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  • Betty Crocker on Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

    (#1) Betty Crocker

    You know Betty for her delicious cake mixes and pie crusts that allow every novice home baker to replicate her recipes, but alas, she never set foot in a real kitchen. 

    In 1921, a promotional contest for Gold Medal flour received thousands of responses and a seemingly endless stream of questions about baking. The name Betty Crocker was created to personalize responses to consumer inquiries. 

    Why that name? According to the company:

    The surname Crocker was chosen to honor a popular, recently retired director of the company, William G. Crocker, whose family name had long been associated with milling. Betty was chosen simply as a friendly sounding name. 

    To create a realistic signature, Gold Medal asked female employees to submit a mock signature for their made-up baker. The winning version is still used today.

    Betty's fame grew into a line of baking products, a radio baking show, regional cooking schools and a collection of recipe books.

  • Mulan on Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

    (#7) Mulan

    • Once Upon a Time, Mulan, Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's 'Mulan', Mulan II, The World of Mulan, Mulan, Disney Princess

    Mulan, or Hua Mulan as she’s known in China and outside of Disney movies, is a Chinese warrior princess who disguised herself as a man to fight in combat. Or is she? 

    Mulan's story, which comes from an ancient 300-word poem Ballad of Mulan that was later expanded into a book during the Ming Dynasty, tells of female warrior who disguises herself as a man, serves 12 years in the military and returns home a decorated soldier. 

    Unfortunately, there has been little to no evidence found of a Hua Mulan existing during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. She's treated more as a legend than a historical person. In fact, Exemplary Women — a compilation of biographies of women during the Northern Wei dynasty — doesn't even mention her name.

  • Alan Smithee on Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

    (#12) Alan Smithee

    You might not be familiar with the name Alan Smithee but this famous director's pseudonym has appeared in hundreds of films over years such as Twilight Zone: The MovieHellraiser: Bloodline, and Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off.

    The tradition allegedly started with the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter after the bad flicks two directors refused to have their name associated with it and the Director's Guild credited the movie to the fake name Alan Smithee. The pseudonym was used on a variety of films until 1997. 

    Why would a director use this fake name? Because they don't want their real name associated with the project, which isn't a very good sign. So if you ever see that a film is directed by Alan Smithee, you might want to take a pass. 

  • Aunt Jemima on Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

    (#5) Aunt Jemima

    The friendly face on syrup bottles feels real but an actual "Aunt Jemima" is nowhere to be found. The character is based on the common stereotype of the mammy archetype, a character in minstrel shows in the late 1800s.

    The R. T. Davis Milling Company, the brand behind Aunt Jemima, then hired former slave Nancy Green as a spokesperson for the Aunt Jemima pancake mix in 1890, the first of several different women who would be the face behind the brand. 

    In 2014, responding to a $2 billion lawsuit by Green's family, Quaker Oats, the company that now owns the brand, said:

    "The image symbolizes a sense of caring, warmth, hospitality and comfort and is neither based on, nor meant to depict any one person."

  • William Tell on Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

    (#3) William Tell

    • William Tell: The Legend, Guillaume Tell, Guillaume Tell

    According to legend, Swiss folk hero William Tell famously shot an arrow off his son's head. The event allegedly happened in 1307 A.D. when a representative of the Duke of Austria ordered Tell and his son to remove their hats and Tell refused. The official ordered Tell to shoot an apple off of his son's head at 120 paces.

    After Tell did so, the official asked why Tell held a second arrow, to which Tell responded, "If the first arrow had killed my son, I would have shot the second at you and I would not have missed."

    Tell was ordered to be imprisoned in the dungeon but famously escaped by leaping out of the boat. Tell promptly led a revolt which overthrew the Austrians and helped establish Switzerland.

    Only, scholars now believe Tell was a fabrication. There is no evidence for Tell as a historical individual, let alone for the apple-shot story, according to historians since the second half of the 19th century.

    That hasn't stopped Switzerland from using an image of Tell's crossbow as an official seal of all Swiss-made exports.

  • Sherlock Holmes on Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

    (#11) Sherlock Holmes

    • Sherlock, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes, The Red-Headed League, Comedy Playhouse, Elementary, Terror by Night, Murder by Decree, The Woman in Green, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, O Xangô de Baker Street, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady, Sherlock Holmes 3, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Sherlock Holmes, Crazy House, I Am Bob, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, Without a Clue, The Masks of Death, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, Sherlock Holmes in Washington, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Silver Blaze, Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear, The Great Mouse Detective, The Spider Woman, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Sherlock Holmes in New York, Sherlock: Case of Evil, Incident at Victoria Falls, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, The Scarlet Claw, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Speckled Band, Pursuit to Algiers, The Pearl of Death, The Sign of Four, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Dressed to Kill, Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Rembrandt, 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns, The Sleeping Cardinal, Sherlock Holmes Universe

    Here's a clue about legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes — he was made up. Created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Guinness World Records lists Sherlock Holmes as the "most portrayed movie character" in history, which has lead many to believe that he was a real person. 

    And while Holmes is purely fictional, it's thought he was based upon Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Conan Doyle’s medical school professors. Doyle wrote to Bell: “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes and though in the stories I have the advantage of being able to place him in all sorts of dramatic positions, I do not think that his analytical work is in the least an exaggeration of some effects which I have seen you produce in the outpatient ward.”

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Marvel (Baimarvel) is one of two major American comic-book filmmakers, with rights to a fair number of adaptations of the Superhero Zhi, and Dao’s heroes are self-contained, iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the incredible hulk make up the so-called “revenge of the four, ” part of a larger “magical universe” that consists of magical comic book characters.

This randomly generated tool collates 12 entries and records 12 historical heroes. They’re all virtual. They don’t have to be traceable. Many of the characters in this tool, including Betty Crocker, Robin Hood, William Tell, Spinal Tap, Aunt Jemima, Paul Bunyan, and more, who are believed to be familiar to us.

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