Shoes
Fifty-Pound Boots
An advance in penal technology that never caught on. I found this in the San Antonio Evening News, Nov 3, 1922:Shod with the fifty-pound "Oregon" boot of metal, dangerous criminals have little, if any, chance of escaping by making a desperate dash for liberty, especially while on long railroad journeys in the custody of an officer of the law.
This shackling device is adapted from the old ball and chain, which it is to supercede. It consists of a steel frame work that fits over the shoe in the manner shown in the accompanying illustration. The "upper" is finished off as a fifty-pound collar.
A prisoner thus shod is able to walk but slowly and with some comfort. However, if he should make any attempt to escape by running, the heavy metal collar of the boot, it is claimed, will break his leg.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 22, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Prisons, Shoes
One-Shoe Movies
"Droppedit" is a man who knows exactly what he likes, and that is "movie and TV scenes in which women happen to lose their shoes." I think it's fair to say that his catalog of such scenes (with accompanying pics) will never be equaled.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 19, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Movies, Obsessions, Fetishes, Shoes
Follies of the Mad Men #62
Please parse the logic here for me. We'll use feminism to sell ugly shoes for men? I just don't get it....
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 06, 2009 -
Comments (7)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, Shoes, Feminism, 1970s
Follies of the Mad Men #50
At one time, during either the seventies or the eighties, I believe, this campaign was ubiquitous. I would run across OJ and his boots in every issue of Playboy I intended to cut up for collages, whereupon I would promptly rip out the page intact and mail it to a friend. That's why I had to find a scan on eBay, for this post, and can't tell you the exact provenance of the advertisement.
Of course, today we laugh because of OJ's appearance. "So that's how he was able to escape so fast after the murders! He deployed his third leg!"
But consider the campaign even without OJ.
First you get the off-color allusion to "third leg = penis." Then you get the Addams-Family-style associations of "Our boots are worn by mutants and freaks."
Brilliant!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 10, 2008 -
Comments (7)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Celebrities, Death, Fashion, Shoes, Law, Lawsuits, Sports, Scary Criminals, Stupid Criminals, 1970s, 1980s
Follies of the Mad Men #48
"And they come with matching panties, as you can plainly see!"
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 01, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Fashion, Shoes, Teenagers, 1950s
Follies of the Mad Men #44
Either a 20th-century man's shoe has been transported through time back to pre-Columbian America, confounding the primitive redksins, or else some 20th-century Native Americans on some especially traditional and cloistered reservation somewhere are incredibly ignorant.
Or, some Madison Avenue genius thought this was brilliant.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 17, 2008 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, Shoes, Anthropology, 1940s, Time-travel, Native Americans
Spring Heel Shoe
The verdict is still out, however, on whether wearing them will turn you into the mythic monster known as Spring-heeled Jack.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 22, 2008 -
Comments (14)
Category: Fashion, Shoes, Flight, Human Marvels, Stupidity, Technology, Fictional Monsters
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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 |