About halfway through the story the pianist begins to play the Scott Joplin song, The Entertainer. This song has become permanently associated with con artists since Marvin Hamlisch adopted it along with a number of Joplin tunes for The Sting (1973). There is a parallel between the two stories, as they both involve an older con artist working with a "kid" who wanted to join the old pro on a con.
As the property agent goes up the stairs, one of the tenants plays an ominous theme that traditional accompanied the appearance of the villain in silent films. The tenant then seguea into the Beatles tune, "When I'm Sixty-Four." This is a song about reaching old age and hoping for a pleasant retirement.
The baseball card of Johnny Wells that Magnum finds in his shoebox is actually a 1969 Topps card of 2nd baseman Bernie Allen, card #27 of a set of 664, crudely doctored with a yellow sticker covering Allen's name. He played for 12 years in the majors, playing his first game on Apr 10, 1962 for the Minnesota Twins and his last game on Sep 19, 1973 for the Montreal Expos.
When Magnum was talking about the Washington Senators and lamented about them moving to Texas. he actually confused two different teams with the same name. He talked about going to a Senators' game in 1952, which was the first team in Washington, D.C., from 1901- 1960. When the American League expanded, the original team moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. That team was replaced by a team that was also called the Senators. It was that team that later moved to Texas and became the Rangers in 1972.
The gas station advertised the price of its gas for 31.9 cents. That was a surprisingly low amount, even for 1983. The answer is that at time, when gas first went over $1.00 a gallon, that many stations had old fashioned pumps that simply could not charge more than 99 cents. However because these pumps were made to also be used in Canada and Mexico, they could easily be switched to dispense fuel in liters. That price would be equivalent to $1.20 a gallon, and if adjusted for inflation, $3.67 in today's dollars.
Gas 31.9.
Gas 31.9.