Little Irvy the Frozen Whale

"Little Irvy" was a 20-ton whale harpooned on July 1, 1967, destined to be sold as dog food. But instead his body was bought by showman Jerry "Tyrone" Malone, who froze it with liquid nitrogen and then spent the next 25 years hauling it around the United States in a refrigerated truck, displaying it as a sideshow attraction. Malone advertised Little Irvy with a sign that read, "This exhibit is dedicated to the preservation of whales."

Read more about Little Irvy in Dewey Webb's article at SideshowWorld.com. Webb notes that, because of freezer burn, Little Irvy looked "less like a whale than... a gigantic semideflated tire that's lost its tread."

Malone also wrote a children's book about his adventures on the road with Little Irvy. You can buy a used copy of this book at Amazon for $46.11. But if you want a new copy it'll apparently cost you $6,946.01, which, since the book is 42 pages long, is $165.38 a page.

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 forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 12, 2015
Category: Fish | 1960s

Comments

This will be my last post on the interweb... I just bough the last known unread Little Irvy, the Tale of a Whale and am now broke.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/12/15 at 10:22 AM

The traveling freak show is alive and well, it just appears on cable now.

Posted by KDP on 01/12/15 at 10:40 AM

A tale of a Whale sounds like a Whale of a tale! :lol: :coolsmile:

Posted by Tyrusguy on 01/12/15 at 06:01 PM

Don't remember the name, but I remember the big blue truck, parked in a K-Mart parking lot. It was cold and dark inside, and I was disappointed that the whale wasn't swimming. There were a couple of other big fish displayed by the exit.
Maybe entertainment HAS improved since I was a kid!

Posted by Steve on 02/04/15 at 01:50 PM

It was invented when you were about 7, wasn't it Steve?

Ah.. just askin'. 😊

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/05/15 at 12:59 AM

Something like that. I think I saw the truck when I was eight or nine.

How did you know?

Posted by Steve on 02/06/15 at 11:35 AM

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