Did you know that without Izzy Itzkowitz, there would be no Princess Leia?
Follow the train of events: when Izzy's mother died, a mistake led to him adopting his grandmother's name, Kantrowitz, which later became Kanter and then Cantor. Izzy was dropped for a more goyishe Eddie, and Eddie Cantor became one of America's first stars. He was an all-around threat: singer, songwriter, dancer, comedian, actor. One of the most popular stars of the 1920s, he appeared in numerous hit Broadway shows and movies. His songs topped the charts. What would be Cantor's modern-day comparison? Justin Timberlake? You wish, Justin.
Cantor also helped discover other performers. One of those was fellow Jew, Eddie Fisher, who Cantor helped pull out of obscurity in 1949.
Thanks to Cantor's help, by 1955, Fisher himself became a star. A young actress named Debbie Reynolds fell in love, and, yes, Carrie Fisher was born. Do the two ever meet without Cantor's discovery of Fisher? Unlikely. (Also, Eddie left Debbie for her best friend, a dame named Elizabeth Taylor. But that's a whole other story.)
So, no Cantor, no Princess Leia, or at least a very, very different Princess Leia than the one that filled the dreams of so many young boys.
Thanks, Izzy!