Was a Frank Zappa Instrumental Album Given a Parental Warning Advisory?

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 music urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: A Frank Zappa album was given a Parental Advisory sticker…even though the album was completely instrumental!

The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was founded in 1985 by four women, all the wives of prominent Washington insiders. The founding members were Tipper Gore (whose husband, Al Gore, was then a Senator and, of course, later went on to become Vice President), Susan Baker (whose husband, James Baker, was the Secretary of the Treasury), Pam Howar (whose husband, Raymond Howar, was a prominent Washington D.C. realtor) and Sally Nevius (whose husband, John Nevius, was the the Chairman of the Washington City Council).

The goals of the PMRC were multifold, but probably their most famous goal (mostly because it was actually achieved) was to have record companies place warning labels on albums that had explicit lyrics. The “parental advisory” sticker remains a mainstay in record stores today.

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Iconoclast musican Frank Zappa (composer and performer of all different types of music – rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral – all sorts of stuff) appeared to testify at a Senate hearing in 1985 on the subject of labeling albums.

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Zappa read the following prepared statement:

The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal’s design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC’s demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation … The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow “J” on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?

In any event, the labels came into being and they are still around today.

One story that had made the rounds is that Frank Zappa’s 1986 Jazz from Hell album was given the dreaded “Parental Advisory” warning. The catch is, of course, that the albums is entirely instrumental!

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So, is that for real or is it just a good joke about how lame the people who do censoring are?

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in Music Legends Revealed | 7 Comments

Was Harry Nilsson’s Coffin Lost During an Earthquake?

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 music urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Harry Nilsson’s coffin was lost during an earthquake

Harry Nilsson (he usually went by just Nilsson as a performer) was an acclaimed American singer and songwriter, with his most famous songs (either as a performer or as a songwriter or as both) probably being “Everybody’s Talkin'” (as in the theme song to Midnight Cowboy), “Without You” (as in “I can’t liiiiive if living is without you”), “Coconut” (as in “you put the lime in the coconut”) and “One” (as in “one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know”).

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However great Nilsson was, he most likely did not have the career, popularity-wise, that his talent “deserved” and was actually in rough financial straits (at least partially due to a crooked financial advisor who ended up going to prison for what she did to Nilsson’s finances) when he had a heart attack in 1993.

He was pushing RCA to put out a box set of his music, and he was just finishing up a new album (which I don’t believe has ever been released) when he died of heart failure in 1994 at the age of 54.

Let’s leave Nilsson for a moment and turn to our next player in this story.

Marianne Faithfull burst on to the scene in 1964 with a song penned by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham (the Rolling Stones’ manager) called “As Tears Go By.”

Soon Faithfull was involved in a much-publicized romance with Jagger, which lasted until 1970.

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By the time she split with Jagger, Faithfull was heavily addicted to drugs, specifically cocaine.

During the 70s, while her singing career was in ruins, she developed a bout of laryngitis that, coupled with her constant drug abuse, rendered her once soprano voice to practically a complete 180 degree turn, and she is now a gravelly Deep contralto, but she is an acclaimed musician nowadays, despite her gruff voice.

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Why do I bring Faithfull up?

Well, during the mid to late 90s, a story began circulating that an earthquake had taken place in Los Angeles after Nilsson’s death, and that his coffin had actually fallen from the funeral home into a crevice and was lost. So that when his funeral burial took place, they basically buried an empty coffin (as a replacement for the lost one).

Sounds absurd, right? But is it absurd and true?

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in Music Legends Revealed | 3 Comments

Were There Really No Black People in Mayberry?

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: There were no black people in Mayberry.

Let’s get it out of the way right off the bat. In the entire eight season run of The Andy Griffith Show, there was only one black character who ever had a speaking line.

That’s pretty weak.

That said, the oft-repeated claim that there are no black people in Mayberry is false on the face, not even counting the aforementioned Rockne Tarkington, who played Opie’s football coach, Flip Conway, in one of the later seasons of the show.

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In addition, I am not counting Mayberry RFD, which was better with regards to black characters having speaking roles.

No, just counting regular episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, there were frequent usage of black extras on the show.

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in TV Legends Revealed | 34 Comments

Did Empty Nest Spin-Off From the Golden Girls Without Using Characters From the Golden Girls?

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: Empty Nest was a spin-off without actually spinning off the lead characters.

Empty Nest, the sitcom starring Richard Mulligan as a recent widower dealing with both the death of his wife and his two adult daughters moving back home, is already notable as one of the few spin-off TV series to ever spin its own series off (which Empty Nest did with Nurses in 1991).

