# Remembering things that didn't happen **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768 "2009-01-04T02:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/41 "2009-01-05T15:39:06Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Someone once died on the Dick Cavett Show. Many, many people swear they saw the episode on TV . . . except that it never actually aired. More detail on it [here](http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/when-that-guy-died-on-my-show/). ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/42 "2009-01-05T16:51:20Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I actually came into the thread to mention the “Episode IV in Star Wars” thing, which a million people insist was there when the movie first came out even though it was not. I was 6 when Empire Strikes Back came out. Mom took me out of school that day to see it, and the line was around the block. I still say I saw a snowspeeder kamikaze into the cockpit of an AT-AT. Nobody believed me for years and years…I was starting to doubt myself. Until our buddy **Dooku** (Now **Morbo** , I think) informed us that his parents owned a movie theater and he had seen that scene dozens of times. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/43 "2009-01-05T20:46:12Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > I was 6 when Empire Strikes Back came out. Mom took me out of school that day to see it, and the line was around the block. I still say I saw a snowspeeder kamikaze into the cockpit of an AT-AT. > > Nobody believed me for years and years…I was starting to doubt myself. Until our buddy **Dooku** (Now **Morbo** , I think) informed us that his parents owned a movie theater and he had seen that scene dozens of times. > > -Joe I am confused. Is the scene in the movie or not? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/44 "2009-01-05T20:57:30Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I am confused. Is the scene in the movie or not? > > -FrL- It is in the movie, but apparently only in a few very early cuts or something like that. Were **Morbo** around he might be able to give a better explanation, being a movie guy and all. -Joe ---
**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:** [January 6, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/45 "2009-01-06T02:03:12Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > [Play it again, Sam.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_It_Again,_Sam) You took the words out of my mouth. I saw the movie a few years ago and he said, “Play it Sam”. At least 100,000 people claim they saw Wilt Chamberlain shoot 100 points one night. Trouble was that game was played in HS gym in Hershey, PA that seated about 4000. Probably most of that 100,000 have never been in Hershey. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/46 "2009-01-06T03:15:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > You took the words out of my mouth. I saw the movie a few years ago and he said, “Play it Sam”. Actually, _she_ says “Play it, Sam.” _He_ says, more or less, “If you played it for her, you can play it for me, If she can take it, so can I. Play it.” ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/47 "2009-01-06T04:33:46Z")
I had a friend in High School whose mom bought into that whole rumor about how the head of Proctor and Gamble was a satan worshipper who gave his money to the Church of Satan or whatever. We went to her with the book “Rumor!” (“Straight Dope” yet to be published, of course) showing her it was untrue and she swore up, down, and sideways she saw the man himself say it right on Donahue, even though it never happened! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![dada2fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ccd318/32.png) [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/48 "2009-01-06T04:50:16Z")
I remember watching the game show, Super Password in the 1980’s with Bert Convey as the host. The contestant was a black person and their celebrity partner (to my memory) was either Jamie Farr or Alan Alda. The secret word was “deer”. The celebrity said, “doe.” The contestant answered back with, “knob.” After a second of confusion, the celebrity (Jamie Farr/ Alan Alda) realized what the contestant was thinking and fell to the floor in convulsions of uncontrollable laughter. Bert Convey and the audience roared with laughter also, while the contestant sat there confused and bewildered. I could swear on anything that i distinctly remember seeing this, but nobody I’ve ever mentioned it to heard anything about it. Snopes says it’s false, but Jamie Farr claims it happened, so who knows. ---
**Author:** ![spike404](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@spike404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spike404)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/49 "2009-01-06T04:51:08Z")
I first heard the P & G Satan crap ~'78. It still surfaces on the Internet on occasion!!! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/50 "2009-01-06T08:57:13Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > she swore up, down, and sideways she saw the man himself say it right on Donahue, even though it never happened! :smack: He went on Donahue, or some talk show, to **refute** the rumor, did he not? I think that one was a matter of just talking about it at all gave the rumor renewed strength. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/51 "2009-01-06T15:14:47Z")
Given all this, doen’t this explain lawyer’s antics in front of juries? That is why I am in favor of juries being allowed to ask questions (and take notes (allowed in MA)). I think it is essential that the false memory syndrome be eliminated from jurt trials-take the OJ Simpson trial/farce-the defense got the jury so confused that they could not remember anything. ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/52 "2009-01-06T15:49:35Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > …take the OJ Simpson trial/farce-the defense got the jury so confused that they could not remember anything. Cite? ---
**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:** [January 6, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/53 "2009-01-06T16:59:46Z")
If as many people who claimed they were going to Roman Polaski’s house but cancelled on the night of August 9, 1969 actually went there, they would have outnumbered the Manson killers 100 to 1. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/54 "2009-01-06T17:31:42Z")
Are these not slightly different phenomena though? The “I was meant to be having cocktails with the Polanskis that fateful night” type stories seem somewhat self-aggrandising whilst alot of the other false memories serve no other purpose but to be talking points. Ah maybe it is in the same, I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/55 "2009-01-06T19:32:22Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > He went on Donahue, or some talk show, to **refute** the rumor, did he not? I think that one was a matter of just talking about it at all gave the rumor renewed strength. Apparently not - Cecil’s report claims the Donahue show spent 10 years fielding phone calls denying he was ever on the show! > **[Is Procter & Gamble run by satanists?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341688/is-procter-gamble-run-by-satanists)** ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/56 "2009-01-06T21:11:06Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > It is in the movie, but apparently only in a few very early cuts or something like that. Were **Morbo** around he might be able to give a better explanation, being a movie guy and all. That is exactly correct. It was in very early prints, of which my parents’ one-screen theater had one. I didn’t even know it wasn’t common until the Intarwebs told me so. If I get around to it I’m going to grab that scene off of my Betamax copy that I recorded late at night in said empty theater and rip it onto YouTube. Of course, that would involve \ finding the Beta tape in my parents’ house somewhere if it still exists, \ hooking up our old Betamax if it still exists, and \ figuring out a way to MacGyver an NTSC capture board to it or however I’d go about grabbing it. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/57 "2009-01-06T21:25:02Z")
If I’m not mistaken, many people claim that they saw movie footage of the Kennedy assasination on the day it occurred in 1963 (either live, or in a newscast later that day). This is impossible because the Zapruder film was never broadcast publicly until the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/58 "2009-01-06T22:28:00Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Are these not slightly different phenomena though? The “I was meant to be having cocktails with the Polanskis that fateful night” type stories seem somewhat self-aggrandising whilst alot of the other false memories serve no other purpose but to be talking points. Ah maybe it is in the same, I dunno. I did a thread two years ago looking for examples of this phenomenon that I called “Not bloody likely!”: > **[Not bloody likely! (dubious claims to witnessing famous incidents)](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=413238)** > > With the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie being released soon, I’m reminded of one of my least favorite bits of Internet idiocy. Namely, whenever a discussion of TMNT happens, someone will chime in with “Well I think the Turtles are a joke now... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/59 "2009-01-16T17:59:29Z")
As an illustration of the unreliable way that memory works: You all (at least the Americans) know what a penny looks like, right? You can picture it in your head: A small copper coin with a picture of Lincoln in profile. OK, now, if you can picture it so clearly, which way is Lincoln facing? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768/60 "2009-01-16T18:55:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, now, if you can picture it so clearly, which way is Lincoln facing? He’s facing to the right. A dime is to the left. A quarter is to the left. And the nickel… dammit! Which way is the nickel facing? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-things-that-didnt-happen/479768.md?page=4)