Click here to view an archive of the previous music urban legends.

Let’s begin!

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: The CEO of Montgomery Ward returned the rights to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to his creator for free.

STATUS: True

There is a dispute over just how Robert May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward, came up with the story that became Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The difference between the two stories is not particularly vast. In one, May is assigned a job by his boss as Montgomery Ward to come up with a story that could be used for a promotional giveaway book for the 1939 Christmas season. In the second, May came up with the story first and then was paid $300 for the rights to the story for use in a giveaway book for the 1939 Christmas season. May himself told the former version of the story in a series of articles over the years (May passed away in 1976). The latter version of the story originated with writer Ace Collins’ Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas. Collins claims that he was given access to documents from Montgomery Ward (before they went out of business in 2001) that verified his story, and that May was just going along with the story Montgomery Ward wanted (that he created the character as a work-for-hire for Montgomery Ward as opposed to Montgomery Ward buying the character’s rights from May). I could see either story being true, but for the sake of this legend, it does not really matter how we got to the point of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer being owned by Montgomery Ward so much as we got to the point where Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was, indeed, owned by Montgomery Ward.

The department store chain produced over 2 million copies of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story as a giveaway in 1939.

It continued to be a popular giveaway until World War II began and the ceased producing the giveaway during the war (for a number of reasons, including the “German-sounding” name of Rudolph and paper raitoning concerns). When the war ended, they started making them again. They had produced 6 million copies by 1946.

In 1947, however, May was approached by a book company who was interested in producing a commercial version of the giveaway. May was interested (he had been beset with money problems since his wife Evelyn was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1930s. She passed away in 1938) but he did not own the rights to the property. In an amazing show of generosity, though, Montgomery Ward CEO Stewell Avery (Montgomery Ward was a private corporation) gave the rights to Rudolph back to May (of, if you believe May did the story as a work-for-hire, then he gave him the rights period, no “back” involved).

Rudolph came out as a book from Maxton Books in 1947…

Now don’t get me wrong, Avery did not think that the product was that valuable, as he did not think that there would be a great demand to pay for a book that Montgomery Ward had been giving out for free for eight years by this point. However, the book was popular, so he knew that he was giving May something of value here.

While the books sold well, thinks got a whole lot crazier when May (now with the rights to the character and the book) had his brother-in-law Johnny Marks turn the lyrics of the poem in the book into a song. Marks did so and they shopped the song around to a number of artists (Bing Crosby, king of Christmas songs, turned them down) before Gene Autry agreed to record the tune (even Autry was disinterested – his wife compelled him to record it). Another singer, Harry Brannon, actually released the song first in November of 1949 but Autry’s December 1949 release of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” became the main version of the song. Autry’s tune was a smash hit, making it the number two highest selling Christmas single of all-time (next to “White Chritmas”), a record it held for thirty years or so (I believe “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” beat it out and I think one of Mariah Carey’s Christmas songs has passed it by since then, as well)….

Interestingly enough, Marks took sole authorship credit for the song, so May did not make anything directly off of the song’s popularity.

Except, of course, that the song’s popularity made the Rudolph property highly valuable and May made a good deal of money licensing the character out for other books, toys, posters, games, comic books, etc. Also, the popularity of the character was demonstrated by the 1964 hit animated TV special…

which was accompanied by Burl Ives’ classic version of the title song….

May retired from Montgomery Ward for a time to manage the Rudolph property, but eventually returned to work for the company. He lived comfortably, though, off of the money that was afforded to him by the success of his character, money that he was able to make due to the generosity of a corporation’s CEO.

Pretty awesome tale, huh?

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: The indie rock band Stiltskin was formed for a Levi’s TV commercial.

STATUS: True

In 1994, Levi’s debuted an ad campaign in the United Kingdom that gained a lot of attention. The TV spot showed a pioneer family in the Western United States…

When they stop for a picnic, the two daughters run off to play and they come across a handsome young man bathing in a body of water…

They see a pair of jeans so they presume that what they are seeing is a gorgeous man bathing in the nude…

As you might imagine, this titillates them…

but when he exits the water, the “money shot” is ruined for them as he is actually wearing a pair of jeans..

The jeans they have in their hands belong to some old guy…

Then the ad copy states that back in the old days, this was the only way to shrink your jeans to make them fit better…

Clever stuff and beautiful cinematography. However, the most notable part of the ad was the music used for the spot. Musician Peter Lawlor has come up with a song to use for the commercial, but he needed a singer for it. He audited dozens of people before settling on Ray Wilson. Lawlor provided all of the instruments for the song.

The tune, titled “Inside.” drew so much positive attention that Lawlor decided to officially form a band and release the song as a single. Dubbed Stlitskin, he and Wilson were joined by bassist James Finnigan and drummer Ross McFarlane.

“inside” was a massive post-grunge hit in England and topped the UK Singles Chart (it had some success in the United States as well)…

The full album, The Mind’s Eye, did not fare so well (it went Silver in England) and the group broke up in 1996. Wilson joined Genesis in 1997 as the short-lived replacement for the departed Phil Collins.

He was the lead singer on what is, to date, Genesis’ final studio album, Calling All Stations.

Once the Genesis gig dried up, Wilson re-formed Stiltskin sans Lawlor (who has continued to work as a prolific composer, doing the theme music for a number of sporting events, including the 2000 Summer Olympics) and the band continues to tour to this day. They even released a new studio album in 2011.