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The show ran from October 1988 to April 1995. Paired with The Golden Girls, it was a mighty ratings one-two punch in the late 80s/early 90s for NBC (and Mulligan even took home an Emmy for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy in 1989).

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However, the show had a rather bizarre lineage from Golden Girls to Empty Nest. You see, the show was a spin-off of the Golden Girls without any of the lead characters actually ever appearing on an episode of The Golden Girls before the first episode of Empty Nest!

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in TV Legends Revealed | 1 Comment

Was Cheers a Fire Hazard?

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: Cheers was a fire hazard.

On November 28, 1942, the trendy Boston nightclub, the Cocoanut Grove, caught fire with a packed crowd inside of over 1,000 people (the club’s capacity was 460).

The club had recently expanded with an attached lounge (the Melody Lounge). The club was decked up in a Casablanca theme, so there were paper and cloth decorations hanging from the ceiling and paper palm trees everywhere. Around 10:30 PM, a busboy went to replace a missing/blown out light bulb and dropped the replacement. He lit a match to find the bulb on the dark floor, found the bulb, blew out the match and replaced the bulb. However, the match managed to set a nearby paper palm tree on fire. That lit up and quickly spread to the ceiling where it set other decorations on fire – soon the fire was feeding off of oxygen and spread through the club.

Decades later, a re-opened fire investigation determined that it was actually methyl chloride that had leaked from a faulty refrigerator in the Melody Lounge that had led to the fire spreading so quickly.

In any event, while the fire itself was deadly, easily HUNDREDS of lives could have been saved had it not been for the construction of the bar. The main entrance was a lone revolving door. As you might imagine, a lone revolving door is quickly rendered useless by hundreds of people charging at it. Other sidedoors were actually bolted shut to keep patrons from skipping out on their bill. A stained-glass window was boarded over. And the few doors that WERE open were doors that opened IN to the building, and again, when a large group of people are charging towards a door, a door that opens IN to a building is effectively useless.

The tragedy was horrific, and actually stole some headlines from World War II.

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The owner of the bar was later arrested and convicted on 19 charges of involuntary manslaughter (19 random victims were chosen to represent the dead as a whole).

So what does this gruesome turn of events have to do with Cheers, you ask?

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in TV Legends Revealed | 3 Comments

Was Mr. Potato Head Nearly Just a Cereal Giveaway?

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: Mr. Potato Head quite nearly was “doomed” to simply being a cereal giveaway.

In 1949, a toy developer named George Lerner came up with an idea that would go on to become one of the most popular toys of all-time. But in 1949, Lerner’s idea for a “funny face” kit where children could dress up potatoes or other vegetables with eyes, ears, a mouth, hats, etc. was not a particularly popular one.

Lerner was turned down by every toy company out there, even a company that Lerner had worked for during the war! The prevailing theory is that in the post-World War II environment, rationing was still fresh in everyone’s minds, so “wasting” vegetables and potatoes like that was almost blasphemous.

What happened next nearly de-railed one of the most popular toys of the 20th Century…

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in Grab Bag Legends, Toy Legends Revealed | No Comments

Was John Tyler Playing Marbles When He Found Out He Was Now President?

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: John Tyler was playing marbles when he was informed that President Harrison had died and Tyler was now President.

Marbles have been a popular game for centuries, possibly even in the time of Ancient Egypt (marbles existed back then, but I am unsure if they were used as a game – I know by the time of the Roman Empire, the game of marbles existed).

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Marbles were little glass balls (nowadays ceramic marbles are used) that were used to play a game (in the most popular version of marbles, known as “ringer) that involved drawing a circle in sand and then players would take turns knocking other players’ marbles out of the circle with their own marble.

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But how does this involve John Tyler?

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John Tyler was the running mate for William Henry Harrison in the famous 1840 United States Presidential Election that involved the famous “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too” slogan (Harrison was known as a war hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe, where U.S. forces in the Indiana Territory under the leadership of Harrison launched a pre-emptive strike on the American Indian Indian confederation led by Tecumseh – Harrison’s forces were victorious, although the highly outnumbered Tecumseh’s group). The pair were elected, defeating incumbent President Martin Van Buren (only the third sitting President to be defeated in a general election).

Tyler instantly became a major part of United States history when, after just a month in office, President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia. For the first time in U.S. history, a sitting President was dead. Unlike today, the country was not exactly sure how to proceed, as the Constitution only says:

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President.

