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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 LEGEND: Gary Cooper batting right-handed led to them reversing the film in Pride of the Yankees to make it look like he was batting left-handed

The Pride of the Yankees is a 1942 hit film (also a critically acclaimed film) about the life of New York Yankee great, Lou Gehrig.

Lou Gehrig had a Hall of Fame career as the “2” half of the 1/2 punch that was Ruth and Gehrig in the 1920s’ Yankee lineup, with Babe Ruth batting 3rd in the lineup and Gehrig batting 4th (they helped make up the so-called “Murderer’s Row” of the 1927 Yankees, also containing Hall of Famers Earle Combs and Tony Lazzeri batting at the 1st and sixth positions – #5 hitter Bob Meusel actually led the league in home runs in 1923!).

In the film, Gehrig, who retired at the age of 36 because of a debilitating disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is now most commonly known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”) that killed him two years later, was played by screen idol, Gary Cooper.

The only problem was, Lou Gehrig batted and threw with his left hand.

Cooper, though, was right-handed.

It seemed like a pretty mighty fine impasse (as recreations for the film would be obvious that the person hitting the ball was not Cooper), until director Sam Wood came up with an ingenious solution. He would simply flip the shots, with Cooper wearing a jersey with the team name written in reverse on his chest.

However, those were only used in certain close-ups and in scenes where Cooper threw the ball. As Cooper recalled years later, “To remedy this in close-ups, the letters on my uniform were reversed as in mirror writing, and the film was processed with the back side to the front. My right hand thus appeared to be my left.”

The batting scenes, however, were NOT done in that fashion. Cooper just faked batting left-handed as best as he could.

As it turns out, while you can passably learn how to hit a ball left-handed if you bat right-handed, you really can’t fake throwing it. So it was just in the THROWING scenes that they reversed the film. The batting scenes were all done like normal filmed scenes (no reversed jersey numbers or anything).

So the legend is surprisingly, for the most accepted version of the story…

STATUS: False (just with some truthiness mixed in there)

Thanks to Tom Shieber for doing the research and discovering the truth on this one. Check out his extensive research here.

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

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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: Sheryl Crow wrote the song “Everyday is a Winding Road” about the suicide of former Crowded House drummer, Paul Hester.

Rock and roll history is filled with songs that at first appear to be upbeat but then you listen to the lyrics and realize that they are actually pretty depressing, with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” being one of the most famous examples of that type of thing.

So if you were to learn that Sheryl Crow’s upbeat pop song, “Everyday is a Winding Road” was about suicide, it probably would not surprise you all that much…

However, just like there are lots of rock and roll songs with lyrics that don’t match their melody, so, too, are there lots of interviews with rock and roll singers where the origins of their songs get sort of jumbled up. When you show up to discuss a career that has lasted more than two decades, sometimes details get a bit blurred.

This was the case recently when Sheryl Crow went on the Howard Stern Radio Show to promote her latest album, Be Myself…

On the official Howard Stern website, they do recaps of their episodes, and they described the discussion of Crow’s hit 1996 song, “Everyday is a Winding Road” as follows:

Sheryl wrote “Everyday Is a Winding Road” about Crowded House drummer Paul Hester who committed suicide shortly after Sheryl and her band started opening for them on tour. The mixer on Sheryl’s second album insisted she include the track due to its subject matter. As a single, it hit No. 11 on the charts and was later covered by Prince.

The song was, indeed, about Paul Hester, the longtime drummer for the Split Enz and then Crowded House…

However, it was NOT about his suicide. It was about him quitting Crowded House in the middle of their 1994 USA tour (where Crow was their opening act). Hester told lead singer Neil Finn (at least Neil Finn says that he said this) that “every day is a winding road, mate, it’s time for me to veer off.” Hester was feeling anxious about touring and leaving behind his newborn baby daughter. So he quit the group.

Crow then wrote the song about Hester’s restless energy. Hester’s daughter was named Sunday, so it is likely the inspiration for the line in the song, “He’s got a daughter he calls Easter, she was born on a Tuesday night.”

In any event, ELEVEN YEARS after he left the tour and NINE years after the release of the song, Hester did, in fact, take his own life. However, that obviously had nothing to do with the original song, which really IS as upbeat as it sounds.

The legend is…

STATUS: False

Thanks to my wife for mentioning this after listening to Crow on the Stern show.

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

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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: Johnny Carson stole the “pretend to eat a potato chip from a potato chip collector” routine from David Letterman.

Johnny Carson was famous for having guests on the Tonight Show who weren’t necessarily celebrities, but were just interesting people for whatever reason. Even when the show reduced in length from an hour and a half (and therefore they had much less time for guests, so they no longer had on the authors that they used to have on as the final guest of the night) they made sure to keep these non-celebrity guests on the show. They gave the Tonight Show a certain sort of charm. Especially since Carson also famously did not mock these people. He treated them like regular guests, although, of course, he knew that doing so would make the AUDIENCE laugh, but it is important to note that Carson played these interviews straight.

