Twentieth Century
Colonel Barker
Wikipedia says:
Victor Barker, born Lillias Irma Valerie Barker (1895–1960), who also went by the pseudonyms John Hill and Geoffrey Norton, was a transgender man who is notable for having married a woman. He was an officer of the National Fascisti, a bankrupt and a convicted criminal.
Good article here.
A contemporary report from 1933:
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 24, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Gender-bending, Twentieth Century
Making Mercury Thermometers
The COVID pandemic has certainly made thermometers part of everyday discourse. Once upon a time, the mercury-filled instrument was the only home-friendly device available. I was not even sure you could buy one these days, but Amazon sells several "liquid-filled" devices. Here is some info from the vendor at the Amazon link.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 15, 2020 -
Comments (9)
Category: Body, Diseases, Health, Technology, Twentieth Century
Las Pozas
When travel resumes, here's a destination alluring to any WU-vie.Read more on the creator here.
His Wikipedia entry.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 21, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Outsider Art, Surrealism, Eccentrics, Twentieth Century
Peter the Hermit of Hollywood
Article source.
More anecdotal articles here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed May 20, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Movies, 1960s, Twentieth Century
The Painter Joachim Raphaël Boronali
NOTW and Weird Universe have covered innumerable art world hoaxes and farces. Paintings hung upside down, installations destroyed by janitors, large prize money for unmade beds, and so forth. Here is one of the first such japes. A painting done by a donkey with a brush tied to its tail, and exhibited at a famous Paris salon as the work of a new painter named Joachim Raphaël Boronali.
Read the whole story here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 14, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Art, Avant Garde, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Twentieth Century
Vernon Deck, Baseball Bigmouth
Posted By: Paul - Tue May 12, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Human Marvels, Sports, Twentieth Century
Follies of the Madmen #470
Imagine your lungs as a barn...
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 28, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Addictions, Business, Advertising, Tobacco and Smoking, Surrealism, Twentieth Century
Johanna Went
Let us know when you bail.
Halfway through 1984’s Knife Boxing, Johanna Went interrupts her incessant frenzied bopping to thrust her hands into a crudely made body part—half-buttocks, half-vagina—suspended from the roof of Club Lingerie.1 A vicious viscous excremental substance seeps down her arm. She brings her face close and sucks the stuff into her mouth before hauling out a giant goo-covered tampon that she aggressively flings at the audience. Some cringe, others laugh. Quickly she pulls on a costume, a huge mask-headed apron covered in sex doll heads, all the while screaming her unique tongue, a babble from Hell channeled through Lolita-cum-Medea. Screeching tape loops accompany her, along with a blaring saxophone and a loud percussive racket emanating from a woman drumming on found objects.2 A monstrous vagina appears stage right. Went extracts more tampons, heaving each into the mesmerized mosh pit. Completely at one with her, the audience starts hurling these back in a game of volleyball gone mad. After all, this show was held to coincide with the Los Angeles Olympics. Much art programming accompanied that event, but Went was not part of the roster. Instead, she held her own celebration of sports, on the stage of a punk club, flanked by headless stockinette figures replete with genitalia parodying the elegant cast metal kouroi made by Robert Graham to decorate the official Olympic stadiums.
Source of quote, long essay.
Another essay on the creator, here.
Her Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 13, 2020 -
Comments (9)
Category: Ambiguity, Uncertainty and Deliberate Obscurity, Antisocial Activities, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Music, Avant Garde, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Twentieth Century
Mystery Illustration 93
This man is the son of one of the superstar actors of the twentieth century. Without googling, just by resemblance, can you say who the father was?Answer is here.
And after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 26, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Movies, Children, Parents, Twentieth Century
The Dangerous Sports Club at the Golden Gate Bridge
Article source.
Their Wikipedia page.
Article about other bungee-ers at the bridge.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 18, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Architecture, Crime, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century
| Who We Are |
|---|
| 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 |