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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about theater and whether they are true or false.

THEATER URBAN LEGEND: Karel Čapek coined the word “robot” in a play.

Karel Čapek was one of the notable writers in Czechoslovakia during the 20th Century, and he was especially noteworthy when it comes to science fiction, as while he likely would not be technically termed a “science fiction writer,” he surely had a science fiction-tinge to his work, which is especially notable for a guy whose most notable plays all came during the 1920s.

Čapek was a harsh critic of Nazi Germany, and devoted much of his work in the 1930s to criticizing the Nazis. He refused to leave the country when it became pretty clear that the Nazis were coming, and he died of double pneumonia in December 1938, just as the Nazis were annexing part of his homeland.

Perhaps his most famous play was called R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which is about, well, robots.

And it is from this play that the term “robot” (an artificial, manufactured human-like being) is derived.

So over the years, you would see stuff like (from this site):

He coined the frequently used international word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) in 1920.

and

Etymological note: Robota is a Czech cognate of the German word arbeit (“work”), from the Indo-European root *orbh-. It is usually translated as “serf” or “forced labor” and was the name used for the so-called “labor rent” which existed in Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1848. From this word K. Čapek created the word robot = a working or serving machine.

The etymological roots pointed above are spot on, but what’s INcorrect is that it was not Karel Čapek who coined the term Read the rest of this entry »

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about theater and whether they are true or false.

THEATER URBAN LEGEND: Bob Cummings pretended to be from England to get a role on Broadway.

Bob Cummings was a popular actor with a career that stretched a number of decades, from the stage to the screen to television.

He’s probably best known for his critically acclaimed (and popular) sitcom, The Bob Cummings Show, that ran from 1955-1959, where he plays a womanizing photographer.

The show launched the career of Ann B. Davis, as she won two Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her work on the program (years before she was Alice on The Brady Bunch).

Cummings had a successful film career during the 1940s, with King’s Row….

and Saboteur probably being his two most notable roles…

(he was most popular as a comedic actor, but his dramatic films have seemed to stand the test of time a bit better – he also had a co-starring role in the classic drama Dial M for Murder).

An experienced and talented pilot, Cummings tried to fit that background into many of the roles he took (including his character on The Bob Cummings Show)…

But what’s at issue here is how Cummings got his start in show business period.

You see, when Cummings was a young man in the early 1930s, he was not having a very good go at getting a job as an actor in New York on the theater circuit. Then, as it remains true now, I suppose, British actors were the “hot” ticket on Broadway, so Cummings devised a rather devious plan.
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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: James Dean not only was a “Stunt Tester” for Beat the Clock, but he was fired from the gig for an amusing reason.

James Dean is one of the most iconic movie stars in the history of film, highly recognizable and popular while only starring in three films.

What’s interesting is that for a guy who broke into the industry at a young age, he still spent a sizable amount of time trying to GET that break.

Dean acted while in school in Los Angeles, but dropped out just a little shy of his 20th birthday, in 1951, to fully concentrate on acting.

He got a role in a commercial and had a few walk on roles in films, but he was making a slow go at it as an actor, so in the fall of 1951, at the urging of a few of his acting acquaintances, Dean headed for New York City, where most television work (and practically all notable theater work) took place.

It was while in New York as a struggling actor that Dean took part in the amusing situation that is at the heart of this legend.
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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: Walt Disney kept the actress who played Snow White under contract for years to keep her from ruining the illusion behind Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by performing elsewhere.

A common practice that films used to use was to not credit certain voice actors for their performances. Marni Nixon is now famous for doing the singing for the lead female characters in West Side Story, The King and I and My Fair Lady, while not being credited in any of the three films. Similarly, Betty Noyes was not credited for her doing the singing for Debbie Reynolds’ character in the hit film Singin’ in the Rain (as I’ve detailed in a past Movie Legend, that was particularly ironic considering the plot of that film, as Reynolds’ character is hired to do voice dubbing for another character in the film!). In the cases of these uncredited singers, the idea was to not ruin the illusion that stars like Natalie Wood, Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn and Debbie Reynolds were doing their own singing. A similar approach was used by Walt Disney when he began doing feature length animated films with 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney did not credit any of the voice actors because he wished to maintain the illusion with their audience that these characters were real. Disney did not credit any voice actors for his next three films, Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). Finally, in 1943 he began crediting voice actors and Disney films have credited actors ever since. However, with the case of the most famous character from Disney’s earliest films, Snow White, Disney took any even more aggressive position to keep the illusion alive.

