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It’s hard to imagine anyone but Bruce Willis playing the lead character in Die Hard. But believe it or not, Frank Sinatra was offered Die Hard role John McClane.

Frank Sinatra offered Die Hard role but turned it down

Had Sinatra starred in Die Hard, it would have been a very different movie.

The film is based on a book by Roderick Thorpe called Nothing Lasts Forever. It was published in 1979 and was a sequel to Thorpe’s 1966 novel The Detective.

Now, The Detective WAS made into a movie. And this one did star Frank Sinatra as the main character, Detective Joe Leland. Is it starting to become clear why Frank Sinatra was offered the later Die Hard role?

The Die Hard we know and love

The sequel to The Detective, which we now know as Die Hard didn’t get a green light for production until the late 1980s. That was a good decade after the book was published. And by then, Sinatra was 73 years old.

However, since the movie was technically a sequel, the production company was obligated to offer the role to Sinatra first. As we all now know, he turned it down. (But can you imagine Sinatra as John McClane? We can’t!)

And believe it or not, Bruce Willis wasn’t the second choice. The role was then offered to Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Business Insider (cited below), “the movie was pitched as a sequel to the actor’s 1985 film Commando rather than a sequel to The Detective. Schwarzenegger also turned down the offer…”

It wasn’t until after the second strike and miss that producers offered the role to Bruce Willis and the leading role was tweaked a bit, with the character renamed John McClane instead of Joe Leland.

At the time, Bruce Willis was known for his comedy roles, so the producers were taking a risk casting him in an action film. — WTF fun facts

Source: “73-Year-Old Frank Sinatra Was Originally Offered The Lead Role In ‘Die Hard’” — Business Insider

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In October 1949, Jean Spangler vanished without a trace, and some believe she may have fallen prey to mobster Mickey Cohen’s henchmen — or the same killer who murdered “Black Dahlia” Elizabeth Short.

Jean Spangler’s enigmatic story was classic Hollywood noir: A young, beautiful actress suddenly disappears, leaving behind a purse containing an unsigned, cryptic clue. The mystery then deepens when the note reveals references to a “Dr. Scott” and a “Kirk.”

When the actor Kirk Douglas’ name cropped up, the Los Angeles press and the tabloid scandal rags of the era latched onto the story of a missing Hollywood starlet, and the rumors concerning Spangler’s disappearance exploded. The story had seemingly bottomless twists, including Spangler’s potential ties to an organized crime figure — and some believe Jean Spangler may have even fallen prey to the notorious Black Dahlia killer.

This is the mysterious case of Jean Spangler, the aspiring actress who vanished without a trace in 1949.

Jean Spangler’s Hollywood Dreams

Jean Elizabeth Spangler was born in Seattle, Washington, on Sept. 2, 1923, and after graduating from a Los Angeles high school and finding work as a dancer, she set her sights on the Hollywood film industry. At 19, Spangler married manufacturer Dexter Benner, but filed for divorce just six months later, accusing him of cruelty. Still, they continued an on-and-off relationship for another four years, having a baby daughter together according to The Los Angeles Times.

Officially divorced in 1946, Spangler became embroiled in a long and bitter custody battle over their daughter, until she was awarded sole custody in 1948. That same year, Spangler’s Hollywood dreams were slowly coming to fruition as she began picking up bit-part appearances in Hollywood films.

Spangler and her young daughter had by now moved into her mother’s place in L.A.’s Wilshire district alongside her brother and sister-in-law. Spangler had been working on another small part in a musical drama set to be released in 1950 called Young Man With a Horn. The lead on that project was legendary actor Kirk Douglas.

Jean Spangler’s Baffling Disappearance

On Oct. 7, 1949, Jean Spangler finally became a household name — but unfortunately, it wasn’t from a starring role.

At 5 p.m., Spangler left home, telling her sister-in-law that she was going out to meet her ex-husband, Benner, over a late child support payment, then would head to work on a night shoot.

When Spangler failed to come home the following day, her distressed sister-in-law went to the Wilshire Division of the LAPD to file a missing person’s report. The police took down details but were skeptical of her missing person status, thinking the starlet had just gone out on a fling and would show up sooner or later, according to Palm Springs Life.

The following day, Spangler’s purse was found near the Fern Dell entrance to Griffith Park, with one end of the purse’s double handles ripped off — indicating a possible struggle. The purse’s contents were still intact and undisturbed, but there was a puzzling handwritten note inside that intrigued detectives.

“Kirk — Can’t wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work out best this way while Mother is away,” it read.

The note wasn’t signed, and it ended in a comma, which led LAPD investigators to believe Spangler did not have time to finish writing it. On the day Spangler disappeared, her mother was indeed away, as the note suggested, visiting relatives in Kentucky. The note’s discovery led to an extensive 60-man search of the Griffith Park area, but no additional evidence came to light. And so, investigators began the process of reconstructing Spangler’s final hours.