And all this from a commercial (note: there are some other examples of this phenomena that I’ll undoubtedly feature in the future – if you’d like to tell me some of your favorite examples of commercial artists who became actual bands, drop me a line at bcronin@legendsrevealed.com)!

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Ronnie Van Zant had a closed casket at his funeral because of the severe injuries he suffered in the plane crash that took his life.

STATUS: False

Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the hottest bands in all of rock ‘n’ roll from 1973 to 1977 as their first five albums delivered a number of top hits, inculding “Freebird,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” and “What’s Your Name?”

Their dynamic lead singer was Ronnie Van Zant…

Tragically, right when their popularity was peaking with the release of their fifth album (their only top five album of their career), the band’s touring airplane crashed in Mississippi on route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The crash killed Van Zant and Steve Gaines, the band’s newest member (as well as Gaines’ sister, a back-up singer in the group) plus both pilots and the band’s assistant road manager.

At Van Zant’s funeral, his casket was closed to viewers. This has led to a number of rumors over the years that Van Zant’s body was so disfigured during the crash that they couldn’t fix his appearance for his funeral.

As it turns out, though, the closed casket was due to an entirely different reason. Van Zant’s widow, Judy, recalled Ronnie talking about what he’d like (and wouldn’t like) at his funeral and one thing he specifically mentioned was that he didn’t like the idea of people “gawking” over him.

Everyone in the plane was seated with their seatbelts on except Van Zant, who had been sleeping on the floor of the plane. So when the plane crashed into a tree, Van Zant was sent flying and he slammed into the tree, dying due to blunt force trauma to his skull. The blow resulted in a small bruise on his forehead but that was the only visible damage Van Zant received in the crash. His wife noted that he just looked like he always did, just sleeping.

Thanks to the Lynyrd Skynyrd History Website for valuable information about the group.

Okay, that’s it for this installment!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

-Brian Cronin

Click here to view an archive of the previous TV urban legends.

Let’s begin!

TV URBAN LEGEND: Radar O’Reilly’s left hand was never shown on M.A.S.H.

STATUS: False

One of the few actors to star in both the film M.A.S.H. and the TV series M.A.S.H….

Gary Burghoff, otherwise known as Radar O’Reilly, is one of the actors most associated with M.A.S.H. (perhaps only Jamie Farr and Alan Alda are more associated with the series than Burghoff).

Look again at the picture above. Notice anything? In the photo, Burghoff is hiding his left hand. This is because Burghoff was born with a misshapened left hand. Reader Eric P. wrote in to ask if it was true that Burghoff’s left hand was never seen on the series.

The answer is no. While Burghoff hid the hand quite often, there are more than a few instances where it is visible, including interestingly enough, in his first scene in the first episode of the series!

Check it out…

So no, Eric, while they did hide it, they did not hide it entirely.

Thanks to Eric for the question!

TV URBAN LEGEND: Terry O’Quinn accidentally stabbed Matthew Fox with a real knife in the finale of Lost.

STATUS: True

SPOILERS FOR LOST AHEAD!

In the final season of the ABC series Lost…

Terry O’Quinn’s character, Locke, is killed off and the Man in Black takes his place by taking on his form (one of the Man in Black’s powers). In the series finale, through various machinations, the Man in Black is finally mortal and can leave the island. Matthew Fox’s character, Jack, tries to stop him.

They struggle…

and in the ensuing struggle, the Man in Black stabs Jack in the abdomen…

Amazingly enough, O’Quinn accidentally used a REAL knife in the scene!!

You see, the scene was done with a real knife and a collapsible stunt knife. Now a collapsible knife is no joke in and of itself – it can still mess you up if you’re hit with it, so in the scene Fox was offered a variety of different padding to wear under his clothes. He eventually went with a kevlar padding. The kevlar was the only one of the paddings that could withstand a direct blow from a knife without the knife penetrating Fox’s skin.

Well, as it turned out, it was awfully lucky of Fox to pick that kevlar padding, because during the scuffle, O’Quinn accidentally used the wrong knife and stabbed Fox with the REAL knife instead of the collapsible one! Luckily, the aforementioned kevlar padding kept it from entering Fox’s skin, instead just leaving a nasty bruise.

Apparently, they considered doing the scene at one point without ANY padding! Yikes.

Thanks to Jorge Garcia’s neat Lost podcast, Geronimo Jack’s Beard, for the information!

TV URBAN LEGEND: Barry Coe was hired and fired from Bonanza all in the time in took to film one episode.

STATUS: True

Initially, Bonanza starred four actors, Lorne Greene (as Ben Cartwright) and Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon (as his three sons, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe)….

Roberts was not a huge fan of the material of the series, and very early on he began making noise about wanting to leave the series. The first instance of the producers taking Roberts’ demands seriously came in the beginning of the fourth season, when in the first episode they added actor Barry Coe to the cast as Little Joe’s roguishly charming half-brother Clay Stafford.

The casting was a bit of a game of chicken between the producers and Roberts. “You want to leave, well here you go, we have a replacement for you.”

However, the producers were not counting on the reaction that they would receive from a DIFFERENT cast member. Michael Landon did not like the addition, as he felt that Coe encroached on his role within the series – the handsome young heartthrob, for lack of a better description.

