The President of Proctor & Gamble was contacted by the President of the Church of Satan, and notified that if he was going to support the Church of Satan then Proctor & Gamble would have to place the emblem/symbol of the church organization on the labels of each Proctor & Gamble product. It is noted that since that time, the symbol of the Church of Satan has been placed on all their labels.
Recently, on the Merv Griffith Show, a group of cultists were featured, among them, the owner of Proctor & Gamble Corp. He said that as long as the gays and other cults have come out of their closets. He was doing the same. He said that he had told Satan that if he (Satan) would help him prosper then he would give his heart and soul to him when he dies. He gave Satan all the credit for his riches.
PROCTOR & GAMBLE CORP. MANUFACTURES THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS AMONG OTHERS:
CAKE MIX: Duncan Hines Products, DIAPERS:
Pampers-Luv’s, MOUTH WASH: Scope CLEANING AIDS & DETERGENTS: Biz, Bold, Bounce, Cascade, Cheer, Comet, Dash, Dawn, Downey, Era, Gain, Joy, Mr. Clean, Oxydol, SpickNSpan, Tide, Top Job. COFFEE: Foulgers & High Point. COOKING OILS & SHORTNINGS: Crisco, Fluffo, Puritan PEANUT BUTTER: Jiffy, DEODRANTS: Secret & Sure LOTIONS: Wondra SHAMPOO: Head & Shoulders, Pert & Prell SOAPS: Camay, Coast, Ivory, Safeguard & Zest TOOTHPASTE: Gleem & Crest
If in doubt, watch for the SATANIC SYMBOL To be found on the front or back of all their products. The actual size is shown below with enlarged drawing below it. It is a tiny Ram’s horn with three sets of stars placed in such a way that if the stars of each set are joined, they form the number 666, known as the devil’s number.
Christians should always remember that if they buy any products with this symbol, they will be taking part in the support of the Church of Satan, or devil worship. We suggest that you use what you have on hand, but make sure you don’t buy any more.
Please feel free to make copies of this letter and pass them out to anyone who you feel should be informed, so that as little business as possible will go to Proctor & Gamble. Then we can easily prove to their President that there are more than enough Christians and other believers in God to put a very large dent into his profits.
This example comes from literally hundreds that have landed in my files since 1982; it was not dated or otherwise identified. All such sheets urge readers to circulate copies of the warning, and it is evident from the photocopy “static” that this is already a multigenerational copy. No Procter & Gamble (P&G) official has appeared on any of the television talk shows named on such fliers to discuss the trademark or anything else. The offending detail of P&G packaging is the cryptic trademark showing a bearded man-in-the-moon facing thirteen stars. Some “proofs” of the trademark’s alleged Satanic implication require the viewer to hold the logo up to a mirror and observe the 666 formed by the lines in the man’s beard. It’s interesting that people who examine the trademark so closely have not observed how to spell the company name correctly. The company has received hundreds of thousands of calls about its trademark, and issued explanations several times of its benign origin and innocent meaning, all to no avail in suppressing the rumor. In 1985 P&G stopped using the trademark on some of its products, retaining it only on letterheads and at the company’s corporate headquarters in Cincinnati. Several times over the years P&G has brought lawsuits against individuals and companies for spreading the rumor. An article by Dana Canedy in the New York Times of July 29, 1997, traced the history of the company’s problems with the trademark rumors and described the latest suit being brought by P&G against the Amway Corporation and several of its distributors, accusing them of spreading the Satanism rumors as a business ploy. Earlier Satanism rumors bedeviled the McDonald’s restaurant chain a decade earlier, but these eventually faded. P&G should be so lucky!
