Category:
1950s
1950s
THE GOLDBERGS
Once upon a time, sheer Jewishness was exotic enough to supply material for sitcoms and product spokesmanship.
THE GOLDBERGS.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 05, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Ethnic Groupings, Family, Stereotypes and Cliches, Television, 1940s, 1950s
Cracker Jack Jingle Beanie
[Click to enlarge]
Imagine any kid enthusiastically wearing such a hat today.....
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 03, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Comics, Children, Headgear, 1950s
ROBOT MONSTER
You know the drill: if you like the trailer, above, for ROBOT MONSTER, then you can watch the whole film, below.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 30, 2013 -
Comments (11)
Category: Aliens, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, 1950s, Fictional Monsters
The great hose mystery of 1955
Back in 1955, a mysterious phenomenon was reported. Garden hoses started to spontaneously burrow their way into dirt. It began in the garden of California resident George Di Peso. His 12-year-old daughter stuck the nozzle of a hose into the dirt to make the job of watering the garden easier, and then the hose (with the water running) started to burrow downwards. Over 20 feet of the hose disappeared into the earth.
The same phenomenon was then reported in Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Florida, Ontario, and Kansas.
Geologists speculated that the rapid flow of water was creating a vacuum at the nozzle causing the hoses to slide downward into the earth. The burrowing could be stopped by turning off the water. But Di Peso never did recover the 20 feet of hose lost in the earth. He eventually cut the hose off where it went into the earth, saying "I couldn't stand it any longer. This thing was getting out of hand. My life has been made a big mess."
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 29, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Unsolved Mysteries, 1950s
Miss Curity Coloring Book
Click on each page to expand.
1) Yes, that's a fishhook in the lad's finger. How it was extracted before application of bandaid is not known.
2) Do NOT invite Miss Curity to your party--she's a jinx!
3) Why are they peeing into the lemonade?
Please color within the lines!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 27, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Art, Comics, Injuries, Advertising, 1950s
Giant Slingshots
Slingshots taken from young vandals, May 1952. If the police hadn't stopped them, the kids probably would have been building full-sized trebuchets next.
"Salem, Mass., May 8 — Police Lt. Walter Broderick tests one of two huge slingshots confiscated after boys had broken 60 windows in two local factories. Police said the giant weapons could hurl a five-pound rock more than 200 yards."
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 27, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Violence, 1950s, Weapons
Jumpology
, which was a collection of photos of famous people jumping. He called his technique "jumpology," arguing that the act of jumping helped his subjects temporarily cast aside their reserve and show their true selves. After the publication of his book, jumpology became a popular fad for a while. People would use polaroid cameras to take photos of each other at parties jumping. Reminiscent of the more recent planking fad.
Some examples of Halsman's jump photos are below, and you can find more of them over at Iconic Photos:
Hattie Jacques
Aldous Huxley
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 23, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Photography and Photographers, 1950s
A May-December Romance
Back in 1955, it caused some controversy when Count William Aubrey Tealdi married Princess Lidia Maria Antonia Carraciolo di Torella, the reason being that he was 74 and she was 14. They had to get a special papal dispensation to allow the marriage. Predictably, he was rich, while her family (though Italian royalty) had fallen on hard times. [google news]
But the strange thing is that despite the huge difference in age, the marriage proved to be a success. A follow-up story that ran in papers in 1966, when she was 25 and he was 85, reported that the couple had three children by that time, and he was hoping to have more. She declared herself to be "the happiest woman in the world."
I don't know when Count Tealdi died, but it's quite likely she's still alive. After all, she'd only be in her early seventies — not yet the age the Count was when he married her!
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 18, 2013 -
Comments (8)
Category: Elderly, Husbands, Wives, 1950s
The Smallest Sheikh in Islam
Ahmed Salem was known as the "smallest sheikh in Islam." He made it into international news in June 1955 when he was able to walk into the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Nasser undetected because of his size. The AP ran this blurb, with the accompanying photos:Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser lends an ear to the complaints of 62-year-old midget Ahmed Salem who was able to enter the premier's office without being seen because he's so little. He asked for help when his relatives stole his savings. Nasser promised to investigate.
Four months later, Salem was back in the news, but this time for taking other people's money. He tricked three U.S. senators into giving him a donation to help buy Russian weapons for the Egyptian army. (NY Times, Oct 19 1955). Senator Saltonstall, one of the senators deceived, later offered this explanation:
"When we went to see Premier Nasser yesterday there were twenty or thirty people crowded onto the front steps. Among them was this dwarf pestering us, talking a blue streak in Arabic and jingling this tin box.
What were we going to do? The thought went through my mind that it was an Egyptian charity and that a polite way to get out of this difficulty was to drop some coins in the box. I did not have any coins but Senator Stennis had three coins in his hand.
Like a good Yankee, I did not take the biggest one and I did not take the littlest one. I took one plaster, worth 3 cents, and put it into the box and we went on in to see the Prime Minister.
When we came out, there must have been forty or fifty people crowding around and this dwarf was trying to get us to give some more and pushing into every picture. By then we knew what the dwarf wanted and none of us dropped a penny into the box."
What were we going to do? The thought went through my mind that it was an Egyptian charity and that a polite way to get out of this difficulty was to drop some coins in the box. I did not have any coins but Senator Stennis had three coins in his hand.
Like a good Yankee, I did not take the biggest one and I did not take the littlest one. I took one plaster, worth 3 cents, and put it into the box and we went on in to see the Prime Minister.
When we came out, there must have been forty or fifty people crowding around and this dwarf was trying to get us to give some more and pushing into every picture. By then we knew what the dwarf wanted and none of us dropped a penny into the box."
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 15, 2013 -
Comments (1)
Category: 1950s, Middle East
Beat the Heat with Your Meat
At last, a solution to global warming!
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 14, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Food, Advertising, 1950s, Weather
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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 |