1Bonilla's Prolonged Baseball Payday
Former baseball player Bobby Bonilla signed a contract in 2000 that pays him $1.9 million a year until 2035.
2. A man named Steve Rothstein paid $250,000 for a lifetime unlimited first-class American Airlines ticket in 1987. He frequently hopped on planes to get a sandwich or attend a baseball game in other cities. He cost AA $21 million, and they ended his contract in 2008.
3. Herb Washington, the only "designated runner" in MLB history, had a clause in his contract requiring a mustache. Unable to grow a full mustache, he used an eyebrow pencil to simulate one.
4. Werner Klemperer, who played the bumbling Col. Klink on Hogan's Heroes, had a clause in his contract stipulating that Klink would always be portrayed as a fool and never be victorious over Hogan, or he would quit the show.
5. In 1939, RKO Pictures offered a young Orson Welles what is generally regarded as the greatest contract offered to a filmmaker in history. The contract gave Welles full creative control to write, produce, direct, and perform in two films. His first film under the contract was "Citizen Kane."
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6Reagan's Cubs to Movie Contract
Ronald Reagan was an announcer for the Chicago Cubs in the 1930s until he landed a 7-year movie contract after taking a screen test while traveling with the Cubs in California in 1937.
7. Adam Sandler's reason for making a 4-picture contract with Netflix was because, "When these fine people came to me with an offer to make four movies for them, I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only. Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks."
8. Conrad Veidt, a top 1920s German actor whose wife was Jewish, refused to renounce her and even claimed to be Jewish in solidarity. In Hollywood, his acting contract stated that if he played a Nazi, he must be a villain (as he was in Casablanca). He also gave his life savings to the war effort.
9. Top-billed "Fast & Furious" franchise actors attempted to enact contract demands limiting the number of hits their characters took and refusing to definitively lose a fight. Vin Diesel went so far as to devise a tallying system for kicks, punches, and head-butts.
10. The original constitution of Oregon had a "whites-only" clause. All slaves were freed, and then all black people were ordered to leave the state.
11Treaty of Tripoli Religion Clause
The Treaty of Tripoli (ratified in 1797) included a clause about US religion, stating that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
12. American lumber baron Wellington R. Burt (1831-1919) did not leave his $100,000,000 estate to his children. His will included a "spite clause," which denied any inheritance until 21 years after the death of his last surviving grandchild. The money sat in a trust for 92 years until 12 descendants finally shared $110 million in 2011.
13. In 2010, as an April Fool's joke, UK game retailer GameStation inserted an 'Immortal Soul Clause' into their EULA, stating that customers agreed to transfer their souls to the company. Over 7,000 users neglected to uncheck the box.
14. Lobster used to be so plentiful in Massachusetts that servants had a clause in their contracts demanding not to be fed it more than three times a week.
15. Elon Musk explicitly wrote into SpaceX's contract with Orbital Outfitters that the company's new spacesuits must look "badass."
16Frawley's Yankees World Series Clause
Fred Mertz does not appear in two episodes of "I Love Lucy" due to actor William Frawley's contract, which stipulated that he did not have to work if the NY Yankees were playing in the World Series.
17. After World War 2, Japanese insurance companies began including one-year exemption clauses in their policies. People who signed up had to wait one year before taking their own lives to receive the insurance money. Consequently, the suicide rate spiked on the thirteenth month of the contract.
18. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts "can't stand snakes and is scared to death of the damn things," yet he carried around a 100-pound python and later a king cobra because "there were enough zeros on [his] contract to make him forget about his fear [of snakes]."
19. Sarah Jessica Parker had a no-nudity contract clause while working on "Sex and the City." She was the only one of the four leading actresses not to do nude scenes.
20. The Grandfather Clause emerged after the American Civil War, when Southern states implemented literacy tests to prevent former black slaves from voting. When whites also failed these tests, an exception was made for anyone whose grandfather was eligible to vote, as most whites had eligible grandfathers while few blacks did.
21Keaton's Playoff Contract Clause
Michael Keaton, a longtime Pittsburgh resident and fan of its sports teams, negotiated a break in his Batman movie contract in case the Pirates made the playoffs that year. "They thought I was kidding," he said. "I wasn't."
22. Boris Mikhailov, captain of the USSR hockey team, was offered a $1 million contract to leave Russia in 1980 after the Miracle on Ice. He declined the offer, as KGB agents were standing next to him when the offer was made.
23. Jackie Mitchell was a female minor league pitcher who struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back in 1928. Babe Ruth was furious about the outcome. The Baseball Commissioner took his side and voided her contract, claiming baseball to be "too strenuous" for women. In 1952, the MLB officially banned women from playing, a prohibition that was not rescinded until 1992.
24. F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen nearly bankrupted his Lotus team. They included a €50,000 bonus per point in his contract, thinking he wouldn't score many. However, Kimi scored 390 in two years, including 15 podiums and two race wins.
25. In 1965, a 90-year-old Frenchwoman named Jeanne Calment, who had no heirs, signed a contract with a 47-year-old lawyer, giving him her apartment upon her death. However, he had to pay her a monthly allowance until she died. Surprisingly, she outlived him, and his widow continued the payments, ultimately receiving approximately double the value of the apartment. She died in 1997 at the age of 122.
