You’ll probably find this nostalgia trivia quiz much too easy for your amazingly sharp memory. On the other hand, maybe I can come up with a few questions that will challenge your “mind-like-a-steel-trap’ recall (answers follow).
1. After the Lone Ranger saved the day each week on the TV series and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask, “Who was that masked man?”
Invariably, someone would answer, “I don't know, but he left this behind.”
What did he leave behind?
2. When the Beatles came to North America in early 1964, they appeared on The _____ Show.
3. Finish this music lyric: “Get your kicks, ____.”
4. Can you complete this line of TV narration from a popular show of the ’50s? “The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed ____.”
5. This uncompleted line was in a popular hit song from the days of our youth. Do you remember? In the jungle, the mighty jungle, _____.”
6. After the Twist, the Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, we “danced”under a stick that was lowered as low as we could go in a dance called the _____.
7. Hard to believe, but we still have all the old TV commercial jingles firmly nestled in our mental hard drives? No doubt, you’ll remember, “N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle’s makes the very best, ____.”
8. The great trumpet player nicknamed “Satchmo” had a career that went on and on. His real name was ____.
9. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking? ____.
10. Red Skelton's hobo character was named ____. And, Red always ended his television show by saying, “Good Night, and ____.”
11. Some Americans who protested the Vietnam War did so by burning their ____ ____.
12. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front was called the VW. What other names did it go by? ____ or ____.
13. In 1971, singer Don MacLean sang a song about, “The day the music died.” This was a tribute to ____.
14. Remember the first earth satellite placed into orbit. The Russians achieved this amazing feat in 1957, shocking the world. The little beeping basketball circling above us was called ____.
15. One of the big fads of the late ’50s was a large plastic ring that we twirled around our waist. It was called the ____.
16. Remember the Davy Crockett series of TV shows on The Wonderful World of Disney? And how we had to have a Davy lunchbox and a Davy coonskin cap? What was the name of Davy’s rifle and what was the name of Davy’s sidekick?
17. What actors played Davy and his sidekick, and what became of them after the Davy Crockett fad and hysteria ended?
Answers
1. The Lone Ranger always left behind a silver bullet.
2. The Ed Sullivan Show.
3. “on Route 66!”
4. “to protect the innocent.”
5. “the lion sleeps tonight.”
6. The limbo.
7. “chocolate.”
8. Louis Armstrong.
9. The Timex watch.
10. Freddy, The Freeloader, and “Good night, and may God bless.”
11. Draft cards.
12. Beetle or Bug.
13. Singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, who all died in a plane crash in 1959.
14. Sputnik.
15. Hula-Hoop.
16. Davy’s rifle was Old Betsy, and Davy’s sidekick was Georgie Russell.
17. Davy was played by Fess Parker and Georgie was played by Buddy Ebsen. Fess eventually left show business and became a successful car dealer in Los Angeles. Buddy Ebsen went on to many more years of successful TV work, including The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones.