1960s
Buried Upright
April 1963: Rev. Andrew Stackhouse of Conway, South Carolina designed his own casket which allowed him to be buried sitting upright. After he died of a heart attack, at the age of 58, none of his friends or family could explain why he had built the special casket. The best answer they could come up with was that: "He just didn't want to lie down, and he liked to be different."
Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 17, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Death, 1960s
Action Man
For what started as a GI Joe ripoff, this toy seems to have evolved its own complex mythology. Not sure about propriety of "Bulletman," since that was and is a DC Comics character.
Full story here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 16, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Toys, 1960s, Europe
Speed of aircraft carrier
Example from 1960 of the military's gift for stating the obvious.No luck in tracking down the referenced pamphlet. Doesn't seem that the Navy saved copies of all the thousands of pamphlets it published over the years.
The Sikeston Daily Standard - June 3, 1960
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 13, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Military, 1960s
Follies of the Madmen #274
Horny beach bunnies switch instantly from thoughts of lust to thoughts of dental hygiene.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 12, 2016 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Children, Parents, 1960s, Teeth
Conception Days Indicator
It's the Swiss engineering that sold me!
Original ad here. (Page 55.)
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 01, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology, 1960s, Pregnancy
Mystery Illustration 15
Why was this horse brought inside a house, if not just as a photo stunt?
The answer is here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 31, 2016 -
Comments (8)
Category: Animals, Interior Decorating, 1960s
Anti-Aircraft Dumpling Cannon
February 1967: Munich resident Helmut G. Winter was sick and tired of the noise of military aircraft flying low over his house. So he built a catapult and started launching Bavarian potato dumplings at the planes.In one week he launched 120 dumplings. He never managed to score a direct hit. But eventually both the West German Luftwaffe and American pilots conceded defeat and agreed to a flight path that avoided his house.
Reportedly, he gave the Americans a model of his dumpling cannon as a gesture of thanks, inscribed "As a souvenir and a warning — Helmut G. Winter, The Bavarian Dumpling Shot." I bet this model has now been lost or thrown away, instead of being in a museum where it belongs.
Cincinnati Enquirer - Feb 20, 1967
Newsweek - Mar 13, 1967
Newsweek - Mar 13, 1967
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Mar 1, 1967
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 30, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Military, 1960s, Weapons
Smoking Periwinkle
Can smoking periwinkle actually get you high? Probably. Over at erowid.org there are some reports of people experimenting with it. Though despite the scare of 1967, it never caught on as a popular drug.
Dr. George Dame, a health officer in Manatee County, warned that periwinkle could have all kinds of unpleasant side effects (such as "withering of muscle tissue") because periwinkle is the source of some drugs (vinblastine and vincristine) used in chemotherapy. However, an expert on those drugs disagreed with him. From Newsweek (June 26, 1967):
Sydney Morning Herald - Jun 4, 1967
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 29, 2016 -
Comments (9)
Category: Drugs, Psychedelic, Smoking and Tobacco, 1960s
Training Table Bread
Original ad here.
Original ad here.
It seems that circa 1962, pro football and the bread companies decided to engage in some mutual branding, offering loaves of bread of the same kind ostensibly enjoyed by the players. It seems likely that all these loaves emerged from the same factory and got a different team name slapped on them depending on their destination. Not much difference between brands of sliced whited bread to begin with, after all.
I am surprised the current-day NFL has not picked up on this, especially with the Superbowl coming up.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 28, 2016 -
Comments (8)
Category: Food, Sports, 1960s
Sex Cracks
Source of image: Grandchild's blog.
In vain have I searched for SEX CRACKS on YouTube. But there are plenty of other RG clips.
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 26, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Humor, Music, Sexuality, Stereotypes and Cliches, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s
| Who We Are |
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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 |