Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends

The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story

American Folklore: An Encyclopedia

The Baby Train

Curses! Broiled Again!

The Mexican Pet

The Choking Doberman

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

The Study of American Folklore

Readings in American Folklore

The Colossal Book of Urban Legends

Jan Harold Brunvand

Copyright © 1999 by Jan Harold Brunvand

All rights reserved

“The Nude in the RV”: reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster from TheWeekend Camper by Dan and Inez Morris. Copyright © 1973 by Dan and Inez Morris. “The Arrest,” “The Bedbug Letter,” and “The Flying Kitten”: © 1986, 1987, and 1993 the Washington Post. Reprinted with permission. “The Blind Man” and “The Blind Date”: Permission granted by Ann Landers and Creators Syndicate.”The Videotaped Theft” and “The Bullet Baby” are taken from a “Dear Abby” column by Abigail Van Buren. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved. Excerpt in “Urban Legend Parodies” © 1990 by Dave Barry. Reprinted by permission of the author. “Alligators in the Sewers” copyright © 1982 by the New York Times. Reprinted by permission.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

Chapter opening illustrations as well as illustrations on the following Chapters by Michael Wood: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 4, Chapter 6, Chapter 8, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Epilogue

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brunvand, Jan Harold.
Too good to be true : the colossal book of urban legends / Jan
Harold Brunvand.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-393-04734-2
1. Urban folklore—United States. 2. Legends—United States. 3. Urban folklore. 4. Legends. I. Title.
GR105.B715 1999
398.2'0973'091732—dc21                  99-17562

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 10 Coptic street, London WC1A 1PU

Scholar Jan Brunvand calls tales of fatal
Pop Rocks candy & hook-handed
molesters this kind of “legend.”

Question: What is urban?
(Topic on
Jeopardy,
October 24, 1997)