David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

Cary Grant found himself the recipient of Mae West’s lusty invitation, ‘Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?’ in She Done Him Wrong (1933).

In Casablanca (1942) Ingrid Bergman dropped in unexpectedly at old lover Humphrey Bogart’s nightclub, where she asked the piano player to ‘Play it, Sam’, referring to the song ‘As Time Goes By’. Although Bogart’s character was shocked at hearing the song that reminded him so painfully of his lost love, he also made Sam play it again — but the words he used were, ‘You played it for her, you can play it for me… play it.’

Cary Grant has never exclaimed this line in any film, but imitators often use it to display their Cary Grant-like accents.

In 1955, retired film star Greta Garbo — despairing of ever being free of publicity — said, ‘I want to be let alone.’ The melodramatic misinterpretation, however, is the way most people have heard and quoted it.

The hefty comedian got his first break due to a blocked drain. Working as a plumber’s assistant, he was summoned to unclog Mack Sennett’s pipes in 1913 and the producer immediately offered Arbuckle a job in his Keystone Kops comedies.

He was working as a film lab runner at Paramount Studios in 1922 when he was struck by a company car and hospitalised with a broken leg. Studio executives took notice and offered him a chance to act.

He got his start in Hollywood in 1932 when he did a voice-over for a donkey. The actor volunteered to help a film director who was having difficulty getting the animal to bray on cue.

She was cast in her first major role in Tropic of Cancer (1969) on the basis of a political speech that director Joseph Strick heard her delivering.

Working as a stunt man, he was noticed by director Henry King on the set of The Winning of Barbara Worth at Samuel Goldwyn Studios in 1926.

He was discovered by Cinesound Studios casting director John Warwick in Sydney, Australia, in 1932. Warwick found some amateur footage of Flynn taken in 1930 by Dr Herman F. Erben, a filmmaker and tropical-disease specialist who had chartered navigator Flynn’s schooner for a tour of New Guinea headhunter territory.

Hudson, whose original name was Roy Fitzgerald, was working as a truck driver for the Budget Pack Company in 1954 when another driver offered to arrange a meeting between Fitzgerald and agent Henry Willson. In spite of Fitzgerald’s professed lack of faith in his acting abilities, Willson took the aspiring actor under his wing, changed his name to Rock Hudson, and launched his career.

She was a psychology student when MGM star Norma Shearer happened to see a photo of her at a ski lodge in northern California where her parents were employed. Shearer took it to the studio with the result that Leigh was given a role in The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947).

An art student in Rome, she was stopped on the street by director Mario Costa. She let loose a torrent of abuse about men who accost defenceless girls and only when she paused for breath was he able to explain that he wanted to screen-test her for Elisir d’Amore (1946). She won the part.

She met director Allan Dwan in Los Angeles in the spring of 1921. Dwan watched 12-year-old Carole — then tomboy Jane Alice Peters — playing baseball outside the home of his friends Al and Rita Kaufman.

She was introduced to director Allan Dwan in England in 1933, while Dwan was casting a film, Her First Affair. Forty-one-year-old Connie Emerald was trying out for a part, but Dwan found Connie’s 15-year-old daughter Ida better suited for the role.

One of the first actresses to achieve screen stardom without previous stage experience, Marsh was a 17-year-old salesgirl when she stopped by the Biograph Studios to see her sister, Marguerite Loveridge. She was spotted by director D.W. Griffith, who was having problems because none of his contract players was willing to play the lead in Man’s Genesis (1912) with bared legs. Marsh had no such inhibitions when Griffith offered her the part.

He was befriended by actor Richard Egan in 1962 at the gymnasium where both Egan and O’Neal worked out. ‘It was just a matter of Ryan himself being so impressive,’ said Egan.

He was teaching adult-education classes in Garden City, New Jersey, when an agent asked him if he knew an actor who could speak with a European accent. He tried out himself and landed a part in Armstrong Circle Theater on television.

The South African-born actress studied dance and modelled in Milan and New York before heading to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of acting. After several difficult months in LA, Theron’s discovery came in a Hollywood Boulevard bank. When a teller refused to cash an out-of-town check for her, she threw an enormous tantrum which caught the attention of veteran talent manager John Crosby, who happened to be standing nearby. Crosby handed her his business card as she was being thrown out of the bank. After signing with Crosby, Theron landed a star-making role as a sexy assassin in 1996’s 2 Days in the Valley . She ended her association with Crosby in 1997, and has starred in such films as The Cider House Rules , The Italian Job and Monster , which won Theron the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar in 2004 for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

She was observed in Currie’s Ice Cream Parlor across the street from Hollywood High School in January 1936. Billy Wilkerson, editor of the Hollywood Reporter , approached her while she was drinking a Coke.

He was spotted by director Raoul Walsh at Hollywood’s Fox lot in 1928. Walsh was on his way to the administration building when he noticed Wayne — then Marion Morrison, a studio prop man — loading furniture from a warehouse onto a truck.

Patrick Robertson’s earlier selections of movie lore appeared in The Book of Lists #3 and The Book of Lists ’90s Edition . He is the author of The Book of Firsts and the continuously updated Guinness Movie Facts and Feats , both of which have appeared in many languages, and is currently engaged on The Book of American Firsts .

The rarest and most sought-after cartoon film of all time was rediscovered in 1998 when a 16mm print, bought in London for £2 from the disposal of the Wallace Heaton Film Library in the late 1970s, was identified as the only known copy of Walt Disney’s first-ever production, the seven-minute-long Little Red Riding Hood . It was made in 1922 at Disney’s Laugh-O-Gram Films, a small animation studio he established in Kansas City and which went bankrupt within a year. Little Red Riding Hood is particularly notable to Disney buffs because, unlike the later Hollywood cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, it was drawn by the 21-year-old fledgling film-maker himself. The reason that the unique print remained unidentified for so long was that the pirated copy bought by silent-movie collector David Wyatt had been retitled Grandma Steps Out . Only when he took it to the Disney company 20 years later was it finally revealed that the holy grail of animated films had been found at last.