1970s
Drop Kick Me Jesus
A 1976 Grammy nominee for best country song.Phil Dirxc, a columnist for The San Luis Obispo Tribune, argued that it would be more accurate if the song were titled "Place kick me Jesus" since drop kicks are rarely used in American football.
More info: Stereo Stories
Goleta Sun - Sep 9, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 24, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Religion, Sports, 1970s
Curtricia Miles, escape artist
Curtricia Miles was convicted of killing a massage parlor employee during a robbery in 1974. The next year she escaped from her jail cell by tunneling out using a knife, fork, and spoon. (I don't think she had to tunnel far. Sounds like the building was on a raised foundation, so she only had to get through the floor.)A month later she was arrested in Las Vegas on a marijuana charge, but she told the police her name was "Caroline Bendy" and they released her without bond.
She didn't stay free for long. The police found her a week later in a downtown casino. This final time she didn't manage to get away.
Toronto Star - July 16, 1975
Sacramento Bee - Aug 8, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 23, 2025 -
Comments (3)
Category: Crime, Prisons, 1970s
How to choose a pot
There's an ancient Hindu ceremony called Kumbh Vivah in which a woman will marry a pot. Details from vice.com:I'm pretty sure that Farberware didn't have this in mind when they made the ad below.
Boston Sunday Globe - Oct 31, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 22, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Husbands, Marriage, 1970s
The phone company wants installers like Alana MacFarlane
In the early 1970s, AT&T was faced with bad publicity. During congressional hearings, it had been revealed that although the phone company was the largest employer of women in the country, almost all of those women were employed as low-paid telephone operators. There were almost no women in higher paying jobs, such as in repair or installation. AT&T responded to the criticism with the two ads below.
Ms magazine - July 1972
Sports Illustrated - June 12, 1972
Was Alana MacFarlane a real person? Absolutely. Even before the magazine ads appeared, AT&T had been making sure to let the media know that it had hired a female installer. The media responded with nudge-nudge wink-wink headlines:
Long Beach Independent - Dec 16, 1971
Torrance Daily Breeze - Apr 7, 1972
But the national spotlight AT&T had placed on MacFarlane proved uncomfortable for her. Within six months she had requested to be transferred to a desk job, ending her brief career as an installer.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser - Sep 14, 1972
A one-page blogspot blog, "Alana Macfarlane's story," created in 2010, gives some info about what subsequently became of her. She left AT&T, joined the Air Force for a while, and eventually became an engineer. It reveals that she was paid all of one dollar by AT&T for the ad she featured in.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 21, 2025 -
Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Gender, Women, Telephones, 1970s
Hot Stuff
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 19, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Destruction, Firefighting, Arson, Wildfires, Infernos and Other Conflagrations, Cartoons, 1970s
Malicious Enticement
Nov 1971: The mayor of Evansdale, Iowa left his wife to be with a city clerk. This prompted the mayor's wife to sue the clerk for "maliciously enticing" him away from his wife. The husband of the clerk simultaneously sued the mayor on the same grounds. Therefore the mayor and the clerk were potentially guilty of maliciously enticing each other.I hadn't been aware of 'malicious enticement' as a legal category. A search for the term mostly turns up uses in the business world, where a business could be held liable for maliciously enticing employees away from another business.
The Hollywood ad men missed an opportunity by not crowning a young woman 'Miss Maliciously Enticing'.
Davenport Quad-City Times - Nov 5, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 17, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Lawsuits, Divorce, 1970s
How many green beans would you eat for $1.50
A question for the ages.
Detroit Free Press - May 2, 1971
This raises the question of how many green beans would someone eat just to claim the world record for eating them? According to the site MajorLeagueEating.com, Crazy Legs Conti holds the record for eating the most: 2.71 pounds of them in six minutes.
That doesn't seem like that much to me. And in the video below "tannermancan" eats 5.125 lbs of green beans in less than 5 minutes. He doesn't acknowledge setting a new record. But it seems to me like he must have.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 15, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: World Records, Advertising, Vegetables, 1970s
The Scott Meadows Doomsday Club
The first rule of the Scott Meadows Club was that you couldn't reveal the location of the Scott Meadows Club. (But it was up in Siskiyou County, Northern California. Somewhere near to Kangaroo Lake Campground.)The club opened in 1975, with membership costing $12,800 (around $75,000 in today's money), plus $300 annual dues.
The club had none of the amenities of a typical country club. Instead, it offered a place to retreat to in case of a national emergency such as nuclear war or economic collapse. Once all the members were secure inside the retreat, the road leading to it would be dynamited, preventing anyone else from getting in.
I'm not sure if the club still exists. But then, if it does they wouldn't want us to know.
Approximate location of the Scott Meadows Club
Sacramento Bee - May 14, 1975
click to enlarge
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 08, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Armageddon and Apocalypses, Clubs, Fraternities and Other Self-selecting Organizations, 1970s
Fracture
The Wikipedia page of the creators.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 30, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Surrealism, Fantasy, Cartoons, 1970s, Europe
| 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 |