Arizona: That's Entertainment 1912-2012 Quiz

Answer: Old Tucson

A set of over 100 buildings and facades was created for the 1939 William Holden/Jean Arthur film to recreate Tucson in the 1860s. The set was dormant for a few years before being used again to film, oddly enough, the 1945 Bing Crosby/Ingrid Bergman movie "The Bells of St. Mary's". From then on, the Old Tucson studio was in nearly continuous use, serving as the set for movies including "Rio Bravo", "Lilies of the Field", "McClintock!", "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Young Guns II" and for television shows including "Gunsmoke" and "Little House on the Prairie".

In 1960, the set was converted into a combination film studio/theme park, with tours, rides and shows, including gunfights staged in the streets. A devastating fire in 1995 destroyed many of the original buildings and memorabilia kept there.

The studio was rebuilt by 1997, but the old sets were not recreated and the new buildings didn't have the same "old west" feel, so in 2011, the decision was made to try to restore the feel of the original town, and the rebuilding commenced.

Answer: Wallace and Ladmo

"The Wallace and Ladmo Show" featured Wallace (Bill Thompson) and Ladmo (Ladimir Kwiatkowski) and was a combination of live action skits and cartoons. Arizona radio legend Pat McMahon was also featured on the show in the guise of numerous characters, including Marshall Good, Aunt Maud and his signature persona, the bratty Gerald. An Arizona icon, the show ran on KPHO-TV5 in Phoenix and was seen all over the state and in the California and Mexico border towns.

It was even briefly syndicated to Los Angeles and New York in 1971.

Besides hosting the show, Wallace and Ladmo made many appearances around the state, showing up at fairs, concerts and all sorts of events, handing out that most coveted gift for Arizona children, the Ladmo Bag. A plain brown bag with black stenciing, the Ladmo Bag contained an assortment of candy, snacks, soda, coupons and such, and was awarded as a prize for various contests on the show. On the final telecast, the last Ladmo Bag was given to Wallace.

Answer: The Family Circus

"The Family Circus" debuted a year after Bil Keane relocated to Paradise Valley, Arizona, so we Arizonans considered it to be an Arizona creation. The light-hearted comic won four National Cartoonists' Society awards for Best Syndicated Panel and became one of the most widely syndicated comic panels in the world. The cartoon was based on Keane's family and included his son Jeff, who continued drawing the comic following his father's death in 2011.

Answer: Legend City

If you lived in the Phoenix area during the 1960s and 1970s, you probably spent time at Legend City. Covering approximately sixty acres in Papago Park next to the Phoenix Zoo, the amusement park featured a mix of traditional carnival rides, shows and attractions, and western-themed rides, such as the Iron Horse railroad, Lost Dutchman Mine ride, and Cochise's Stronghold river ride.

The Lost Dutchman Mine ride may have been the signature ride at Legend City; somewhat like Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" in a mine cart, it took guests through a spooky mine and then through a graveyard. Sadly, the amusement park was never financially successful, and it shut down in 1983.

The following year, it was razed to the ground and replaced with office buildings.

Answer: Miss America

Native Arizonan Jacque Mercer grew up on a ranch in Litchfield, Arizona and in 1949, was the first Miss Arizona to win the Miss America title. She was married and divorced while serving as Miss America and was the last Miss America to be allowed to marry during the tenure (the pageant rules were changed at her urging, according to the Miss America website). Vonda Kay Van Dyke was born in Michigan but grew up in Phoenix.

She won the 1965 Miss America contest, becoming the first contestant to perform ventriloquism as her talent.

Besides winning the Miss America contest, she was also the first winner to be named as Miss Congeniality.

Answer: Big Surf

The twenty-acre park originally had a Hawaiian theme, with a sand beach and lava backdrop behind the wave pool. Over the years, the sand was replaced with concrete and a children's play area and water slides were added. Surfing was a popular attraction at the site for many years but safety concerns led to surfing being banned to allow swimmers to use the entire pool area.

The attraction changed hands over the years and was slated to close in 2009, but a change in ownership saved the park, and surfing was brought back.

Besides the water attraction, Big Surf also hosted many concerts over the years for artists such as Pink Floyd, Elton John and of course, the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean.

Answer: Rawhide

Officially called the "Rawhide Western Town and Steakhouse", Rawhide was originally located in the desert north of Scottsdale but moved to the Gila River Indian Reservation near Chandler, south of Phoenix, in 2005. The theme park featured a main street with western shops, galleries, restaurants and activities, such as a petting zoo, trail rides and the signature Butterfield Stage Coach ride which took guests out into the Sonoran Desert. Additional attractions were added over the years, including a mechanical bull, a zipline and the "Deadman's Drop" rock-climbing wall.

Answer: Comet impact

The made-for-television movie was about a newly discovered comet that was heading for a collision with Earth just outside of Phoenix. The film stared Richard Crenna and Elizabeth Ashley and featured a cameo by then Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt as the mayor of Phoenix.

The scene filmed at Sky Harbor International Airport was the mass evacuation as people tried to get flights out of the city. A similarly named 1993 film, "Fire in the Sky", was about the 1975 alleged alien abduction of Travis Walton in northern Arizona.

Answer: Slot machines

There were seventeen Native American casinos in Arizona when the state celebrated its birthday in 2012. Fort McDowell Casino was one of the first and had its origins as a bingo parlor that opened in 1984. Following the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, several tribes in Arizona, including the Yavapai, set up slot machines in their casinos, arguing that other casino-style gambling, such as offtrack betting and charity casino nights, was allowed in the state. State officials refused to negotiate gaming compacts with the Indian nations and ordered that the slot machines needed to be removed. On May 12, 1992, federal agents removed about 750 gaming machines from the Fort McDowell Casino but weren't able to leave the property because tribe members and casino employees blocked the roadway with cars, trucks and construction vehicles.

The three-week blockade convinced Governor Fife Symington to sign a gaming compact with the tribe. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation now recognizes May 12th as "Sovereignty Day".

Answer: Jerry Maguire

The 1996 romantic comedy also starred Renee Zellweger and Cuba Gooding, Jr., who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as fictional Arizona Cardinals wide receiver, Rod Tidwell. In the film, Tom Cruise portrayed a sports agent who starts his own agency after losing most of his clients to his protégé. Numerous real sports stars appeared in the film, including Troy Aikman and Katarina Witt, as did several American sportscasters, including Al Michaels and Frank Gifford. Besides the thousands of extras in the stadium scene, an audition was also held in Arizona for people to portray the football players on the field, with thirty-eight being selected.