Here are the answers to last week's trivia quiz
By Pat Gauen
07/14/2003


Did the Internet help? It might have, a little, when you tackled last week's trivia questions about the Metro East. Let's get to the answers.

1. What piece of Metro East real estate was, until recently, shown on national network television five times a week? A. The East St. Louis riverfront. B. The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, outside Belleville. C. The Lovejoy Monument, in Alton. D. The Piasa Bird painting, north of Alton. Answer: A. The riverfront.

2. Where was it shown? A. Closing of "NBC Nightly News." B. Opening of "Good Morning America." C. Closing of "Meet the Press." D. Opening of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Answer: D. Until recently, Leno's opening showed a series of landmarks, including the Gateway Arch, with Illinois behind it.

3. The Annual "Way of Lights" Christmas display at the Shrine, outside Belleville, has approximately how many bulbs? A. 10,000. B. 100,000. C. 1 million. D. 10 million. Answer: C.

4. The Eads Bridge vehicle and pedestrian deck reopened over the Fair St. Louis weekend after 12 years of delays and reconstruction. Why was it in the news during the 1987 VP Fair? A. A fireworks spectator fell off. B. A distracted towboat pilot rammed one of the piers with barges. C. Officials closed it to foot traffic, bringing cries of racism from East St. Louis. D. A Marine Corps Harrier jet flew under the middle span. Answer: C. But now the city is considered a part of the party.

5. Someone whose name you know once did fly an airplane under the Eads Bridge. A. True. B. False. Answer: Probably A. News accounts that day didn't mention it, but a number of spectators insist that Charles Lindbergh's air show for school kids on Feb. 14, 1928, included a dip under the historic bridge.
6. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held one of their great debates for the presidency in Alton in 1860. A. True. B. False. Answer: B. Trick question. They were rivals for president in 1860, but the famous debate series was for the U.S. Senate in 1858.

7. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the martyred abolitionist newspaperman who died trying to save his press from a pro-slavery mob in Alton, wrote that he believed Douglas won the debate. A. True. B. False. Answer: B. Lovejoy was already dead for 21 years.

8. The Illini Indians' painted Piasa creature, re-created over the years on rock bluffs just north of Alton, supposedly was a half-bird, half-reptile thing that ate what? A. Sharks in the Mississippi River. B. People. C. Smaller birds. D. Smaller reptiles. Answer: B. And as my friend Don Huber pointed out, the bird is west, not north, of Alton.

9. How many sharks have been found in the Mississippi River at Alton? A. One. B. Two. C. Three. D. None. Answer: A. Yep, two fishermen pulled a dead 5-foot bull shark out of their net in 1937.

10. What 1974-75 network TV show opened with star David Hartman driving through East St. Louis and across the Poplar Street Bridge in its opening credits? A. "Good Morning America." B. "Lucas Tanner." C. The Courtship of Eddie's Father." D. "The Bold Ones." Answer: B. It was about a teacher in Webster Groves.

11. What classic TV family series mother was supposed to be from East St. Louis? A. Louise Jefferson in "The Jeffersons." B. June Cleaver in "Leave It to Beaver." C. Clair Hanks Huxtable in "The Cosby Show." D. Margaret Anderson in "Father Knows Best." Answer: B. Pearls and all.

12. In what classic TV Western did a guest actor proclaim to the star that he was from "Collinsville, Illinois?" A. "Bonanza." B. "Have Gun, Will Travel." C. "The Wild, Wild West." D. "Gunsmoke." Answer: D. I saw it myself as an adolescent watching in Collinsville, and almost fell out of the chair.

13. A member of what band spent a couple of weeks visiting his sister down in Benton before he became famous? A. The Doors. B. Chicago. C. The Beatles. D. The Rolling Stones. Answer: C. It was George Harrison.



Pat Gauen can be reached by phone at 800-365-0820, ext. 8154, by fax at 314-340-3050, by mail at the Post-Dispatch, 900 North Tucker Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63101, or by e-mail at pgauen@post-dispatch.com.