Long before M3GAN did her creepy little dance, Chucky unleashed a never-before-experienced fear of dolls. (Okay, M3GAN is not exactly a doll, but you get the idea.) Nearly twenty years before Netflix introduced the Scream TV series, the original Ghostface made us double-check that our doors were locked at night.

There is a reason why old-school horror movie villains are still so popular. The actors behind these monsters tapped into our most primal fears by fully embodying the role, scaring us half to death in the process. Think about how Scream turned an everyday cinema into a house of horrors or how Halloween made innocuous pumpkins seem the most sinister thing ever.

Freddy Krueger crawled into our nightmares, while Jason Voorhees traumatized us like no other movie character could. Except for Michael Myers, that is. Not to mention Leatherface and his ever-present chainsaw. But what are the stories behind these villains? What inspired the most terrifying, bloodthirsty fictional killers that, in turn, served as the spark behind today’s up-and-coming horror villains?

Related: 10 Horror Films Where You Never See the Villain

10 Samara Morgan

How long did it take you to stop looking at your TV askance after watching 2002’s The Ring? “First you watch it, then you die!” That sentence alone sent chills down the spines of thousands of eager horror movie fans. The Ring is one of the horror movie genre’s best classics and is based on a horror novel of the same name. The American version of the movie is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ringu and claims to be based on true events. These events are said to have happened during the 16th century in Japan.

A girl named Okiku worked in the Himeij Castle in Japan and was pursued by a samurai, but kept refusing him. To manipulate the situation in his favor, the samurai hid a valuable plate that Okiku was meant to protect. When Okiku realized the plate was gone, she panicked because it meant she would be put to death.

The samurai again suggested that she should give in to his advances because he could save her. She refused, angering the samurai, so he suspended her over a deep well. When she said no again after the samurai asked her one last time to be with him, he struck Okiku with his sword, and she tumbled down the well to her death.

It wasn’t the end of Okiku, however. The samurai heard her counting the plates over and over again from the bottom of the well, never reaching number 10. The creepy thing is that there is a well called Okiku’s Well in Japan. The well has a cover over it to keep Okiku from crawling out.^[1]

9 Norman Bates

When Robert Bloch dreamed up the character of Norman Bates for his 1959 horror novel Psycho, he probably never imagined that his book would become so popular that its contents would be turned into several movies. Norman Bates also made a turn on TV in the series Bates Motel.

In Bloch’s subsequent novels, Bates is not the main villain. He is succeeded by more than one copycat killer who assumes Bates’s identity after his death. This is in contrast to the Universal Studios movie franchise. Psycho was adapted to film because of the shocking revelations surrounding murderer Ed Gein at the time. This led to a widespread assumption that Gein inspired the Norman Bates character.

However, Bloch revealed that it was not Gein so much as the horrific circumstances surrounding the killer’s case that inspired Normal Bates. He wanted to highlight that killers could hide their true nature even in small towns amid the most curious window-peeping neighbors.

It was only many years later, when the world was appalled at learning the full extent of Gein’s crimes, that Bloch realized how closely Bates resembled Gein in their heinous acts. And, of course, there are also the weird attachments both men had to their mothers.^[2]

8 Candyman

Horrifying legends that come to life are what make many old-school horrors so good. In the movie Candyman (1992), an unforgettable legend was “born” after a Black artist was summarily lynched when it was discovered he had an affair with a white woman. A student writes a thesis about urban legends and folklore in Chicago and happens upon the legend of the Candyman.

The legend turns into a nightmare when the Candyman’s name is said five times in front of a mirror, and he starts killing people with a rusty hook for a hand. Not to mention the ribcage and mouth full of bees. Tony Todd played the titular character so well that it is hard to picture him without the hook and the bees. And the movie took some of its inspiration from a blood-chilling real-life murder.

On April 22, 1987, Ruthie Mae McCoy called 911 in a panic. Ruthie suffered from mental illness and told the dispatcher, “They throwed the cabinet down.” This confused the dispatcher, but Ruthie was right. There were passages between the apartments in the building where Ruthie lived. These passages were meant to make maintenance work easier. But, it also made it a breeze for burglars to push bathroom cabinets out of the wall to enter an apartment.

A neighbor alerted the police after they heard gunshots coming from Ruthie’s apartment that night. However, the police did not break down the door when no one responded to their knocks and calls. They did not want to be sued for destruction of property. It took two days for Ruthie’s body to be discovered as a result. A building superintendent drilled the lock to her apartment open and found her face-down on the floor. She had been shot four times.

In the Candyman movie, the first victim is Ruthie Jean, who is murdered by someone who came through her bathroom mirror. Ruthie Jean’s neighbor is Ann Marie McCoy, who believed Ruthie was crazy. Ruthie died alone after calling the police for help. It is not quite clear how Ruthie McCoy’s murder became part of the movie. It is thought that the director may have heard about the crime after deciding to shoot Candyman in Chicago.

The movie was also based on a short story, “The Forbidden,” written by Clive Barker.^[3]

7 Leatherface

The earliest versions of Leatherface were a bit comical (at least they are now). The face-wearing killer holding the chainsaw over his head and running down the stairs is not nearly as scary as it was back in the day. (The new movies are still terrifying, though.)

Not surprisingly, some elements of the Leatherface character were inspired by Ed Gein. Director Tobe Hooper had heard stories about the Wisconsin murderer but claimed he did not know it was Gein until the 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released.

Gein’s fondness for wearing human skin as a mask greatly disturbed Hooper, so he decided to make it part of Leatherface’s character. Additional inspiration came from Hooper’s memory of a Halloween party where a friend arrived wearing a cadaver’s face. Hooper would later state that it was the most disturbing thing he had ever witnessed.

Hooper also used Baby Huey as inspiration for Leatherface’s bumbling walk and child-like behavior. As for the chainsaw, this came from a fleeting thought Hooper had about mowing down a large crowd in the hardware section of an exceptionally busy store.^[4]

6 Jason Voorhees

Jason Voorhees is that guy in a hockey mask who can knock someone’s head clean off their body with one punch. This is both hilarious and strangely terrifying. Friday the 13th is a true horror classic and a Halloween movie marathon favorite. The franchise has twelve films and an upcoming limited series called Crystal Lake, a prequel to the first movie released in 1980.

It is widely believed that a horrifying incident in Finland was the main inspiration behind the Friday the 13th movies. Although the production team denied that the movies or Voorhees are based on specific real-life events, the similarities between fiction and reality are too striking. You be the judge…

In 1960, four teenagers set off on a camping trip in Lake Bodom. The two boys and two girls set up their tents along the lake’s edge. A group of birdwatchers saw the tents collapse on June 5 and a blond man running in the opposite direction. They did not investigate, so it was only later that a carpenter discovered what had become a crime scene. Three of the teenagers had been stabbed to death, and the fourth was barely alive. Nils Gustafsson had suffered several stab wounds and fractures to his face.

He told the police that someone broke into the tents and attacked them. He also said that the man who attacked was dressed in all black and had bright red eyes. Gustafsson was initially considered a suspect but was cleared because the severity of his injuries matched the story he told the police. The Lake Bodom murders remain unsolved in 2024.

The Friday the 13th movies went on to potentially inspire serial killer Peter Moore to kill four male victims over three months back in 1995. Moore blamed the murders on a fictitious restaurant worker named Jason, who his lawyer and the prosecution had no doubt was supposed to be based on Jason Voorhees. Moore was a cinema owner in North Wales before he turned serial killer.^[5]

5 Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter is an even more terrifying horror movie character than Voorhees. The 1981 novel Red Dragon was adapted for the big screen and resulted in the widely praised The Silence of the Lambs, released in 1991.

