1950s
The Romance of Transportation in Canada
The Romance of Transportation in Canada by Colin Low, National Film Board of Canada
With so many USians threatening to move to Canada if the November Presidential election goes one way or another, I thought it would be handy to screen this comical but accurate cartoon to get such folks ready for their new citizenship.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 27, 2016 -
Comments (4)
Category: Foreign Customs, Cartoons, Transportation, 1950s, North America
The Draft and Army IQ
Following up on Chuck's mention of "military intelligence" in his latest column, this short article from 1951 noted the (perhaps unexpected) effect that a military draft has on the average IQ of GIs.
St. Petersburg Times - Oct 13, 1951
HEIDELBERG, Germany — The intelligence average of American troops in Germany is going up.
Reason: The draft.
Officers in the U.S. Army's European Command headquarters here say Army intelligence averages go up every time there is a military draft.
"With the draft, we get the extremely brilliant persons, as well as the average or slightly below average persons," one officer explained. "The 'brilliant' persons usually do not enlist in the Army as a private."
Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 25, 2016 -
Comments (10)
Category: Intelligence, Military, 1950s
Janitors
George was rocking the spit curls.Source: The Whisper — The 1950 Pardeeville High School yearbook (Pardeeville, Wisconsin).
via Hair Hall of Fame
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 22, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: 1950s, Hair and Hairstyling
Holland Girl ISO American Boy
1959: A Holland girl sent a letter toYou can sense in her letter the kind of suspicions about identity that have become so familiar in the Internet age — that you often don't know people's true identity online. You just know who they're claiming to be. But of course, how do we know that "Holland girl" was really a girl?
The Gastonia Gazette (Gastonia, NC) — Dec 31, 1959
Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 10, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: 1950s
Happy the Cowboy Ventriloquist Dummy
"Happy" looks anything but, as if he's battling the DTs. Does his cigarette really emit smoke?
Original ad here. (Page 35.)
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 09, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Puppets and Automatons, 1950s, Sadness
Thought he was Jerry
So who was this Jerry, and what did he do? I guess we'll never know.
Arizona Republic - Jan 29, 1953
SAN FRANCISCO (INS) — Lawrence Bridges, 32, San Francisco Municipal Railway bus driver, reported to police that he was stabbed by a man who then leaned over him and said:
"Oh, pardon me, I thought you were Jerry."
He was stabbed twice, in the cheek and shoulder, as he walked on Sutter Street near Fillmore. He will recover.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 08, 2016 -
Comments (6)
Category: 1950s
Follies of the Madmen #273
Happy Joe Lucky was no Roger Rabbit, but he does a credible job here with Gisele MacKenzie.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 06, 2016 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Television, Tobacco and Smoking, Cartoons, 1950s
The Continuing Adventures of Rayo
After being ignored by most people when he nailed his tongue to a wooden board, Rayo the Fakir sealed himself with a snake inside a glass "bottle," in which he toured Europe. By the time he emerged, a year later, the snake had died.Life magazine reported that the year-long stunt almost didn't happen because city authorities in Linz filed a temporary injunction, citing the act as "counter to the dignity of man... liable to produce panic... and creating an unhealthy condition for the inhabitant of the bottle."
I'm guessing Rayo wasn't actually Indian. He just pretended to be an Indian fakir as part of his act. (Basically, he was the David Blaine of the early 1950s.) Also, I think his last name was spelled "Schmied," though a lot of papers reported it as "Schmidt."
Newsweek - Jan 12, 1953
The Circleville Herald - Dec 26, 1953
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 02, 2016 -
Comments (6)
Category: Human Marvels, 1950s
Bob Gaffner, Fishermen’s Helper
That Bob! "He's full of the old mick!" Huh? That expression summons up a mere two Google hits. I suspect it's a euphemism for "full of the old Nick," which in turn was a euphemism for "full of the Devil."
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 02, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Work and Vocational Training, Children, 1950s
No one cared about Rayo
1952: Rayo the Fakir nailed his tongue to a wooden board, but no one cared about the feat.
Lethbridge Herald - Feb 29, 1952
Franklin News Herald - Mar 28, 1952
Fredericksburg Standard - Jun 18, 1952
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 01, 2016 -
Comments (12)
Category: Human Marvels, 1950s
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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 |