Pattern for Survival

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 11, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Death, Dreams and Nightmares, PSA’s, War, Weapons, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s

Follies of the Madmen #460

Those are growing underwater plants surrounding the buried woman. This is plainly a mermaid, a superhuman, or an unnaturally happy Mob victim.



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 06, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Cosmetics, Death, 1960s

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Whole movie in second screen, with English subtitles.

Wikipedia page here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 29, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Ambiguity, Uncertainty and Deliberate Obscurity, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Death, Dreams and Nightmares, Horror, Movies, Surrealism, 1970s

The Bequest of Ernest Digweed

Ernest Digweed was a retired schoolteacher from Portsmouth. When he died in 1976, he left behind approximately $44,000, with instructions that the money should go to Jesus Christ, if Christ should return to Earth in the next 80 years. Apparently Digweed was worried that Christ might be a bit short of cash when he came back.

Several people promptly came forward, claiming they were Christ, but they were turned away. Digweed's relatives, meanwhile, weren't happy at all with the will and sued to get the money. Eventually, it seems, the courts did agree to give it to them, but with one condition. The family had to take out an insurance policy that would pay back the money, should the original benefactor (Jesus) make an appearance. So if Jesus should return by 2056, he still has some money coming his way.

Regina Leader-Post - Dec 16, 1981

Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 28, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, 1970s

Unauthorized Dwellings 11

The Sacramento Squatter Riots were one of the more outrageous outcomes of squatting.

From a contemporary account:

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 20, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Buildings and Other Structures, Death, Unauthorized Dwellings, Nineteenth Century

Follies of the Madmen #457

Man, that's a hard-nosed ad! No mincing words. Could it run today?





Source.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 17, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Insurance, Death, 1950s

Corpse Mountain

The text and illustration below are from a 1926 newspaper. So, I imagine the corpse mountain would be significantly higher if it included all the dead of the past 100 years.

And, of course, Mt. Everest has now been scaled many times.

Hamilton Evening Journal - July 31, 1926

Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 11, 2019 - Comments (7)
Category: Death

The Hazardous Maxi-coat

It's getting colder outside, here in the Northern Hemisphere--but be careful of how you bundle up!






Source.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 05, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Fashion, 1970s, Pain, Self-inflicted and Otherwise

The Sunshine Grave of Mrs. Leila Davidson Hansell

During the year-and-a-half that Leila Davidson Hansell suffered from tuberculosis, she developed a profound fear of being interred for eternity in the darkness of the earth. She beseeched her husband, "Don't let them bury me in the cold ground. Lay me where the sun will shine on me all day long."

Her husband obliged and hired undertaker J.M. Stepp to build an aboveground vault for her topped with thick squares of prism glass. When she died in 1915, she was placed inside this unusual grave, located in Hendersonville, North Carolina's Oakland Cemetery. The locals began referring to her as the "sunshine lady."

San Francisco Examiner - July 17, 1927

The undertaker always insisted that Mrs. Hansell lay inside a coffin in the vault. However, many people who peered through the thick glass claimed that they could see her skeleton. As described in a 1927 article in American Weekly magazine:


In the early 1930s, the sightings took on a new twist. The growth of two spruce pines in the cemetery had caused shade to fall over Hansell's tomb in the afternoon. This inspired people to think that they could see her skeleton turned on its side, as if she had been disturbed by the shadows falling over her.

By 1937 the cemetery had had enough of the crowds of people the sunshine grave was drawing. So they covered the top with concrete. According to Hendersonville historian Doug Gelbert, the official reason given was that "Many people expectorated on the glass and for sanitary reasons the top will be covered."

Hansell's grave, with its concrete top, remains in Oakland Cemetery to this day.

Incidentally, Mrs. Hansell's maiden name was Davidson, and that was the same Davidson family after whom Davidson college in North Carolina was named. So she came from money.

The sunshine grave as it looks today. (source: Instagram)

Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 05, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Death

The Frank Landslide

The Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 20, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Destruction, Disasters, Nature, 1900s, North America