Most Typical Boy

A little over a month ago I posted about how, back in the 1930s and 40s, there used to be "Miss Typical" contests. Turns out there were male versions of these contests as well. The picture below shows the 1939 finalists for the "Typical American Boy" contest. The winner was Karl McCready, 13, of Louisville, Kentucky (sitting in the front row, on the left). You can see some footage of the Typical Boy contest over at efootage.com.

Can't help but wonder what kind of child would have been produced if Typical Boy and Miss Typical had ever gotten together.

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

Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 02, 2013
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions | 1930s

Comments

Typical baby would have been produced! Average weight, average gender...?

Posted by Eddie on 08/02/13 at 11:38 AM

I'm proud to be atypical. 😊

"Bad boys bad boys... watcha gonna do when they come for you ...." 😜

Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 08/02/13 at 02:30 PM

This one got me to thinking of Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy." The antithesis of today's subject:

Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

Posted by KDP on 08/02/13 at 02:32 PM

This headline should read "This is what the establishment thinks a typical American boy should look like".

Posted by BMN on 08/02/13 at 09:45 PM

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