This article originally appeared on eightieskids.com
The Myth: The original MGM lion killed its trainer
Founded in 1924, studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is renowned for its logo and intro card, which features live footage of a roaring lion. A dark rumour spread about the first MGM lion named Slats. According to the long-standing urban legend, just days after the the studio shot his roar in 1917, the big cat mauled his trainer and a pair of assistants to death.
The Reality:
No people were harmed in the making of the MGM logo, and none of the MGM lions – especially not Slats – ever killed their trainer. We know this because Slats’ trainer, Volney Phifer, outlived Slats by some four decades. While Slats died in 1936, Phifer would continue working in Hollywood for years, only passing away in retirement in 1974.
The Myth: Lion King’s animators snuck the word ‘sex’ into one scene
1994’s The Lion King is one of Disney’s most celebrated films, but also one of their most notorious efforts. This is because of a scene that comes midway through the film, when a melancholy Simba gazes up at the night sky. Simba kicks up a cloud of dust, and many commentators have pointed out that as the dust particles scatter into the night sky, they appear some naughty letters.
The Reality:
Former Disney animator Tom Sito, who worked on the film, admits that letters are deliberately spelt out in the dust cloud, but he insists that it’s a bit more innocent than the legend suggests. According to Sito, the letters in the dust are not what they immediately appear, but S-F-X, as in ‘special effects.’ Why they included this is not clear.
The Myth: The actors performed a lovemaking scene for real on the set of Don’t Look Now
Director Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 film Don’t Look Now centres on a married couple struggling with the trauma of their child’s accidental death. It is famed for its intimate love scene, which so impressed audiences that speculation quickly built that actors Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie actually did the deed for real on camera.
The Reality:
Though rumours have continued to persist regarding Sutherland and Christie getting freaky for Don’t Look Now, the people who were actually in the room – notably Sutherland and Christie themselves – have strenuously denied it. Sutherland has also insisted that one man who claimed to witness the scene being shot, Peter Bart, was not in fact present.
The Myth: Early cinema audiences fled the theatre when they saw a shot of a train approaching
It’s easy to imagine that the first people to see films may have been a little scared of what they were witnessing. One urban myth suggests this very thing happened to an audience seeing their first moving picture. 1896 film Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat is said to have left viewers convinced that a real train was hurtling towards them, prompting them to flee the cinema in terror.
The Reality:
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, a ‘film’ lasting just 50 seconds, would have certainly appeared startling back in 1896 – there’s no doubt about that. There is no evidence, however, of audiences running for the exits in response to the footage. That viewers of the time were amazed and maybe even a little stunned by the film is not in doubt, but there are no contemporary accounts of viewers terrified a train was really coming at them.
The Myth: Jessica Rabbit flashes in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Since the release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, there’s been a popular urban myth that the PG movie has an ‘R-rated’ moment carefully hidden midway. When Jessica Rabbit is riding in Benny the Cab alongside Bob Hoskins’ Eddie Valiant, they crash and fly from the vehicle. Legend has it that careful freeze-framing reveals a split-second shot of Jessica’s most intimate area.
The Reality:
While Jessica is a highly sexualised character, and it’s known that Disney animators of the time weren’t averse to throwing in naughty images, there is nothing to confirm this long-standing rumour. Even in today’s high definition renderings of the movie, it doesn’t appear that anything more can be seen in this moment other than Jessica’s inner thighs and perhaps a hint of underwear.
The Myth: Walt Disney’s body was cryogenically frozen after his death
In 1966, legendary animator Walt Disney passed away aged 65. A heavy smoker for much of his life, Disney’s body was riddled with cancer by the time he died. Rumour has it Disney’s body was cryogenically frozen, so that in the future he could be resuscitated once a cure for cancer had been found. Some even suggest his frozen body resides somewhere at the original Disneyland.
