Category:
1970s
1970s
The Judge who wanted to be fully informed
Nov 1976: Roxbury District Court Judge Elwood McKenney, presiding over a cocaine possession case, announced that he would need to try cocaine himself before he made his ruling... in order to be able to make an informed decision. He recessed the trial until he had done so.
Palo Alto Times - Nov 2, 1976
Judge Elwood McKenney
About a month later, McKenney abandoned his decision to try cocaine, saying that all the publicity about it had distorted his intent.
But he then proceeded to rule that the Massachusetts statutes forbidding the possession of cocaine were unconstitutional.
Obviously his ruling must have been dismissed or overturned at some point, otherwise cocaine would now be legal in Massachusetts. But I haven't been able to figure out when that happened.
Boston Globe - Dec 11, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 18, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Drugs, Law, Judges, 1970s
People-Passing
More accurately, coed-passing. By the mid-1970s it was considered "sort of traditional" at many college football games.What it involved: "a group of fellows sitting behind a coed suddenly picks her up and begins bouncing her — like a sack of potatoes — over their heads to the next row. And up she goes, maybe 75 rows."
So it was like crowd surfing, but entirely involuntary on the part of the coed being flung overhead. And more dangerous, I would think.
According to Wikipedia, "Iggy Pop may have invented crowd surfing at 1970's Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival." I wonder if the idea of crowd surfing spread from music festivals to football games, or if it was the other way around.
Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania) - Sep 30, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 16, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Fads, Sports, 1970s, Women
De Dik Voormekaar Show
The Wikipedia page.
TV version of the popular radio program with André van Duin and Ferry de Groot in which the various characters were portrayed on screen by hand puppets in the first season (1977-1978) and full body costumes in the second (1978-1979).
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 14, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Puppets and Automatons, Television, 1970s, Europe
Queen Kong
Queen Kong, the movie, was released in 1976 but was never shown in the UK or US due to the threat of legal action from the producer of King Kong (the 1976 remake). It had a limited release in Italy and Germany.The plot as summarized by wikipedia:
The main character Ray Fay plays the damsel in distress, which tends to usually be played by women. He is kidnapped by film director Luce Habit to star in her new African jungle movie. He then finds himself the attraction of an amorous giant female gorilla that pursues him across London.
Wikipedia also says that Queen Kong acquired a cult following in Japan.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 13, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Movies, 1970s, Parody
Squash Your Wife
Similar ads from the 60s and 70s: "Electrify your wife," "Recipe for boiled wife," and "Beat your wife tonight... at bowling."Clearly this was a theme that appealed to ad execs of that time.
New York Magazine - Mar 7, 1977
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 12, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Wives, 1970s
Using frog croaks to predict the weather
In 1975, Chinese meteorologist Chang Chi-tsai came out with "Chang's law" which codified the relationship between croaking frogs and the weather:If frogs croak on a fine day it will rain in two days.
If frogs croak after rain it will be fine weather.
It will continue to rain if frogs do not croak after successive overcast days.
If frogs croak after rain it will be fine weather.
It will continue to rain if frogs do not croak after successive overcast days.
Previously we've posted about how to use gnats to predict the weather.
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Jan 19, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 09, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: 1970s, Asia, Weather
Organ Orgy
The entire playlist is here.The Wikipedia page of the organist.
BONUS: I am reminded of a clip from THE SIMPSONS, seen below.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 04, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Music, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #584
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 26, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Hygiene, Advertising, Myths and Fairytales, 1970s
Power Tennis
Thank god that video games were invented, to spare us from this.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 24, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Family, Games, Toys, 1970s
Pudsey Treacle Mines
Aug 1975: The Rev. Paul Needle attempted to convince 150 British children to embrace the Christian faith with the argument that if the Pudsey treacle mines don't really exist, then Jesus must.The Rev. Paul Needle, the curate at the parish church, who organised the search, said: "When you realise that most people are prepared to half-believe in the Pudsey treacle mines, it gives a ray of hope that the much more reliable facts about Jesus may be considered and proved true.
The Guardian - Aug 21, 1975
Of course, the flaw in his argument was that the treacle mines are quite real, as explained by Don Gillan:
Natural treacle is formed over millenia in much the same way as petroleum. The whole area where Pudsey now stands was once a 'savannah' of sugar beet. Grazing dinosaurs cropped off the exposed greenery of the plants leaving the sugar rich beets lying untouched below the ground. Centuries upon centuries of this occurence led to the ground becoming saturated with monosaccharides as the decaying beets released their simple natural sugars. These filtered down through the ground until they encountered a barrier of impervious rock, where they pooled, and over the centuries under heat from the Earth's core below and pressure from the weight of the ground bearing down from on top were transformed into pure raw treacle, which was then absorbed into layers of porous rock.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 23, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Religion, Candy, 1970s
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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 |