Weird Universe Archive
June 2017
June 30, 2017
A Funky Space Reincarnation
"You and me gonna be getting down on a space bed...getting down on the Moon!"
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 30, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Sex Symbols, Science Fiction, 1970s
Hippy Sippy
Hippy Sippy consisted of tiny chocolate balls packaged in a container that looked like a hypodermic needle. The chocolate balls were sucked out through the "needle." The candy was introduced in 1968, but was pulled from shelves within a year because of popular outrage.It reminds me of the Chilly Bang! Bang! juice-filled squirt gun.
More info: Box Vox
Camden Courier-Post - Oct 19, 1968
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 30, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Drugs, Candy
June 29, 2017
Warhol Schrafft’s Commercial
In November 1968, the Manhattan restaurant chain Schrafft’s hired Andy Warhol to create a television commercial, hoping to make itself look more hip and relevant. Warhol created a one minute long commercial, promoting Schrafft’s new “Underground Sundae,” which Schrafft’s described as, "Yummy Schrafft's vanilla ice cream in two groovy heaps, with three ounces of mind-blowing chocolate sauce undulating within a mountain of pure whipped cream topped with a pulsating maraschino cherry served in a bowl as big as a boat."
Time magazine described the commercial as follows: "Onto the screen flashes a shiny red dot, which turns out to be a maraschino cherry, which turns out to sit atop a chocolate sundae, which turns out to be the focal point for a swirling phantasmagoria of color. All of which, it also turns out, is a 60-second videotape commercial for a venerable Manhattan-based restaurant chain. "The chocolate sundae," proclaims a credit line that rolls diagonally across the TV tube, was "photographed for Schrafft's by Andy Warhol.”
According to Harold H. Brayman: "The screen fills with a magenta blob, which a viewer suddenly realizes is the cherry atop a chocolate sundae. Shimmering first in puce, then fluttering in chartreuse, the colors of the background and the sundae evolve through many colors of the rainbow. Studio noises can be heard. The sundae vibrates to coughs on the soundtrack. 'Andy Warhol for a SCHRAFFT’S?' asks the off-screen voice of a lady. Answers an announcer: 'A little change is good for everybody.'"
And according to Playboy: "His recent widely discussed commercial for Schrafft’s restaurant chain was a long, voluptuous panning shot of a chocolate sundae, with 'all the mistakes TV can make left in,' the artist explained. 'It’s blurry, shady, out of focus.'" Warhol was quite pleased with the results. “‘It's fun,’ he says, ‘and really pretty, really great.’” Apparently, so was Schrafft’s, which claimed, “[W]e haven't got just a commercial. We've acquired a work of art."
Unfortunately, Schrafft’s failed to preserve the commercial, and no known copies exist. Accordingly, on Thanksgiving day 2014, Katrina Dixon & Brian L. Frye recreated Warhol's commercial, to the best of their ability. For the record, the hot fudge is homemade & based on Schrafft's own recipe.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 29, 2017 -
Comments (3)
Category: Food, Advertising, Avant Garde, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s
Vision-Dieter Glasses
The Vision-Dieter glasses were weight-loss eyeglasses, created by Arkansas entrepreneur John D. Miller who sold them for $19.95 each. They had a different lens for each eye: one brown and the other blue. Miller claimed that the different colors caused a low-level of confusion in a person's subconscious that led to a loss of appetite, and thus weight loss. In 1982 the U.S. attorney stopped the sale of the glasses because Miller hadn't registered them with the Food and Drug Administration. Also, there was no evidence they actually worked as a diet aid.
image source: Flickr
FDA employee Karen Kowlok models Vision-Dieter glasses
Newport News Daily Press - Mar 21, 1985
From the Wilmington News Journal - Aug 6, 1982:
[Miller] came upon the idea for the appetite-inhibiting lenses, he said, in one of his supermarkets. He noted that customers were attracted to shelves by certain colors. "If people could be controlled by one color," he thought, "they could be decontrolled by another."
Perhaps tinted eyeglasses could reverse the attraction to food by affecting the subconscious, Miller hypothesized. And he went to work.
The experiments began with employees of one of his enterprises, the Miller Vision Centers. Soon the research was extended to his patients.
At first, the results were mixed. He had chosen the wrong colors. Then he hit upon crimson brown and royal blue.
"It's crazy. I can't tell you exactly how, but it works," Miller said.
Soon testimonial letters were coming into Miller's office by the dozens. In virtually every case, people who wore the glasses said they weren't eating as much. He conducted control experiments with the help of a psychologist and claimed a 97 percent success rate.
Perhaps tinted eyeglasses could reverse the attraction to food by affecting the subconscious, Miller hypothesized. And he went to work.
The experiments began with employees of one of his enterprises, the Miller Vision Centers. Soon the research was extended to his patients.
At first, the results were mixed. He had chosen the wrong colors. Then he hit upon crimson brown and royal blue.
"It's crazy. I can't tell you exactly how, but it works," Miller said.
Soon testimonial letters were coming into Miller's office by the dozens. In virtually every case, people who wore the glasses said they weren't eating as much. He conducted control experiments with the help of a psychologist and claimed a 97 percent success rate.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 29, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, 1980s, Dieting and Weight Loss, Eyes and Vision
June 28, 2017
The King Midget
Wikipedia entry here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 28, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, 1940s, 1970s, Cars
Edward Seese Memorial Scholarship
When millionaire real estate investor Edward Seese died in March 1995, he left instructions in his will to fund a $4.5 million scholarship at Broward Community College. The recipients of the scholarship, he instructed, were to be high school students who earned a C average. He felt that scholarships typically went to high academic achievers, so the C students had been "left out in the cold."The scholarship still seems to be available to those who qualify.
Tallahassee Democrat - June 21, 1995
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 28, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Education, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia, 1990s
June 27, 2017
Conehead Sumo Wrestlers
1994: The Japan Sumo Association finally got around to banning the practice, apparently quite common among young sumo wrestlers, of implanting lumps of silicone beneath their scalp in order to meet the minimum height requirement of 5 feet 8 inches. The Association probably wouldn't have done anything if they hadn't become embarrassed by media reports of conehead wrestlers.Before the silicone technique became popular, some wrestlers used to hit themselves on top of their head to raise large bumps before being measured.
Morristown Daily Record - July 13, 1994
Sumo wrestler Mainoumi, before and after scalp implant
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 27, 2017 -
Comments (3)
Category: Sports, Wrestling, 1990s
Blind Man’s Penis
The full story here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 27, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Drugs, Music, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1970s, Eyes and Vision, Genitals
June 26, 2017
The Land of Bottle
Musician and composer Robert Rohe worked with the New Orleans symphony for 25 years. His most famous composition was "The Land of Bottle," which he wrote in 1958. It was a piece for 8 Coca-Cola bottles.
As the musicians blew into the bottles, a narrator described "a rocket ship trip to the other side of the moon where all of the people are bottles."
The composition enjoyed a few years of popularity, but has since fallen into obscurity. You can find the sheet music for it at Boosey & Hawkes, and a brief bio of Rohe at legacy.com.
Dec 1962: Honolulu Symphony Orchestra performing Land of Bottle
Honolulu Star-Advertiser - Dec 1, 1962
April 1959: The "bottle section" of the Liverpool Music Group, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
The Guardian - Apr 15, 1959
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 26, 2017 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music
Mystery Gadget 50
Purpose of this device revealed here.
And after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 26, 2017 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology, 1920s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
