by Andrew Marc Greene

Each of the photos is not of the person described, but is of an actor playing that person in a film or on TV.

This is based on the patter song “If you want a receipt” from the Gilbert and Sullivan (G&S) operetta Patience, which is basically a list of famous people. Each verse in our version begins with one of the two main characters in the 1979 TV movie version of The Miracle Worker: Melissa GILBERT playing Helen Keller, and Patty Duke playing Anne SULLIVAN; this indicates that in the first verse we are interested in the surname of the actor, while in the second verse we are interested in the surname of the historical figure being portrayed.

Taking the first letters of the surnames spells out:
GIVE US BIOPIC / SINGING VIDEO
Teams are expected to create their own music video depicting the life of someone famous, whereupon they are given the puzzle’s answer, JARGONIC.

Detailed solution:

Performer Historical Figure Film
Gilbert (Melissa) Helen Keller The Miracle Worker
Irving (Amy) Anna Anderson Anastasia
Voight (Jon) FDR Pearl Harbor
Eisenberg (Jesse) Mark Zuckerberg The Social Network
Uggams (Leslie) Kizzy Reynolds Moore Roots
Spencer (Octavia) Dorothy Vaughan Hidden Figures
Bergman (Ingrid) Golda Meir A Woman Called Golda
Irons (Jeremy) G. H. Hardy The Man Who Knew Infinity
Oldman (Gary) Winston Churchill Darkest Hour
Paxton (Bill) Fred Haise Apollo 13
Ifans (Rhys) Howard Marks Mr. Nice
Costner (Kevin) Eliot Ness The Untouchables
Historical Figure Performer Film
Sullivan (Anne) Patty Davis The Miracle Worker
Ingalls (Charles) Michael Landon Little House on the Prairie
Northup (Solomon) Chiwetel Ejiofor 12 Years a Slave
Graham (Katharine) Meryl Streep The Post
Irving (Clifford) Richard Gere The Hoax
Nash (John) Russell Crowe A Beautiful Mind
Gandhi (Mohandas) Ben Kingsley Gandhi
Valens (Ritchie) Lou Diamond Phillips La Bamba
Ismay (J. Bruce) Frank Lawton A Night to Remember
Doel (Nora) Judi Dench 84 Charing Cross Road
Earhart (Amelia) Hilary Swank Amelia
O’Keeffe (Georgia) Joan Allen Georgia O’Keeffe

Complete transcript:

If you want a receipt for an MIT Mystery
Hunt puzzle answer you’re sure isn’t wrong
Take all the remarkable people in history
Rattle them off to a popular song. . . .

The child who’s deaf and blind learning to speak aloud;
Woman who claims that the Czar was her dad.
The Depression president facing a war unbowed;
Founder of Facebook who’ll show you an ad.

Next, of Alex Haley his great-great-great-grandmother;
Mathematician who got us to space.
A leader of Israeli government AND other
Things that make up a prime minister’s place.

Mathematician whose papers were plenty fine
(He rode in taxicab seventeen-twentynine);
Giver of speech about blood, toil, tears and sweat;
Unlucky astronaut firing a retrojet;

Kingpin of pot, sending tons to and fro;
T-man who got Capone in Chi-ca-GO!

Oh!

Take of these elements all that is fusible
Melt them all down in a pipkin or crucible
Set them to paper, yes, write them all down!
And the phrase you extract goes with Valentine’s Day town!


If you want a receipt, take these people as precedents:
Teacher of that deaf and blind girl so bold;
The pioneer father with small meadow residence;
Black abolitionist kidnapped and sold.

A publisher sharing the Pentagon Papers, she
Fought for the freedom of press without fail.
When Howard Hughes sued him for fraudulent capers, he
Ended up with seventeen months in jail.

An Abel prize winner and Nobel economist;
Peaceful resister of each British colonist;
Singer who crashed on the day that the music died;
Iceberg survivor; Used-book-store employee’s bride;

Woman who flew trans-Atlantic so-LO;
Painter of landscapes in New Mexi-CO!

Oh!

Take of these elements all that is fusible
Melt them all down in a pipkin or crucible
Set them to paper, yes, write them all down!
And the phrase you extract goes with Valentine’s Day town!