four of the horse’s hooves left the ground at the same time. Placing 12 box cameras, fitted with special tripwires 21 inches apart along the track, Muybridge essentially recorded what was too fast for the eye to see. Not only did this prove that horses become airborne while running, but the camera technique became the foundation for motion pictures. Despite a quick run-in with the law (Muybridge was also known for tracking down a journalist and shooting him for allegedly having an affair with his wife and fathering his son—later ruled a justifiable homicide), Muybridge continued to experiment with motion photography, and even earned the title Father of Motion Pictures.