I remember hearing stories during my childhood. I took a lot of these stories as fact, even into adulthood, until I though back and remembered them. The first of these stories that I can remember was told to me by my brother. It went that Walt Disney’s body was sitting frozen somewhere, because as his end was near, he wanted to someday be brought back to life. For a long time, I was thinking that maybe one day there would be a scientific breakthrough, and a team of doctors and scientists would unfreeze and attempt to revive his long dead body. Years later, I was telling this story to a friend, but cautioned that it was just something I heard, and might be an urban legend. Someone else overheard me and confirmed that is indeed all it is. But I have come across many stories like that throughout my childhood and high school years, and often bought into them for a long time. Even now, it’s not always easy to distinguish myth from fact. I can’t really even begin to get into all the legends I heard over the years, but I’ll try to share some of the stories that stick out the most to me.
Eddie Haskell and the Bucket of Spit
I got to listen to a lot of stories about popular culture figures, particularly rock stars. On that subject, I can think of two popular myths about Alice Cooper that came up repeatedly. If nothing else, they fit his projected image well and enhanced it. First, there was a long running rumor that "Eddie Haskell is Alice Cooper". That meant, of course, that Cooper was actually Ken Osmond, the former teenage actor who played Eddie Haskell on Leave it to Beaver. This was a bit surprising to me, because Cooper and Osmond do not look alike at all. And anyone who wanted to look into this could have easily found out that Cooper’s birth name is Vincent Furnier, and that he spent his teenage years in Glendale, Arizona. I found out later that the legend originated when Cooper was misquoted by a college newspaper. Eventually, he took to wearing a t-shirt he had made with the words “No, I am not Eddie Haskell” ironed on it. But legends die hard, including urban legends, and for years after that Cooper continued running into people who thought he was Eddie Haskell.
There was another popular myth about a supposed ritual Cooper performed at his concerts. While he was performing on stage, a bucket would be passed around the audience, like a collection plate in church, with every fan spitting in it. Once the bucket was filled, it would be brought onstage to Cooper, who promptly drank it. I remember reading about some fans who managed to find their way to the hotel his band was staying at while on tour in 1973, at the height of their popularity. It was described by journalist Bob Greene, who toured with the band and published a book about it titled “Billion Dollar Baby”. One night after a concert he ran into a group of fans who bought into that legend and actually went through the trouble of collecting a bucket of spit from among the concert goers. They managed to get into the hotel the band was staying in, and didn’t forget to bring the bucket with them. Despite Greene’s attempt to explain it away as nonsense, the fans were determined to somehow meet Cooper. And they still believed he would gladly guzzle down the putrid cocktail they had made for him.
These are plenty of other legends, some of which exceed the perversion of the ritual described in the last paragraph. There are stories I have heard about Frank Zappa that I don’t care to get into here. By their reputation, people like Cooper and Zappa will attract those kinds of absurd tales. I often heard a famous story about Rod Stewart being rushed to an emergency room. Later versions have Stewart substituted with someone else, and some versions have Elton John involved in it. People like Rod Stewart and Elton John also have reputations that invite urban legends.
The Chair in the Bushes and other Rural Folklore
I remember getting a ride to the train station from one of my co-workers a long time ago. I forgot exactly how the subject got to this, but I think we were talking about some rural areas of Bucks County, near New Hope and Peddler’s Village. Specifically, I believe our conversation got to Buckingham Mountain, which is a small ridge in that area. There is a narrow road that goes over it, and supposedly, a car can move uphill without accelerating on the gas pedal. Some strange paranormal force moves cars to the top. I have driven over that mountain many times, but I never cared to try out that theory. Not too far from that mountain is another site with a legend attached to it. At a nearby intersection of rural roads, a girl was supposedly struck and killed by a drunk driver, sometime in the thirties or forties. For decades after that, people driving by that intersection at night could see a small girl sitting in a rocking chair if they flashed their headlights. I remembered that one for a while, since I find stories like that interesting, even if they are hard to credit. Several years later I was reminded of that when I heard the same tale again, except this time it took place somewhere in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. It may have actually been a popular ghost story that expanded into an urban legend. Wherever it came from, there is plenty of mythology about both the Pine Barrens and the rural areas of Central and Upper Bucks County, as both areas abound with myths and folklore.
Pop Rocks and Soda: An Explosive Combination
Having grown up watching after school children’s shows, and Saturday morning cartoons, I remember the classic Life cereal commercials featuring Mikey, who hated everything. But to everyone’s surprise he liked Life cereal. A few years later, a friend told me that the actor who played Mikey had died after eating a few packs of Pop Rocks Candy and washing it down with soda. I forget exactly how it killed him, but apparently one of his digestive organs was ruptured by the mix. However, I soon heard people dismissing that story as a rumor. I have a vague memory of seeing a Life commercial years later featuring the grown-up Mikey, who was indeed alive and well, but I’m not sure of this. I don’t want to start an urban legend myself. But what is certain is that Mikey (real name John Gilchrist) did indeed survive into adulthood. Where did a myth like that start? I wonder if it began with a mother trying to scare her kid into adhering to a healthier diet. If that was the case, today they at least don't have to worry about their kids eating Pop Rocks. They were taken off the market in 1983, so there is no more danger of someone actually being killed by overdosing on Pop Rocks and Soda.
On the subject of soda, there was an urban legend I heard about Coca-Cola while in high school. A decomposed body had been found at the bottom of a syrup vat used to fill the Coke bottles. For weeks or months or however long it was, thousands of bottles of contaminated Coke were going out to stores and being guzzled by thousands of people . I didn’t think to ask myself why I hadn’t heard about it in the news, and why there wasn’t a mass recall. As far as I know, there is no news of any illness breaking out as a result. Pepsi also had its share of urban legends attached to it, most recently a slew of text and social media messages that an HIV positive worker in one of their bottling plants had been accidentally (or maybe purposefully) bleeding into the bottles and cans. So far, I have not heard of any outbreak of illness from that one either, although my understanding is that HIV does not live long outside the body, so there is very little risk of contracting the virus by eating contaminated food.
In some of my classes during my college days we had an exercise. Everyone sits in a circle, and at the top of the circle, a sentence is whispered in the first person’s ear. It is then whispered into the next person’s ear, and so on until it goes around the circle and comes back to the top. The sentence is almost always different at the end than in the beginning, and sometimes bears little resemblance. That same phenomena could explain how some urban legends get started, and how they vary along the way. Some of these legends started from misquotes and misprints, or misunderstandings. Maybe some are started as complete fabrications, maybe what is normal is too mundane and boring, and the legends add some proverbial spice to them. But there are other myths that have no rhyme or reason. I could go on. Books can be written about all the urban legends that are floating around out there. In fact some books have. But I think I’ll stop here.
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