1930s
Typing to Music
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 03, 2015 -
Comments (5)
Category: Music, Performance Art, Appliances, 1930s
The Icyclist
I am so sick of winter. But maybe if I had a nice bike like this one...
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 27, 2015 -
Comments (2)
Category: Inventions, Nature, 1930s
Camp Siegfried
I always wonder, when watching vintage movies from the 1930s and 1940s, about the preoccupation with Nazi spies and sympathizers in the USA. How justified were such fears? Pretty well justified, I guess, based on the video above, and this article.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 20, 2015 -
Comments (4)
Category: Spies and Secret Agents, 1930s, 1940s, North America
The hen that laid an egg shaped like a light bulb
Rural electrification brought many benefits. But one of its stranger effects occurred on the Kentucky farm of Albert Clark in 1939. One of his hens stared and stared at the new light bulb hanging in the hen house, as if hypnotized by it. Then she laid an egg shaped like a light bulb. Clark sent the egg to the Rural Electrification Administration in D.C. as proof of what had occurred. This was big news in 1939.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 10, 2015 -
Comments (9)
Category: Farming, Eggs, 1930s
B.O. Gone—Romance Comes!
Source: Radio Mirror magazine, April 1934.
See here and here for other examples posted on WU of the ad industry's campaign to scare everyone into buying products to get rid of unwanted body odor.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 07, 2015 -
Comments (8)
Category: Hygiene, Baths, Showers and Other Cleansing Methods, Advertising, 1930s
Amazing Magic Disc Electrocutes User In Seconds!
I don't care how well this gadget is designed and engineered: I am not plugging it into the wall socket then dropping it in my bath water!
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 07, 2015 -
Comments (7)
Category: Bathrooms, Death, Technology, 1930s
Impregnable U.S. Mint
Back in 1938, the new U.S. mint building in San Francisco was widely advertised as being impregnable and "invasion proof." But, of course, as two teenage boys quickly proved, all the fancy anti-robbery gadgets in the world are useless if you forget to close the windows.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 06, 2015 -
Comments (7)
Category: Crime, 1930s
Mystery Gadget 25
What does this machine do?
The answer is here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 24, 2014 -
Comments (7)
Category: Technology, 1930s
Wrong-Way Corrigan
Always a pleasure to revisit this famous incident and charming fellow, with some "new" vintage footage of him at a press conference.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 12, 2014 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Air Travel and Airlines, 1930s
Unrequited Love
I assume this pick-up technique didn't work for Saturnius Villaflor.
Source: The Cuba Patriot - Nov 28, 1935
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 06, 2014 -
Comments (1)
Category: 1930s, Love & Romance
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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 |