Join The Community
Biff Tannen's Home Run
The Myth: In 1989 film Back To The Future II , Biff Tannen correctly predicts a World Series victory for a Florida team in 1997, despite the Miami Marlins (who did indeed win in '97) not even existing when the film was made.
How It Started: In one of the first Internet-fuelled memes, the news spread after the Marlins' victory.
Any Truth? None whatsoever, as there isn't a reference to a Florida team in the film. Either those enthusiastic Marlins fans imagined it, or were just trying to big up their team's win.
Over The Moon
The Myth: Not only were the Apollo 11 landings faked, but the guy responsible for faking the footage was none other than Stanley Kubrick.
How It Started: Jay Weidner expounded his theory in documentary Room 237 , claiming that The Shining is Kubrick's elaborately coded apology for his involvement.
Any Truth? For all the circumstantial evidence - numerical coincidences, Danny's NASA sweater - there isn't any proof of Kubrick's involvement. Nor, for that matter, the small matter of the moon landings being faked at all.
Tears Of Steel
The Myth: Playing Superman is cursed. George Reeves was shot. Christopher Reeve was paralysed. Dean Cain and Brandon Routh have… well, hardly set the world alight.
How It Started: People got superstitious after many people connected with the character suffered misfortune in their lives.
Any Truth? If there's a curse, who’s responsible? General Zod? Margot Kidder has been vocal in rubbishing the idea, pointing out that, "That is all newspaper-created rubbish. The idea cracks me up. What about the luck of Superman? When my car crashed...if I hadn't hit a telegraph pole after rolling three times, I would have dropped down a 50ft to 60ft ravine. Why don't people focus on that?"
The New Boy
The Myth: Steven Spielberg's career started when he snuck into Universal Studios, found an empty office and simply began to work.
How It Started: Spielberg himself, who spun the legend in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.
Any Truth? Spielberg's first visit to Universal was set up by his father, who arranged for young Steven to meet editorial supervisor Chuck Silvers - who then fixed up an internship. While it's true Spielberg had to sneak past the guards until Silvers sorted out a pass for him, Spielberg shared an office with Silvers' assistant.
Munchkin Around
The Myth: The Munchkins had the time of their life while filming The Wizard Of Oz , using every opportunity to get hammered and hold orgies.
How It Started: Producer Mervyn LeRoy reckoned "they had sex orgies in the hotel, and we had to have police on just about every floor," later, everybody from Judy Garland to David Niven reported the rumours as fact.
Any Truth? Interviews with surviving Munchkins lay the blame at a couple of German extras who liked to drink, but insist that the vast majority were well-behaved and professional.
Melancholy Munchkin
The Myth: A lovelorn extra playing a Munchkin - no doubt sick of not getting any action during the orgies - took extreme measures by hanging himself from a tree on the set of The Wizard Of Oz .
How It Started: Eagle-eyed viewers insist the evidence is there on-screen; as Dorothy and friends walk down the Yellow Brick Road, something can be seen in the background.
Any Truth? The myth has been thoroughly debunked, with modern technology good enough to pinpoint that the 'dead Munchkin' is in fact a 'live bird,' one of many animals deployed to add detail to Oz.
Fatty Arbuckle: Hollywood Killer
The Myth: Silent comedian Fatty Arbuckle raped aspiring actress Virginia Rappe with a Coke bottle, leading to her death several days later.
How It Started: Sure enough, Rappe was hospitalised after the party and died afterwards, but Arbuckle was accused by Rappe's friend, Bambina Maude Delmont.
Any Truth? After two trials led to hung juries, Arbuckle was formally acquitted in the third - but by then, his career was ruined after his films were banned. Today, the most plausible explanation of Rappe's death is that it was caused cystitis, inflamed by alcohol and a recent abortion.
Disney On Ice
The Myth: Walt Disney was frozen into suspended animation on his deathbed, in the hope that future medical science might cure his lung cancer. His cryogenically-preserved remains are stored underneath Disneyland in California.
How It Started: A French magazine reported in 1969 that the rumour started with a group of Disney animators with "a bizarre sense of humour."
Any Truth? Walt's daughter, Diane, rubbished the claims. "There is absolutely no truth to the rumour that my father, Walt Disney, wished to be frozen. I doubt that my father had ever heard of cryonics."
Three Men, A Ghost And A Baby
The Myth: The ghost of a boy is visible in the background of a shot in Three Men And A Baby .
How It Started: Home video allowed viewers to pause the image; further misguided detective work also 'revealed' a shotgun in the same location in an earlier scene, allowing the myth to build that the 'boy' had committed suicide with the gun.
Any Truth? Look closer. The 'boy' is a cardboard cut-out of Ted Danson's character, created as part of a subplot - cut from the finished film - in which he appears in an dog food commercial.
Gere And The Gerbil
The Myth: Richard Gere was admitted to hospital to remove an object from his anus. Said 'object' being a gerbil that he'd inserted up there for sexual pleasure.
How It Started: Gere always believed it was Sylvester Stallone who started the rumour as a joke. But by then, it had become what Gere was famous for.
Any Truth? Nope. In 2012, Wayne Matthews apologised personally to Gere for making the story up - while a teenager in 1991 - to trick a gullible friend.