That is why, when Carson actually pulled a little gag on one of these guests, it stood out so much. People weren’t used to Carson messing with a regular person (Carson would, of course, would pull pranks on his celebrity friends, but not a “civilian”). It was more something that you would see on Late Night with David Letterman.

And that, in fact, is what led to a legend involving one of the few times that Carson DID mess with a regular person.

In October 1987, Carson had on Myrtle Young, who worked at a potato chip factory checking the quality of the chips. She would then collect the irregular potato chips as part of her collection and so she went on the Tonight Show to show off her treasures and at one point, Carson’s sidekick, Ed McMahon, distracted Young and while her back was turned, Carson pretended to eat one of her chips…

Her reaction really sold it. Such shock! But then Carson consoled her and she totally laughed at the situation and it was all good. A classic TV movement.

However, a lot of folks over the years noted that Young actually made her FIRST late night debut on Late Night with David Letterman, and many remember Letterman doing the same thing! I’ve seen it in a few different places, but here’s from the YouTube comments of the Carson clip…

As I recall, she was first on Late Night with David Letterman. Letterman did the exact same joke, eating a random potato chip pretending it was one of hers. I always wondered if Carson called Letterman and asked if he could use that joke, or if they just ripped it off altogether. I wish the Letterman interview with her were online.

I, too, was obviously curious about this, so I asked the greatest resource for David Letterman clips known to man, Don Giller, and he found the original Letterman clip and posted is so that we could see that no, Letterman did not do the “pretend to eat a potato chip from a potato chip collector’s collection” routine before Carson.

Therefore, the legend is…

STATUS: False

Thanks a lot, Don!

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

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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: Don Mattingly’s sideburns plot on The Simpsons was not actually a reference to a real life incident that happened with the Yankees benching Mattingly over the length of his hair.

In August of 1991, Yankee star first baseman Don Mattingly famously sat a game due to a controversy involving the length of his hair. The Yankees had rather draconian rules in place for how long players’s hair could be, and manager Stump Merrill came to four Yankees and told them they had to cut their hair or they would be benched for a game on August 15. Catcher Matt Nokes did so and so he played. Mattingly refused, and instead sat that game.

He then played the next game with his long hair still on (and received a standing ovation from the fans at Yankee Stadium). He then cut his hair the next day and actually auctioned off the clippings for charity. Mattingly’s main concern was the time frame that they gave him. He later recalled:

“My biggest issue that day was ‘If you don’t get your haircut today, you don’t play,’ and I was at the ballpark. Well, don’t tell me two days ago. If you tell me today, ‘If you don’t have it cut by tomorrow, you won’t play,’ I would have got it cut.”

The next year, Mattingly was one of a group of star baseball players who appeared in a third season episode of “The Simpsons” called “Homer at the Bat,” where Mister Burns brings in a group of professional ringers once the plant’s softball team makes the playoffs. One by one, the players come down with various maladies that leave them off the team (all except the one player who played Homer Simpson’s position, Darryl Strawberry). I just wrote a TV Legend today about how one of the players was not happy about the story that they wrote for him, so the writers changed it.

For Mattingly, he was kicked off of the team after Mister Burns insisted that he cut down his sideburns, even after Mattingly shaved the side of his head, Burns still saw them there.

It’s a funny bit and it appeared a clear cut reference to the incident back in 1991. However, that shockingly is somehow not the case!

Jon Vitti, the producer of the episode, explained to the Associated Press back in 1992, “That script was written and ready to record in July [of 1991]. It was pure coincidence. When those things happened, the first thing we thought was, `Hey, this is great,`Then we thought, `No, it isn`t great. No one is going to believe those things were written before they happened.`”

Mattingly also told Jim Caple, “The weird thing is, everyone thought they wrote it in later but they didn’t.”

I mean, the Yankees’ long hair policy WAS in existence before the famous incident, but it still seems so hard to believe. But since Mattingly really has no reason to lie about it, I’m willing to go with the legend as…

STATUS: True

Be sure to check out my archive of TV Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of television. And click here for more legends about the Simpsons.

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

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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: The success of A Charlie Brown Christmas drove aluminum Christmas trees out of business.

Over the years, we’ve pointed out some of the interesting commercial connections to Charles Schulz’ famous anti-commercialism TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas (like how the special came about due to ads for Ford and how there was originally an ad for Coca-Cola in the actual story of the special). Today, we look at an often-repeated legend about how A Charlie Brown Christmas was responsible for driving those symbols of mid-20th Century commercialism, the aluminum Christmas trees, out of business.

Famously, in the special, Linus and Charlie Brown are sent to pick out a Christmas tree for the school pageant. Lucy wants Charlie Brown to “get the biggest aluminum tree you can find — maybe paint it pink.” Charlie Brown, instead, buys a puny half dead tree. The other kids mock him for his choice, but after Linus reads to them from the Bible, the kids change their tune and in the end, through care and attention, they spruce his tree up into a beautiful little Christmas tree. Linus famously notes, “I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.”