The Reality:
It’s true that Walt Disney had indeed expressed an interest in being preserved in liquid nitrogen at the point of death. The Hollywood legend’s interest never went further than that, though, and he never underwent the procedure. Instead, the film legend was cremated by his family two days after he passed, and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
The Myth: A woman died looking for Fargo’s buried ransom money
The opening credits of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo 1996 crime drama cheekily claim the film to be based on a true story about a ransom case in Minnesota, which the Coens quickly admitted was completely untrue. However, in 2001 reports emerged that a fan who believed the story came to Minnesota from Japan looking for the briefcase of money hidden in film, and died in the process.
The Reality:
Takako Konishi did indeed die in the snows of Minnesota, but the circumstances were far less colourful and more tragic: she committed suicide. Still, the myth has been so pervasive that it inspired 2014 Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, which tells of a young Japanese woman who leaves her old life behind to search for Fargo’s loot.
The Myth: Marisa Tomei was given an Oscar by mistake
At the 1993 Academy Awards, many were surprised when Marisa Tomei won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for My Cousin Vinny. It was alleged that Tomei’s name was called out by accident by the award’s presenter Jack Palance, but out of the Academy’s embarrassment, Tomei was allowed to keep the award anyway.
The Reality:
The 2017 Oscars controversy, where La La Land was mistakenly named Best Picture instead of Moonlight, has shown us what really happens when the wrong name is called out at the Academy Awards. Marisa Tomei, however, really did win for My Cousin Vinny – it’s just that viewers couldn’t believe it as she was a relative newcomer, and she beat esteemed screen veteran Vanessa Redgrave.
The Myth: Three Men and a Baby features the ghost of a young boy
If the 1987 comedy Three Men and a Baby is remembered for anything today, it’s probably more the urban legend that has sprung up around a mysterious figure looming in the background of one scene. As Ted Danson’s Jack walks through his house with his mother, what to some viewers looks like the ghost of a young boy is visible behind the curtains. Rumours spread that sometime earlier a child fell from that window in the apartment where the scene was shot.
The Reality:
There’s a perfectly good explanation for Three Men and a Baby’s ‘ghost’ child. As a deleted scene from the film would have made clear, the background figure is a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson, who plays an actor in the film. Moreover, there was absolutely no truth to the claims that a real child had died in the apartment, as the scenes in question were not even shot in a real apartment but on a studio set.
The Myth: The 1969 Moon landing was faked, and directed by Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was so advanced for its time, audiences of the time could hardly believe what they were seeing. There were some viewers who felt the same way about the Moon landing in 1969. Because the esteemed filmmaker had worked closely with NASA whilst working on 2001, this led to rumours that the Moon landing didn’t really happen, and that fake footage had been shot on a film set shot by none other than Kubrick himself.
The Reality:
Leaving aside for the moment that claims the Moon landing was staged has been thoroughly debunked, there’s also the matter that Kubrick’s ‘involvement’ can be traced back to false information. 2002 mockumentary Dark Side of the Moon and a fake Kubrick interview in which the director ‘confesses’ did much of the legwork in spreading the myth.
The Myth: There’s something saucy hidden in the Little Mermaid poster
When stories are shared of Disney animators sneaking in naughty content on the sly, the original poster artwork created for The Little Mermaid poster is one of the examples most often pointed to. The art depicts the main characters against the backdrop of Atlantica, the film’s underwater kingdom – and it’s rumoured that a disgruntled artist at the studio inserted the likeness of a male organ into the poster intentionally after he was sacked.
The Reality:
While it’s not hard to see how the Atlantica spires might look a bit like something else, this was done entirely unconsciously. What’s more, not only was the poster artist not fired, he wasn’t even employed by Disney in the first place. The artist in question has since admitted that the artwork was a result of him rushing to complete it over an all-night design session – meaning any suggestive images in the poster are mere Freudian slips at best.
The Myth: Richard Gere paid a visit to hospital to have a gerbil removed from an intimate area
When Richard Gere was at the height of his Hollywood heartthrob fame, a bizarre yet persistent rumour started doing the rounds involving the actor and an alleged recreational practice known as ‘gerbilling’. The way the story goes, this thoroughly outlandish method of pleasuring involved inserting a live gerbil into a very intimate region. It’s been said that Gere tried this out and had to take a trip to hospital for an emergency gerbilectomy.