So in the midst of filming the episode, filming took a break. The producers and the main cast huddled up in a meeting and when they were finished, Coe was no longer a cast member. The script for the episode was re-written with Coe’s character choosing to keep on moving down the line rather than settling down on the Ponderosa with the rest of the Cartwrights.

This would not be the last time that Landon would get involved in the casting of the show (I’ll get around to another instance in a future installment of TV Urban Legends Revealed).

Thanks to the great Bonanza website, Bonanza: Scenery of the Ponderosa, for the information.

Okay, that’s it for this installment!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

-Brian Cronin

Today is a “Grab Bag” day here at Entertainment Urban Legends Revealed, where each time we feature a different area of the world of arts and entertainment (outside of TV, Film, Music and Comics). Each time you will see grab bag legends from one of these following 23 “Grab Bag” categories

Let’s begin!

TOY URBAN LEGEND: The original line of G.I. Joe toys ended because of the 1970s gas crisis.

STATUS: True Enough

G.I. Joe was a popular children’s doll (or “action figure”) who debuted in 1964.

G.I. Joe was a twelve inch plastic doll that had vinyl outfits. As the character became more and more popular, the maker of the toy (Hasbro) began developing different varieties of the toy. In the late 1960s, with the Vietnam War at his peak, the “soldier” aspect of the toy was downplayed and G.I. Joe became more of an “adventurer” than a “soldier.”

By the late 1970s, the toy had gone through a number of changes and sales had slowed a bit. However, the biggest cause in the demise of the original G.I. Joe came in a surprising place – Iran.

You see, in 1973, the world saw its first gas crisis as the Arab nations that controlled much of the world’s oil chose to use their control of the supply as a negotiating tool with regards to the then-current war between Israel and a coalition of Arab countries (led by Egypt and Syria). The Arab nations wished to push the United States into convincing Israel to end the conflict, so they cut the United States off from Middle Eastern oil.

Oil prices naturally skyrocketed. Although they subsided when the United States brokered a peace in 1974.

In 1978, though, there was a revolution in Iran, then the second-largest distributors of oil in the world. The revolution led to the cessation of oil production in Iran. The other Middle Eastern countries could not cover the supply gap and prices skyrocketed once again.

It was here that Hasbro ran into a problem. You see, G.I. Joes were made almost entirely out of petroleum-based products. Petroleum was used for the plastic that made up the figure itself as well as the vinyl that made up some of the outfits of G.I. Joe and his friends. If sales had been as strong as they were in the early 1970s, Hasbro probably would have kept going, but their now fourteen year old toy line was a bit long in the tooth anyways, so the increase in production cost was too much and the line was shuttered in 1978 (they tried one more revamp before closing down – a futuristic approach to G.I. Joe in 1978 with “Super Joe,” with smaller eight inch figures).

When the toy line restarted in 1982, it was now with smaller, cheaper-to-produce toys (something Kenner showed could be done successfully in the late 1970s with their Star Wars line of toys).

Thanks to Dawn Herlocher’s 200 Years of Dolls: Identification and Price Guide for the information about why Hasbro discontinued the original line of G.I. Joe toys. Thanks to commenter Luke for making some suggestions for small changes to the piece.

TOY URBAN LEGEND: Lincoln Logs were named after the middle name of the father of the inventor of Lincoln Logs.

STATUS: I’m Going With False

Lincoln Logs are a famous children’s toy that consists of miniature logs with notches on them that can be connected and used to build forts and whatever other type of building your heart desires (perhaps a log cabin, even!). They were first designed in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, first marketed in 1918, patented in 1920 and first sold a few years later.

Wright claimed at the time that he was inspired by his father’s design for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan (Wright was in Japan with his father at the time of the design and construction of the Imperial Hotel). I can’t speak to the veracity of that statement, especially since there were a goodly amount of similar block-building toys in the 19th Century.

However, one point that I believe I can speak to is the slight confusion brought about by the great website Mental Floss. The site had a feature on Lincoln Logs awhile back that has caused a bit of confusion with regards to the origins of the name “Lincoln Logs.” In an article about the secrets behind famous toys, writer Tim Moodie wrote in regards to Lincoln Logs:

But here’s the strangest part: the naming of the toy might not have been a tribute to Honest Abe. Here’s the scoop: Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright, but he legally changed his name when his parents split. So, Lloyd Jones was his mother’s maiden name and Frank’s name change was to honor her. In any case, whichever Lincoln the toy was honoring, we’re pretty sure Honest Abe would have gotten a kick out of the little logs.

To Moodie’s credit, all he does here is point out that Wright’s original middle name was Lincoln. He does not explicitly state that the younger Wright did use that as the impetus for the name of his toy. It is just that Moodie’s “hey, did you know?” piece has since been translated, Telephone Game-style, into a definitive “Lincoln Logs were not named after Abraham Lincoln” statement, which does not appear to be Moodie’s intent at all.

As to whether John Lloyd Wright named the toy as a tribute to his father’s original middle name, I believe the evidence supporting such an allegation is so flimsy that, when placed against the much simpler answer, it is reasonable enough to go with a false here.

