When does exaggeration become a lie?

[Loverly]

OK -in the grand scheme of things this is nothing-but it bothers me.

My part time coworker "Sue" is a retired schoolteacher who has had a few seemingly "wow" life experiences.. I've always believed her stories.We get along great and have a lot in common.


Today, the boss had copied a picture of a well known food product that has a darling girl on the label-and co-worker - Sue-lookes a lot like her-its their blond corkscrew hair. He brought picture by her desk saying how much she reminded him of this little girl. We all thought this product was just made in our state, in the large city that Sue and I grew up in.

Sue then launched into a story of how she won a contest when she was a little girl to be on their label(this was 45 some odd years ago when the product was launched). She won just a token amount $$-they took her photograph and then an artist painted her picture for the label. We all were "wowIng" over her story.

I relate this to DH after work today and he kind of rolls his eyes, and then I admit it does seem rather too unbelievable.

So I Googled the product and the girl on the label.

Happened exactly the year Sue said-but it was a child actress in new York (who went on to movies)-the photo shows the girl holding the bread on the Howdy Doody show. It is a NATIONAL brand (bread)-though there were bakeries all over the US baking this bread.

I'm just blown away how easily this story(lie) came out of her!!!!

 

[N&B'smom]

I'd call her on it, but that's just me. I can't stand it when someone lies to me.

Shelby

P.S. That's not exaggerating, it's lying.

 

[okeydokey]

That's more than exaggeration, that's an out and out lie.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

That would be a flat out lie. In order to make up something so outrageous, I would say this person is not playing with a full deck.

 

[Tine731]

Do you think she was just putting you on to see if you bought the story?

 

[DisneyMissy318]

My Dad has a first cousin who was photographed for the bread wrapper as well. She entered a local contest - had stills taken, etc. I've seen the black and white picture of her holding the slice of bread. The way I heard it was that the pictures of the local winners were sent to "corporate" and they chose the winner. (It was not my Dad's cousin from podunk WV!)

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

I would seriously question a deeper relationship with this lady. Trust is the most basic requirement for a relationship and this you've established is not possible.

I don't know why she should lie like this. Makes you go hmm...

 

[CathrynRose]

Print it out and leave it on her desk....anonymously.

That's not an exaggeration - it *is* a lie.

 

[Loverly]

My Dad has a first cousin who was photographed for the bread wrapper as well. She entered a local contest - had stills taken, etc. I've seen the black and white picture of her holding the slice of bread. The way I heard it was that the pictures of the local winners were sent to "corporate" and they chose the winner. (It was not my Dad's cousin from podunk WV!)

I'm thinking she was a local winner , and has exaggeratted the story.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

I don't like liars either. i call people on it. =(

That's weird. She sounds sick

 

[shenanigans]

I'm thinking she was a local winner , and has exaggeratted the story.

That sounds likely. I'd call her on it.

 

[Stacerita]

Its a lie.

 

[Cindyluwho]

Something like that happened to me - only kind of backwards. Long story...

Somehow, I have no idea how (I SWEAR!!) a rumor started around that a local celebrity was my father. Not just any darned local celeb, but the one and only J.P. Patches. I had NO idea until one day at school I saw a small figurine of JP on the school secretary's desk and I commented on how much I liked it. She laughed and said something like, "Oh, he's your Dad isn't he?" WTH??? Well, come to find out one of the teachers had told her that. So I ask the teacher, wondering if the story came from my DD? No, she had heard it in the crowd when she was watching the local parade and we were driving JP in our car for the parade.

Seems innocent enough but....fast forward to this year, my DD is a freshman in High School. She takes the stage during Cheer tryouts and the cheer coach says, "Here's a little known fact about Val. Her Grandpa is J.P. Patches" She was freaked!
Now, the cheer coach insisted that I told her that YEARS AGO and that she was only passing on what I had told her. ummmmmm, I know for sure who my Dad is and it ain't J.P.