The Reality:
Where to begin with this one. We get why the story has persisted; stories of Hollywood debauchery are so commonplace, that plenty of us would believe there’s no depths of depravity that A-list celebrities won’t sink to. However, not only is there no evidence to suggest that Gere was ever hospitalised as a result of ‘gerbilling,’ there is also no evidence that ‘gerbilling’ itself has ever been done by anyone.
The Myth: Shirley Eaton died after being painted gold for Goldfinger
In one of the most iconic movie moments ever, Bond girl Jill Masterson is killed by asphyxiation after being painted gold in Goldfinger. This gave rise to the popular myth that a person could legitimately die as a result of their skin being suffocated with paint. As time wore on, there emerged another related myth: that actress Shirley Eaton, who played Jill Masterson, actually died as a result of being covered in gold paint for the scene.
The Reality:
Although covering all the body’s pores can increase the chance of heatstroke, there’s actually no such thing as skin asphyxiation. The only way a person can suffocate in real life is the traditional way: if they fail to breathe through the mouth. More to the point, Shirley Eaton is, at the time of writing, still alive. She went on to appear in several more films and TV shows afterwards before retiring as an actress in the late 1960s.
The Myth: There’s footage of Brandon Lee being shot in The Crow
In 1993, when comic book movie The Crow was only a week away from completing production, leading man Brandon Lee was accidentally shot by a prop gun whose barrel had not been cleared of debris. He died in hospital soon afterwards. The filmmakers managed to complete the film, but when it finally opened in 1994, rumours spread that the moment when Lee was shot for real could be seen.
The Reality:
Even if the filmmakers had wanted to include footage of Lee’s mortal wounding – and you can’t imagine they would – such a film would never get past censors. The footage of Lee’s accidental shooting was handed over to police as evidence, and subsequently destroyed. The scene in question was reshot completely and staged differently, showing a CGI simulation of Lee falling from a high window.
The Myth: Judy Garland was paid less than the dog for The Wizard of Oz
Judy Garland’s life story is one of exploitation in a Hollywood system that seemed hellbent on making as much money as they could out of her, whilst giving the young star as little back as they could. The story got around that for her performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Garland was paid a lower salary than that of Terry, the dog who played Dorothy’s dog Toto.
The Reality:
Judy Garland was indeed mistreated by MGM, the studio to which she was contracted, but executives never stooped so low as to pay her less than a dog. While Terry earned his owner $125 a week, Garland was making $500 a week for The Wizard of Oz. Dishearteningly, Terry was indeed paid a lot more money than the dwarf actors cast as Munchkins, who were paid a mere $50 a week each for all their hard work.
The Myth: Harrison Ford was working as a carpenter on the Star Wars set when he got cast as Han Solo
In 1977, Star Wars instantly propelled its unknown leads to stardom. Of all the newcomers in the cast, however, Harrison Ford would prove to be the biggest success story. The story goes that Ford was a nobody before Star Wars: allegedly he was working on the film as a carpenter when George Lucas cast him as Han Solo, changing his life forever.
The Reality:
While it’s true that Ford worked as a carpenter part-time, his main career was always acting. Ford had been doing carpentry work at the home of Lucas’ friend Francis Ford Coppola when Lucas visited and asked Ford if he would perform line readings with actors auditioning for Star Wars, to which he agreed. Ford proved such a natural fit for Solo in auditions that Lucas offered him the role.
The Myth: A stuntman died on the set of Ben-Hur, and his death remains in the film
Health and safety wasn’t a priority in Old Hollywood. One great example of poor cinematic safety planning, according to Hollywood lore, is 1959’s swords-and-sandals epic Ben-Hur. The urban legend has it that a stuntman died during the making of the film’s chariot sequence, and that a shot of it was included in the final cut for all to see.
The Reality:
There’s no way footage of real death would have made it into a studio movie. Not that this was ever a concern: in reality, nobody died on the set of Ben-Hur, stuntman or otherwise. The rumour may have started by somebody confusing the 1959 Ben-Hur with the 1925 original, whose production had been more hazardous. During production on this silent version, several horses died for the chariot sequence, while some stuntmen were injured.