Here is Wright’s patent for the toy (along with the plans for the toy)…

As shown, the guy created a log cabin toy. Originally, you were given just enough blocks to create only a log cabin. To suggest that the Abraham Lincoln connection was incidental and based on his father’s original middle name takes evidence a whole lot more significant than “his father’s original middle name was Lincoln.” There has to be some record of John Lloyd Wright specifically stating the connection, and there is no such record. He never spoke about his father’s original name as an influence for the product name. In addition, the younger Wright was marketing the toy in 1918 because had been fired by his father in Japan earlier that year! The two were not on good terms with each other at the time, so when you add up…

1. An estranged relationship between John Lloyd Wright and Frank Lloyd Wright at the time of the marketing of Lincoln Logs
2. No statements from John Lloyd Wright that he named Lincoln Logs after his father’s middle name and
3. The fact that the toy is a log cabin, which has been famously associated with Abaraham Lincoln since the 1860s

then I think it is fair to say that there is enough evidence to give this a “false.”

In addition, for what it is worth, K’nex, the current corporate owners of Lincoln Logs (Wright sold out very early on in the process and did not make a lot of money off of the toy at all – he went on to create other building block toys that were not as successful), state in their official history of Lincoln Logs:

The product is named after Abraham Lincoln, the President who began his celebrated life in a log cabin in Kentucky.

I tend not to lend much credence to corporate histories like that, but I figure that it is worth at least mentioning it.

Thanks to Tim Moodie for the article that inspired this whole thing! And thanks to reader Dan W. for suggesting that I feature this one!

TOY URBAN LEGEND: The United States military purchased millions of View Master reels for training purposes during World War II.

STATUS: True

Sawyers’ Photo Services was founded in 1911. In 1926, Harold Graves was brought into the company and was put in charge of photographs for postcards and collectible albums.

In the early 20th Century, postcards of famous places were often the only way people could ever see some of the world’s wonders like the Grand Canyon. In 1939, Graves formed a partnership with a man named Wilhelm Gruber to produce “stereo photographs.” These stereo photographs would be on film that would be put into discs (or “slides”) that you could then slide into a viewing device similar to a camera and then, well, view them. This viewing device was called the Viewmaster.

Here’s an early 1940′s Viewmaster (made out of metal)…

Viewmasters were used as replacements for scenic postcards. They allowed viewers to see all sorts of wonderful landscapes (the Grand Canyon was one of their most popular series of slides).

When World War II broke out, the United States military soon appreciated the utility of these devices for training purposes. From 1942 to 1945, they purchased 100,000 viewers and millions of slides.

Here are some of the military slides…

After the war, Sawyers purchased Tru-Vue, a Viewmaster knock-off company that had a license with Walt Disney. This led to Viewmaster’s first children-centric line of slides.

In 1966, Sawyers was purchased by General Aniline & Film (GAF) Corporation. This change in the company, combined with the 1962 move from metal Viewmasters to the now-famous red plastic models (seen here)…

led to the Viewmaster now being mainly a children’s toy. They picked up a bunch more licenses for new discs (including Star Trek). In 2010, the change became official. Viewmaster (now owned by Fisher Price) divested all of its remaining scenic photograph products and is now solely a company devoted to viewing discs for kids (everything is much fancier now, of course, with 3-D and sounds and the lot).

Thanks to Pinot and Dita for the photograph of the 1940-era Viewmaster.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Click here for an archive of the previous three hundred and sixty.

Click here to read this week’s legends.

Click here to view an archive of the previous movie urban legends.

Let’s begin!

MOVIE LEGEND: Shaft was originally going to star a white actor.

STATUS: I’m Going With False

Shaft, directed by Gordon Parks and starring Richard Roundtree as the titular private detective, was a massive box office smash upon its release in 1971 and became the face of what was later referred to as “blaxploitation” films (I’ll let you judge whether you feel it qualifies as “blaxploitation”). The film, which won an Academy Award for Best Song for its theme (written and performed by Isaac Hayes), was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

For years, though, legendary blaxploitation producer and director Melvin Van Peebles has told the story of how Shaft was originally not going to star Richard Roundtree, but the title detective was going to be played by a white actor! Here’s a New York Press blog article that sums up Van Peebles story well:

It’s been almost 40 years since the box office success of Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song (1971), the first-ever independent film to profit commercially and what Van Peebles claims, “changed everything” in the movie making industry. Sweetback boosted the cinematic black image and influenced the lead in films like Shaft, whose black protagonist was originally cast as a white character.

That’s what you’ll generally see told in regards to this story, that the unexpected sucess off Van Peebles’ independent release, Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song, about a young black man who stands up against white authority, changed the course of Shaft’s history. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is undeniably an important film. It clearly influenced a number of blaxspolitation films (although, much more so than Shaft, Van Peebles’ film is definitely not an exploitative film – the knockoffs of it, though, were) and, more importantly, it showed that you could have a hit film not only written and directed by black filmmakers (which was not necessarily in doubt at the time, as Gordon Parks had already had success as a director) but that you could have a hit film produced and financed by black people, as well. Comedian Bill Cosby loaned Van Peebles the last $50,000 he needed to make the film. So yes, Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song is an important film. However, I believe Van Peebles is overstating its influence upon the film Shaft.

First of all, Ernest Tidyman’s novel, Shaft, which the film was based on, starred a black private detective. Since one of the most striking aspects of Shaft is the very fact that it IS about a black private detective, it seems hard to believe that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would have optioned the book only to change the race of its title character. However, to be honest, I cannot say for sure that they would not do such a thing. If they liked the story well enough, perhaps they would have done so.