The Investigation Into Jean Spangler’s Life

Firstly, Spangler’s ex-husband Dexter Benner and his new wife confirmed they had been together all evening and he never saw Spangler, according to NBC News. Film studios also confirmed that no movies had been in production on that night, October 7.

Spangler was last seen at Farmers Market, only a few blocks from her home, by a clerk who said she appeared to be “waiting for someone.”

Detectives had no viable suspects, and just a cryptic “Kirk” to work off — until Kirk Douglas himself phoned investigators from Palm Springs where he was vacationing. Douglas had heard news reports about the case, and volunteered that a friend of his had reminded him that Spangler may have worked as an extra in his last film.

Douglas may have spoken to Spangler before but barely remembered her, and he said he’d never been out with her. As investigators cleared Douglas, Spangler’s mother also recalled her daughter speaking of a “Kirk” she knew around the sets but couldn’t recall any more than that, not even the studio involved.

A friend of Spangler’s then shared that she had confided in her that she was pregnant just before her disappearance, leading investigators to believe this “Dr. Scott” may have been lined up for an illegal abortion. Every doctor with the surname Scott was checked out in the Los Angeles area, but nothing came of it.

A canvas of the Sunset Strip almost produced a potential suspect, a shady former medical student nicknamed “Scotty,” who frequented bars and clubs performing paid abortions, but he was never located. Investigators theorized that Spangler may have died due to complications resulting from an illicit abortion, but it didn’t explain her damaged purse left in Griffith Park.

It also came to light that Spangler had an affair with a man named Scotty who had been an Air Force Lieutenant during her marriage. The man had allegedly acted violently toward her, but his lawyer claimed their affair ended in 1945, and they had not spoken since, so investigators apparently moved on.

Jean Spangler, Gangsters, And The Black Dahlia

With every lead a dead-end, the press circled back, perhaps inevitably, to the 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short – The infamous Black Dahlia case. With Spangler’s aspiring-starlet story and appearance eerily similar to Short’s, many jumped to the conclusion that the same fiend that had mutilated the Dahlia had also dispatched Jean Spangler.

In recent years, the son of a prime suspect in the Dahlia case has come forward to suggest his father may have been responsible for both murders, however. According to Entertainment Weekly, Steve Hodel believes his father, a sexually voracious celebrity doctor named George Hodel, was the Black Dahlia killer. Bolstering the Hodel theory is the fact that Spangler’s ripped purse was found mere miles from Dr. Hodel’s lavish home.

With Hodel long dead and no charges ever filed, however, his role — if any — in either murder will likely remain a matter of speculation.

After only three weeks, the investigation into Jean Spangler’s disappearance seemed to be running on fumes. “The only thing we’ve been able to find out is that this girl really got around,” one detective wearily admitted to the press.

Then, Spangler was linked to a wealthy nightclub owner, a rich playboy, a prominent educator, an assortment of actors and jetsetters — as well as a gangster.

In postwar Hollywood, the mingling of mobsters, studio moguls, and movie stars was not an uncommon sight, as film workers and gangsters routinely rubbed shoulders at bars and clandestine gambling dens. Spangler was seeing David “Little Davy” Ogul, an associate and bodyguard of the notorious Jewish mobster Mickey Cohen. Witnesses even recalled seeing Spangler and Ogul together in Palm Springs a week before Spangler vanished.

The only problem was that Ogul, who was under indictment for conspiracy, disappeared himself a couple days before Spangler. Later, an FBI informant named Salvatore Piscopo reported that, while Ogul was a member of Mickey Cohen’s crime group, he was murdered at the instigation of the Los Angeles Mafia family for allegedly talking to law enforcement.

In 1950 Spangler and Ogul were supposedly sighted in spots as widespread as El Paso, Phoenix, Mexico City, and San Francisco, but investigators found no supporting evidence. It also seemed unlikely Spangler would ever willingly leave her 5-year-old daughter behind, after fighting so adamantly for custody.

Spangler’s case remains unsolved to this day. There has been no trace of the aspiring actress since Oct. 7, 1949, when she crossed her fingers and winked at her sister-in-law, saying, “Wish me luck,” before disappearing off into the night.

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After learning about Jean Spangler, read how journalist Paul Avery received a cryptic note from the Zodiac Killer. Then, learn how Nursing Student Maura Murray Vanished Without A Trace.

You may know the song “A Boy Named Sue,” by Johnny Cash. It’s about a boy who seeks revenge against his father for giving him a traditional girl’s name. But did you know Shel Silverstein is the father of A Boy Named Sue? No, not the biological father, but the person who wrote the lyrics.