The Myth: Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest and lost
Back in the silent age of cinema, Charlie Chaplin was one of the most recognisable people on the planet. This is why around 1918, Chaplin thought it would be a laugh to enter a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition at a US fayre. Apparently this didn’t turn out quite the way the legendary funnyman intended: not only did Chaplin not win the competition, but he came in almost dead last.
The Reality:
The story can be traced back to newspaper gossip from the 1920s, and a Lord Desborough telling a story that Mary Pickford told him that Charlie Chaplin had told her. All subsequent reports on this particular Chaplin story have only embellished the tale. However, beyond this ‘he said, she said’ hearsay, there’s no proof Chaplin ever really entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition.
The Myth: Playing The Joker sent Heath Ledger insane, ultimately leading to his death
When cast as Batman villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger threw himself into the role, holing up in a hotel room alone for a month prior to film to get into the character’s mindset. Ledger wound up so mentally and physically drained from the performance that some say this resulted in his untimely death from an accidental prescription drug overdose.
The Reality:
Heath Ledger wasn’t left haunted by The Joker; on the contrary, Ledger’s family insist he was having the time of his life playing such a fun role. The tragic truth was that Ledger had, according to his family, suffered from insomnia all his life – the pills he took to help him sleep on the night of January 22, 2008 just happened to be too many and the wrong combination.
The Myth: Sinatra suppressed The Manchurian Candidate because it inspired Lee Harvey Oswald
On November 22, 1963, US Marine veteran Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated then-president John F Kennedy. Oswald was himself gunned down soon after, and his motive remains a mystery, but some believe he was inspired by 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate. Star of the film Frank Sinatra’s suppression of the film following the assassination seemingly bolstered this theory’s credibility.
The Reality:
Sinatra did in fact do his best to suppress The Manchurian Candidate during the 70s and 80s, but it had nothing to do with Oswald or JFK’s assassination. Rather, Sinatra spitefully pulled the film from circulation because he believed he – as star and producer – had been handed a poor deal by the studio when the film was originally released.
The Myth: Susan Backlinie was really injured filming Jaws
In the iconic opening scene of Jaws, after stripping off and going for a moonlit swim, Susan Backlinie is seized by an unseen underwater assailant and viciously dragged around before finally disappearing beneath the surface. It’s widely rumored that this scene was filmed with the aid of a machine that violently yanked Backlinie backwards and forwards, breaking her ribs in the process.
The Reality:
While Backlinie’s screams in Jaws are certainly convincing, they were, in fact, entirely fake. The actress has thoroughly refuted the claim that she was injured during filming, or in any pain at all, stating that no machine was ever used. Instead, Backlinie was dragged through the water by a specially trained scuba diver.
The Myth: An extra deliberately flashes in the background of a scene in Teen Wolf
When Teen Wolf hit theaters in 1985, many eagle-eyed viewers were quick to spot what appeared to be an extra in the background of a shot exposing his genitals. Since the moment happens as the camera quickly pans, there isn’t much time to actually see what’s going on, and it quickly became an accepted fact that an extra had flashed his junk.
The Reality:
As it turns out, the extra wasn’t even a man. According to one of the actors who was present during the scene, some of the female extras unbuttoned their jeans while they were seated between takes, as it was more comfortable. When the director yelled “action,” one of the extras didn’t have time to do her jeans back up, inadvertently revealing her underwear.
The Myth: A scene in The Basketball Diaries captured a real suicide
During a scene in 1995’s The Basketball Diaries in which the main characters are hanging out shirtless by a river, an object can distinctly be seen plummeting from a bridge in the background into the murky waters below. Naturally, everyone who noticed this immediately jumped to the conclusion that the filmmakers had unwittingly documented a suicide, spawning a morbid legend.
The Reality:
After this myth exploded in popularity, a number of investigations were made to try and uncover exactly what had been captured on film. However, no suicides were recorded in the area around that time, and the filmmakers don’t remember anything unusual happening while they were shooting. The object also bears a suspicious resemblance to a bag of garbage.
