Twentieth Century
The Wonderland of Doo
The history of newspaper comic strips is replete with many oddities.An excellent blog on the topic, with almost daily posts, is STRIPPER'S GUIDE.
Here's one creation that has received very little attention, based on its scarcity of Google hits. Its creator was Arch Dale.
Each instance featured a big block of text, which I am omitting, save for one sample.
This survey is by no means complete, just a taste.
The strips were also collected in book form.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 07, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Newspapers, Comics, Surrealism, Fantasy, Twentieth Century
Secretarial Sadism
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 01, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Sadism, Cruelty, Punishment, and Torture, Women, Twentieth Century
Miss Orchid Bathing Suit
I wish I knew the real title and other details of this beauty queen. But I think, just based on the costume, we can include her in our pageant of Weird Beauty Contest Winners.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 27, 2022 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Nature, Twentieth Century
The Future Farmers of America Sweethearts
Visit this page for a full history, and lots more photos.Prior to 1969 about the only way a female could be involved with the FFA was to be a chapter sweetheart. In the early days of the FFA, it was common for a chapter to have an FFA Sweetheart. The Sweetheart was typically voted on by the members and the selection of the sweetheart more often than not was a popularity/beauty contest. The Sweetheart, often wearing a white sweetheart jacket, might represent the chapter in a parade, at the school’s homecoming, or in a county livestock show or fair.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 22, 2022 -
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Category: Agriculture, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Education, Twentieth Century
The Giant Typewriter of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Visit this blog for tons more photos and the whole fascinating history of this device. I will say that the author misses mentioning one iconic way that the notion of a giant typewriter remained afloat in the culture. Any Boomer knows that it figured in a classic Batman adventure.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 20, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Expositions, World Fairs, Celebrations, Twentieth Century
The Duke of Paducah
If I might rephrase a famous statement for our WU purposes: The past is a weird country--there's a lot of weirdos there.His Wikipedia entry.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 12, 2022 -
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Category: Hillbillies, Country Bumpkins, Ruralism and Flyover Country, Humor, Twentieth Century
Stramonium Cigarettes: Smoking to Relieve Asthma
Long professional article on their history here.The relevant info at Wikipedia.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 01, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Nature, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Diseases
Bob Hermines’s Midgets Band
At this link, you will find several digitized pages from their official handbook.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 29, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Human Marvels, Music, Twentieth Century, Differently Abled, Handicapped, Challenged, and Otherwise Atypical
Grandma Prisbey’s Bottle Village
The official website.Many more pics here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 23, 2022 -
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Category: Architecture, Eccentrics, Regionalism, Twentieth Century
Lorett Fulkerson, the Last Performing Tattooed Lady
Was this gal, still performing in the 1990s, the last of her kind, an old-fashioned circus/sideshow performer? Maybe some current hipster performance piece features a tattooed female of this caliber. But it seems unlikely, so common is tattooing these days, even to the similar extent of Lorett's body, 90% inked.Some info at her Find A Grave site.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 18, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Human Marvels, Tattoos, Twentieth Century, Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows
| 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 |