Anthony Hopkins’s performance made the film, and his sociopathic demeanor throughout still manages to spook, even if you watch the movie for the tenth time. Many of Lecter’s characteristics are the result of the novel writer and movie director’s wild imagination. Just the name Hannibal (a play on cannibal) immediately evokes an image no one wants to picture. But, some of the inspiration for this diabolical character came from a horrifying real-life case.

Thomas Harris, the author of Red Dragon, worked as a journalist in the 1960s. He interviewed a convicted and imprisoned killer, Dykes Askew Simmons, in Mexico. It was at this prison that he met “Dr. Salazar.” At first, Harris thought Salazar was a prison doctor. Salazar asked Harris incredibly insightful questions, and Harris was struck by how poised the man was. However, when Harris later asked a prison warden about Salazar, he learned the horrible truth.

Salazar was actually an incarcerated former surgeon named Alfredo Balli Trevino!

Trevino came out as gay during a time when Mexico actively oppressed the gay community. He tried his best to fit into mainstream society, but this upset his lover to a great extent. Trevino ended up killing his lover over what was believed to be Trevino’s intention to marry a woman. Trevino sliced up the corpse into small pieces and stacked them into a box. Obviously, he did not get away with the crime. But, his sentence was commuted after he had served 20 years in prison, and he returned to his hometown of Monterrey.

Trevino went on to treat patients without worrying too much about payment until he died in 2008. It is believed that Trevino had also murdered several hitchhikers between 1950 and 1970, but this was never proven. Harris used Trevino’s mannerisms as inspiration for his Hannibal Lecter character. Both men were doctors at one point. Both had a deep insight into the criminal mind. Both were intellectually challenging to others. And both men easily conned others.

Trevino was also not Harris’s only inspiration. Other murderous individuals who helped bring Lecter to life include Albert Fish, Pietro Pacciani, and Robert John Maudsley.

Pacciani, who was known as the Monster of Florence, murdered several people in Florence in the 1970s. These murders directly inspired The Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal. Maudsley killed child molesters and continued his murder spree while in prison. He was finally confined to a bulletproof glass cell, which inspired Lecter’s cell in the film.^[6]

4 Pennywise

Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel IT sets quite the opening scene. You can picture six-year-old Georgie Denbrough in his yellow slicker and red galoshes running down Witcham Street, chasing the paper boat his older brother Bill made for him. In this tense opening scene, readers are introduced to what would become one of horror’s most terrifying villains: Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

King thought out most of Pennywise’s characteristics (no surprise there). But the evil clown character was also inspired by a bunch of real-life clowns. Many believe King’s idea for IT came from serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who used to dress up as a clown called Pogo. However, King named Bozo, Clarabelle (from Howdy Doody), and Ronald McDonald as his inspirations for writing his controversial novel. King had a run-in with the Ronald McDonald mascot on a plane back when travelers were still allowed to smoke onboard.

King asked the mascot where he came from, to which the clown replied, “From McDonald Land.” King naturally thought the clown was being sarcastic and asked him where he really came from. The clown then confirmed that there was such a place as McDonald Land in Chicago, and he was there for the opening of a new McDonalds restaurant.

King found this to be a surreal and unnerving moment, but it also gave him more ideas for the Pennywise character.^[7]

3 Ghostface

When Scream was released in 1996, it introduced a whole new meta approach to horror. The movie clearly made fun of horror movie tropes while still paying tribute to the classics that came before it. Kevin Williamson, of Dawson’s Creek fame, wrote the Scream screenplay after watching a TV special about Florida serial killer Danny Rolling. Rolling, or the Gainesville Ripper, murdered five students in four days in August 1990.

Gainesville was in a state of terror and remained so even after Rolling was caught. While Williamson watched the events unfold via reenactment on his TV screen, he noticed an open window in his house. He was immediately terrified as he realized how easy it would be for a killer to get into his house. This overwhelming fear inspired him to create Ghostface.

The similarities between the killer in Scream and Rolling are highlighted in the movie. In real life, Rolling insisted he never had a motive for killing the students. But there had to be some reason for his murder spree. In Scream, Billy Loomis is revealed as the killer behind the ghastly mask, and he tells Sidney that not every killer needs a motive. However, Loomis did have a motive in that Sidney’s mother had an affair with his father, resulting in his mother leaving.

Scream seemingly also inspired a so-called “thrill killing” in 2006. Sixteen-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart was murdered by two classmates, Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper. The boys stalked Stoddart and filmed her before stabbing her to death. They made a video in which they talked about how they would kill Cassie. The same video contained footage of the boys’ reaction after they killed her.

Draper and Adamcik apparently wanted to become notorious serial killers. They even had a death list of other people they wanted to murder. When they were caught, they mentioned Scream, as well as the Columbine High School shooters, as their inspiration for Cassie’s murder.^[8]

2 Michael Myers

Michael Myers is often described as pure evil. Considering that he was six years old when he killed his first victim (his sister), that description is apt. Throughout the film franchise, Myers continues to murder people left and right. And he does this without so much as a grunt.

Myers is the embodiment of a nightmare that you cannot escape. If he finds and stalks you at a gas station, chances are he’ll rip your teeth out. Or, if you get out of your car to confront him next to the road, he’ll probably stomp your head to a pulp. Sure, these are all movie scenes and not real life, but the Halloween movies still have the power to make you check behind you when you walk to the bathroom at night.

The Myers character was inspired by a very real and frightening event experienced by Halloween director John Carpenter when he was a student at Western Kentucky University.

Carpenter met a teenage patient during a visit to a psychiatric hospital. The boy’s unnerving “evil” stare greatly unsettled Carpenter, and he later used this experience to describe Michael Myers’s emotionless face when he was six. The character of Sam Loomis describes Myers’s eyes as the “devil’s eyes.” Yul Brynner of Westworld fame inspired grown-up Myers’s inhuman strength throughout the Halloween movies. And, of course, Myers’s infamous mask was modeled from a mask of Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.^[9]

1 Freddy Krueger

When you watch A Nightmare on Elm Street now, it is more of a comedy than a horror. Freddy Krueger’s exaggerated mannerisms and strangely long arms are not exactly scary in 2024. But, back in 1984, when Krueger’s scarred face popped up on the big screen, he scared the crap out of moviegoers.

Like the other movies on this list, A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by real-life events and experiences. Writer and director Wes Craven read about a family who had escaped the Killing Fields in Cambodia. The family made it to America, but before they could even sigh in proper relief, a young member of the family started having nightmares.

The young boy told his parents he was afraid to sleep because he believed the thing chasing him in his nightmares would get him. He tried to stay awake for several days at a time but inevitably fell asleep. That night, his parents heard screams emanating from their son’s bedroom. They rushed to him, but it was too late. Their son had died in the middle of his last nightmare.

This story formed the basis of Craven’s script, but he still needed to figure out his villain. Craven had several ideas for the villain, but one childhood memory ultimately brought Freddy to life. Craven remembered a man walking down the street past his house late one night. The man turned and looked at Craven, who was watching him with a disturbing expression on his face. The man also wore a fedora—another part of Craven’s childhood experiences that made it into the movie.^[10]

Love them or hate them, this festive season, like every other, you will be hearing those tinny Christmas tunes just about everywhere you go when you’re not staying safely at home, that is. Shopping centres love playing them over a horde of speakers placed strategically wherever you walk. Radio stations will get in on the action, so chances are you’ll hear them while driving or working. TV specials are a staple of Christmas entertainment and include a variety of Christmas medleys.

