Fictional Detectives
What is the name of the disheveled, cigar-smoking Los Angeles homicide detective first portrayed on television by Peter Falk in 1968?
a) Columbo
b) Philip Marlowe
c) Sherlock Holmes
a) Columbo
In front of which landmark did Martin Luther King Jr. give his “I Have a Dream” speech?
a) The Lincoln Memorial
b) The Jefferson Memorial
c) The White House
a) The Lincoln Memorial
Which American actor established herself as a major star in the Broadway musical Funny Girl (1964)?
a) Barbra Streisand
b) Lena Horne
c) Mary Martin
a) Barbra Streisand
In 1943, what were US pennies made of?
a) Copper
b) Tin
c) Steel
c) Steel
Which classic film noir is considered the definitive Rita Hayworth film?
a) Gilda
b) Only Angels Have Wings
c) The Lady from Shanghai
a) Gilda
Which eccentric Belgian detective, created by author Agatha Christie, was introduced in the 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles?
a) Hercule Poirot
b) Ariadne Oliver
c) Jane Marple
a) Hercule Poirot
D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms were a gift from which country?
a) France
b) Japan
c) England
b) Japan
In which of these plays by Shakespeare do witches play an important role?
a) Hamlet
b) Macbeth
c) Othello
b) Macbeth
What country introduced paper currency?
a) England
b) China
c) India
b) China
Which actress played two iconic Southerners, Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois?
a) Sarah Siddons
b) Maureen O’Sullivan
c) Vivien Leigh
c) Vivien Leigh
Which Edgar Allan Poe story is generally considered to be the first modern detective story?
a) The Moonstone
b) The Murders in the Rue Morgue
c) The Mystery of Marie Roget
b) The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was only 21 years old when she got the gig. How did Lin get the job?
a) She won a contest.
b) She wrote an impassioned letter to Ronald Reagan.
c) Her designs were discovered at a school exhibit at Yale.
a) She won a contest.
What was the last Broadway musical Rodgers and Hammerstein created, which starred Mary Martin and debuted in 1959?
a) South Pacific
b) The Sound of Music
c) The King and I
b) The Sound of Music
Directly before it was President Lincoln, who or what was on the head of a US penny?
a) An eagle
b) Andrew Jackson
c) An Indian head
c) An Indian head
Claudette Colbert may be best remembered for 'It Happened One Night'. Who was her male co-star?
a) Clark Gable
b) Cary Grant
c) Errol Flynn
a) Clark Gable
Which detective duo are the main protagonists of Dashiell Hammett’s classic novel The Thin Man?
a) Nick and Nora Charles
b) Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin
c) Tommy and Tuppence Beresford
a) Nick and Nora Charles
What are the two endpoints of the National Mall?
a) The White House and the Capitol
b) The Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol
c) The Capitol and the Washington Monument
b) The Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol
Which playwright created the characters Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski?
a) Eugene O’Neill
b) Lorraine Hansberry
c) Tennessee Williams
c) Tennessee Williams
What is the oldest continuously used currency in the world?
a) The British pound sterling
b) The U.S. dollar
c) The Japanese yen
a) The British pound sterling
For which film did the English actress Julie Andrews win an Academy Award?
a) Camelot
b) Torn Curtain
c) Mary Poppins
c) Mary Poppins
Inspector Bucket is a character in which Charles Dickens novel?
a) Bleak House
b) The Old Curiosity Shop
c) The Pickwick Papers
a) Bleak House
Who is the only president to be buried within D.C. limits?
a) George Washington
b) Woodrow Wilson
c) James Monroe
b) Woodrow Wilson
Who was the first of Classical Athens’s great tragic dramatists?
a) Sophocles
b) Aristotle
c) Aeschylus
c) Aeschylus
The people of ancient Rome reportedly used currency made from what?
a) Leather
b) Gold
c) Wood
a) Leather
Who was the first African American to be nominated for the Academy Award for best actress?
a) Dorothy Dandridge
b) Eartha Kitt
c) Lena Horne
a) Dorothy Dandridge