# Famous People Who NEVER Existed! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 30, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586 "2004-07-30T13:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/161 "2012-02-06T14:49:19Z")
I hope Daniel Boone existed. My mother claimed to be a descendant of him. The Phantom of The Opera didn’t exist, but he made a shitload of money. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/162 "2012-02-06T22:43:59Z")
Enough people have poked the zombie and lived that I think it’s safe to get my own jab in. Tokyo Rose never existed, but there were several English speaking female Japanese propaganda broadcasters. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/163 "2012-02-06T22:56:03Z")
> [@Doc\_W](#): > > I live in North Carolina and it’s said that Mayberry is loosely based on Dobson,NC I think you mean Mt. Airy, unless every podunk town in my home state is claiming the honor now. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/164 "2012-02-07T02:35:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I hope Daniel Boone existed. My mother claimed to be a descendant of him. Is this a whoosh? Of course [Daniel Boone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone) existed. ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/165 "2012-02-07T04:14:30Z")
I cannot believe I’m the first person to mention the Marlboro Man. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/166 "2012-02-07T04:30:58Z")
I just skimmed page 2 and 3 ----------- anyone throw out Pope Joan and/or Saint Christopher? ---
**Author:** ![osme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/df788c/32.png) [@osme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/osme)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/167 "2012-02-07T16:30:46Z")
Pandora Spox - the actress who played Serena on “Bewitched.” ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/168 "2012-02-07T16:49:31Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Enough people have poked the zombie and lived that I think it’s safe to get my own jab in. > > Tokyo Rose never existed, but there were several English speaking female Japanese propaganda broadcasters. Interesting..who was “Axis Sally”? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/169 "2012-02-07T16:53:45Z")
[Ramona](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramona)–the heroine of the best selling novel: [QUOTE=Wikipedia] Ramona is a 1884 United States historical novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. It is the story of a Scots-Native American orphan girl in Southern California, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis,[1] the novel became immensely popular. It has had more than 300 printings,[2] been made into four film versions. It has been performed annually as an outdoor play since 1923. . . The novel’s influence on the culture and image of Southern California was considerable. Its sentimental portrayal of Mexican colonial life gave the region a unique cultural identity; as its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad lines to the region, countless tourists visited who wanted to see the locations in the novel. [/quote] I could have made that last Wiki entry myself. I worked near the place where she was married in the book, and I constantly had old ladies from the Midwest who’d read the novel come to me asking to know exactly where it happened. (A city in San Diego county was named after her, too.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/170 "2012-02-08T16:59:30Z")
> [@Sean\_Factotum](#): > > Years from now, I’m sure people will be writing theses _( thesis pl.?)_ on the life and crimes of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Well, now it _is_ “years from now”. How about it? Any Lecter-themed theses? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/171 "2012-02-08T20:26:03Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I thought it was Admiral ‘Bull’ Kilroy…but I have no cite. “When we are through with them, the only place graffiti will be written is in hell!” ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/172 "2015-10-11T23:04:41Z")
There have been serious doubts about Aesop’s existence. The man was probably fiction. [http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/publications/new-look-aesop](http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/publications/new-look-aesop) Besides that article, his Wikipedia page also highlights the inconsistencies of his identity and alleged existence. Some have asked whether the feared Axe Man of New Orleans, an unidentified serial killer who murdered in New Orleans in 1918-1919, really existed. The murders did happen, but were probably not the work of one killer, or could have been unconnected. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/173 "2015-10-12T07:08:37Z")
> [@beth623](#): > > Sherlock Holmes, even his street adress does not exist(I know I looked) > What about that guy in all the Clancy novels? Can’t think of his name. > The March sisters. Boy am I getting into this late. There is a 220 block of Baker Street, and a location within the Baker Street Emporium claims (kind of fraudulently) the number 221B for the Sherlock Holmes Library. The whole megillah is next door to Madame Tussaud’s, which you’d never know from watching _Sherlock_. Similarly, for Harry Potter fans, there’s a “[Platform 9¾](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_Harry_Potter#Platform_Nine_and_Three-Quarters)” sign at King’s Cross railway station in London, with half a shopping cart sticking out of the brick wall, unbelievably cute. ---
**Author:** ![TheSpeculationElucidation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@TheSpeculationElucidation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSpeculationElucidation)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/174 "2015-10-12T07:25:57Z")
Bigfoot. The myth is extremely popular where I live. My uncle goes on Bigfoot hunting trips with his buddies, hoping to ‘catch’ one. I’m not even kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/175 "2015-10-12T22:05:21Z")
In 11 years, has no one named Nicholas Bourbaki? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/176 "2015-10-12T22:18:33Z")
Saint Christopher patron saint of travelers never existed according to my book on saints. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/177 "2015-10-13T05:57:39Z")
You can see the gravestone of Mother Goose in Boston’s Granary Burying Ground. Or rather, you can see the gravestone of a woman named Mary Goose who happened to be somebody’s mother. Tour guides like to deceive gullible tourists into thinking that she was _the_ Mother Goose who wrote the nursery rhymes. The nursery rhymes were compiled from various sources and had no single author, let alone one whose name was literally “Mother Goose.” ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/178 "2015-10-13T16:28:14Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Saint Christopher patron saint of travelers never existed according to my book on saints. Along these lines, there are scholars who say that St. Bridget of Ireland was really a pagan goddess that was “converted” into a saint, but I don’t know how seriously these people are taken. After reading her Wiki aricle, she looks pretty well-attested to me. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/179 "2015-10-13T16:51:22Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Along these lines, there are scholars who say that St. Bridget of Ireland was really a pagan goddess that was “converted” into a saint, but I don’t know how seriously these people are taken. After reading her Wiki aricle, she looks pretty well-attested to me. There was a real Brigid of Kildare. The point is that her veneration was syncretized with that of the older mythic figure: stories and attributes of the goddess were assigned to the Christian figure. The season and customs of the pagan festival were transferred to the saint’s Day. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586/180 "2015-10-13T16:58:41Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > TThe season and customs of the pagan festival were transferred to the saint’s Day. Similar to Easter. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-never-existed/257586.md?page=10)