Cinema Myths

You would have heard them before, stories that circulate about an event which contains elements of horror, humor or both. These stories usually have more than one version and are not necessarily false, which leads one to the question "I wonder if it is true"? Well there are some myths that have circulated throughout the movie industry that have posed the same question. Have you ever heard of any of these myths and more importantly do you think they are true ?:

The actress Shirley Eaton who played the part of Jill Masterson in the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger died of asphyxiation from having her entire body covered in gold paint.

In one scene from the movie The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy, the scarecrow and the tinman are walking off down the road away from the tinman's house there is movement that can be barley seen at the top of the frame just before the scene ends. It is rumored that it was one of the actors playing a munchkin hanging himself. The rumor has been rather strong for years with many people giving their opinion of what it was that was moving about in the scene. Some have suggested that it was one of the stage hands getting caught on screen, others believe it was one of the large birds that was used as part of the setting flapping its wings.

In the movie Three Men and a Baby, some people have claimed to have seen the ghostly image of a small boy in one of the scenes. It is rumored that the ghost was that of a small boy who was killed in the house in which the scene was filmed. Certain versions of the story claim that the boys parents sued the owners of the house and the movie studio for releasing the boys name to the press. There have been other rumors which suggest that the image was nothing more than a cardboard cut out of Ted Danson that was left in the scene by mistake.

The name of the computer HAL in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey was derived from letters for IBM, where each letter in HAL being the preceding letter in IBM

It seems as though Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe weren't the only starlets to begin their careers in the pornographic industry. There is a myth that there is a blue movie in circulation with the main star being none other than Barbra Streisand. When author William Poundstone wrote to Streisand to confirm or deny the rumor, Barbra never responded, even though her management denied the rumors.

Even though this doesn't directly involve any celebrity or film crew it is still interesting. Legend has it that viewers of the disaster film Twister got a taste of the real thing when a twister ripped through a drive-in theater in the Midwest that was showing the movie.

Cinema Myths Page
Last Updated October 24, 1999
Web Page by John Princiotto Murdoch University
All clip-art provided by clipart.com Graphics courtesy of www.filmsite.org and debbytraywick@ussvoyager.com