On this list are just some of the more popular festive songs you are guaranteed to hear at least a hundred times, and the stories of when and how they were written.

10 True-To-Life Christmas Miracles

10 You’re a mean one, Mr Grinch

This could be the tune for you if you’re not up for all the sparkly festive pomp and circumstance. The Grinch, introduced to the world by Dr Seuss, is a well-known hater of all things Christmas (much like Mr Dickens’ Scrooge). The character has been around for more than 50 years and its story began 10 years after the Second World War.

Theodore Geisel joined the US Air Force and during his time there was given the job of creating war propaganda and films on training. Geisel worked with animator Chuck Jones and together they created a cartoon called Private Snafu. Geisel returned to writing after the war and started producing the classic Dr. Seuss books (written under the pseudonym of Dr. Seuss). Geisel introduced the Grinch character in a poem he wrote in 1955 and then wrote “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” which was published in 1957. The Grinch was based on his own ill feelings toward how the festive season was being commercialized.

Geisel was very anti-Hollywood and wouldn’t sell the rights to The Grinch, but he trusted his former colleague, Chuck Jones, enough to sell the rights to him. The Grinch story was adapted into a 30-minute TV special. Tony Award-winning composer, Albert Hague, collaborated with Geisel to come up with the song “You’re a mean one, Mr Grinch” which included lyrics such as “He’s a monster. His heart’s an empty hole.” The song, sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, was sung three times throughout the TV special and his version remains the most popular to this day.

Since then the song has been used in a Broadway adaptation of The Grinch, and the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey that was released in 2000 as well as a host of other TV shows and films.^[1]

9 Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots wrote “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town” in October 1933, and soon became increasingly frustrated at their lack of success in getting the song recorded and sold. Record labels had no interest in the tune and told the pair that the song didn’t have enough appeal to become successful.

They gave the song to comedian Eddie Cantor to sing to his radio audience in 1934 and the song was such a hit with listeners that Tom Stacks later recorded it too. Unfortunately, Cantor’s performance went unrecorded. Haven Gillespie eventually became a millionaire after the initial air play of the song led to droves of people requesting the sheet music and listeners going totally ga-ga over it.

Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town was recorded by a host of other artists but it hasn’t yet lost its shine. These include Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra. Today it is still used in films and is a firm favorite on radio stations and TV specials during the festive season.^[2]

8 Feliz Navidad

Whether it is Boney M. or Jose Feliciano singing it, “Feliz Navidad” is a Christmas staple. Feliciano didn’t have the best of times back in 1968 when he sang his own version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at a World Series game. He was jeered at for his Latin interpretation and people were screaming that he should be deported.

Fortunately, things turned around the following year when he won two Grammy awards for his album Feliciano! He took the lesson he learnt at the World Series game to heart however, and when he wrote his hugely popular song “Feliz Navidad” he included English lyrics alongside the Spanish because he knew otherwise English stations wouldn’t touch it.

His idea worked and the song remains one of the most popular bilingual Christmas tunes around the world.^[3]

7 Blue Christmas

Script and jingle writer, Jay Johnson, was on his daily one-hour commute on a train to New York in November 1948 when inspiration struck. While pondering the classic song “White Christmas” and other Christmas tunes, Johnson thought about changing white to blue and perhaps writing a song along those lines. He jotted down the first ideas about the lyrics for his new song that very morning, and his brainwave spawned the hugely popular song “Blue Christmas.”
When the song was finally ready to be released however, several Nashville recording artists who were approached to sing it, declined the offer. Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra took on the recording of the song and it landed him on the Top Ten chart for the first time in 1948.

By the mid-50s, the country music scene had latched onto the song and just about every country act included “Blue Christmas” as part of their festive show line-up. Elvis Presley recorded the song in 1957 and was annoyed when his producer wouldn’t allow him to sing it in a country style. Presley conspired with his musicians and backup singers to steer the rendition away from what the producer wanted, but this plan backfired when the producer, Steve Sholes, ended up loving the result. And thus, Elvis’ infamous version of the song was born but would only be released as a single in 1964.^[4]

6 Mary’s Boy Child

“Mary’s Boy Child” was written by Jester Hairston and first performed by the Schumann’s Hollywood Choir, but most people would probably only recognize the widely played Boney M. version. The song started out as a birthday party tune with a calypso rhythm and was originally written as a favor for a friend who wanted a song that would resonate with his West Indian friends. The original title was “He Pone and Chocolate Tea” and was never recorded.

Hairston was approached by Walter Schumann to write a Christmas song for his choir and Hairston rewrote the lyrics to the old birthday song. Harry Belafonte heard the new version of the song being performed by the choir and immediately sought permission to record it. He recorded it in 1956 and released it as a single that same year. Belafonte then became the first male artist of color to have a number 1 hit in the UK. When Boney M. recorded their version of it in 1978, it became one of the best-selling singles of all time in the UK and since has sold just shy of 2 million copies.^[5]

10 Twists To Christmas Traditions New And Old

5 Happy Xmas (War is Over)

If you were to think that the song “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” was just another Christmas song, you would be mistaken. The song, written by John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, formed part of an international multimedia campaign the couple launched at the end of 1969, during a time where counterculture movements and protests against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War were all the rage. Lennon and Ono rented billboard spaces in at least twelve large cities around the world and plastered them with posters that read “WAR IS OVER! If you want it! – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko.”

To continue their campaign of social unity and peace, Lennon came up with the lyrics to the song in 1971 and became the first Beatle to release an original Christmas song after the band broke up. He recorded a demo in a New York hotel room and later brought in Phil Spector to produce the song. The song was only released in November 1971 after a dispute over publishing rights. It charted many times after peaking at number 4. After Lennon’s death in 1980, the song reached number two on the UK charts, behind “Imagine.”^[6]

4 Jingle Bells

One of the most beloved (and most played) Christmas songs is “Jingle Bells.” Children love it. Adults love it. Radio and TV love it.

“Jingle Bells” was written by James Lord Pierpont, uncle to J.P. Morgan. It was first performed at a Thanksgiving church service and wasn’t written with the intention of it being a Christmas song (as the lyrics attest to). According to research, the song became associated with Christmas many decades after it was written. There is some controversy over when and where the song was written, however. A plaque in Medford, Massachusetts, states that Pierpont had been sitting in a tavern on Salem Street watching sleigh races in 1850 when he wrote the song. Researcher, Kyna Hamill, refuted this by saying that Pierpont couldn’t have written the lyrics in 1850, because he would have been in California participating in the Gold Rush.

Another plaque in Savannah, Georgia, says that Pierpont wrote the song at the end of 1857 before leading a local church into a rousing sing-along of the tune.

In 1965, “Jingle Bells” became the first song played from space. Astronauts had some fun with ground controllers saying they had come across “some sort of UFO” while orbiting aboard Gemini 6 and Gemini 7. They then started playing “Jingle Bells” on a harmonica backed up by tiny sleigh bells for the entertainment of the ground controllers.^[7]

3 O Holy Night

“O Holy Night” has been covered by many artists, most notably Celine Dion, Patti Labelle, Ella Fitzgerald, Kelly Clarkson, Mahalia Jackson, and Jennifer Hudson. It is considered by many to be THE definitive Christmas carol, a must-listen during the festive season.

