Old School Misinformation - Urban Myths

And there were a number of rumors about the TV show "Leave it to Beaver".
The actor who played Eddie Haskell became a porn star named John Holmes. (Not true. There was such a porn star, but these were two different people.)
The actor who played the Beaver (or was it the one who played Wally?) supposedly was a fighter pilot who got shot down and killed in Vietnam. (Not true.)

I once read an analysis of this. The commentator observed that the generation that grew up on this show, which promoted "wholesome" values, was the generation which became the radicals of the late 60's and early 70's, and so we somehow had a psychological need to "destroy" the innocence that we grew up with.

The microwaved dog was one. (Allegedly its owner having shampooed it, tried to dry it in the oven, killing it; then sued the oven manufacturer.)

One that circulated among the more romantic of railway enthusiasts in 1960s Britain, when British Railways was scrapping steam-locomotives with indecent haste, was the existence of a governmentally-ordered "strategic reserve" of them hidden in military bases and the like.

A railway journalist investigated and found it nonsense, created by enthusiasts finding supposed gaps in the withdrawal records. I recall his report, in a railway magazine, commented that it only takes some rusty railway lines, barbed-wire fences and imaginations.....

.
There is nothing new in all this. At much larger scales, think of the Renaissance-era alchemists, the 17C "witch-hunt" atrocities, the 18C South Sea Bubble stock-market crash.

Or more artificial but basically harmless ones like the 19C "Cottingley Fairies" and the Mary Celest puzzle, both stirred up by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and the 20C scribblings of Erik von Daniken....

Chewing gum was supposed to stay in your stomach for life.

Pre-internet urban myths were more localized, as far as I remember (I was basically a child, or a young teen before the internet took over). A friend of a cousin of a friends's neighbor had seen it happen, yes, she had seen it, so it must be true.

I remember variations on all of those. The pop rocks thing freaked me out because I loved them.

The only other that come to mind is Bill Cosby bought The Little Rascals.

Bloody Mary in a mirror.

I remember all those, too. I loved Life cereal even then; the "Mikey" commercials were adorable, and those were his real brothers (he was one of 6 kids). This is "Mikey" (John Gilchrist) now.

I just now remembered another tall tale that made the rounds for the longest time. It was so persistent, it was one of the first things covered on the Urban Legends Reference Page (later renamed Snopes).

*dramatic music*
If you're driving at night, and you see someone without their lights on, [i]DON'T FLASH YOUR BRIGHTS AT THEM![/i] Gang members initiate new recruits by making them drive down the street at night with no lights, and kill anyone who flashes their brights at them.

Not only was this a ridiculous, roundabout way of choosing a victim, it would be super ineffective. Despite what people have seen in the movies forever, car chases rarely last even a minute, and nearly always end with one car getting away. This is because it is extremely rare that two cars with similar performance levels get into a chase together. There's almost always one car with superior horsepower, better handling, better acceleration, and better braking. (That last bit is super important.) But the legend persists with such tenacity that it is still necessary to reprint new articles debunking it to this day.

If you swallowed watermelon seeds, they would sprout in your stomach. (Lol.)

The Kentucky Fried Rat. (You can guess.)

The guy who thought he had bought an expensive exotic dog, only to find out it was a rat.

Fred Rogers was a sniper in Vietnam, and wore long-sleeved shirts to cover his many tattoos. (Obvious BS.)

The daddy longlegs is the most venomous spider in the world, but its fangs can't penetrate human skin. (Absolute rot.)