Free The Extraordinary Book of Useless Information by Don Voorhees

series.
    Storage Wars
performer David Hester revealed that the producers of the show often plant interesting and valuable items for the cast to find. He also maintains the bidding that takes place on the series is rigged.
    POTTER’S PLACE
    In
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
, a picture of Gandalf the Grey, from
The
Lord of the Rings
, can be seen hanging on Dumbledore’s wall of wizards.
    Actress Shirley Henderson, who was in her late thirties at the time, played fourteen-year-old Moaning Myrtle in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
and
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
.
    The name Voldemort derives from the French, meaning “flight from death,” which is what Voldemort does in the books.
    During the filming of
Chamber of Secrets
there was an infestation of lice among the child actors.
    The
Harry Potter
series were the first children’s books to make the
New York Times
Bestseller List since
Charlotte’s Web
in 1952.
    The final installment of the
Harry Potter
book series—
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
—sold 11 million copies in just twenty-four hours.
    PROLIFIC PERFORMERS
    Actor John Carradine holds the record for appearing in the most films, more than three hundred. The total is higher if movies he appeared uncredited in are counted.
    John Wayne was the most commercially successful actor of all time and
starred
in the most movies—142.
    BEAUTY AND BRAINS
    The beautiful Austrian-American film star Hedy Lamarr was also a mathematical genius. During World War II, she came up with an early technique for frequency hopping and spread-spectrum communications that is still used today for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and wireless phones.
    Lamarr also holds the distinction of performing the first female orgasm on screen, in the 1933 movie
Ecstasy
, and was the first to show full female frontal nudity.
    MOVIE BUFFS
    Artist’s model Audrey Munson was the first woman to appear nude in a film. She played an artist’s model in 1915’s
Inspiration
.
    The 1916 silent film
A Daughter of the Gods
, starring Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman, was the first movie where a major star appeared nude.
    REBELS REQUIEM
    The three stars of
Rebel Without a Cause
all met tragic ends in real life. James Dean died in a car wreck. Natalie Wood drowned under suspicious circumstances. Sal Mineo was stabbed in a parking area behind his West Hollywood home.
    BUILDING BRIDGES
    In the movie
The Bridge on the River Kwai
, the prisoners built the bridge in two months. The construction company hired to build the bridge for the film took eight months to complete the task.
    In real life, some eighty thousand Asian conscripts and thirteen thousand prisoners died during the building of the bridge for the Japanese in 1943. Two bridges were built, a temporary wooden one and a permanent steel-and-concrete one.
    The bridges were destroyed by Allied bombers two years later. The steel bridge has since been repaired and is still in use today.
    A real bridge and train were destroyed for the movie. On the first take, the explosive charges failed to detonate and the train went over the bridge and crashed down a hill.
    OUTTAKES
    At least thirty-two different actresses were screen-tested for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in
Gone with the Wind
, even Lucille Ball.
    In
Terminator 2
, Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $15 million and only had seven hundred words of dialogue. That comes out to $21,429 per word.
    The blue pinafore dress Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in
The Wizard of Oz
sold for $480,000 in 2012.
    A “cold open” is when a TV show or movie jumps directly into the plot, before the opening credits roll. TV shows do this to hook the viewer before going to the first commercial break.
    For the scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie
The Birds
where Tippi Hedren is attacked, trained birds were attached to her with nylon strings. Hedren actually was cut by a bird during the filming.
    During the filming of the