Its story began in 1847 when Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, a commissionaire of wines in a French town, was approached by his parish priest who requested that he write a poem for Christmas mass. Placide used the gospel of Luke as inspiration and soon penned “Cantique de Noel.” He was so moved by his own poem, he decided to rope in a friend, Adophe Charles Adams, to set the words to music. Three weeks later the song was performed at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

The song was embraced by the French church, but things quickly turned sour when Placide turned his back on the church and joined the socialist movement. On top of this, the leaders of the church discovered that Adophe was a Jew and considered this to be the last straw. The song was unceremoniously and unanimously denounced.

However, the French people remained enthralled by the song and continued to sing it. Ten years later an American writer too was enraptured by the song and decided to introduce it to America after translating it in English. It was a hit in the US and since then has been sung in churches all over the world during Christmas time.^[8]

2 Baby, It’s Cold Outside

This 1944 Christmas classic is the most controversial entry on this list. “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has been blamed for the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism and its lyrics have been torn to shreds as many looked for evidence that the song is about rape.

The song was written in 1944 by Frank Loesser and was intended to be a ‘call-and-response’ duet for himself and his wife which they were to perform at their housewarming party. In 1948, the song was recorded for the Neptune’s Daughter musical with the male and female leads labelled ‘the Wolf’ and ‘the Mouse’ respectively. This, for many, already alluded to a predatory situation in which a man tries to convince a woman to stay inside with him against her own wishes.

In 2004 a written piece for a humor column set the debate on fire. The article suggested that the song was an ‘ode to statutory rape.’ In 2005 a freelance writer wrote that the song alluded to ‘semi-consensual date rape.’ The controversy rages on to this day and flares up every year around Christmas when the song is inevitably played all around the world.^[9]

1 The Little Drummer Boy

“The Little Drummer Boy” is one of the most instantly recognizable Christmas songs ever written, mainly because of its distinctive intro. It is believed to have started out as a traditional Czech carol, called “Carol of the Drum”, and was translated to English in 1941 by Katherine Kennicott Davis. Another version of the story says that Davis rewrote her own song based on the Czech lyrics and medley. The song was recorded for the first time in 1951 by the Trapp Family Singers and further made popular by the Harry Simeone Chorale.

The drum rhythm that makes the song unique was never intended to be part of the song. It is believed that Davis wrote the rhythm to get the chorus to harmonize between the soprano, tenor, and bass parts. It was meant to be used during rehearsals only, but somehow was left in the song and picked up by those who recorded it afterward.

“The Little Drummer Boy” became so popular that a whopping 113 musicians have recorded their own version between 1957 and 2011. They include Bing Crosby, Jimi Hendrix, Boney M., Westlife with Dolores O’Riordan, Whitney Houston and Bob Dylan.^[10]

Top 10 Fascinating Facts About Jesus Of Nazareth

The estimated value of the US pharmaceutical industry was $446 billion in 2016. In fact, the research and development spending per employee is unparalleled by any other industry. Despite this, the discovery of revolutionary drugs and treatments is sometimes a case of noticing something unexpected, looking for something else, or just pure luck.

10 Chlorambucil

Chlorambucil is an antileukemia drug first approved by the FDA in 1957. Leukemia is cancer of the blood cells and is one of the leading cancers in individuals under age 15. The origins of this drug go all the way back to the use of mustard gas on World War I battlefields.^[1]

Many years after the war and under the threat of World War II, researchers at Yale were looking into treatments for mustard gas poisoning when they noticed that soldiers exposed to the gas had unusually low white blood cell counts.

This led to the discovery that nitrogen mustard–based compounds could be used in the treatment of leukemia to kill mutated and cancerous white blood cells and prevent further tumor division. More research led to the development of chlorambucil, which is still used to treat these types of cancers today.

9 Viagra

There is no doubt that Viagra is a highly used and appreciated pharmaceutical discovery worldwide. Its popularity stems from its widespread use in pop culture, especially in Hollywood.

However, the story of its discovery is a little more sedate. It started in Merthyr Tydfil, a small Welsh town in the UK. Scientists testing a new angina-prevention drug received reports of an unexpected effect from the volunteers.^[2]

Male participants were experiencing more frequent erections. Further research indicated that it was indeed the angina medication causing this effect, and thus, the “little blue pill” was born.

It was marketed as the first oral treatment for erectile dysfunction in 1998. Now, 20 years later, it has become one of the most prescribed drugs in the world.

8 Botox

Almost everyone has heard of Botox and its infamous face-freezing effect, leaving countless “celebrities” devoid of facial emotion. But fewer are aware of the drug’s surprising origins. Botox is actually a neurotoxin that is made from a purified form of the botulinum toxin that causes botulism.

It was first used as a drug to prevent muscle spasms within the body, specifically for people suffering from eyelid or vocal cord spasms. However, its usage around the eyes had some unexpected effects. The drug began to diminish wrinkles around the brow area of the face, which led to its use in cosmetic surgery to reduce facial wrinkles and to smooth skin.

The rapid evolution of this treatment has led to Botox cosmetic surgery becoming one of the most popular medical treatments, with over seven million procedures in the US alone in 2016.^[3]

7 Smallpox Vaccination

In the late 18th century, Edward Jenner made remarkable contributions to the development of the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox was one of the most feared diseases due to its high mortality rate and the extensive facial scarring inflicted on those who survived.

Prior to Jenner, the only preventive measure was variolation (inoculation) using pustule material from someone who already had the disease. Variolation led to a less severe case but could still result in death.^[4]

However, in his small-town practice in rural England, Jenner noticed that milkmaids who caught the less serious cowpox would not catch smallpox. This idea of infection with a less harmful virus led to the development of the vaccination. (Vacca is Latin for “cow.”)

The importance of developing the smallpox vaccine cannot be understated. In 1980, the World Health Organization declared this once-feared disease officially eradicated, making it the first and only disease to achieve this status.

6 Lithium

The treatment of bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic depression) has varied greatly throughout history. Sadly, until the late 20th century, patients were often confined to asylums. However, in 1948, Australian psychiatrist Dr. John Cade devised a revolutionary treatment using lithium salts.

This discovery came from his testing of the incorrect historical belief that a link existed between urea and mania. Cade took a somewhat unorthodox approach by collecting urine from patients and storing it in his own kitchen fridge to inject into live guinea pigs.

Over time, he began to inject uric acid directly into the guinea pigs, using lithium urate as it was so highly soluble. Lithium salt caused the animals to become relaxed, so Cade later tried it on himself with similar results.^[5] His work paved the way for the current leading treatment of bipolar disorder.

5 Penicillin

Although many people have heard of the chance discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, very few know the story of Ernst Chain and Howard Florey, the men who developed penicillin into a drug. All three men shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945 for their work on penicillin.

While studying antibacterial substances at Oxford University in the 1930s, Chain, Florey, and their team began researching Fleming’s work on penicillin and devised a plan to mass-produce the penicillin mold to treat infections.

Their culturing methods included the use of old dairy equipment and even Marmite as a growth medium. One early favored method involved the use of cantaloupes, which was successful enough to begin clinical trials.

The two men’s efforts did not go unnoticed by the US armed forces. During World War II, the military realized penicillin’s potential to treat battle wounds for infections and began mass-production of the drug for the D-day landings. Penicillin went on to save countless lives during the war and beyond.^[6]

4 LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a Schedule I psychoactive substance that can cause intense hallucinogenic experiences for users. Ordinarily, it would not be considered a pharmaceutical drug. However, it has recently shown promise in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the search for a blood circulation stimulant. However, this proved fruitless, so it was set aside for five years.