The Myth: The Incredibles’ Edna ‘E’ Mode is based on Edith Head
Appearing in both 2004’s The Incredibles and its 2018 sequel, Edna ‘E’ Mode bears a striking similarity to iconic costume designer Edith Head. As well as a strong physical resemblance, they are both designers, both have famously inflated egos and their names even sound pretty similar. Unsurprisingly, it is widely assumed that Edna is an homage to Head.
The Reality:
Compelling as this one is – and it certainly had us fooled – it isn’t true. In 2013, The Incredibles director Brad Bird took to Twitter to settle the matter once for all, stating that, although people from at least 27 different countries have approached him with the theory, the character of Edna ‘E’ Mode is entirely unrelated to Edith Head.
The Myth: Clark Gable ran over and killed a pedestrian
While Clark Gable’s death at the age of 59 was probably the result of his alcoholism, the actor’s affinity for booze had also, goes the rumour, claimed another life 27 years before his own untimely demise. According to this legend, Gable hit and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk in 1933, with an MGM executive taking the fall in exchange for a hefty payoff.
The Reality:
This rumor stems from Gable’s extended absence from the public eye during 1933. However, while the actor was indeed lying low, it wasn’t because he’d run anybody over. In reality, Gable was battling a severe case of gum disease that eventually led to a vicious infection, necessitating the removal of many of his teeth.
The Myth: David and Oliver Phelps genuinely struggled to film Fred Weasley’s death
The Harry Potter franchise contains its fair share of emotional gut punches, but none hit quite as hard as the demise of Fred Weasley, whose death leaves his twin brother George utterly bereft. Apparently, David and Oliver Phelps – the real-life twins who played Fred and George in the Potter movies – found the scene so traumatic to film that they only managed one take, and Oliver’s tears were entirely real.
The Reality:
While anecdotes of actors getting emotionally carried away by their roles are always popular with the public, in this instance that simply wasn’t the case. In fact, David and Oliver Phelps have both stated that they didn’t have any problems at all filming the scene, with the two brothers even cracking jokes between takes.
The Myth: Back to the Future II predicted a baseball World Series win
According to legend, Back to the Future II correctly predicted that the Miami Marlins would win the 1997 Baseball World Series – even though the team didn’t actually exist when the film was made. This prophecy is supposedly delivered in the movie by Biff Tannen, who predicts that a team from Florida will win in 1997.
The Reality:
Even if a vague prediction of a Floridian baseball team winning the World Series could be considered compelling (questionable), the truth is that no such quote even exists in the film. For whatever reason, someone made the claim online after the Marlins’ win, and it went viral enough to convince a large number of people that the movie has prophetic powers.
The Myth: Steven Spielberg literally snuck into Hollywood
Steven Spielberg is one of the most celebrated directors in the history of cinema, and the legend of his showbiz origins is suitably enigmatic. Spielberg apparently got his break in Hollywood by literally sneaking into Universal Studios, setting himself up in an office and starting to work, blagging his way into a number of director jobs.
The Reality:
The source of this legend is none other than Spielberg himself, who spun the somewhat embellished yarn to a reporter during an interview. In truth, Spielberg’s entry to Universal Studios came in the form of an internship arranged by his father, although he did have to sneak in a couple of times while his pass was being sorted.
The Myth: Jack could have fit on the door in Titanic
While Titanic remains one of the most critically acclaimed and widely loved movies of all time, many fans adamantly insist that Jack could, in fact, have survived by climbing onto the floating door with Rose after the sinking of the eponymous ship. A quick Google search will reveal countless explanations – many including diagrams – claiming to prove that the door was big enough for both of the ill-fated lovers.
The Reality:
The question of whether Jack could have survived was tackled in an episode of Mythbusters. Their verdict? He could not. Even if Jack had somehow managed to clamber onto the door without it flipping, the Mythbusters found the only way the lovers could have stayed afloat was by using lifejackets to add buoyancy to the door, a bit of a tall order given the circumstances.
