I used to believe that the cowboys in westerns that got shot up in gunfights were actors who didn't want to live anymore. So the film makers paid their family so that they could film them being shot.
A childhood belief about films

others believed things like this
- I used to believe that an animated film meant that the film had live animals in it.— reverb
- I used to beleive that in order to rewind a film the actors would have to re-act the whole movie backwards. — movies backward
- I thought the guy who got shot at the beginning of Gunsmoke was replaced every week by a live guy.— Monica
- I used to believe that guns shot out blood because everytime somebody shot a gun in a movie you saw blood.Anon
- I used to believe that when you were fired, you were shot.— Murray
- i used to think in the song "hit me with your best shot" was really "hit me while i'm on pot" yea.... i suck!!— Donna