How is Shel Silverstein the Father of A Boy Named Sue?

According to a history of the song by The Capital Repertory Theater (cited below):

“In 1969, it was a guitar pull – a get together where songwriters try out new songs – that brought together Cash and renowned children’s book author Shel Silverstein. The guest list for the gathering also included Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, but it was Silverstein who shined with his song which centered around a man named Sue, whose long-sought revenge on his father for giving him a girl’s name ends in a bar fight and ultimately understanding.”

Silverstein is a beloved children’s author, and the lyrics are unlike anything else he wrote. He was inspired by a friend named Jean Shepherd who was made fun of as a child for his feminine-sounding name.

Silverstein wrote a follow-up named “The Father of a Boy Named Sue” from the father’s point of view.

The debut Sue

Cash even played the song at the White House (for Nixon) and on his show next to the lyricist/poet himself. But the first debut of the song was at Cash’s iconic show at San Quentin Prison in California.

It was June Carter Cash who convinced him to try out the song on his tough audience. But Cash didn’t quite know the lyrics yet. He read them off a piece of paper. In fact, you can hear him laughing along with the audience on the track.

Not only did his prison audience love it, but the song also became a national hit, climbing to number 2 on the charts. — WTF fun facts

Source: “A Boy Named Sue” — Capital Repertory Theater

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Bronze Age wishing well uncovered in Germany, prehistoric Megalodon tooth found in Maryland, Roman house restored in Pompeii.

Wishing Well Dating Back 3,000 Years And Filled With Sacrificial Relics Unearthed In Southern Germany

Although approximately 70 ancient wells have been uncovered in the German region of Bavaria, workers have just found the first wishing well — complete with dozens of intact sacrifices dating back to the Bronze Age. From amber beads to ornate crockery to an animal tooth pendant, these dozens of artifacts have remained preserved underneath layers of sediment at the bottom of the well for 3,000 years.

Wishing wells have been a part of European folklore since before the advent of written records, with people tossing in coins for good luck much as they do to this day. And while such wells are often believed to have magical properties, some experts believe that they actually have practical origins in that ancient people stumbled upon the biocidal properties of the coins’ silver and copper that allowed them to kill harmful microorganisms in drinking water. But in the case of the well recently found in Bavaria, locals likely believed it was indeed magical, as they placed all manner of household items inside in a presumed attempt to reverse a drought that had been ruining their harvests.

Discover the full story behind this incredible find here.

Nine-Year-Old Girl Discovers 15-Million-Year-Old Megalodon Tooth On Christmas Day

On Christmas morning 2022, nine-year-old Molly Sampson got the presents she had asked for: insulated waders and fossil sifters for shark tooth hunting. That same day, the young aspiring paleontologist found a five-inch-long Otodus megalodon tooth in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

“I went closer, and in my head, I was like, ‘Oh, my, that is the biggest tooth I’ve ever seen!’” Molly said. “I reached in and grabbed it, and dad said I was shrieking.”

Dig deeper in this report.

An Ancient Pompeii Home Filled With Erotic Frescoes Was Just Restored After Two Decades Of Work

Almost 2,000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius erupted and smothered the Roman town of Pompeii. Now, thanks to meticulous restoration efforts that lasted two decades, one of the doomed town’s most opulent homes, the House of the Vettii, has been brought back to life.

The house once belonged to two former slaves, Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus, who became rich wine traders after they were freed. Perhaps in an attempt to solidify their place in Roman society, they filled their sprawling home with fine art.

Read on here.

Sweeping aerial views of Earth’s natural wonders and spectacular shots of outer space are all well and good. But beauty captured on a much smaller scale can be just as breathtaking.

To prove the point, look no further than the Close-up Photographer of the Year competition. It was launched in 2018 by UK-based couple Tracy and Daniel Calder, who both have years of experience in the photography industry. The fourth annual iteration drew more than 9000 submissions across 54 countries, and a winner was chosen in each of 11 categories.

Most of those categories celebrate nature. Insects, plants, fungi, animals, and intimate landscapes each have their own; and there’s even a separate one for butterflies and dragonflies. But photographers who see the art in peeling paint or something in the urban landscape aren’t excluded: There’s also a “manmade” group.

Feast your eyes on this year’s first-place photos below, and check out all the finalists here.

No, not aliens—two dead spotted salamanders floating in the fluid of a carnivorous northern pitcher plant at Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.

A black drongo feasts on termites swarming around a light in Cooch Behar, India.

A solitary snake’s head fritillary in Toulouse, France.

Ice encircling slime mold in the UK during a bout of cold weather and freezing fog. This is less frightening when you find out the tallest specimen tops out at 3 millimeters.