But how far did he go? Did he actually prevent the actress who played Snow White from working on other projects to keep the illusion of Snow White alive?
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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: The plot of the film adaptation of The Big Sleep was so convoluted that not even the screenwriters fully understood the plot.

Howard Hawks’ 1946 film version of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep is an excellent film…

The original novel is quite good, as well..

Right from the start, it’s worth noting that the film IS very convoluted (I suppose a kinder word is that it is “complex”).

However, the degree to which the film is convoluted has been overstated over the years to the point where it is just, well, false.
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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.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Angus Young was still a teenager when AC/DC signed their first record contract.

AC/DC is a highly successful Australian rock and roll band that was formed in 1973, with their first album, High Voltage, released in 1975.

As you can see from the cover of their album, one of the most notable aspect of the group, at least from a publicity standpoint, was the schoolboy outfit that lead guitarist, Angus Young, wore. The look is so iconic that Young still wears the outfit today!

The outfit came about when Young determined that every member of the band should have a “gimmick.” His older sister, Margaret (Angus’ brother Malcolm co-founded the band with Angus) came up with the school boy look. The outfit is his uniform from his days at Ashfield Boys High School in Sydney.

His age played into a story about when the band signed its first contract.
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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.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Paul Anka got the publisher’s rights to “My Way” for free.

As I discussed in a recent edition of Music Legends Revealed, Claude François had a hit in France in 1967 with the Jacques Revaux song “Comme D’Habitude” (lyrics by Claude François and Gilles Thibaut)…

In 1969, singer/songwriter Paul Anka acquired the rights to the song and used the tune to write a brand-new song (lyric-wise) called “My Way.”

Anka gave the song to Frank Sinatra, who used it as the title track to his 1969 album…

All well and good, but amazingly enough, Anka acquired the publisher’s rights (half of the publishing rights) to the song for FREE!!!
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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.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND:The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel” was not performed by The Crystals

The Crystals formed in the early 1960s with the lineup of Barbara Alston, Patsy Wright, Mary Thomas, Dee Dee Kenniebrew and Myrna Girard.

They eventually signed with Phil Spector’s Phillies Records.

They had a top 20 hit in 1961 with “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)” and another Top 20 hit the next year with “Uptown.”

They had a memorable flop, though, in 1962, with their next single, “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss),” which did not even chart because most stations felt that the subject matter was way too unsettling.

The Crystals followed with a major #1 hit later that year (a song that is still popular today), “He’s A Rebel”…

However, amazingly enough, the “Crystals” on the song were not the ACTUAL Crystals!
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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: Charles Schulz owning a Ford indirectly led to A Charlie Brown Christmas.

In an earlier edition of TV Urban Legends Revealed, I have written about how the original airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, which was a commentary on how Christmas had become too commercialized, had a Coca-Cola ad interwoven into the special itself. However, even more interestingly, A Charlie Brown Christmas (and in fact, all Peanuts animated specials since) owe their origins to the world of commercials, as the very first appearance by Peanuts characters in the world of animation came in the form of television commercials. How the creator of Peanuts, Charles Schulz, came to agree to do these commercials is an interesting story in its own right and as it turns out, it likely came down to Schulz’s own personal connection to the Ford Motor Company.
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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: A character on Seinfeld was named after a Producer of Smallville.

Reader Taylor wrote in to ask:

For years I’ve seen the name “Joe Davola” as a producer on Smallville. There was also a character on Seinfeld (And we know how Jerry loves Superman) named “Crazy” Joe Davola. He wants to kill most of the gang, and goes nuts over Elaine, even dressing up as a clown in a creepy performance of “I Pagliacci.”

Any chance any aspect of the Seinfeld character was based on the real guy?

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