“The Madalyn Murray O’Hair Petition”
The millions of copies of this bogus warning and response form that have circulated in the United States since 1975 are nearly identical, except for variant spellings of Ms. O’Hair’s name and different versions of the FCC address. This flier came from a church in Ohio. The FCC did indeed process a petition numbered RM-2493 submitted in 1974, which asked the commission to suspend the assignment of franchises for public television stations until the government could study the question of whether religious groups were getting too many of the channels. The FCC denied this petition the following year, and shortly afterwards letters and telephone calls began to come in from people who thought Madalyn Murray O’Hair had been involved. She was not, and she has never submitted any sort of petition to the FCC. The commission has no authority to prohibit religious broadcasting, and it certainly cannot regulate religious programs in the schools. Despite press releases and even a recorded explanation on the FCC voice-mail system, the petitions continue to flow in at the rate of thousands, even millions per year; the tide of letters ebbs and flows, but never stops. The FCC eventually received permission from the U.S. Postal Service to destroy all letters marked 2493 without opening them, and since most of the mail-in forms specify that the sender should write “Petition 2493” in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope, a great deal of time and effort has been saved. Considering the amount of postage sold to support this bogus campaign, it seems that the government has come out ahead on the deal. Rumors circulate among some Christian groups that atheists themselves are the ones printing and distributing the fliers about the fake petition just to make Christians look foolish. Atheist groups deny the charge. It’s like a holy war of rumors and legends, with the FCC futilely trying to bring an end to the conflict.
“The Veterans’ Insurance Dividend”
PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO YOUR PARENT, OR FRIEND, IF NOT APPLICABLE TO YOURSELF
Insurance Refund For World War 2 Veterans
A Bill was passed in Congress (CSSB 102) recently which will give all World War 2 Veterans a dividend of 65 cents per $1,000 of their GI insurance for each month of service. This refund is due regardless of whether or not the insurance is still carried. THE DIVIDEND CANNOT BE RECEIVED UNLESS IT IS REQUESTED.
The Veterans Administration is urging all WW 2 Vets to apply regardless of whether any insurance is held. The V.A. will check for eligibility. The refunds are not going to make anyone rich but a couple of hundred dollars is always nice. For example, a Vet who had $10,000 in insurance would be entitled to dividends of $79.00 for 12 months service. $156.00 for 24 months, $234.00 for 36 months, etc. The form below contains all the required information. Please use it and also pass on the information to friends. The bill has not been widely publicized so please help spread the word.
TO: VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
REGIONAL OFFICE AND INSURANCE CENTER
P.O. BOX 8079
PHILADELPHIA PA 19101
Dear Sir or Madam,
I, ______________hereby apply for a dividend of 65 cents for each $1,000 of GI insurance for each month of service. Below is specific information.
Name______________________________________________________
Address __________________________________________________
City, State, Zip _________________________________________
Social Security #_________________________________________
Serial Number ____________________________________________
Branch of Service_________________________________________
Date of Service___________________________________________
Date of Discharge_________________________________________
Sincerely,
A frequently reappearing flier warning veterans not to miss out on a bonus allegedly owed to them by the government. Such bogus warnings have appeared at intervals since the mid-1940s, and each of the VA’s 58 regional offices around the country has had to deal with the problem. During what the VA calls “active hoax periods” the Philadelphia center alone may get from 10,000 to 15,000 letters a week from vets hoping to cash in on the special insurance dividend. All they get in return is a postcard with the bad news. Here’s t
he complete text of the VA’s postcard, sent to me by Professor Thomas Foote at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, who submitted a claim in 1992 just to see what would happen:
A false and misleading rumor sweeping the nation is plaguing us at the Veterans Administration and leading thousands of veterans such as you to write us requesting dividends on insurance that you had in force while on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Congress did not pass any new law giving veterans a dividend based on the amount of months their insurance was in force while on active duty. The information you received regarding such a dividend is a hoax.
Also false is the rumor that individuals who served in the military after 1965 and were insured under the SGLI (Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance) program are entitled to a refund. There have never been any dividends, rebates or refunds due to surplus funds in the SGLI program.
You can help us to eliminate these rumors by passing this information along to any of your friends or to any veteran’s group to which you belong.
Thank you.
Veterans Administration
The VA authorities really ought to correct their wording in the second paragraph of the debunking message. The phrase “the amount of months” should read “the number of months.” I wonder if I could get a dividend for pointing this out.
21
Mistaken Identifications
An experience that happens to everyone at some time or other is mistaking a stranger for someone you know. For example, in my first couple of years teaching at the University of Idaho, there was a guy in another department who people seemed to think looked a lot like me. We even had some matching coats and ties in our wardrobes, plus similar short haircuts, so colleagues and students were constantly confusing us and starting conversations that made absolutely no sense, since we barely knew each other and our paths seldom crossed, even on that small, friendly campus. Friends kept telling me that I hadn’t seemed quite myself when they saw me at such-and-such a place last week, and then I’d realize that once again it was my double from Poly Sci or wherever whom they had met, since I certainly had not been where they thought they had seen me at the time.
