La Bostella

Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 18, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Fads, 1960s, Dance

Telephone Marathons

Back in 1961, the fad of holding marathon telephone calls swept college campuses. The girls dormitory would call the boys dormitory, and then people would take it in turns to keep the phone call going for days, or weeks. Of course, the dormitory phone would be tied up that entire time... so too bad if you had to use it for an actual call.

The longest telephone marathon I can find a record of took place at Southern Illinois University in 1965, where they planned a 2½ month phone call. Though I don't know if the full call was actually completed.

(above and below) Dec 1961: Western Michigan students talked on the phone for 504 hours.

Southern Illinoisan - June 30, 1965

Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 24, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Fads, 1960s, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia

Mudlavia

Miracle mud cures!





Wikipedia page.





Great article with primary source material here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 04, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Architecture, Fads, Health, Regionalism, Natural Resources, Nineteenth Century

Hey, Let’s Twist!

The movie so great it inspired its own line of Ivey, Jivey suits for Cats!




Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 24, 2017 - Comments (7)
Category: Fads, Fashion, Movies, Music, Teenagers, 1960s, Dance

Sun Eating

From Hong Kong comes the latest fad in dieting. It's called "sun eating" or "sun gazing". You stand outside and stare at the setting sun, thereby consuming it's solar energy, which reduces (or even entirely eliminates) your body's need for food. Says one sun eater, "Some of us who have finished the therapy now eat less, and others don’t have to eat at all."

The concept seems very similar to the practice of breatharianism (or inedia), whose practitioners believe that it's possible to live without food, subsisting only on air and sunlight. For obvious reasons, serious practitioners of breatharianism don't tend to live very long. The ones that cheat, however, stick around to spread the word.

Of course, it's possible that the fad of sun eating is entirely a creation of the media (i.e., a reporter took a few pictures of people looking at a sunset, then claimed they were "sun eating"). It's hard to know what the truth is with these things.




More info: mirror.co.uk

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 10, 2015 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, Food

Kite Boarding

Also known as kite surfing Is a popular if dangerous sport. It combines surfing with getting blown around while flying a kite. The main problem with it, as far as I can see, is not so much the flying/surfing as it is the starting and stopping. Another place for Darwin-esque culling of the herd to take place.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 05, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Accidents, Fads, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Recreation

50 guys in one bed

May 15, 1964: the students of Wakefield College in England attempted to set a record for the most people piled in one bed. They were hoping to make it to 50, but when they got to around 47 things started to go wrong. Frazer Cartwright, who was on the bottom, gasped, "Get off... quick... I'm..." Then blood began gushing from his nose, and he passed out. Luckily the audience intervened before he wound up dead. Cartwright vowed never to repeat that experience again.





Sources: The Terre Haute Tribune - May 16, 1964; Tuscaloosa News - May 15, 1964.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 27, 2015 - Comments (5)
Category: Fads, World Records, 1960s

Walking in the streets

Here's another idiotic fad of yesteryear (the early 1960s) — teenagers walking in the streets: "Not only do many students shun the sidewalks completely but they are walking four and five abreast, completely taking up one lane of the road."


Source: The Holland Evening Sentinel - Feb 21, 1963.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 16, 2015 - Comments (9)
Category: Fads, 1960s

Placenta Smoothies

Unsafe for Revulsion-prone Stomachs.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 22, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Body, Blood, Cannibalism, Eccentrics, Fads, Food

Uranium Dirt Sitting Houses

Briefly in the 1950s it became popular to sit in mildly radioactive dirt as a panacea for many ills.

The house above in Rotan, TX, was one such establishment.



Article here.

LIFE magazine article here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 16, 2014 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s, Diseases