Emily's Trivia Quiz: And the Money Kept Rolling in From Every Side

First of all, I can't believe it took all week and no one brought up the best dictator tool of our lifetimes:  The Guess the Dictator/Sitcom Character Game!  (It's changed a little since 2002, I think it was better then, but who knows...)  I love history and crazy people, so dictatorships are a natural interest of mine.  But what's more interesting than kooky world leaders who rename months after themselves and force everyone to carry around little red books, are their equally kooky wives.  Millions of shoes?  Right on Imelda.    Deputy head of the Cultural Revolution?  Only you, Madame Mao.  But there is one dictator's wife that got me going early on, thanks to a fantastic musical about a woman who rose from poverty and helped bring her country down: Evita Perón.

1. María Eva Duarte de Perón (that's her full name) was kicked out of her father's funeral because...
a. She was dressed inappropriately
b. She had a temper tantrum
c. She was an illegitimate child and he had a whole other family
d. She couldn't find anything black to wear

c. Eva was the illegitimate daughter of Juan Duarte, who already had a wife and family when he fathered her.  When she was a year old, Duarte left Evita and her mom and went back to his "real" family.  Six years later, Duarte died in a car accident, leaving Evita and her mom even more impoverished than before.  Evita's mom took her five (FIVE?!) children with her to the funeral, but she got into a fight with Duarte's legal wife.  The wife's brother happened to be the town mayor, and he saw to it that the illegitimate family got to walk with the crowd and view the body (but not walk with the grieving family members).

2.  Evita wanted to be an actress, so she packed up her bags and went (either with a tango singer or her mother, depending on your source) to Buenos Aires.  What is that city's nickname?
a. "The Paris of South America"
b. "Hollywood South"
c. "The City of Tango"
d. "Just a Little Touch of Star Quality"

a. It has been called "The Paris of South America."  I made up the others, but c is entirely plausible and d is a lyric in the song "Buenos Aires" from the musical Evita.

3. There was once an episode of the Simpsons called "The President Wore Pearls."  At the end of the episode there was a disclaimer that read, ""On the advice of our lawyers, we swear we have never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Perón."  What song was in the episode?
a. "Hello and Goodbye Kwik E Mart"
b. "Bart's Latest Flame"
c. "Don't Cry for Me, Kids of Springfield"
d. "Requiem for Comic Book Guy"

c. "Don't Cry for Me, Kids of Springfield"

4. When Evita moved in with Juan Perón, he was the 48-year old Secretary of Labor.  She was...
a. A 22-year old student
b. A 23-year old woman of low morals
c. A 24-year old radio and b-movie actress
d. A 25-year old budding politician

c. Evita was on a few radio programs and some crappy movies, but that picture is of her when she was 15.

5. Juan Perón was arrested because those in charge were concerned that he was getting too much power.  As soon as he got out of jail, and with Evita's help he...
a. Started a program to clean up Argentina's jails
b. Ran for president
c. Went on exile to Crete
d. Put all his money into offshore accounts

b. In 1946, with Evita's help, Perón ran for President of Argentina.  Using her weekly radio show, Evita delivered speeches laden with populist rhetoric and propelled him to popularity.  They also probably put a lot of their money into Swiss bank accounts, but you can never be too sure of these things...

6. Not only was Evita the first woman to join a presidential campaign trail in Argentina, Evita was also the first woman to...
a. Sing at rallies
b. Wear her hair pulled back really tightly
c. Invent a health care plan for her country called "Evacare"
d. Wear pants

d. She wore pants to political rallies.  Gasp!

7. The tour Evita took to Europe was called the...
a. Eurotianian Tour
b. Gay Tour
c. Rainbow Tour
d. Don't Cry For Me Europe Tour

c. The Rainbow Tour!  (That song is the song before "Rainbow Tour," and that lovely YouTube video shows some of her real clothing.  Also, I'm not a huge fan of that recording.  I would recommend the Broadway album, pictured in question six.)

8. Evita compared her husband to ______________ and told Argentinians they should be willing to ______ for him.
a. George Washington; vote
b. Napoleon; fight
c. F. Scott Fitzgerald; write
d. Jesus; die

d. She compared him to Christ and said that they must be ready to die for him...In a 1951 speech she said, "Perón is the heart, the soul, the nerve, and the reality of the Argentine people. We all know that there is only one man in our movement with his own source of light. We all feed off of that light. And that man is Perón!"

9. Evita died June 1952 of ovarian cancer, and after her death, she was embalmed, so her body could be preserved forever.  A monument was going to be constructed in her honor and her body was going to be put at the bottom of the tomb, so people could come and visit her, ala Lenin.  But before all that could happen, Juan was overthrown in a military coup and he fled the country without taking time to make plans for her body.  Then her body went missing for SIXTEEN YEARS.  What happened next?

 

Sorry, I'm not giving you options, because the real story is too effing crazy.  The military leaders made it illegal to hang Evita or Juan's pictures in their homes or even mention the Peróns' names.  But don't worry, because in 1971, they found Evita's body in Italy.  They flew the corpse to Spain, where Juan kept it in his HOUSE.  Then Juan came out of exile and went back to Argentina and ran for president and won for the THIRD time.  Then he died in office in 1974 and his new wife, Isabel, had the body shipped back to Argentina where she temporarily buried it next to her dead husband.  But wait, it gets better...Her body was later buried in the Durate family tomb in Buenos Aires.  In her tomb there is a marble trap door with coffins beneath it that hide more trap doors and finally her coffin!  It's been rumored that her tomb can withstand a nuclear attack.  And this is why I love dictator's wives.

Emily's Trivia Quiz runs Fridays at 9:00 a.m.  She usually tries to finish her posts before coming back from the bars at 2 am, but sometimes it is just not possible.  Therefore, she apologizes for any grammatic errors, but realizes she is a grammar nerd no matter how many beers she's imbibed...

Comments

[David G]

All I can say is "when the money keeps rolling in, you can't keep books."

[EmGusk]

you can tell you've done well by the happy, grateful looks

[Mom]

Hooray for Broadway musicals that educate!

[patricia]

Keep using broadway as your source for information and you will get far ahead in life.