A variation on this theme is failing to recognize someone whom you ought to know. Again, as a young instructor, I was mistaken a few times in my opening class sessions for a fellow student instead of as the teacher in charge. It was gratifying in a way, but still mutually embarrassing for the parties involved. A friend on another campus told me that he had this conversation once with a young student to whom he happened to speak on campus early in the fall semester. She: “Well, have you seen your advisor yet?” He: “I don’t have an advisor, I have advisees.” (Their paths parted at this point, and he was not sure that she got his meaning.)
Such experiences are bound to inspire anecdotes, that is, personal stories of typical true experiences. And anecdotes sometimes grow into legends, that is, longer versions of such stories that become stereotyped in style and then travel from place to place and person to person. A typical personal anecdote of mistaken identities might be about failing to recognize the guest of honor at some event and then sticking one’s foot in one’s mouth. I read one time about a young investment banker who chatted with a distinguished older gentleman before a guest lecture at his company, even offering the stranger some investment advice. The stranger turned out to be the Nobel Prize winner in economics who had been brought in to address the group. Another story I’ve heard is about a guy who forgot to bring any kind of writing instrument or notepad to the meeting with government officials for which he had been scheduled by his company. He asked a “secretary” to fetch him what he needed, which she quietly did; later it turned out that she was a secretary—the Secretary of the (whatever) department in the government, who had been waiting in the conference room to address the visitor. As such stories are told and retold, new details are added, background and local color is elaborated, and the stories take on a life of their own. The classic in this genre is probably the one about the person at a reception in London who realizes that the woman to whom he is speaking has a familiar face, but he just cannot place her. So he asks, “And what are you doing nowadays?” She replies, “Oh, I’m still being the Queen of England’s sister.”
There are not many urban legends based on mistaken identities, but those that do exist are among the most widely told and believed “true” stories of our time.
* * *
“All My Children”
Every elementary-school teacher has probably heard the story about the teacher who, while on a bus, thought she recognized the man sitting a few seats in front of her.
“Hello there, Mr. Johnson,” she said, but the man didn’t respond.
She kept calling out until—with everyone on the bus now looking at them—the man finally turned around. Then she saw that she didn’t know him after all.
“Sorry,” she said. “I thought you were the father of one of my children.”
* * *
“The Elevator Incident”
This may be one of those apocryphal stories that acquire credibility through its many retellings. But the fact that it’s even circulating says something about the times.
The version that Joanne Stichman of West Los Angeles heard goes like this: Three women visiting Manhattan for the first time were invited to a bridge party in a high-rise building. With stories of muggings and rapes filling their heads, they were somewhat apprehensive about getting there safely.
The doorman admitted them and they entered the elevator, pushing the button for the 18th floor. But instead of going up, the elevator descended to the basement where, to their shock, a muscular, unsmiling man entered with a large dog.
The uneasy silence was suddenly broken when the man said, “Sit!” The women fell to the floor. He looked at them in amazement. “I meant the dog,” he said.
Recently, a 54-year-old local Japanese woman from Lana’i left the [Hawaiian] Islands for the very first time to join relatives on a vacation in Las Vegas. The bright lights and big city didn’t seem to faze her, but apparently she had some rather curious notions about Mainland blacks.
Boarding an unoccupied hotel elevator, on the way back to her room, she was startled to see the elevator doors suddenly reopen, allowing two black men on. The elevator stood motionless for a moment as she edged nervously toward the back. Finally, one of the men told the other to “Hit the floor,” then stood laughing hysterically as the Lana’i grandmother spread herself prone on the elevator floor. Obviously, she thought this was the end, just like on TV. When the two men finally stopped laughing, they apologized and helped her up off the floor.
The next day, when the Lanaian went to check out, she discovered her bill had already been paid. A large bouquet of flowers was left for her with a note: “Sorry, and thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a long, long time.” It was signed: Lionel Richie.
A terrified tourist mistook Eddie Murphy for a mugger in a posh hotel, collapsed in fear at his feet and begged him not to hurt her.
