Category:
Collectors
Collectors
Who Gets the Beanie Babies?
November 1999: After filing for divorce, Frances and Harold Mountain proved unable to agree on how to split up their Beanie Baby collection. So Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle instructed them to bring the entire collection into the courtroom, spread them out on the floor, and pick one each until they were gone.The judge remarked, "This isn't about toys. It's about control. Because you folks can't solve it, it takes the services of a District Court judge, a bailiff and a court reporter."
Frances Mountain said, "I don't agree with the judge's decision to do this. It's ridiculous and embarrassing." Nevertheless, she got down on her hands and knees and started picking out Beanie Babies.
Santa Cruz Sentinel - Nov 6, 1999
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 19, 2017 -
Comments (5)
Category: Divorce, Collectors, 1990s
Candy Wrapper Archive
You can certainly pass some delightful hours at the Candy Wrapper Archive, marveling at the sometimes wacky candies of yore.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 11, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Candy, Collectors
Byron Randall, collector of potato mashers
Byron Randall (1918-1999) was an American West Coast artist, but he also received recognition as a collector of potato mashers.
He told a UPI reporter in 1984 that he started his collection not because of any special connection to potato mashers, but simply because he wanted to have a "unique collection." But he gave a more detailed explanation of the origin of his hobby in an interview with Wesley Joost and Jon Randall:
One of my skills is cooking so I had a normal interest in potato mashers as a tool. Every one was different in some way, and they were all designed by someone who had a different idea about what was the best way to arrange the wire striking face and wooden handle. That intrigued me. When I was furnishing the guest house I frequented the markets and Salvation Army. Nearly all of them would have some kitchen gear. I was attracted to them because they were all beautifully functional and simple and never had been standardized like the Dover Eggbeater.
Randall also admitted that he didn't like potatoes themselves — just the mashers.
As of 1984, he had collected 384 mashers. I don't know how many he owned by the time he died. But he claimed that this was the biggest collection of potato mashers in the world.
The Idaho Potato Museum also has a large potato masher collection, which they acquired as a result of a Boy Scout's Eagle Project. So I emailed them to ask how big their collection is. A representative (Tish Dahmen) responded that they have "280 mashers on display then another box full."
She reckons that Randall's collection was larger, and unfortunately she has no idea what became of his mashers. But she added: "if you discover its whereabouts, please know that we’d be happy to house and exhibit it if his family or estate wants to donate to us … we will be happy to accept it!"
Finding a permanent home for a potato masher collection seems like a worthy project, so I'm working on it. There was once a Byron Randall Museum in Tomales, CA, where Randall lived and ran a bed-and-breakfast. Perhaps the museum acquired his collection. However, the museum doesn't have a website. So I don't know if it's still in existence.
I've contacted the Tomales Regional History Center to ask if they know where Randall's potato mashers are.
Idaho Potato Museum Masher Collection — via California or Bust!
Milwaukee Sentinel - May 4, 1984
The Pittsburgh Press - May 3, 1984
Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 16, 2016 -
Comments (6)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Collectors
The Collector
The Collector from Stas Santimov on Vimeo.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 13, 2015 -
Comments (2)
Category: Surrealism, Cartoons, Collectors
Blaustein’s Hotel Soap Collection
Albert Blaustein had an impressive resume. He was a constitutional law expert who consulted on the national constitutions for over 14 countries. According to his wikipedia page, he was also editor of the 20-volume work Constitutions of the Countries of the World.But in his personal life, he pursued a more eccentric passion. He collected hotel soap. He started collecting it in 1942, and by 1988 he had some 1400 bars of soap from different hotels. (See the article below.) By the time of his death in 1994, he had amassed around 2500 hotel soap bars. Following his death, the entire collection was (according to the Philadelphia Inquirer) bought by a Ripley's museum in Texas for around $1500.
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Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 13, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category: Collectors
Collecting Dirt
Back in 1936, Patricia Salter had an unusual hobby for a 12-year-old girl. She collected dirt. Whenever I come across stories like this, it always makes me wonder what became of the collection. I'm guessing that at some point it must have been tossed in the trash, or dumped outside.But it looks like there are some like-minded dirt enthusiasts in the present day, over at the Museum of Dirt.
Source: The Washington Post - Feb 9, 1936
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 16, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Collectors, 1930s
Internet Movie Cars Database
Car buffs are fanatical. A group of them has compiled a database of car appearances in films, the Internet Movie Cars Database, to accompany the more famous IMDB.
With screen captures.
So suppose, like me, you once drove a Mercury Marauder, circa 1973. You can now nostalgically learn all the times that make and model of vehicle appeared onscreen.
My car looked exactly like the one below, down to the paint job.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 13, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Movies, Collectors, Cars
Snowflake Collector
Vincent Schaefer had a rather unusual hobby. He collected snowflakes. In order to do so, he invented (around 1941) a way of making plastic casts of snowflakes, by sitting outside on winter nights while it was snowing, and then dropping the flakes onto a thin film of formvar, which was a kind of plastic resin.Schaefer also later invented the technique of cloud seeding. And he did all this with hardly any formal education, never having graduated from high school. Definitely an interesting character.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 08, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Collectors
Face Rocks
The Hall of Curious Rocks in Japan collects "Face Rocks," which are rocks that look like faces. They currently have over 900 of them. The bottom image shows one of the prides of their collection, the Elvis Rock. I'm sure if I looked around my backyard, I could find a few face rocks to contribute to their collection. [via kotaku]
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 25, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Collectors
LP Cover Lover
An outstanding collection of weird album covers can be found at LP COVER LOVER.
They have put the risque ones on their Tumblr site.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 16, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Art, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Music, Sexuality, Collectors
| 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 |