Category:
1930s
1930s
Underworld Lingo, 1930
Some of these look pretty dubious.Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 07, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Languages, Slang, 1930s
Pine Needle Skiing
Pine needle skiing was introduced in the 1930s in an attempt to make skiing a year-round activity. I don't think it survived long past the 30s. This account of the sport, written by Newton F. Tolman for The Atlantic (Feb 1957 issue), explains why:Skiers just couldn't wait for next winter to come, and some misguided fanatic had discovered pine needles were slippery. Being in the ski business, we felt obliged to go along with the idea. As I remember it, a couple of us outstripped the field, having cheated by gluing celluloid to our ski bottoms.
All known technique was useless. The only way to turn was to jump. You had to fend off the pine trees with your poles. We ended up not only bleeding and bruised, but completely black. Dives into pine needles encrusted everything but our eyeballs with dirt, pitch, and sweat. It really combined two sports - skiing and tar-and-feathering.
All known technique was useless. The only way to turn was to jump. You had to fend off the pine trees with your poles. We ended up not only bleeding and bruised, but completely black. Dives into pine needles encrusted everything but our eyeballs with dirt, pitch, and sweat. It really combined two sports - skiing and tar-and-feathering.
The video shows a pine needle ski jump in New Hampshire, 1935:
The images show people skiing at the Pine Needle Ski Slope which opened in Los Angeles in 1939:
source: LA Public Library
source: Vintage LA
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 05, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Sports, 1930s
The Gnathograph
The Gnathograph, or 'dental articulator', was the invention of Los Angeles dental surgeon Beverly McCollum. He was also the founder, in 1926, of the Gnathologic Society.The name 'Gnathograph' derived from 'gnathology,' this being the study of the jaw and masticatory system, from the greek word 'gnathos' meaning 'jaw'.
"The formidable contraption shown in the mouth of Miss Pearl Nord is a gnathograph, invented by Dr. Beverly B. McCollum of Los Angeles and demonstrated before the chicago Dental Society. It records direction of bite and fit of teeth and accurately guides a dentist in straightening crooked teeth or fitting inlays, crowns, bridges and plates."
image source: Agi Haines
The band Femur used the image above from Popular Science as the cover art for their album Red Marks.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 03, 2021 -
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Category: Inventions, Patents, 1930s, Teeth
The Tax Centinels
April 1938: Students at Renselaer Polytechnic Institute managed to acquire almost all the pennies in the town of Troy, New York — around 250,000 pennies in total. They did this by first going around store-to-store claiming they needed pennies for a "penny-ante poker game." Then they went to the banks and purchased their entire supply of pennies. Since each bank was unaware that the same thing was occurring at all the other banks, they happily sold the students all the pennies they had.As a result, the town of Troy suddenly discovered that it was in the grip of a "penny famine." Shopkeepers found themselves unable to make change. And more significantly, they found it difficult to charge the state sales tax.
This had been the point of the stunt. It had been organized by a group of students calling themselves the "Tax Centinels" in order to "focus public attention on the taxes which they claim account for 25 per cent of the cost of all necessities of life."
Having cornered all the pennies, the students went into the town the next day and began making purchases, using pennies to pay for one-quarter of whatever the cost of the item was. It was a bit like the time-honored stunt of paying fines with pennies.
Philadelphia Inquirer - Apr 6, 1938
The movement quickly spread to other colleges, so that other college towns were soon beset by penny famines. New members of the Tax Centinels were required to take the following pledge:
To help fight the growth of taxes which now consume 25 cents out of every dollar spent by the average person, I hereby endorse the policies of this non-partisan, non-political organization knwon as the Tax CENTinels.
It shall be the purpose of this organization to focus public attention on the evils of the practice of keeping concealed taxes and to awaken in the public consciousness a realization that 70 per cent of all taxes now collected by more than 175,000 separate taxing bodies in the United States are obtained through secret levies tacked on to the price of necessities we all must buy daily—food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, and semi-luxuries.
Since the average man does not realize the inroads made upon his purse by these vicious hidden taxes and that he himself pays the major costs of the government instead of the Rockefellers, Morgans and du Ponts, I hereby pledge myself to pay 25% of the price of all purchases in pennies in order to dramatize the situation to the end that it may be remedied.
