OY VEY! Answer these!

Well, I can answer a few of them:

A curtain call is when an actor takes a bow at the end of the performance while the audience applauds.

Theda Bara was a silent movie star who specialized in seductive, often evil roles. Her name was a synonym for exotic glamour.

Pate Strasbourg is a paste of chopped goose liver seasoned with green peppercorns.

Oops, posted too soon:

Filet de Boeuf Sauce Bordelaise is roast beef served with a rich sauce made with beef stock, shallots and red wine.

Courvoisier is a very expensive cognac, a brandy distilled in the town of Cognac, France.

Creme de Menthe Frappe is a cocktail made of green creme de menthe poured over shaved ice in a glass (kind of like an alcoholic slushie).

The waiter twirled the snifter to release the aroma of the cognac.

Your "Sinful Caesar" quote was originally from the elocution lesson scene in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

Nobody answered this one, so I'll contribute it: "Taleisim" are the prayer-shawls that Jewish men (now women too) traditionally wear when in Synagogue. You know...the black-and-white striped blanket-like thing that men wear over their shoulders.

Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."

#7 - Good brandy/liqueur has a certain "stickiness" to the glass. A waiter swirls it to show how slowly the liquid slides down, thereby assuring the diner of the booze's high quality - and associated price.

#4 - A curtain call is a bow given at the demand of the audience, who refuses to stop applauding until the star returns to the stage. If the audience is super-pleased with the performance, they continue to clap even after the star has left the stage, necessitating the star to come back out and take yet another bow. Such clapping continues until finally the audience has expressed their satisfaction fully and stops applauding. Fanny's debut at the Ziegfeld Follies resulted in 5 curtain calls, meaning that the audience clapped to the point that Fanny had to re-appear and take a bow 5 times.

#1 - Apparently, she was fed up with how show business - and, by default, the public - had affected her life. Shooting the (absent) audience was her way of expressing how she wished they would all just go away and leave her alone. What is curious is that she mimics a tommy gun, a common weapon used by gangsters in the 1920s. Was this a conscious choice by the director - or was it simply Babs' default choice given that the play was produced in the 60s when, by that time, the notion of a rapid fire gun was linked to the tommy gun (they still sold toy tommy guns in the 1960s).

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

#3 - I believe "turn on the rails" refers to the rails of stage lights along the front edge of the stage.

#6 - A pastry containing pâté de foie gras (pureed goose liver) and bacon, or pâté de foie gras tout court, was formerly known as "Strasbourg pie" (or "Strasburg pie") in English on account of that city's being a major producer of foie gras.