Well, according to a number of articles about A Charlie Brown Christmas, but let’s just pick one of the first results that popped up when I searched for this story. From Smosh.com:

It may only have twelve needles and collapse under the weight of a single ornament before the curative properties of Linus’s blanket rescue it, but Charlie Brown’s twig of a tree single-handedly put an end to a horrible new holiday tradition. Starting in the early 60’s—a period not known for the best decorating trends—people were forgoing real Christmas trees for brightly colorful aluminum ones (think a cheerier Festivus with spray paint), as seen in the tree lot in the TV special. But when viewers saw Charlie Brown stand by his little wooden wonder in the face of ridicule and tree’s own fast-impending mortality, they tossed aside their metallic pink decorations and returned to a more natural choice that also involved sweeping up dead needles from the floor every six seconds.

Is that true?
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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: The most dangerous shirt to wear on “Star Trek” was a red shirt.

Quite often, when a television series finds itself in an established place in the overall popular culture, catch phrases and cliches from the series become a part of the national jargon. “Star Trek” is certainly no exception to this, which catch phrases like “Live long and prosper,” “Damn it, Jim, I’m a doctor not a _____,” “Beam me up, Scotty” and others like them long being part of the public collective consciousness. However, what’s interesting about the public collective consciousness is that it doesn’t always remember things correctly. We’ve pointed out in the past that Gracie Allen never actually said, “Good night, Gracie” on the “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show”. Similarly, Mr. T never actually said “I pity the fool” on “The A-Team”. Heck, even within the world of “Star Trek,” Captain Kirk never said the explicit phrase, “Beam me up, Scotty” (although he said things close enough that it’s not a major thing to quibble over). With all this in mind, can you really trust the collective public consciousness on anything? For instance, do red shirts even die the most on “Star Trek”?

That’s the question reader Bob S. wrote in with the other day, telling me that he had read an article online that said that red shirts didn’t actually die the most on “Star Trek” and he wanted to know if that was true or not. Well, Bob (and everyone else), read on for the answer!
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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: Major League included a line in the original trailer designed to mislead viewers as to what happened at the end of the movie.

Sadly for Cleveland fans, the Indians lost the World Series last night to the Chicago Cubs, so 1948 remains the last time (for now) that the Indians have won the World Series. After playing well through the mid-1950s, the Indians then entered a long slump as a franchise, which was used as the basis for the hit 1989 comedy film, Major League, which is about a hapless Cleveland Indians franchise suddenly becoming good after the owner cut salary dramatically and only had walk-ons and has-beens on the team.

A while back, I discussed how the owner in the movie originally was secretly the HERO of the film! Today, based on a suggestion from reader Gage, we look at whether a famous line from the film’s trailer was inserted into the trailer (and not the actual movie) in an attempt to mislead audiences as to how the film would end!
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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: Winston Zeddemore was a much different character in the original Ghostbusters script.

When you look at the history of American films, you can see why some actors are so highly paid, as many of the most successful films each year are based on “star power.” That’s why so many scripts are rewritten to tailor to certain stars, because the studios know the actors often more important to the film’s success than remaining faithful to the original script.

That’s why we’ve seen a script for a Brandon Lee movie rewritten into a “Lethal Weapon” movie rewritten into a “Die Hard” movie, or the classic story of how “Beverly Hills Cop” was a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone before it was retooled for Eddie Murphy.

When it came to 1984’s “Ghostbusters,” the importance of certain characters increased and decreased in based on which actor was going to play the roles. That’s how Winston Zeddemore’s role changed dramatically until it ended up being one that has (pardon the pun) haunted Ernie Hudson for years.

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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: Dick Gregory accidentally received over nine million votes in the 1968 Presidential Election.

Some time ago, I did a pair of legends about celebrities who allegedly received actual support for their independent presidential campaign. In the case of Gracie Allen, it was false. However, in the case of comedian Dick Gregory, he actually did pretty well.

The popular comedian became more of a political figure after the release of his 1964 autobiography (it sold roughly ten million copies!!!).

In 1967, he unsuccessfully ran for the office of the Mayor of Chicago.

In 1968, Gregory ran as a write-in candidate for the President of the United States. He won a remarkable 47,097 votes! However, a few commenters noted that he “won” a lot more than that. Read on to find out!
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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: Danny Aiello recorded a response song and music video to “Papa Don’t Preach”.

“Papa Don’t Preach” was a hit song by Madonna off of her third studio album, True Blue, which came out in 1986. It reached #1 on the Billboard charts. The music video was a sensation, winning the MTV Award for “Best Female Video.”

The video co-starred Danny Aiello as the father of Madonna’s character, who has to come to Aiello to reveal that she has gotten pregnant.

Amazingly enough, Aiello actually released a RESPONSE song and music video to “Papa Don’t Preach”! Read on to see the hilarious reason behind the song and the even more hilarious video!
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