But the kind-hearted comic felt so sorry for the jittery German visitor that he even paid her hotel bill.
Gisela Klein, 48, was waiting for the elevator to take her to the ground floor of Manhattan’s luxurious Ritz Carlton where she was planning to meet her husband for dinner.
As she waited, Murphy and his bodyguards appeared from their rooms and stood next to her.
Klein was so nerve-wracked by New York’s fearsome reputation as a hotbed of crime that she was convinced the Hollywood superstar and his burly security men were muggers.
And when Eddie asked her what floor she wanted, the petrified German fell to her knees sobbing, and begged them to spare her.
Murphy says: “At first I thought this lady was making a joke, but she was terrified.”
Red-faced Gisela reveals: “After a few seconds I realized they weren’t going to rob me.
“They were laughing and thought I was joking.
�
�I was so ashamed. Eddie Murphy is one of my favorites, but I didn’t recognize him.”
But easy-going Eddie wasn’t fazed by the embarrassing mix-up.
When Gisela and her husband later checked out after their week-long stay, they found the highhearted comedian had paid their $3,500 hotel bill in full.
Eddie even left a note for her, saying: “Madam, our encounter was one of the nicest and funniest moments in my life. If only all women would fall at me [sic] feet like you did.
“But since you didn’t have as much fun as we had, I have paid your hotel bill for you.”
Perhaps most damaging to his reputation was what Murphy calls “The Elevator Story.” He explained: “There’s a story I was on an elevator with 10 bodyguards. An old lady was there. One bodyguard said, ‘Hit the floor,’ as in ‘press the button.’ The old lady got scared and dropped to the floor. And we were so embarrassed, and we helped her up, and I sent her flowers and paid her hotel bill, and it never happened! Here’s the clincher: Whenever I go, ‘No, it never happened.’ they always say, ‘Yes it did. My cousin was there.’”
“The Elevator Incident” is one of the most popular international urban legends of the 1980s and ’90s, told in innumerable “true” versions, and repeated by countless broadcasters and columnists. The first example lacks the black celebrity that soon became a fixed detail in the legend; it is from Steve Harvey’s “Around the Southland” column published on July 10, 1981, in the Los Angeles Times. Notice that already then Harvey alluded to “many retellings,” identified the story as “apocryphal,” and cited an oral source. In The Choking Doberman I traced Reggie Jackson versions of the legend that circulated in 1982 and 1983, eventually replaced by Lionel Richie versions, as in the second example quoted above from Honolulu Magazine for June 1989. The humor in most of these stories centers on the women—either foreign or from the boondocks—failing to recognize the celebrity. If a dog is present in the Richie versions, the singer may say “Sit Lady,” which echoes the title of one of his popular songs, “Lady.” In dogless versions of the story one of the black men may say “Hit fo’,” meaning “Hit the button for the fourth floor.” Other black celebrities named in American versions of the story include Wilt Chamberlain, “Mean Joe” Greene, Rosie Grier, Arsenio Hall, Lionel Hampton, Larry Holmes, Michael Jackson, “Magic” Johnson, Richard Pryor, Lou Rawls, O. J. Simpson, and Stevie Wonder (traveling with a Seeing Eye dog). Sometimes Harry Belafonte is mentioned in versions from abroad. But in recent years, Eddie Murphy has become far and away the most popular person to be mentioned in the story; the quoted example above is typical of reinvented and much-inflated tabloid versions; it was published in the Star for November 21, 1996. Murphy’s denial of the story is quoted from an interview in Parade published on June 9, 1996. A characteristic detail of the Murphy versions is sending the victim a dozen long-stemmed roses with a $100 bill wrapped around each stem. In a column by black journalist Joseph H. Brown in the Tampa Tribune for July 14, 1996, a Lionel Richie version of “The Elevator Incident” was quoted from a lecture given by a black professor from the University of Miami. Brown identified the story as an “urban folk tale” and commented, “I hope the good professor didn’t get his degrees with this kind of anecdotal research.” Brown also mentioned the Parade interview with Eddie Murphy and added to the list of celebrities named in the story Denzel Washington, Bill Cosby, and Mike Tyson. The background of “The Elevator Incident” legend is probed further in the next two items.
Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends Page 40