No, the more important reason as to why Van Peebles is almost surely mistaken in how influential his film was was the fact that Shaft was already well into production by the time Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song was released. Sweet Sweetback hit theaters on April 23, 1971. Shaft hit theaters on July 2, 1971. Richard Roundtree was already cast as Shaft well before Sweet Sweetback was released. Contemporary articles about Shaft in Ebony in June 1971 made it clear that Shaft’s release had no connection to Sweet Sweetback. Now, the success of Sweet Sweetback most likely gave Shaft more attention, which surely helped the film be a success, but it did not get the film made and it did not get the film changed from white actors to black.

Thanks to Pauline Pechin for the New York Press article and thanks to Ebony (author uncredited) for their spotlight on the filming on Shaft from June 1971.

MOVIE LEGEND: An audience member watching A Fish Called Wanda died from laughter.

STATUS: True

The notion of someone dying of laughter watching a film just sounds like an urban legend, doesn’t it? Like someone mixing Pop Rocks and soda and dying. However, in the case of an audience member watching A Fish Called Wanda, it sadly was very true.

In 1989 a Danish audiologist, Ole Bentzen, died watching A Fish Called Wanda. What happened was that he started laughing so hard that his heart was beating between 250 and 500 beats per minute, ultimately leading to cardiac arrest.

The specific scene that got to Bentzen was the famous “fish and chips” scene, where Kevin Kline’s character, Otto, tortures Michael Palin’s character, Ken, first by shoving chips (french fries) up Ken’s nose and then later by eating Ken’s pet fish in front of him.

Apparently the scene reminded Bentzen of a joke/game that he did with his family, where each member would put a piece of cauliflower up their nose and see who could eat the rest of their vegetables fastest without the cauliflower falling out of their nose.

While bizarre, it really is quite sad, as it sounds like Bentzen was a fun-loving guy. In Washington D.C. in 2009, they began a comedy festival in Bentzen’s honor called The Bentzen Ball.

MOVIE LEGEND: Wes Craven’s original ending for A Nightmare on Elm Street was dramatically different than what made it into theaters.

STATUS: True

If you haven’t seen A Nightmare on Elm Street, you might not want to read this one. You are spoiler warned!

The low-budget horror film, written and directed by Wes Craven, was a massive success upon its release in 1984 and a sequel was quickly rushed out for release the next year (the series ultimately became a successful film franchise, with nine films released so far, and I’m sure more to come in the future).

However, when Craven wrote the film, he never intended it as the beginning of a franchise, and in fact, Craven’s original ending for the film had a happy ending. The film’s protagonist, Nancy Thompson, sees basically all of her friends and her mother killed by the evil Freddy Kruegger, who attacks you in your dreams and if you die in your dream you also die in real life. Craven wanted the film to end with Nancy defeating Freddy by basically refusing to believe in him.

The next day would then open with the revelation that it was ALL a dream, and Nancy’s mother and her friends were all still alive. Here are two screen shots of that original ending…

However, the head of New Line Cinema (who financed the film – the first time the independent movie distributor actually produced its own film) Robert Shaye insisted that the ending be done in such a way to set up a sequel. Shaye compelled Craven to have Craven’s original ending modified into a “twist” ending, where what Nancy THINKS is the next day is actually still part of the nightmare, with Kruegger pulling her mother into the house and having Kruegger posess the car she and her friends are driving in and having the film end in that shocking fashion.

They ultimately filmed four versions of the ending – the happy one, the twist one and two compromise versions (mostly the twist ending, but with slight changes). They went with the twist ending. Craven decided not to do the second film, although he had since returned to the film franchise for a few of the sequels.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

-Brian Cronin

NOTE: I posted this over at Spinoff Online last year. I figured it made sense to have a record of it here, too, for my archives.

Click here to view an archive of the previous music urban legends.

Let’s begin!

MUSIC LEGEND: The official release of “Through the Wire” has re-recorded vocals by Kanye after his jaw had further healed.

STATUS: True

In the beginning of the 21st Century, Kanye West had made a name for himself as one of the top young producers in the rap industry. However, West wanted to do more than produce other rappers’ tracks. He wanted to do his own songs. He had trouble getting signed and even after Roc-a-Fella Records signed him, they were unsure if they actually wanted to put out an album of his music.

This changed with the release of “Through the Wire,” a song that West wrote after a devastating 2002 car accident he was in coming home from a production session. The accident left his jaw wired shut. While in the hospital, he heard Chaka Khan’s 1985 hit “Through the Fire” on the radio (from her album I Feel For You)…

The phrase “through the fire” made him think about his accident, and specifically the wire around his jaw. Less than two months after the accident, West recorded “Through the Wire,” a song about his situation.

The powerful tune convinced Roc-A-Fella to back West on a solo album and in late 2003 the tune was the lead single from West’s 2004 classic rap album, College Dropout…

However, what many people do not know is that the official album release of “Through the Wire” is not the actual song that West recorded right after his accident. Instead, West went in and dubbed in his voice on all of the verses in the song (I am unsure if it was his idea or someone at the label). When he speaks in the tune, that is from the original track, but the parts where he raps is his voice from 2003 superimposed on his original recording from 2002 (he also dropped a Tupac reference from the original recording).

Both versions of the song are quite good, but I can understand why they wanted a “cleaner” version of the verses.

MUSIC LEGEND: “School Spirit” had to be censored for Aretha Franklin to agree to allow her song to be sampled on the track.