The Myth: The rain in Singin’ in the Rain is milk
During the scene which gives Singin’ in the Rain its title, Gene Kelly – lovestruck and overcome with euphoria – dances and sings his way up and down a street in the pouring rain. It’s commonly claimed that, when the scene was being shot, the rain was simulated with milk instead of water, as it showed up better on camera.
The Reality:
This myth has been flatly rejected by Gene Kelly’s wife, who asserted that no downpour of dairy ever occurred on set. Even if it would have looked better, filming in a rain of milk would be absolutely revolting. As well as the inevitable, atrocious smell, it would also be a health and safety nightmare as the milk heated up throughout the day, creating a bacterial utopia.
The Myth: The Madness of King George was renamed so as not to confuse Americans
1994’s The Madness of King George is based on The Madness of George III, a 1991 play penned by Alan Bennett. When the play was adapted for the silver screen, its title was changed, ostensibly for the benefit of Americans who would have believed they’d missed the previous two instalments in the franchise and therefore not bothered going to see it.
The Reality:
While there are examples of movies changing titles for American audiences (such as the first Harry Potter film replacing the word ‘Philosopher’ with ‘Sorcerer’), this isn’t one of those occasions. The Madness of King George was released under the same name the world over, for the simple reason that it’s a punchier title.
The Myth: Walt Disney had Snow White voice actor Adriana Caselotti blacklisted
Shortly after the release of Snow White, Walt Disney prevented Adriana Caselotti – who voiced the titular character – from making an appearance on Jack Benny’s radio show. This, combined with the fact that Caselotti was uncredited on the film, led to widespread suspicion that Disney was blacklisting the voice actress from working in Hollywood to preserve the “realness” of Snow White.
The Reality:
While the fact that Caselotti went uncredited in Snow White is pretty outrageous, the actress later clarified that Walt Disney made no efforts to interfere with her career. While she was unable to work with the animation studio again because she’d already voiced Snow White, Caselotti went on to work on several other films, including The Wizard of Oz.
The Myth: Jamie Lee Curtis was born intersex
One of the most persistent (and frankly bizarre) rumors that has doggedly followed a celebrity is the myth that Jamie Lee Curtis was born with both male and female genitalia. The “proof” for this theory seems to partly be that Curtis’ full name contains both traditionally male and female names, as well as the fact that the actress adopted her children.
The Reality:
Despite the evidence backing this myth up being about as watertight as a sieve, it continues to regularly make the rounds, and apparently has even led to academics citing Curtis as an example of intersexuality. While the rumor’s origins are a mystery, it was probably either started as a tasteless joke or spread by someone with a grudge.
The Myth: Fritz Lang fled Germany immediately after the Nazis came to power
Austrian director Fritz Lang made a considerable name for himself in the Weimar Republic during the 1920s, and after the Nazis ascended to power he was personally offered control of the German film industry by Joseph Goebbels. Lang reportedly fled Germany the very same night, making his way to the United States where he began his Hollywood career.
The Reality:
This version of events was the concoction of Lang himself, who – for obvious reasons – wanted to distance himself from the Nazi regime after emigrating. In reality, however, the director wasn’t in quite such a hurry to leave, as his passport clearly indicates that he only left Germany four months after his meeting with Goebbels.
The Myth: A Munchkin actor can be seen committing suicide in The Wizard of Oz
There’s long been a rumour that something seriously macabre and non-family friendly lurks in the background of one shot in 1939 Technicolor musical classic The Wizard of Oz. According to the myth, at the end of the sequence in which Dorothy and the Scarecrow discover the Tin Man, a hanged man can be seen swinging in the trees behind them. The story goes that this is a Munchkin actor who, in despair over an unrequited crush, hanged himself on-set.
The Reality:
There’s simply no evidence to support the myth. First, there is no record of anyone having died during the making of The Wizard of Oz. On top of which, when the Tin Man sequence was filmed, the munchkin actors weren’t even on-set yet. Since the film’s 1939 release, the print has been cleaned up significantly for the high-def age. Today we can see the ‘suicidal Munchkin’ is actually just a big bird, likely a crane or an emu, roaming in the background.