It shall be the purpose of this organization to focus public attention on the evils of the practice of keeping concealed taxes and to awaken in the public consciousness a realization that 70 per cent of all taxes now collected by more than 175,000 separate taxing bodies in the United States are obtained through secret levies tacked on to the price of necessities we all must buy daily—food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, and semi-luxuries.
Since the average man does not realize the inroads made upon his purse by these vicious hidden taxes and that he himself pays the major costs of the government instead of the Rockefellers, Morgans and du Ponts, I hereby pledge myself to pay 25% of the price of all purchases in pennies in order to dramatize the situation to the end that it may be remedied.
Wisconsin State Journal - Apr 11, 1938
As far as I can tell, the Tax Centinel movement lasted a month or two before fizzling out. But it seems to have been symptomatic of a widespread popular discontent at the time over the sales tax. See, for instance, our earlier post about the guy who in 1939 took a case all the way to the supreme court over his indigation at having been, in his mind, unfairly charged one-half cent of sales tax.
More info: "Tax Centinels," Star and Lamp (Pi Kappa Phi newsletter) - May 3, 1938. Page 4.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 30, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Money, 1930s, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia, Pranks
Captain Yancey and His Fabulous Autogyro
Source of clipping: Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa) 03 Jul 1931, Fri Page 1
Good article here.
The Pitcairn PCA-2 autogyro was developed in 1931 and proved to be a reliable, unique aircraft. The rotor at its top was unpowered and it flew more like a fixed wing aircraft than a helicopter, based on the power from its radial engine on the nose. Once at speed, the rotor spun based on aerodynamic forces alone thus generating lift. It was an amazing sight and attracted crowds wherever it flew. By April of 1931, the autogyro had flown across the United States at the hands of John M. Miller, had landed on the White House lawn (by test pilot Jim Ray), and had soared to a new altitude record of 18,415 feet (this being Amelia Earhart’s record).
Seizing upon the press interest in the design, the Champion Spark Plug company purchased one and painted the sides with their logo and named it “Miss Champion”. It was the perfect flying billboard. After hiring Captain Lewis “Lew” Yancey, a former Naval Lieutenant and USCG officer who was a maritime captain, they directed that he fly the nation on an advertising tour. By the end of 1931, Captain Yancey had flown the autogyro 6,500 miles, transiting 21 states and touching down in 38 cities around the nation. Yet the Champion Spark Plugs company still wanted more attention — and thus they asked him to beat Amelia Earhart’s altitude record as well.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 05, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Publicity Stunts, World Records, Advertising, Air Travel and Airlines, 1930s
Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 38
The artist's Wikipedia entry.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 04, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Outsider Art, Surrealism, 1930s
Raisin Bran keeps you regular
Trapeze artists discussing bowel movements doesn't conjure up good images.
Lincoln Star - Apr 1, 1938
Possibly relevant, this Snopes article: Did a Trapeze Artist with Diarrhea Defecate on 23 People? (The answer is no)
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 05, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Cereal, Excrement, 1930s
The Santa Claus Statue in Santa Claus, Indiana
I thought that in the midst of summer heat (for some of us) we could use a little wintertime.
Here is the town's official page for the statue.
But Roadside America has a much more interesting tale. More details at the link.
It was purposely built on the highest hill in Santa Claus by businessman Carl Barrett, who wanted to antagonize his arch-rival Milton Harris, who was building his own attraction a hundred yards down the road. It was dedicated on Christmas Day 1935, less than a week after Harris had opened Santa's Candy Castle.
Barrett felt that Harris was commercializing Christmas. In contrast, Barrett claimed that the Santa statue had been built with the pennies of American schoolchildren. That may have been true, but he also claimed that the statue was built on the spot where a meteor had crashed (he hinted that this was a sign of divine guidance), and that it was made of solid granite. In fact there was no meteor, and the statue was later found to be made of concrete.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 03, 2021 -
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Category: Cult Figures and Artifacts, Holidays, Regionalism, Rivalries, Feuds and Grudges, 1930s
Jo Jo the French Terror
I don't think it's false nostalgia to say that people and events were more colorful in the past. I don't see any modern criminals who possess a resume like Jo Jo's.
Source of text.
Source of photo.
Source of article.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 11, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Scary Criminals, Outsiders, Marginals, the Excluded and Low-castes, 1930s
Elysia: Valley of the Nudes
Warning! Nudists at play!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 08, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Body, Movies, Exploitation and Grindhouse, Nature, 1930s
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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, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. 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. Contact Us |