Upon resynthesizing the drug in 1943, Hofmann accidentally ingested a small amount from his fingertips, leading to an experience he described as “an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.”^[7]

Three days later on April 19, Hofmann purposely ingested a larger dose of the drug and experienced what is known by LSD fans as Bicycle Day (named after the mode of transport that Hofmann used to return home during his “trip”). With this, LSD was born and became popular as a symbol of the “flower power” movement during the 1960s. The drug is still used today.

3 Disulfiram

More commonly marketed as Antabuse, disulfiram is used to reduce alcohol addiction. The drug reacts with the alcohol consumed to cause nausea and an increased heart rate. This is meant to be a deterrent for drinking.^[8]

Two Danish medical researchers, Jens Hald and Erik Jacobsen, originally tested this drug as an antiparasitic. Each decided to try small samples to establish the side effects. Later, at an after-work cocktail party, this turned out to be a big mistake.

After the men consumed small amounts of alcohol, both rapidly became violently ill. This led them to conclude that the two events were connected and that their antiparasitic might have another use.

Interestingly, upon further research into this drug, it was noticed that workers in the rubber industry had already known about this connection for some time. The same type of reaction to alcohol was observed in those who used similar chemicals in the production of rubber, but the two were not yet linked.

2 Cisplatin

Cisplatin is used in the treatment of testicular cancers. In fact, it is estimated to cure up to 90 percent of cases of this type of cancer.

The discovery of the drug’s anticancer properties by US chemist Barnett Rosenberg in the 1960s occurred mainly by chance. Rosenberg was testing a hypothesis based on the effect of strong electrical fields on E. coli when he noticed that it was able to prevent division of the bacteria’s cells.^[9]

Rosenberg discovered that the use of platinum electrodes caused this effect, not the electrical current. He had actually synthesized a chemical known as “Peyrone’s chloride” that was first isolated in the 1840s. But its use in the treatment of cancer had not yet been realized.

Since this initial development in the 1960s, cisplatin has become one of the leading anticancer drugs worldwide.

1 Warfarin

Warfarin began with the drama of dead cattle, dead rodents, and a failed suicide before becoming the most popular anticlotting drug in the world. It is used by as many as 1 percent of adults in the UK.

During the 1920s, the northern US and Canada experienced an epidemic of dying cattle that were bleeding profusely. An investigation determined that the problem was caused by the cattle eating moldy silage made from sweet clover, and so the case was closed at that time.

Then, in the 1940s, Karl Link and his student Harold Campbell in Wisconsin isolated the compound responsible for the anticoagulant properties in sweet clover. This was developed into warfarin, which was licensed as a rat poison in 1948. It caused massive internal hemorrhaging in rats unfortunate enough to consume it.^[10]

Now, the most popular use of warfarin is in the prevention and treatment of diseases like stroke that are caused by blood clots. The drug was not licensed for use in humans until 1954 after a US military recruit’s failed suicide attempt showed that warfarin could be used in a nonfatal manner. Interestingly, one of the first recipients was then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Josh Sandy is an aspiring pharmacology student from the UK with a penchant for weird stories and a depressing obsession with politics.

Food is the one constant that binds us all. Every culture has its own style of cooking. We assume that staple items in our own cuisine have a deep history in our culture.

Shockingly, some of the foods we eat every day have wildly bizarre origin stories that you would never guess. From the almost “Belgian fry” to a recipe brought to life by a spirit-walking nun, this list will have you thinking about the food you eat in a whole new light.

10 Ketchup

Ketchup is perhaps the American standard in condiments. It is a highly popular topping for hot dogs and hamburgers and the dipping sauce of choice for most everything, especially for kids.

It is so popular that 97 percent of US households report having it in the fridge. Clearly an all-American product, right?

Surprisingly, the origin of ketchup is actually Chinese. The word “ketchup” comes from a Hokkien Chinese word ke-tsiap, which was a sauce derived from fermented fish that was wildly popular in southeastern China.

The British drew inspiration from this sauce and began attempting to replicate it at home. This was indicated by a recipe for “ketchup in paste” published in 1732 by Richard Bradley. It listed “Bencoulin in the East Indies” as its origin.

However, this was far from the ketchup that we know and love today. Eventually, a man named Henry J. Heinz got involved and started producing his own ketchup recipe in 1876. The rest, as they say, is history.^[1]

9 Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is another deeply rooted standard. In fact, if you told most people that fried chicken was invented anywhere but in the American South, you’d have a riot on your hands.

With all due apologies to Colonel Sanders and the 11 herbs and spices in his “Original Recipe,” fried chicken was actually invented in—yup, you guessed it—Scotland! Okay, so you probably didn’t guess that because Scotland isn’t exactly synonymous with fried chicken. But it’s the truth.

In medieval times, the Scots were among the only people who preferred to cook their chicken in hot fat in a method we now know as “frying.” In the 1800s, many Scottish immigrants came to the United States, widely populating the American South and bringing the dish to prominence.^[2]

Of course, they were helped by African slaves who turned the dish into the delight we know today and gave it life as a deeply rooted soul food staple.

8 Pancakes

No modern-day food could have been popular over 30,000 years ago, right? Well, researchers have actually found pancakes in the stomach of Otzi the Iceman, a corpse dating back 5,300 years.

In ancient Greece and Rome, pancakes were made from a mixture of honey, wheat flour, olive oil, and curdled milk. During the English Renaissance, the popular breakfast dish was flavored with apple, sherry, rosewater, or spices.^[3]

Thomas Jefferson loved pancakes so much that he sent a recipe for specialty pancakes to his hometown from the White House.

7 Bacon

Unsurprisingly, bacon has been bringing joy to people’s lives since 1500 BC. What is surprising is that it originated in ancient China. At that time, the Chinese were curing pork bellies with salt and giving birth to arguably the most important historical invention in the world: bacon.

Eventually, through their conquests, the Romans and the Greeks learned of the curing process and began manufacturing their own bacon. The ancient Romans’ early form of bacon was known as petaso, which was a pork shoulder boiled with dried figs, browned, and served with wine.

The word “bacon” is thought to have many possible origins—the French word bako, the Germanic word bakkon, and the old Teutonic word backe. All of them reference the back of a pig.

In the 17th century, they finally got it right. The word “bacon” evolved to mean the salted, smoked pork belly that we know and love today.^[4]

6 Mac And Cheese

Macaroni blended with a melty cheese sauce (sometimes topped with decadent lobster or, even better, bacon) is another guilty pleasure comfort food. As it’s pasta related, it’s no surprise that this dish has roots in Italy.

However, the dish served there is a far cry from the meal that Kraft released in a box in 1937. In fact, the mac and cheese that existed prior to the 1300s in southern Italy was more of a lasagna. That recipe called for pasta sheets boiled in water and layered with grated cheese and spices.^[5]

“American mac and cheese” has far more humble roots. Like most good origin stories, however, it is muddled with controversy. According to some, mac and cheese was invented as a casserole dish to bring to New England church suppers. This story gives credit to the fact that the dish was known for a long time as “macaroni pudding.”

According to others, Thomas Jefferson (apparently a food lover) brought a pasta machine back from Italy and his wife used it to create the dish with Parmesan, which Jefferson later substituted with cheddar. The one fact that can’t be disputed, however, is that macaroni and cheese is a delicious dinner that you can make on a budget.

5 The Hamburger

Common knowledge tells us that the hamburger was invented in Hamburg, Germany, in the 19th century, but that’s only partially true. Meat from the Hamburg cow was minced, combined with spices, and formed into a patty (which is traditionally known as a “Hamburg steak”).

This was considered an upscale meal in the early days as just a spiced meat patty with no bun was one of the more expensive items on high-end restaurant menus. However, real bun-covered hamburgers didn’t come around until quite a while later.