STATUS: True

Like many rap albums, College Dropout was released in a “Clean” version and a “Parental Warning – Explicit Content” version. The former had the profanity of the album censored while the latter obviously did not.

However, there was a curiosity on the album. On BOTH versions of the album, the song “School Spirit” was censored…

As you would imagine, this confused people a lot. It is weird to buy an album that specifically warns about explicit content and then have a song be censored on it.

As it turns out, it had to do with a song that was sampled on the track. “School Spirit” sampled Aretha’s Franklin “Spirit in the Dark”…

off of her underrated 1970 classic album of the same name…

Franklin would only clear the use of the sample if West agreed that the song would be clean, which is why the song is censored on both versions of the album.

Eventually West came out with a uncensored version when the album had a special iTunes release. I don’t know what changed with his arrangement with Franklin. In the ensuing period he did become one of the biggest rappers in the world (and West and Franklin had worked together on songs in the meantime) so perhaps she was more willing to accommodate him this time around.

MUSIC LEGEND: “Homecoming” is about a woman named Wendy.

STATUS: False

This one is pretty close to being too silly to even feature here, but what can I say? It surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) comes up a LOT. Just do a search on the internet, you’ll find a bunch of references to people asking about who “Wendy” is on the Kanye West song “Homecoming.”

Early in the tune, West talks about a girl that he once knew and he seems to say something that sounds sort of like “Wendy,” but in reality, he is saying “Windy,” as the song is one long love letter to Chicago, where West grew up (Chicago is the “girl” that he has known since he was 3).

What’s particularly disappointing is that the end of the song even has West say, “And if you don’t know by now, I’m talkin’ about Chi-town.” Don’t get much more direct than that.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

-Brian Cronin

Click here to view an archive of the previous TV urban legends.

Let’s begin!

TV URBAN LEGEND: Paul McCartney provided a lentil soup recipe backwards at the end of the “Lisa the Vegetarian” episode of the Simpsons.

STATUS: True

One of the most famous myths that followed the Beatles around during the 1960s was that Paul McCartney died and was replaced by a look-alike. People found “proof” all over the place, from the cover of Abbey Road (he is not wearing shoes and he is walking out of step)…

to the “fact” that if you played “Revolution #9″ on the White Album backwards, you would hear a clue to Paul being dead.

In 1995, in the seventh season of the Simpsons…

in the episode titled “Lisa the Vegetarian,” Paul McCartney and his wife Linda guest-starred to lend Lisa Simpson support in her desire to become a vegetarian.

In the episode, Paul tells Lisa:

Linda and I both feel strongly about animal rights. In fact, if you play “Maybe I’m Amazed” backwards, you’ll hear a recipe for a really ripping lentil soup.

And sure enough, over the closing credits, as McCartney sings “Maybe I’m Amazed,” there is a hidden recipe for lentil soup that is only identifiable by playing the credits backwards.

Here is the recipe (courtesy of The Simpsons Archive)…

– one medium onion, chopped
– two tablespoons of vegetable oil
– one clove of garlic, crushed
– one cup of carrots, chopped
– two sticks of celery, chopped
– half a cup of lentils
– one bay leaf
– one tablespoon of freshly-chopped parsely
– salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste
– two and a quarter cups of vegetable stock or water

The hidden message ends with McCartney pointing out that, by the way, he’s alive.

Thanks again to The Simpsons Archive for the information!

TV URBAN LEGEND: Sally Jessy Raphael kept wearing glasses even after getting corrective eye surgery.

STATUS: False (with some truth to it)

Sally Jessy Raphael was a popular daytime talk show host for two decades beginning in the 1980s.

She became especially well known for her distinctive bright red eyeglasses…

As the story goes, Raphael became SO identified with her eyeglasses that even after getting corrective eye surgery, her producers would not allow her to stop wearing her trademark pair of glasses.

While that really is not that hard to believe if it WAS true, the real truth is a bit different than that. You see, Raphael never had particularly BAD vision, just not good enough to be able to read a teleprompter without having a problem. Around 2000, Raphael’s vision began to improve a bit – enough so that she likely did not have to wear her glasses if she did not want to. When told about this, Raphael quickly scoffed at the idea, ”The guy said, ‘You don’t really need these.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean, I built a career on them!’ ”

So no, she never got corrective eye surgery.

And no, she was never FORCED to keep wearing her glasses even when she did not need to wear them (although, of course, she knew very well that if she HAD chosen not to wear them, it might have been an issue).

This is not to say that Raphael was happy about the importance that the glasses began to take on when it came to her image.

She told the New York Times in 2000:

You go to school, you get a master’s degree, you study Shakespeare and wind up being famous for plastic glasses. It’s the only thing anyone wants to talk to me about. I can walk through an airport and think someone’s going to ask me an intelligent question and they’ll go, ‘You’re not wearing your red glasses.’ At parties with relatively sophisticated people? ‘You’re Sally Jessy? I thought she wore red glasses.’ Not always, babe, not always.’

Thanks to James Barroh and Elisabeth Bumiller for the quotes!

TV URBAN LEGEND: Robert Young once made a particularly dark “episode” of Father Knows Best to help sell U.S. savings bonds.

STATUS: True

Over the years, various television series have done special short episodes for the government to promote United States savings bonds. I’ll even be mentioning another particularly interesting one in a later edition of TV Urban Legends Revealed (so if you were going to talk about other examples, hold off for a bit, please!).