A stalked jellyfish (the white thing) awaits passing prey beneath the icy surface of Russia’s White Sea.

A dew-speckled banded demoiselle in the Dutch town of Ede, in the Netherlands.

A triangular spider shows off its Mayan-like markings while it waits for its next meal in a conservation park in Brisbane, Australia.

A building at London’s Canary Wharf casts a reflection over the water; it took photographer Mike Curry a good two hours to capture the prize-winning shot.

A snapshot of the moment when two drops of oil begin to connect, while water droplets steadfastly remain aloof.

This panoramic image was created by combining multiple shots of red algae—collected from a river in Poland’s Wigry National Park—as seen through a microscope.

The “young” category is reserved for submissions from photographers who are under the age of 18. This year’s winner shows the fruiting bodies of slime mold (sporangia) thriving atop a rotten log in the UK.

Along with the bathroom, the kitchen is bacteria’s favorite place in your home. That kitchen sponge? It can grow enough crud to shame a Petri dish after a few weeks. So can dirty dishes left to soak in the sink.

But according to new research, the single most germ-ridden location in the kitchen is an unusual suspect: the spice jar.

A study published in the Journal of Food Protection and commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture examined the greatest risks for cross-contamination in the kitchen during meal preparation. In an experiment involving 371 participants, study authors used a harmless organism, bacteriophage MS2, and inserted it into raw turkey patties. They directed subjects to prepare a turkey burger using the patties and some pre-packaged lettuce, then waited for the mayhem to unfold.

Subjects handling the turkey patties and then grabbing other kitchen items resulted in a 20 percent or lower positivity rate for cross-contamination, meaning MS2 was found on 20 percent or less of surfaces like utensils and countertops. But for the spice containers, the positivity shot up to 48 percent, with the highest concentration of MS2 found. Put simply, the spice racks were gross. (Cutting boards and trash can lids came in second and third, respectively.)

“In addition to more obvious surfaces like cutting boards, garbage can lids and refrigerator handles, here’s something else that you need to pay attention to when you’re trying to be clean and sanitary in your kitchen,” said Donald Schaffner, the study’s lead author and a professor in the department of food science at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “Our research shows that any spice container you touch when you’re preparing raw meat might get cross-contaminated. You’ll want to be conscious of that during or after meal preparation.”

Washing your hands, as these participants apparently neglected to do, is necessary after handling raw meat, poultry, and other bacteria-harboring foods. Any surface the meat or your contaminated hands touch should be disinfected.

The FDA recommends a four-step food handling strategy: clean hands and surfaces, separate raw foods from other foods, cook to the appropriate temperature, and refrigerate within two hours of cooking. Keeping your filthy hands off the spice containers would be wise, too.

[h/t Food & Wine]

A few months back, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that not only did they know how their hit ’80s paranormal sci-fi show was going to end, but that they already had plans for a spinoff. These plans were so secret that not even the top brass at Netflix knew what they were, though the Duffer brothers promised that it would be “1000 percent different” from the mothership show.

But there is one person who knows what the spinoff is about: Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler on the hit series. The Duffers didn’t tell him; he just guessed correctly. “He wasn’t spitballing, he just went, ‘I think this would be a cool spinoff. And we were like, ‘How in the world …,’” Ross Duffer recalled.

The Duffers attributed this to Wolfhard’s own aptitude for filmmaking (the 20-year old co-wrote and directed a horror-comedy called Hell of a Summer.) Wolfhard himself shared his side of the story during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

Wolfhard was talking up his new movie When You Finish Saving the World, which comes out in a couple of weeks. Of course, Fallon had to ask about Stranger Things. “It’s gonna be crazy once it’s all done,” Wolfhard said about the show’s forthcoming fifth and final season. “I’m just excited to go back … and actually finish it.”

As for Wolfhard accurately guessing the premise of the Stranger Things spinoff, here’s how he put it: “We were on set filming Stranger Things 4, and we were all talking about if there’s going to be [a spinoff],” Wolfhard recalled. “Like joking, ‘Oh, they’re all going to have us back in 20 years. We’re all going to be fat and old and being like, ‘Eleven, where are you?’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, but, if you guys are actually going to do a spinoff, it should be this.’”

Wolfhard remembers how the Duffers looked at each other when he pitched his idea, before pulling him off to the side to have a private word. “They were like ‘That is the idea. Who told you?’ I was like, ‘No one.’ They were like, ‘What do you mean? You just, like, came up with it?’ And I was like, ‘Well, no, I just thought that that would be a cool way [to do it].’”

The conversation ended with the Duffers saying, “OK, well … don’t tell anyone.” 

As for Stranger Things season 5, it’s reportedly set to begin production this May, and is expected to hit Netflix sometime in 2024.