In fact, they didn’t really evolve into sandwich form until the Industrial Revolution. During that time, factory workers were served hamburger steaks from a food cart. One brilliant soul, whose name is lost in history, started putting the meat between two pieces of bread to make it easier to eat while working—and viola! The modern-day hamburger was born.^[6]

4 The Hot Dog

Ah yes, another iconic American food that isn’t even American. Hot dogs were invented in Germany. Of course, they were called “dachshund” or “little dog” sausages there. These terms referred to this sausage being smaller and thinner than traditional German sausages.

The man behind the invention of these sausages was Johann Georghehner. He took his product to Frankfurt to market it, giving birth to the term “frankfurter.”^[7]

So, how did “frankfurter” become “hot dog”?

Well, in a shocking twist, the name was coined by drunken college kids, or so the theory goes. Frankfurters were incredibly popular because they were cheap and easy to eat. Somehow, one budding collegiate genius figured out the origin of the hot dog and that its initial name in German referred to a “little dog.”

That led him (or her) to start the rumor that hot dogs were made from dog meat. Somehow, this funny theory increased the popularity of the frankfurter, and the name “hot dog” stuck.

3 French Fries

They’re called “french fries,” so they must be French, right? Turns out, they may not be.

One competing theory suggests that the golden, fried, crispy potatoes were originally made in Belgium. Villagers near the Meuse River often ate fried fish as a staple dish. In the winter, the rivers would freeze, cutting off access to the fish, so they would fry potatoes for their meals instead.

It’s rumored that US soldiers stumbled upon this. As the predominant language in that part of Belgium was French, the soldiers dubbed the food “french fries.”

Like any good origin story, there is a third theory. Some believe that the “french fry” is really Spanish. The Spanish were the first-recorded people to encounter the South Americans as mentioned in The Chronicle of the Incas, or the Seventeen-Year Travel of Pedro Cieza de Leon Throughout the Mighty Kingdom of Peru. This was written by Pedro Cieza de Leon as a memoir.^[8]

No matter what the truth is, “french fry” sounds much better than “Belgian fry” or “Spanish fry.” So we’ll stick with it as is.

2 Chili

Are you ready for a creepy nun origin story?

According to a Native American legend, a nun is responsible for the first chili recipe recorded on paper. Apparently, Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain would go into a trance, leaving her lifeless body behind for days. Shadow-walking into different cultures, she used her soul to preach to “savages” and encouraged them to seek out Spanish Christian missions.

Although the corporeal Sister Mary never left the confines of Spain, it is believed that she spirit-walked across the globe. The Native Americans refer to her as la dama de azul (“the lady in blue”).^[9]

But we’re a bit skeptical here. A nun spirit-walks across the globe in an era when intercultural communication doesn’t yet exist and the most famous information she brings back is a recipe for chili? Must be one divine recipe.

1 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Always good to end with a dessert. The chocolate chip cookie is a classic offering in that category. Whoever conceptualized this must have been a visionary.

As it turns out, the chocolate chip cookie was the product of a happy accident. Ruth Graves Wakefield ran an inn in Massachusetts called the Toll House Inn. She and her husband were getting ready to bake some Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, a colonial favorite, when Ruth realized that she was out of baking chocolate.

Earlier in the week, she had been given a block of Nestle semisweet chocolate from Andrew Nestle himself. She decided to chop that up and use it as a substitute. Instead of dissolving into the batter during the baking process, the chocolate chunks held their form, resulting in the most delicious accident in US history.^[10]

Eric Falvey is a US-born author. His comedy novel, The Book of Roderick Medieval Mayhem, is currently available on Amazon as a softcover, ebook, or audiobook.

We know that many classic American TV series were either adapted from recycled shows that originated in other countries, were spin-offs of existing series, or were based on films. However, the details surrounding the origins of some shows, especially situation comedies, are often surprising and can be insightful for fans. Here are the eye-opening stories of 10 classic sitcoms.

Related: Top 10 Things We’ve Learned From Watching Comedy Shows

10 Barney Miller (1975–1982)

In the 1970s, prime-time TV lineups were packed with police dramas. The creators of Barney Miller wanted to do a humorous cop show. Although it was a comedy, the show’s atmosphere and daily activity were much more authentic to a police station house than its dramatic counterparts, as noted by many real law enforcement officers. The pilot, called “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller,” was as much about Barney’s home life as his work life and bore little resemblance to the series, in part because the original cast was almost completely replaced.

Two exceptions were Hal Linden, who reluctantly gave up a part in a Broadway play to star as the title character in this risky new series, and Abe Vigoda, who played the popular Detective Fish. Veteran director/producer John Rich, who was brought in to fix the initially flawed project, thought Barney Miller should be centered at the station house, and the show quickly became a workplace comedy with very little about the personal lives of Miller or the other characters. The revamped program went from being a rejected pilot aired on ABC’s Just for Laughs summer anthology series to the iconic, long-running show we remember.^[1]

9 I Love Lucy (1951–1957)

Considering how important visuals were to I Love Lucy, from slapstick comedy to the exceptionally expressive faces of the leading actors, it’s difficult to imagine the show limited to radio. However, the original version of the series, titled My Favorite Husband, was a radio comedy based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat. The show, starring Lucille Ball, was so successful that producers were anxious to adapt it to the exciting new medium of television. Originally, it was planned to cast Richard Denning, the same actor who played Ball’s bank vice president husband on the radio, in the TV version.

While Denning did go on to play the part in another adaptation of the series, Ball, who wanted to find a way to spend more time with her frequently on-the-road bandleader husband, insisted Desi Arnaz play opposite her in this proposed incarnation. Executives were against the idea of hiring the Cuban-American Arnaz because of the perception that viewers wouldn’t accept an ethnically mixed couple on screen.

After demonstrating what a great team they were by doing a Vaudeville tour together, Ball eventually got her way, and instead of hurting the sitcom, the cultural contrasts between Ball and Arnaz only made the show more entertaining. Produced by the couple’s Desilu Productions with My Favorite Husband radio show writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. on board and newly cast supporting actors William Frawley and Vivian Vance, I Love Lucy became a true television classic.^[2]

8 The Nanny (1993–1999)

It may have been good luck that Fran Drescher found herself on a transatlantic flight with the then-president of CBS Entertainment, Jeff Sagansky, in 1991, but it was what she did with the opportunity that made all the difference. She had already worked for Sagansky on two unsuccessful projects, including the failed series Princesses. Drescher told the exec that “everyone kept trying to use her as a side dish but that she was the main course,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Not only insisting that she should star in the show but offering to write and produce the show with her husband at the time, Peter Marc Jacobson, it’s no wonder that Sagansky thought she was being “unbelievably brazen.” But she convinced Sagansky to set up a meeting to listen to their pitches. The problem was that the couple didn’t have any yet. However, fate once again lent a hand when she got the idea to do a humorous take-off of The Sound of Music with herself in the lead after going on a shopping trip with the teenage daughter of her model/actress friend Twiggy while in London. The end result was the hit sitcom The Nanny, starring Drescher as Fran Fine, a saucy, wise-cracking but lovable caregiver to the children of Broadway producer and would-be love interest Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy).^[3]

7 The Flintstones (1960–1966)

Animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who had scored success with collaborations on the Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons and animated TV programs like The Huckleberry Hound Show, made history with the first prime-time animated series—prehistoric sitcom The Flintstones.

A lot of ideas were tossed around by Hanna and Barbera when they were trying to find a theme for their next series, including shows about pilgrims, Native Americans, and hillbillies. The Stone Age was so appealing because, as Joseph Barbera said, “You were able to take anything that was current and convert it to the Stone Age.”