The one that stands out the most in television history is definitely “24 Hours in Tyrantland,” a full 30-minute episode of “Father Knows Best” designed to sell U.S. savings bonds in a surprisingly dark fashion.

In the episode, Robert Young’s Jim Anderson is organizing a savings bond drive and he is disappointed in the fact that his three children seem disinterested in helping out. So to prove a point, he makes them spend 24 hours in “Tyrantland.” This was an exercise in which the kids (Betty (Elinor Donahue), Bud (Billy Gray), and Kathy (Lauren Chapin)) would each be given numbers as names and forced to undergo a series of regimented chores dictated by Jim and his wife Margaret (Jane Wyatt).

In the end, the kids realize the error of the way and eldest daughter Betty (also known as “Princess”) explains what she learned about how good we have it in America and she vows to help her father on his drive.

Her parents, naturally, are quite pleased…

The episode was never aired and only shown at civic functions and at schools. It can be found now, though, on the first season DVD of Father Knowa Best (linked to above).

Okay, that’s it for this installment!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

-Brian Cronin

Click here for an archive of the previous three hundred and sixty.

Click here to read this week’s legends.

Read on to see a list of past Comic Book Legends Revealed!

Comic Book Legends Revealed #319

Comic Book Legends Revealed #320

Comic Book Legends Revealed #321

Comic Book Legends Revealed #322

Comic Book Legends Revealed #323

Comic Book Legends Revealed #324

Comic Book Legends Revealed #325

Comic Book Legends Revealed #326

Comic Book Legends Revealed #327

Comic Book Legends Revealed #328

Comic Book Legends Revealed #329

Comic Book Legends Revealed #330

Comic Book Legends Revealed #331

Comic Book Legends Revealed #332

Comic Book Legends Revealed #333

Comic Book Legends Revealed #334

Comic Book Legends Revealed #335

Comic Book Legends Revealed #336

Comic Book Legends Revealed #337

Comic Book Legends Revealed #338

Comic Book Legends Revealed #339

Comic Book Legends Revealed #340

Comic Book Legends Revealed #341

Comic Book Legends Revealed #342

Comic Book Legends Revealed #343

Comic Book Legends Revealed #344

Comic Book Legends Revealed #345

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Today is a “Grab Bag” day here at Entertainment Urban Legends Revealed, where each time we feature a different area of the world of arts and entertainment (outside of TV, Film, Music and Comics). Each time you will see grab bag legends from one of these following 23 “Grab Bag” categories

Let’s begin!

AMUSEMENT PARK URBAN LEGEND: A man who had been mute for over five years spoke after riding the Cyclone.

STATUS: True

Built in 1927, Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster is one of the most famous roller coasters in the history of roller coasters…

It had its perhaps most famous testimonial to its greatness in 1949 when a West Virginian coal miner named Emilio Franco rode the coaster.

You see, Franco suffered from a condition called Aphonia since 1943, which struck him unable to speak.

While riding the coaster, he screamed.

And when he got off of the coaster, he spoke his first words in SIX YEARS.

Those words?

“I feel sick.”

Awesome.

Thanks to Nick Cook’s Roller Coasters, Or, I Had So Much Fun, I Almost Puked for the informtation!

AMUSEMENT PARK URBAN LEGEND: Cinderella’s Castle was designed with a secret apartment inside for Walt Disney’s personal use.

STATUS: True

In the first edition of Amusement Park Urban Legends Revealed, I discussed another urban legend involving Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom in Florida’s Disney World. Now here’s another one!

Walt Disney had a secret apartment in Disneyland in the Main Street Firehouse. So when designs were made for Magic Kingdom in Florida, Disney wanted a similar apartment built in Cinderella’s Castle.

However, Disney died in 1966 and Cinderella’s Castle was not finished until 1971. His original plans were still continued, until Walt’s brother Roy also passed away in 1971. With neither Disneys around to use the apartment, the unfinished room was turned into an office instead.

Later on, a room for people to stay in WAS built into the castle, although it was not in the spot where the original apartment would have been. This new room is Cinderella’s Dream Suite and was introduced as part of a promotion where randomly selected families would win the chance to stay in the Dream Suite.

I don’t know what the Dream Suite is being used for nowadays. Anyone happen to know?

AMUSEMENT PARK URBAN LEGEND: The Liberty Bell in Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom is from a series of 50 replicas made of the Liberty Bell for the Bi-Centennial.

STATUS: False

In Liberty Square in the Magic Kindom, there is a replica of the Liberty Bell…

Here’s how the story goes:

In 1976, 50 replicas were cast and molded in honor of our country’s 200th birthday. Each state would receive one and place it in a spot of their choice. However, the state of Pennsylvania had a problem. They already had the original Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Why would they want a replica? Years later, Walt Disney World realized Pennsylvania had the replica and asked if they could have it for Liberty Square. Pennsylvania agreed and on July 4th, 1989 the replica Liberty Bell was hoisted and lowered into its permanent spot inside Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom where it still sits today. Florida remains the only state with two of the 50 replica Liberty Bells.

That is not the case. There WERE 50 replicas made, but it was not in 1976, it was in 1950, oddly enough.

The Pennsylvania replica is in Allentown at the Liberty Bell Shrine in Zion Reformed Church. The Liberty Bell Museum has a list here of where all the replicas are nowadays.

