1940s
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 -
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Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Teenagers, Books, 1940s
Monkey Girl Marries Alligator Boy
Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 09, 2024 -
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Category: Human Marvels, Marriage, 1940s, Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows
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 -
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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 -
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Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Cartoons, 1940s
Miss Cheesecake
The contest seems to have gone on for a good number of years in the 1940s and 1950s.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 11, 2024 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Food, 1940s, 1950s
The Soybean Car
The "Soybean Car" was actually a plastic-bodied car unveiled by Henry Ford on August 13, 1941 at Dearborn Days, an annual community festival. The frame, made of tubular steel, had 14 plastic panels attached to it. The car weighed 2000 lbs., 1000 lbs. lighter than a steel car. The exact ingredients of the plastic panels are unknown because no record of the formula exists today. One article claims that they were made from a chemical formula that, among many other ingredients, included soybeans, wheat, hemp, flax and ramie; while the man who was instrumental in creating the car, Lowell E. Overly, claims it was "…soybean fiber in a phenolic resin with formaldehyde used in the impregnation"
See more pix and text here.
Or at the Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 04, 2024 -
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Category: Inventions, 1940s, Cars
Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 57
Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 01, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Avant Garde, Statues and Monuments, 1940s, Women
Are you a Danger-Mother?
Danger Mother would be a good name for a band, if there wasn't already a band named Wolfmother.
Life - Mar 29, 1948
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 25, 2024 -
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Category: Advertising, Parents, 1940s
The 1941 Slide Rule Queen
This honor was bestowed by my home state's university, the University of Rhode Island.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 19, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Science, 1940s, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia
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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 |