Many people take for granted that The Flintstones was a parody of The Honeymooners. While there are clear similarities, Barbera would never confirm that the hit Jackie Gleason sitcom inspired The Flintstones. However, William Hanna said, “The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with The Flintstones… The Honeymooners was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept.”^[4]

6 Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979)

There’s a long-established tradition of building sitcoms around the stand-up acts of popular comedians, but this was not nearly as common in the early 1970s when the Gabriel Kaplan-starring show Welcome Back, Kotter was being developed. The series revolved around Gabe Kotter, a Brooklyn teacher who had his hands full with a zany, undisciplined group of remedial high school students dubbed “The Sweathogs.”

As hard as it may be to believe, the leading Sweathogs were based on real guys Kaplan went to school with when he was a student at Brooklyn’s New Utrecht High School. Before they were immortalized on TV, his pals were featured in Kaplan’s stand-up routine, “Holes and Mello-Rolls.”^[5]

5 The Golden Girls (1985–1991)

Aww, who doesn’t love The Golden Girls—Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sofia. However, it was actually a spoof performed for potential advertisers to promote the upcoming TV drama Miami Vice that inspired executives to develop NBC’s irreverent hit sitcom. The Golden Girls was revolutionary for its fun, provocative depiction of mature women. Sassy character actresses Doris Roberts and Selma Diamond “ad-libbed a bit about the upcoming cop show Miami Vice, changing the concept to the idea of retirees playing cards together in a Florida retirement community in a show called, Miami Nice,” according to Biography.

Originally, Betty White, who had won two Emmys co-starring on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the lusty Sue Ann, was tapped to play Blanche. And Rue McClanahan was going to be Rose, a character similar to her air-headed Vivian character in the Bea Arthur sitcom Maude. However, director Jay Sandrich was not buying McClanahan as the innocent Rose, so he got the bright idea for them to switch parts, which turned out to be ideal.^[6]

4 Mork & Mindy (1978–1982)

It might be surprising to hear that an eight-year-old kid came up with the idea for one of the biggest hit sitcoms of the 1970s until you find out the show is Mork & Mindy. Then it totally makes sense. Producer/writer/director Garry Marshall knew a good concept when he heard it, even coming from the mouths of babes like his small son Scotty who wanted him to put an alien on Happy Days. However, according to Looper, “The writers were not enthused by this idea, and they drew straws to see who’d have to write it.”

Of course, the biggest attraction of this series about an extraterrestrial who moves in with an ordinary young woman is the outrageous, frequently ad-libbed humor of the show’s star Robin Williams. He was discovered by another member of Garry Marshall’s family, his sister, who encouraged Marshall to cast Williams after seeing him play an alien in his stand-up routine.

Mork and Mindy ended up being a spin-off. There was no real pilot. When Marshall pitched the show to ABC, he re-edited the Happy Days episode, adding dialogue for Mork in which he talked about traveling to the future. He then spliced footage of Robin Williams with footage of Pam Dawber, who would play Mindy.^[7]

3 I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970)

In the wake of Bewitched’s colossal success, the prolific writer/producer Sidney Sheldon created a similarly themed show about the pairing of a mortal man and a supernatural woman. Sheldon’s series I Dream of Jeannie revolved around the misadventures of astronaut Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and Jeannie, a beautiful 2,000-year-old genie (Barbara Eden). However, the premise was actually rooted in a novel by F. Anstey published in 1900 titled The Brass Bottle.

The story is about an architect who discovers a genie in an antique bottle. The book spawned two silent film adaptations and a 1964 version starring Tony Randall and, coincidentally, Barbara Eden as his mortal fiancée. It was the third movie that gave Sheldon the idea for this new show. However, unlike in the book and films, Sheldon’s genie was female, and the romantic chemistry between Hagman and Eden was a vital part of the series.

To avoid comparisons to Bewitched, Sheldon was firmly set against casting a blonde actress for the TV series. But after an extensive talent search, he reconsidered and hired Barbara Eden, who was so popular in the role that it has become her legacy.^[8]

2 The Love Boat (1977–1987)

Hour-long cruise ship romance dramedy The Love Boat had a certain advantage over typical sitcoms. Although the basic setting and cast remained the same from week to week, it was more like a series of vignettes featuring a new batch of celebrity guest stars on each episode. This helped to keep the show fresh, and since many of the guest stars were or had been Hollywood royalty, they could draw an audience regardless of the merits of the series itself. Instead of a traditional pilot, there were actually two Love Boat TV movies in the early 1970s, with a completely different cast than the subsequent TV series.

One of the most surprising things about the frothy show is that it was based on a book. Prolific 1970s TV producer Wilford Lloyd Baumes developed The Love Boat franchise from The Love Boats, a 1974 memoir by Jeraldine Saunders, who wrote of her years working as a cruise director on some very large ships.^[9]

1 Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005)

The popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which centered on a loving but humorously dysfunctional family, was to some extent another case of a comic basing a show on his stand-up act. But the family on this series was actually a composite between Ray Romano’s relatives and those of writer/producer Phil Rosenthal.

Ray Romano recalls that a week after doing a monologue on The Late Show with David Letterman, he got a call from Letterman’s producer Rob Burnett expressing “interest in trying to develop a show just based on what they saw, my stand-up, which was talking about my family. And we said fine.”

In the beginning, it wasn’t clear exactly what the premise of the show should be. Given Romano’s lack of acting experience, Rosenthal thought it best for him to play a role similar to himself. The two created a family-based sitcom that utilized material from Romano and Rosenthal’s real lives and sometimes events in the lives of other writers on the show. The sense of authenticity to family life resonated with audiences and largely contributed to the show’s success.^[10]

When it comes to auctions of fine art masterpieces and valuable antiquities, provenance is everything. For those unfamiliar with the term, provenance is the documented history of the ownership of a particular piece being put up for sale. Before making a bid on an item that may sell for many millions of dollars, a buyer wants to be sure that what they are buying is authentic, with the paperwork to back it up.

Provenance can also ensure that the seller has ownership of the piece and thus the legal right to sell it. Auction houses will usually require extensive documentation of provenance before agreeing to facilitate a sale. Still, there have been several auctions that ended in sales—and lingering controversy over the origin and history of an item. Here we take a look at 10 high-dollar auction items of questionable origin.

Related: 10 Fake Artworks And Artifacts Exhibited In Museums

10 The Tutankhamen Head

In July 2019, the prestigious London auction house Christie’s held an event called The Exceptional Sale, and the item at the center of the event was an “Egyptian Brown Quartzite Head of the God Amen with the features of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen.” The stunning piece up for auction was dated to the reign of Tutankhamen, circa 1333-1323 BC, and it sold for a whopping £4,746,250 with the buyer’s premium (a fee on top of the winning bid that goes to the auction house). For American readers, that’s roughly 6.4 million U.S. dollars.

It sold for this staggering amount, despite its provenance being unclear before the 1960s. On top of this, the Egyptian government contested the sale, claiming that the artifact would have been stolen from an Egyptian temple and unlawfully removed from the country in the 1970s. The Chairman of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA) countered that it was common practice for Egyptian antiquities to be sold and shipped out of the country “by the crate-load” until Egypt banned such sales in 1983.