The Disney Liberty Bell was specially cast for Disney in 1989, when the Bell was installed in Liberty Square. Heck, it says as much on the plaque on the Bell at Liberty Square…

Thanks to the Liberty Bell Museum for the replica information!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Click here to view an archive of the previous movie urban legends.

Let’s begin!

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: The Stonehenge scene in This is Spinal Tap was inspired by one of Black Sabbath’s tours.

STATUS: False

This is Spinal Tap is a widely popular 1984 “mockumentary” following the exploits of a fictional rock group, satirizing (among many things) the pretensions of rock bands.

One of the, if not THE most, famous scenes in the film is when the band unveils what they think will be an elaborate stage prop of a giant replica of Stonehenge. They think that a giant replica of Stonehenge is lowering behind them while it is, in fact, a tiny replica of Stonehenge (they were shown the replica earlier and presumed that it was a scale model of the actual prop and not the actual prop itself).

For years, people have presumed that the scene specifically satirizes the outlandish 1983 tour of the band Black Sabbath to promote their 1983 album, Born Again…

In a 1994 interview with Mojo Magazine, Ian Gillan (the lead singer on that Black Sabbath album) recalled their Stonehenge stage prop…

Mojo Magazine: Ian Gillan, you briefly joined Black Sabbath in 1983, tell us about the infamous Born Again tour that provided such valuable inspiration for Spinal Tap?

Ian Gillan: We were up at a company called LSD (Light and Sound Design) in Birmingham, and the lighting engineer asked if anyone had any ideas for a stage set. Geezer Butler suggested Stonehenge. “How do you envisage it, Geezer?” asked the engineer. “Life size, of course,” replied Geezer. So they built a life-size Stonehenge. We hired the Birmingham NEC to rehearse in and they couldn’t get these bloody things in there. We opened in Montreal and Don Arden had hired Maple Leaf ice hockey stadium for a week, so they shipped the set over there and could still only get a few of those damn stones up, one each side of the stage, one behind the drums and two cross-pieces.

It seems pretty straightforward, right?

Especially since the film was released in 1984 and the Sabbath tour was in 1983.

However, the gag actually PREDATED the Sabbath tour!

You see, before Rob Reiner and the rest of the Spinal Tap creative team (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer – who also make up the band in the film) were given the money to finance the film, they were given a small sum to film a 20 minute version of the film to demonstrate to the financiers what the film would look like (it was, after all, a bit of an unusual premise for the time). So they put together a 20-minute version that repeated many of the same jokes that would later appear in the film…including the Stonehenge bit!

So no, the Stonehenge gag in This is Spinal Tap is not, in fact, based on Black Sabbath’s Born Again tour. It is just a happy coincidence (or a great case of predicting the pretensions of rock bands, whichever you prefer).

Thanks to Mojo Magazine and Ian Gillan for the quotes!

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: A movie studio spread rumors of the death of one of its actresses for publicity.

STATUS: True

Florence Lawrence was one of the earliest movie stars. In fact, she is often nicknamed “The First Movie Star.”

She began appearing in silent films in 1906 and soon became director D.W. Griffith’s go-to leading lady for his short films that he made for Biograph Films in the early 20th Century.

In the early days of silent films, actors and actresses were not credited, so Lawrence gained her fame as “The Biograph Girl.”

Lawrence and her fellow Biograph star, leading man (and her husband) Harry Solter, tried to get work at another movie studio while working for Biograph. The other studio reported their efforts to Biograph and they were both promptly fired.

Lawrence was wooed by Carl Laemmle, founder and owner of Independent Moving Pictures Company of America (IMP) (the company would later become Universal). He wanted stars and Lawrence was one of the biggest in the business. However, having a star who was identified with a rival studio did not make Laemmle particularly happy, so he (or someone at IMP, at leaat) hatched up an outlandish publicity stunt. They would first spread rumors that “The Biograph Girl” had been killed in a car accident.

Then, after a suitable amount of time, IMP took out full page ads “debunking” the “lie” about her death, and, of course, noting her name and the fact that she was now starring in films for IMP.

The publicity did wonders and Lawrence did many pictures for IMP and remained a star well into 1910s.

Kelly R. Brown did a book on Florence Lawrence that is quite good. It is called Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl: America’s First Movie Star. It is well worth a read.

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Albert Finney had a bizarrely hilarious hidden cameo in drag within his own film, Miller’s Crossing.

STATUS: True

Miller’s Crossing is a 1990 gangster film by the Coen Brothers…

In it, Gabriel Byrne plays the right-hand man to an Irish-American mob boss (played by Albert Finney) while also having an affair with his boss’s girlfriend (played by Marcia Gay Harden).

While everyone in the film is quite good, Finney’s Leo O’Bannon is certainly a stand out, especially a wonderful sequence where he fights off an assassination attempt while in his home in a robe listening to “Danny Boy.”

However, amusingly enough, this is not the only character Finney plays in the film!

In one of the early scenes in the film, Byrne’s Tom Reagan storms into a ladies’ restroom to confront Harden’s Verna Bernbaum.

This naturally offends the ladies within the room at the time.

Check out who one of the ladies is (click on the image to enlarge)…

Yep, it is Finney dressed as a woman.

I don’t know WHY he did it, but it sure is hilarious (and I assume that this is all the reason needed – that it was a funny bit)!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

-Brian Cronin