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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

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

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.”

So what’s the deal?
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about toys and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all toy urban legends featured so far!

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

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.

Anyhow, is it true?
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Movie urban legends featured so far.

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Hormel Foods sued the Muppets over making fun of Spam.

In the world of big business, there are few things quite as powerful as a well-known brand name. Because of this, companies will often go out of their way to defend their brands from being diluted by other companies. Heck, as we pointed out in an old Movie Legends Revealed, Nintendo is so protective of its Super Mario Brothers brand that it actually purchased the rights to a Super Mario Brothers porn parody to keep it off of the market. That strategy is all well and good when your brand name is a respected one, but what if your brand is one that has negative connotations? What if your brand is Spam? Spam is a brand name for a canned meat product by Hormel Foods consisting of pre-cooked pork shoulder with some ham mixed in there, as well. A lot of people have made fun of Spam over the years and it eventually became so stereotypically associated with an unwanted food product that people began to use the term in reference to unwanted e-mails and the term stuck. Today, people might very well associate the word “spam” more with junk e-mail than with the original meat product. In recent years, Hormel has gotten in on the joke themselves by strategically using humor to promote their famous product. For instance, in 2005, rather than taking issue with the Broadway musical Spamalot (by the folks form Monty Python, who famously mocked Spam on their television series during the 1970s), Hormel actually helped promote the hit musical.

This was not always Hormel’s approach, though. In the 1990s, they actually sued the Muppets for making fun of Spam!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.

TV URBAN LEGEND: Perry White was nearly played by a black actor on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

The issue of color blind casting for film and television adaptations of comic book properties has long been a controversial subject for fans. The simple fact of the matter is that most famous comic book properties are fifty, sixty and in some cases, nearly eighty years old and back in 1938, 1956 or 1961, it was just highly unlikely that African-American characters were going to be included in the supporting cast of the comics. Therefore, movie studios casting these films and TV series today now take that into account and look for a more diverse cast. This is nothing new, of course. Batman Returns was originally going to include Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face and had Tim Burton remained on the Batman films, it is likely that Marlon Wayans would have been Robin in the third Batman film. Both of those roles, though, were eventually cast with white actors (Tommy Lee Jones and Chris O’Donnell, respectively). Recently, though, there have been some changes. 2002 saw the late Michael Clark Duncan cast as Kingpin in the Daredevil film. 2013 saw Laurence Fishburne play Perry White in Man of Steel. Just recently, Mehcad Brooks was cast as James “Jimmy” Olsen in the upcoming CBS Supergirl TV series.

Interestingly enough, though, Perry White was almost played by a black actor twenty years ago on the ABC TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Find out what happened!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND:Helen O’Hara was hired by Dexy’s Midnight Runners after the lead singer of the band discovered her at a bus stop with her violin.

The story of a musician being pulled out of a crowd to join a band is a popular one, even if it is rarely true. Interestingly enough, in a past edition of Music Urban Legends Revealed, I spotlighted the true story of Scarlett Rivera, who Bob Dylan literally plucked from the obscurity of a New York sidewalk to perform on his album, Desire.

However, in the case of Helen O’Hara, violinist for Dexy’s Midnight Runners from 1982 to 1987, the truth is less interesting than the fiction Kevin Rowland (lead singer of the band) came up with to explain how O’Hara joined the group.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about toys and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all toy urban legends featured so far!

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

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.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Movie urban legends featured so far.

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Chuck Norris turned down The Karate Kid.

When it comes to legends, Chuck Norris has pretty much anyone beat, as there is a whole industry made up of just inventing facts about Chuck Norris, like “There used to be a street named after Chuck Norris, but they changed the name because no one crosses Chuck Norris and lives” and “When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.” However, even a guy as legendary as Chuck Norris still has some false stories told about him. One of the most notable characters in the 1984 film, Karate Kid, is the “evil” sensei, John Kreese, played by Martin Kove. Kreese infamously tells one of his pupils to use an illegal kick to the knee with the intent of injuring his opponent (Ralph Macchio’s Daniel, the “Karate Kid” of the film’s title).

It gets that pupil disqualified, but sets it up so that another one of Kreese’s pupils will win by default. It almost knocks Daniel out of the tournament, but Daniel’s sensei, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), uses a pain suppression technique to allow Daniel to keep competing. In the finals, Kreese has his classic line where he tells his remaining pupil (Johnny Lawrence, played by William Zabka) to “sweep the leg” (attack the injured leg). Daniel, of course, succeeds anyways. A long-standing rumor was that the original choice to play Kreese was Chuck Norris, but Norris turned it down because of the bad example it gave for karate instructors.

Is this “Chuck Norris fact” true?
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

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

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.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.

TV URBAN LEGEND: Originally Blue Beetle was going to take over Queen Consolidated on Arrow instead of the Atom.

When it comes to writing an ongoing TV series, there are always going to be obstacles that will get in the way of the story that you are trying to tell. We have spotlighted a number of these obstacles over the years, from one of your lead characters dying to discovering that the actor you hired to play John Lennon in your TV movie has the same name as the guy who killed John Lennon. Heck, current Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim was even a staff member on David E. Kelley’s The Practice when Kelley was dealing with a massive obstacle on his other show, Ally McBeal, where Ally was set to marry Robert Downey Jr’s Larry Paul right before Kelley had to instead write Larry offf of the show entirely (check out this old TV Legends Revealed to find out why). In the case of TV shows like Arrow and Flash, though, the showrunners of the shows have to keep in mind that they are dealing with licensed characters, and as a result, certain characters might unexpectedly become unavailable to them. One of these incidents led to the introduction of Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer in this past season of Arrow.

Find out how Routh could have possibly played the Blue Beetle instead!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to poetry and poets and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all poetry legends featured so far.

POETRY URBAN LEGEND: Robert Lowell famously responded literally to a joking suggestion by famed poetry professor Allen Tate that Lowell could live in a tent on Tate’s yard.

Robert Lowell, the father of “confessional poetry” was one of the most celebrated poets in the history of American poetry. The Boston-born poet was the sixth U.S. poet laureate and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Lowell originally studied at Harvard University, but he changed his mind when he met famed English author Ford Madox Ford at a party in Boston after Lowell’s second year in school. The Good Soldier novelist remarked that he was headed to go stay with famed poet Allen Tate (the SECOND U.S. poet laureate) in Ohio, where Tate and John Crowe Ransom were teaching at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

Lowell actually ended up in Ohio before Ford. This led to an amazing exchange between he and the Tate’s that Lowell later recounted to the Paris Review in 1961…
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