The 2019 Christie’s sale was to another private collector, so the location of the object is unknown until it comes up for sale again. Yet the controversy over provenance and ownership still remains.^[1]

9 The Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster

On December 3, 2021, Paul Davids, who runs a successful guitar-focused YouTube channel, uploaded a video with the title “I PLAYED JIMI HENDRIX’ $10,000,000 GUITAR.” The black Fender Stratocaster in question was purported to be one that Hendrix famously played at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. However, eagle-eyed Hendrix fans quickly pointed out that some identifying marks on the guitar in Davids’s video didn’t match those seen on Hendrix’s Strat, as seen in film footage of the Monterey festival.

Most telling is a missing chunk of black finish on the back of Hendrix’s guitar, which seems to have moved on the guitar in question. Further doubts arose when news was unearthed that this guitar was to be sold by Heritage Auctions in 2017, but Heritage stopped the sale after experts cast doubt that it was the same guitar Hendrix played at Monterey. Davids eventually updated his video to express doubt on the guitar’s provenance before pulling the video entirely. Myles Poulton, the man who had arranged for Davids to play the guitar in the video, still believes in the provenance of the Hendrix Monterey Strat, despite many in the YouTube guitar community remaining unconvinced.^[2]

8 The Hitler Phone

In 2017, Maryland auction house Alexander Historical Auctions sold a truly grim item—a red phone purported to be the one Adolf Hitler used in his notorious World War II bunker. Considering all the evil orders that would have been issued from Hitler’s phone, the auction house described the object as “arguably the most destructive ‘weapon’ of all time.” (LINK 10) Although a buyer happily paid $243,000 for the phone, serious doubts were cast on its provenance.

Frank Gnegel of the Frankfurt Museum for Communication labeled the phone as “clearly a fake.” At the same time, a Dutch telephone collector and expert, Arwin Schaddelee, wrote extensively about his doubts on its authenticity. In particular, he notes several British parts, which would have been unusual in 1940s Germany—especially considering Germany and England were enemies in the war. He also pointed out that the cords are from a later era and how stories of the phone’s origins have changed over the years. Not surprisingly, the auction house has stood by the item’s authenticity, despite the provenance seeming to not stand up to scrutiny. ^[3]

7 Igbo Sacred Art

The Igbo people are an ethnic group in Nigeria, with an estimated population of 40 million, making them one of the country’s largest tribes. A pair of Igbo sacred art objects went under the hammer at Christie’s in June 2020, and the resulting controversy brought to light a different side of contested provenance. While no one was disputing the age and authenticity of the items, it was questioned whether the artifacts had been obtained in legal trade and if the seller even had the right to put them up for auction.

Princeton University professor Chika Okeke-Agulu went public with claims that the objects were looted during Nigeria’s 1960s civil war. Okeke-Agulu pointed out how the story of the objects had always said they were acquired in 1968—until they went up for auction, and Christie’s moved the date to a less-controversial 1983. Although the sale went through for $239,000, Okeke-Agulu and the Nigerian government work to continue to bring awareness to war looting. They also call for sacred objects to be returned to their native people.^[4]

6 The Velázquez “Young Immaculate”

Diego Velázquez was a 17th-century Spanish painter who has a Virgin Mary painting, The Immaculate Conception, in London’s National Gallery. In April 2017, a newly discovered work went up for auction—Retrato de Niña o Joven Inmaculada (Portrait of a Girl or Young Immaculate). It features a young girl with hands held in prayer, similar to the Immaculate Conception, leading to it being billed as “potentially an early work” by Velázquez. If it is a true Velázquez, then it likely would have been done when he was still a teenager.

This is a good example of another phenomenon around provenance uncertainty: taking a risk. Modern techniques employed by art historians today can eventually provide a degree of certainty of a work’s origins over time. But do you want to miss out on the auction now? Apparently, enough art collectors were willing to take the risk, as it sold for €8 million (approximately US$9 million) when it was sold on April 25, 2017, at the Spanish auction house Abalarte in Madrid.^[5]

5 Steve McQueen’s Rolex

The late actor Steve McQueen was the epitome of antihero cool in classic films such as Bullitt (1968), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and Papillion (1973), so who wouldn’t want to own a part of his fashion ensemble? In 2018, auction house Phillips attempted to give that chance to a lucky fan when they put his Rolex Submariner wristwatch up for sale.

Almost immediately after the auction was announced, fans pointed out a tiny problem—there was no photographic evidence of McQueen ever wearing this watch. Phillips said the watch was given by McQueen to his former stuntman, Loren James. McQueen’s estate entered the debate, disputing that the Rolex in question ever belonged to McQueen. Phillips eventually canceled the sale, saying they still believed McQueen had gifted the watch to James but conceded that they could not provide evidence that McQueen ever wore it.^[6]

4 The Van Gogh Landscape

Vincent van Gogh is one of the more recognizable names in the world of fine art, due in no small part to previously unknown works resurfacing with some regularity. The Van Gogh Museum accepts around 200 pieces for authentication every year, with approximately five each year meriting further study. And some of those do eventually get certified as authentic works of the master. This can lead some auction-goers to take a risk and bid on an unverified painting.

One such case happened in 2021 when art collector Stuart Pivar picked up what he believes to be a Van Gogh landscape painting at an auction outside of Paris. The 3′ x 3′ work is titled Auvers, 1890, after the town where Van Gogh lived in the weeks leading up to his death in July 1890. If it is eventually authenticated as a legitimate Van Gogh, it will turn out to be his largest work—and the only one painted on a square canvas. And, one can assume, Pivar will net a healthy profit on his investment.^[7]

3 The Timurid Qur’an

The Qur’an is the Islamic holy book, and in June 2020, Christie’s sold an unbelievably beautiful 15th-century copy known as the Timurid Qur’an. Between its Arabic calligraphy and its gold-flecked, colored paper, it is an incredible work of art that fetched a hefty £7 million (approximately US $9.5 million) at auction.

But that buyer had to take an incredible leap of faith on its provenance, which was unknown prior to the 1980s. While the piece is believed to have been created at the court of a Timurid prince in what is now Iran or Afghanistan, it is going to take a lot of work for the new owner to fill in the gaps in its history between the 1400s and the 1980s.^[8]

2 Counterfeit Wine

Extremely old or well-regarded bottles of wine are a natural fit for the world of high-dollar auctions. It’s also a temptation for counterfeits to make their way into auctions. In April 2021, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported Rudy Kurniawan following a conviction for wine counterfeiting. In 2006, Kurniawan was having what seemed to be a great year, netting $34 million worth of wine over two auctions.

The sales, facilitated by auction house Acker Merrall & Condit, were called into question when 22 lots of wine at another Acker auction were identified as fakes. In 2012, the FBI found a fake wine assembly line in the kitchen of Kurniawan’s Los Angeles home. And apparently, Kurniawan’s criminal acts are not unique. Wine Industry Advisor posted an article in February 2022 advising people to only buy collectible wine at charity auctions, so you can at least know your money went to a good cause if the wine turns out to be counterfeit.^[9]

1 Hobby Lobby Biblical Antiques

Steve Green is the president of arts-and-crafts chain store Hobby Lobby and the found of The Museum of the Bible. However, the museum has proved to be troublesome for Green and Hobby Lobby. In 2017, Hobby Lobby paid $3 million in fines and forfeited more than 140 ancient artifacts after the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that the pieces had been illegally imported into the United States.

Hobby Lobby has made some effort to recoup some of its losses. In 2020, they sued Christie’s over the $1.7 million sale of a tablet featuring the Epic of Gilgamesh. Hobby Lobby alleged that Christie’s didn’t do their due diligence to verify the artifact’s provenance and that the previous owner had concocted a false history for the piece. As of February 2022, Hobby Lobby has amended its complaint, adding the previous owner as a defendant.^[10]