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!