Category:
1940s

Miss Bombsight

In 1944, U.S. airmen selected Kathleen O'Malley as "the girl we'd most like to see in our bombsight."

Being in the bombsight doesn't sound like a good thing.

Kathleen O'Malley's IMDB page. Her earliest credited role was in 1926 when she was thirteen months old. Her final one was in 1998. That's quite a career.

More info: wikipedia

Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Nov 24, 1944

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 17, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Military, 1940s, Weapons

LOW AND INSIDE and THREE MEN ON THIRD

Weird baseball lore? Try these two books--LOW AND INSIDE and THREE MEN ON THIRD--by H. Allen Smith.









Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 09, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Sports, Weird Facts, Books, 1940s

Mystery Gadget 113

The purpose of this contraption? The answer is here, or after the jump.





More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 06, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Technology, 1940s

Opal Dixon, the mouthwash bank robber

Mrs. Opal Dixon decided to start robbing banks because she was "tired of living without having money."

Her method was unusual. She would fill a syringe with mouthwash, enter a bank, and then brandish the syringe over her head while shouting that it was full of nitroglycerine and she would blow the place up if the teller didn't give her money.

She got away with this once and would have succeeded a second time if the police hadn't identified her later while she was walking down the street.

Decatur Herald and Review - Jan 23, 1947





Des Moines Register - Jan 23, 1947



Mansfield News Journal - Jan 23, 1947

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 12, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, 1940s, Women

The Fantasy Circus League

We've all heard of Fantasy Football, where the amateur player gets to run a team. But how can that compare to the activities of the Circus Model Builders, where you get to run a circus?

Here's their homepage. In short, you pick an extinct circus and recreate it as a model.




Here's a great article about one young lad who earned a lifetime circus pass by doing so. You can go to the source if you want to increase the typesize for readability.



Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 12, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, 1940s, Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows

Jailbait!

This text seems to be missing coverage of fully half of all possible juvenile delinquents. But why not see for yourself at the Internet Archive.



Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 11, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Teenagers, Books, 1940s

The Roll-a-Ray Fat Remover

Introduced in 1948, by 1950 the Roll-a-Ray had been banned by the FDA. It was simply two rubber rollers with an electric light bulb mounted behind them.

Detroit Free Press - Nov 21, 1948



FDA Consumer - Feb 1977

Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 17, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, 1940s, Dieting and Weight Loss

The Reluctant Dragon

Truly bizarre mishmosh of live-action and cartoons, an early experiment from Disney.

The film's Wikipedia page.

Modern critics have pointed out that the dragon's mannerisms can easily be interpreted as gay. Sean Griffin notes "the delight and acceptance of an effeminate male," saying, "The dragon sports long emotive eyelashes and contains not an aggressive bone in his body, with the dragon prancing and pirouetting throughout the story... There is no mistaking how the film makes fun of the dragon's mincing manner and prissy pretentions. Yet, the film also makes it quite clear that the dragon does not believe in fighting, and the film doesn't specifically make fun of him for that... Just as in Ferdinand the Bull, The Reluctant Dragon presents an easily read gay character under the guise of fantasy and shows characters accepting him as he is."


The sound quality is a bit off in this posting, but otherwise watchable for strangeness.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 14, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Cartoons, 1940s

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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.

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