BTW-Chris Wedes (aka J.P. Patches) thinks the whole thing is hilarious, as does my father. still.....

 

[LuvOrlando]

-

 

[DISUNC]

OK -in the grand scheme of things this is nothing-but it bothers me.

My part time coworker "Sue" is a retired schoolteacher who has had a few seemingly "wow" life experiences.. I've always believed her stories.We get along great and have a lot in common.


Today, the boss had copied a picture of a well known food product that has a darling girl on the label-and co-worker - Sue-lookes a lot like her-its their blond corkscrew hair. He brought picture by her desk saying how much she reminded him of this little girl. We all thought this product was just made in our state, in the large city that Sue and I grew up in.

Sue then launched into a story of how she won a contest when she was a little girl to be on their label(this was 45 some odd years ago when the product was launched). She won just a token amount $$-they took her photograph and then an artist painted her picture for the label. We all were "wowIng" over her story.

I relate this to DH after work today and he kind of rolls his eyes, and then I admit it does seem rather too unbelievable.

So I Googled the product and the girl on the label.

Happened exactly the year Sue said-but it was a child actress in new York (who went on to movies)-the photo shows the girl holding the bread on the Howdy Doody show. It is a NATIONAL brand (bread)-though there were bakeries all over the US baking this bread.

I'm just blown away how easily this story(lie) came out of her!!!!

Sounds a bit, KOO KOO FOR COCOA PUFFS to me!

But did I ever tell you Disers that I was soooooooooooooooo adorable as a baby (and still so, as admitted in many social circles) That I was chosen to be the Coppertone kid. The one who has the puppy pulls down the back of my bathing suit, revealing that 'natural" tan, and perfect baby behind.
Only they ("The Man") decided not to use me because the LIMEGREEN hair may have been a 'distraction"



Now THATS AN ' Exageration'!

My Hair didnt turn lime until Puberty!

 

[PrincessKitty1]

I'm thinking she was a local winner , and has exaggeratted the story.

Yes, OR her parents told her the company used her picture for the painting, so as not to disappoint her re: not winning the contest. I could see this happening.

Sounds fairly harmless even if it's an out-and-out lie. I wouldn't call her on it--it's not like she's making up awful things about you and your co-workers!

 

[Barb D]

It sounds like there were many Little Miss Sunbeams in various regions, and the model changed over time. Maybe Sue was one of those winners; perhaps she even modeled for the wrapper at one time. Why not ask her more about it, as an interested friend? What kinds of things did she do as Little Miss Sunbeam? Where did she travel? Did she ever pose directly for Ellen Segner?


http://www.flowersfoods.com/FFC_CompanyInfo/FlowersFoodsFAQs/index.cfm


Q. What is the name of the original Little Miss Sunbeam?

A. No one knows the name of the little girl who inspired this well-loved white bread brand. In 1942, Quality Bakers of America (QBA) hired Ellen Segner, a New York artist, to create a bread trademark that housewives would find irresistible. As the story goes, Segner spotted a girl in a park in New York City, sketched her likeness, and used the sketch as the basis for Little Miss Sunbeam. Sunbeam is a trademark owned by QBA, a bakery cooperative. In 1944, Flowers became the sixth bakery in the United States to sell white bread under the Sunbeam brand. For more information on Little Miss Sunbeam, visit the QBA site at www.qba.com and www.sunbeambread.com.

http://www.baeslers.com/news_press04_07_08.html
...
To bring Little Miss Sunbeam to life, various bakers of Sunbeam Bread across the country held contests during the 1950s and 1960s to find wholesome, happy little girls who looked just like the girl on the bread package. The winners represented the product at fairs and other events around the region. One such contest was held in 1953 by Purity Bakery of Evansville.
...
I looked a lot like the girl on the package."

Apparently the folks at Purity Bakery agreed, because the photo secured Brenda a place in the competition. "We went there and I remember holding up the bread and smiling, all dressed up in my Sunbeam dress and with my hair in curls." ...

