Trivia Why's: alliteration

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Alliterative Actresses and Artists (Musical) - Random Trivia Answers

A1) Tina Turner. Anna Mae Bullock was known as "Little Ann" when she and Ike Turner tried to get married in 1958, but he hadn't finalized his divorce yet. They became The Ike & Tina Turner Revue in 1960 and officially got married two years later.
A2) Gloria Gaynor. Gloria Fowles wasn't happy with using her last name when record producer Johnny Nash suggested Gaynor so she could be nicknamed "GG". Fowles liked the new name and used it on her first single "She'll Be Sorry" in 1965.
A3) Greta Garbo. A teenaged Greta Lovisa Gustafsson learned to act from director Mauritz Stiller, who changed her last name.
A4) Vivian Vance. Vivian Roberta Jones took her new stage name from author and folk singer Vance Randolph.
A5) Doris Day. On bandleader Barney Rapp's advice, Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff shortened her last name to match "Day After Day", the first song she had sung for him.
A6) Barbie Benton. Barbara Lynn Klein chose Benton from a list of possibilities provided by her agent for the 1970 movie How Did a Nice Girl Like You Get in This Business?
A7) Joan Jett. After her parents divorced, Joan Marie Larkin switched to her mother's maiden name Jett.
A8) Suzanne Somers. Suzanne Marie Mahoney married Bruce Somers in college, having gotten pregnant during her freshman year. The marriage lasted only two years, but Somers kept the last name.
A9) Susan Saint James. Susan Jane Miller changed her name to Saint James when she was in Paris, just before she headed to Hollywood at age 19.
A10) Marilyn Monroe. Norma Jeane Mortenson was given her dad's last name at birth, but was baptized Norma Jeane Baker using her mom's first married last name, as her parents were separated and would get divorced soon thereafter. She borrowed her mother's maiden name for her stage name.
A11) Fannie Flagg. Patricia Neal was forced to change her name because of the older Academy Award and Tony Award-winning actress of the same name.
A12) Susan Sarandon. Susan Abigail Tomalin married college classmate Chris Sarandon in 1967. Both were acting when they divorced in 1979.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Alliterative Actresses and Artists (Musical)

My name doesn't alliterate, but it would have if my parents (or rather, the INS) had used a different translation for our last name. My sister's name alliterated before she got married, while my wife's has since we got married. So I know a thing or two about the topic. How about you? From their given first initials and last names, can you identify the following dozen actresses and singers, who gained alliteration (with one exception because she already had it) when they got married or took a stage name?