So the question was – do just the DUTIES devolve to the Vice-President, or does the Vice-President BECOME the President?

Ultimately, it was the latter, but for a period in time, there was actual uncertainty as to what would happen with the Presidency.

In any event, a popular legend involving John Tyler is what he was doing when he was notified that Harrison was dead.

Just from a sampling of the internet…

Tyler was playing marbles when he learned that he was to be President.

He was on his knees playing marbles when informed that he had become president upon the death of Harrison.

So, is it true?

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in Grab Bag Legends, Toy Legends Revealed | 1 Comment

Was Play-Doh Created as Wallpaper Cleaner?

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: Play-Doh was created as and originally produced as wallpaper cleaner!

It’s often fascinating to look back at every day life in, say, 1940, and see just how many products that were in use at the time that are not only not used today, but to describe the product today would leave people puzzled at how such a product could ever be considered a “household” product.

One such product is wallpaper cleaner.

You see, back in the days when homes were often heated by coal furnaces, the soot from the coal would cover most of the house. For most of the stuff in the house, while that was inconvenient, it was not a major deal, as you would just dust the soot off or otherwise wash it off. However, with wallpapers, you were in trouble because you could not wash it off, since it was, you know, paper. So people came up with home remedies including mixing flour, salt, water and some chemicals to roll up and down the wall to take off the soot.

Soon, companies were producing this themselves.

One such company was Kutol Products, which was a soap company out of Cincinatti that almost went under until a young man named Cleo McVicker turned it around in 1927. First, he brought his brother Noah into to run the company while he toured the country pushing their soap product. But the real turnaround came in 1933 when McVicker came up with the idea of turning the company into a discount wallpaper cleaner company.

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Kutol Products wallpaper cleaner sold decently for a number of years, and the company even managed to survive McVicker’s death in 1949. His son, Joseph, joined his uncle Noah in running the company.

However, in the early 1950s, a couple of major things changed the world of wallpaper cleaner, making it the utterly obsolete product that it is today.

1. Oil and gas heat came into play, so that coal furnaces were no longer a problem.

2. Vinyl wallpaper was introduced, which took away the whole “can’t wash the wallpaper” problem.

So now Kotul Products had a product that was more or less unsellable, a point made clear during the Winter of 1954 when sales were practically nil (Winter was the time when sales were usually at their peak, with stores making their orders for the spring cleaning season). So they soon made a decision that would change their company and the world of toys forever!

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July 24th, 2012 | Posted in Grab Bag Legends, Toy Legends Revealed | No Comments

My New Book Is Out!

My new book, Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? (the answer, of course, is so he can repel sharks…and other dangerous sea creatures) is out today!

The book contains a series of lists about comic books. Some examples include the three topics depicted on the cover (which was drawn by Kevin Hopgood, the fellow who designed War Machine’s armor)…

Seven Bands That Got Their Names from Comic Books
Six Fellow Superheroes That Wolverine Has Stabbed at One Point or Another
Ten Crazy Items Found in Batman’s Utility Belt

Essentially, it is all the sort of stuff you expect from my comic book writing! Roughly 75% of it is brand-new material!

In addition, there are twenty-two guest lists by a whole bunch of great comic creators. Some examples include the three creators mentioned on the cover….

Mark Millar’s “Five ‘WTF?’ Moments in Comic Book History?”
Dave Gibbons’ “Six Great Silver Age Covers”
Geoff Johns’ “Nine Iconic Green Lantern Covers”

The other creators who contributed lists are (in alphabetical order): Jason Aaron, Scott Allie, Paige Braddock, Peter David, J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Deodato, Jay Faerber, Kieron Gillen, Gabriel Hardman, Frazer Irving, Jeff Lemire, Greg Pak, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Rozum, Marc Sumerak, Eric Trautmann, Fred Van Lente, Mark Waid, Zeb Wells and Skottie Young.

Order a copy today at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Powell’s Books and many more fine online bookstores (or buy it in whichever brick and mortar store you enjoy)!

If you buy it from Amazon, I get a cut, but really, buy it from wherever you’d like! A sale is a sale!

The important thing is buying it. 😉

Magazine Urban Legends Revealed #1

Monday is “Grab Bag” day here at Entertainment Legends Revealed, with each Monday featuring a different area of the world of arts and entertainment (that is not featured on the other four days of the week, that is). They’ll eventually repeat, but for now, we’re still on the initial installments of each of the various “Grab Bag” legends!

This is the first in a series of examinations of legends related to magazines and whether they are true or false.

Let’s begin! Read the rest of this entry »