...Unfortunately for Brenda and her mother, the judges chose another girl as the Purity Bakery winner. Of course everyone in Brenda's family agreed that she looked much more like Miss Sunbeam than the winner. ...Brenda Williams never found out what it was like to be a brand icon, and that may be just as well. An attempt to track down other winners of the Miss Sunbeam contests found at least one little girl who didn't like it very much. In 1955 at age five, Patty Michaels was selected as Little Miss Sunbeam for a baker in the New York area. Patty soon tired of her Sunbeam duties, which included numerous personal appearances and strict oversight of her public image. She told her mother she didn't want to do it anymore. Her mother said she didn't have to, so she quit. Patty went on to become something of a child star, landing a part as one of the von Trapp children in the original Broadway production of "The Sound of Music."


http://www.americanartarchives.com/segner.htm

Photo from Quality Bakers of America (19??) Segner - 018
NOTE: a press release (undated) states that Segner is posing with the current model for Miss Sunbeam, six-year-old Donna Kay Ericksen of Champaign, Illinois.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Sounds a bit, KOO KOO FOR COCOA PUFFS to me!

But did I ever tell you Disers that I was soooooooooooooooo adorable as a baby (and still so, as admitted in many social circles) That I was chosen to be the Coppertone kid. The one who has the puppy pulls down the back of my bathing suit, revealing that 'natural" tan, and perfect baby behind.
Only they ("The Man") decided not to use me because the LIMEGREEN hair may have been a 'distraction"



Now THATS AN ' Exageration'!

My Hair didnt turn lime until Puberty!

Ummm, I thought that was a girl on the Coppertone ads!

Something you want to tell us??


hehehehehehehe

 

[Loverly]

Barb-thanks for your links! She probably did win the local contest-but she said nothing happened after she was photographed

I had found this link-





Avid fans of femme pop will be familiar with Patty Michaels from the trio of excellent records she released in the mid-1960s. But those discs marked a mere moment in a showbiz career that began before she could walk, and continued into the 1980s. Patty's CV includes Broadway, Vegas, TV, movies … and bread wrappers, as John Grecco and Phil Milstein reveal in this Spectropop exclusive.

Patty Michaels began her show business career at an age when most kids are still getting acquainted with mother's milk. "I started modeling when I was about five weeks old," the Astoria, Queens native recently told Spectropop. "By the time I was two, I was the top baby model" at the prestigious Harry Conover Agency.

Through her modeling work Patty caught the eye of Sunbeam Bakeries, who were in search of a "living mascot". Thus, in 1955, at age 5, she was selected as Little Miss Sunbeam, her likeness slapped on millions of bread wrappers throughout the greater New York area. In addition Little Miss Sunbeam was sent out on innumerable personal appearances, usually arriving, whether at supermarket opening or hospital visit, in a customized red Thunderbird convertible. For many of these appearances Patty was joined by another member of Sunbeam's promotional team, the clown Sir Clacky Wack. Sir Clacky Wack was embodied by Edwin Alberian, who'd previously played another clown, Clarabelle, on The Howdy Doody Show (after Bob Keeshan, the originator of the role, left to launch his own kiddie series, Captain Kangaroo). "I was afraid of Sir Clacky Wack," Patty recalls, but then again "I was scared of all clowns." Fact is, "he was a very nice man."



Well I'll be a dirty bird! Patty plays telephone with George Gobel and Sir Clacky Wack.



Patty as
That Sunbeam Girl.



http://www.spectropop.com/PattyMichaels/index.htm


Look at her picture on the link

 

[JodyLynC]

Some people view their lives and being so bland that they sometimes say things to make themselves appear more exciting. Later she might have thought "Why did I say such a thing?"

I wouldn't call her on it. She didn't hurt anyone. She just tried to make her life seem more exciting. No biggie.