Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What was the full name of the future star in the Chicago performances of the play that closed after 358 performances?, using the article: The musical opened on Broadway on May 28, 1953 at the Majestic Theatre. Large advance sales guaranteed a considerable run; by the start of November, it had paid back its advance, and closed after 358 performances, paying a small profit to RCA. Thomas Hischak, in his The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, suggests that business fell off after the advance sales were exhausted "because audiences had come to expect more from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical". According to Frederick W. Nolan in his book about the duo's works, "despite a $500,000 advance sale, despite a ten-month run (which, for anyone except Rodgers and Hammerstein, would have represented a major success), and despite an eventual profit in excess of $100,000, Me and Juliet has to be classed as a failure".The backstage drama portrayed in the musical was matched by actual difficulties among the cast. McCracken, who played Betty, was the wife of choreographer Bob Fosse and became pregnant during the run. Bill Hayes later wrote that she lost her baby through miscarriage about the same time she lost her husband to Gwen Verdon. The baby was in fact aborted, because the pregnancy would have endangered McCracken's health as a result of her diabetes. Hayes noted that in the fifteen months he played Larry, he did not recall ever having a conversation with Isabel Bigley, who was supposedly his love interest and wife: "I doubt that the audience ever believed we were deeply in love." The show received no Tony Award nominations. During the run, Hammerstein followed his usual practice of visiting the theatre now and again to ensure that the performers were not taking liberties with his book. Upon his return, Hammerstein's secretary asked him how the show was going. The lyricist thought for a second, then said "I hate that show." According to Bill Hayes in his autobiography Like Sands Through the Hourglass published in 2005 he states We played nearly five hundred performances, however, all to full houses. Production costs were paid off and substantial profits..., what would be the answer ?

A: Shirley Jones


Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What is Ronnie's assumed last name?, using the article: A mysterious artist - and psychopath - named Ronnie Mason, steals a dead woman's wedding ring and money and leaves a fake suicide note. The woman's husband, Thomas Turner, when questioned by the local police, believes his dead wife might have been seeing Mason behind his back. He also believes his wife was murdered, but in the absence of other evidence, the police list it as a suicide and drop the case. Mason leaves town, changes his name to Marsh and, using a limp he acquired jumping from the dead woman's bedroom window and a veteran's pin he steals from a fellow passenger on the L.A. bus, passes himself off as a wounded soldier and rents a room in the house of public stenographer Hilda Fenchurch and her younger sister Anne. To the consternation of professor Andrew Lang, who secretly loves Hilda, she falls for Marsh. The scheming Marsh learns that Anne might inherit a great deal of money, so he suddenly switches his affections toward her. Hilda is jealous and suspicious. She plots to lure Marsh to a beach house and poison him. She is unable to go through with it, but when Marsh runs off, he is surprised by Thomas Turner and plunges off a steep cliff to his death., what would be the answer ?

A: Marsh


Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the last name of Peter Parkette's friend?, using the article: Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries, running experiments in increasing the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and virtual reality. One of the chimps escapes using the warfare tactics for which he was being trained.  Dr. Angelo is generally a pacifist, who would rather explore the intelligence-enhancing potential of his research without applying it for military purposes. His wife Caroline is unhappy with the way he is ignoring her to focus on this project. Jobe Smith, a local greenskeeper with an intellectual disability, lives in the garden shed owned by the local priest, Father Francis McKeen. McKeen's brother, Terry, is a local landscape gardener and employs Jobe to help him with odd jobs. Father McKeen punishes the challenged Jobe with a belt and "Hail Marys" whenever he fails to complete his chores. Dr. Angelo realizes he needs a human subject to work with, and he spots Jobe mowing his lawn.  Peter Parkette, Dr. Angelo's young  neighbor, is friends with Jobe. Dr. Angelo invites both of them over to play some virtual reality games. Learning more about Jobe, Angelo persuades him to participate in his experiments, letting him know it will make him smarter. Jobe agrees and begins the program. Dr. Angelo makes it a point to redesign all the intelligence-boosting treatments without the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments. Jobe soon becomes smarter, for example, learning Latin in only two hours. Meanwhile, Jobe also begins a sexual relationship with a young rich widow, Marnie. However, Jobe begins to display telepathic abilities and has hallucinations. He continues training at the lab, until an accident makes Dr. Angelo shut the program down. The project director, Sebastian Timms, employed by a mysterious agency known as The Shop, keeps tabs on the progress of the experiment, and discreetly swaps Dr. Angelo's new medications with the old Project 5 supply (reintroducing the "aggression factors" into the treatment)., what would be the answer ?

A: Smith


Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the first name of the person who was alienated from Johnson due to doubts concerning the 1965 bombing of North Vietnam?, using the article: Hubert Humphrey was a Minnesotan who became a nationally prominent politician. He first ran for mayor of Minneapolis in 1943, but lost the election to the Republican candidate by just a few thousand votes.  As a Democrat, Humphrey recognized that his best chance for political success was to obtain the support of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.  Other members of the Farmer-Labor Party had been considering the idea, as encouraged by Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the merger only became reality after Humphrey traveled to Washington, D.C. to discuss the issue.  Rather than simply absorbing the Farmer-Labor party, with its constituency of 200,000 voters, Humphrey suggested calling the party the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.  He was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 1945, and one of his first actions was to propose an ordinance making racial discrimination by employers subject to a fine.  This ordinance was adopted in 1947, and although few fines were issued, the city's banks and department stores realized that public relations would improve by hiring blacks in increasing numbers. Humphrey delivered an impassioned speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention encouraging the party to adopt a civil rights plank in their platform.  He was elected to the United States Senate in 1948 and was re-elected in 1954 and 1960.In the early 1960s, the topic of civil rights was coming to national prominence with sit-ins and marches organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders.  In 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent a comprehensive civil rights bill to Congress, based largely on the ideas that Humphrey had been placing before the Senate for the previous fifteen years.  The bill passed the House in early 1964, but passage through the Senate was more difficult, due to southern segregationists who filibustered for 75 days.  Finally, in June 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.  Humphrey called this his greatest achievement. Lyndon B. Johnson recruited Humphrey for his running mate in the 1964..., what would be the answer ?

A:
Hubert