Johnny and the Hurricanes had one shtick: take a public domain tune and give it the yakety-sax treatment. Here are two of the more outlandish instances.
In 1959, the French automaker Simca showed a prototype of the Simca Fulgur (aka "Dream Car of the Future") at various auto shows. It was a concept car designed to demonstrate "the advanced thinking of Simca engineers."
The final car was supposed to incorporate the following not-yet-invented technologies (according to this Dec 1959 article):
controlled by an electronic brain fed travel instructions by the driver
Power supplied on main highways through magnetic induction from road-imbedded cables
On secondary roads, Fulgur derives power from six batteries in the rear which gives it a range of up to 3000 miles.
The front wheels which steer the Fulgur at low speeds are retracted at above 90 miles per hour and the car will plane along on its rear wheels.
There was also talk of making the Simca Fulgur atomic-powered. And it seems possible that it may have inspired the design of the Jetsons' car, though I can't find any confirmation of that.
February 1950: During a chapel service, the students of Wheaton College were invited by the college president to come forward and confess their sins. What followed was 38 hours of uninterrupted confessions as one student after another came forward. Many confessed more than once. Classes were cancelled to allow the spontaneous confess-a-thon to continue.
One student confessed that he wasn't sure if he loved his fiancee or God more, another to cheating in Bible class. A somewhat cynical student confessed that she couldn't believe all the confessions were sincere. Then asked forgiveness for doubting their sincerity.
Finally the college president halted the continuing stream of confessions, noting that "outsiders might think the revival has become too showy."
Wheaton students pray and listen to confessions Newsweek - Feb 20, 1950
July 1959: Upon becoming a U.S. citizen, Turkish-born Haroutioun A. Aprahamian changed his name to Haroutioun A. Abrahamian.
I know this got reported as weird news in the 1950s because it seemed like an odd twist on the phenomenon of immigrants Americanizing their names, but this guy probably just wanted to correct the spelling of his name which perhaps had been misspelled by an immigration official.
When my dad moved to the States from Germany in the 40s, our last name Böse got written as Boese, making it unpronounceable. My sister was smart enough to start spelling it as "Bose" from an early age (actually, whenever possible she insists it be spelled "Böse"), but I never did, so now I'm stuck with the unpronounceable spelling.
Modern "smart watches" can tell you how far you've walked and monitor your heart rate. But watches in the 1950s could also do that. Just in a different way.
November 1950: To advertise a Watch and Clock Makers fair, young women were hired to wander around the streets of Frankfurt carrying giant clocks on their backs.
The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) - Nov 8, 1950
Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 17, 2016 -
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Category: 1950s
December 1953: A few days before Christmas it rained money in Maple Park, Illinois, after a money sack fell off a train, burst open, and the wind scattered the bills everywhere. $26,000 in all. The honest townsfolk picked up and returned all but $890 of the money.
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.