1940s
Mystery Gadget 16
What can this woman be making that leaves her so joyous?
The answer is here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 05, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Technology, 1940s
Stone Pie
Here's something to add to Paul's Original Rock Dinner posted last week. It's a stone shaped like a piece of chocolate pie, found by Dr. Charles M. Sheldon of Kansas, sometime circa 1940. The picture comes from The Rotarian (Apr 1944).
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 04, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, 1940s
Follies of the Madmen #201
The message here? Sloppy panties imperil the elderly and the nation's health care policies.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 01, 2013 -
Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Elderly, Underwear, 1940s
The Original Rock Dinner
Original page here.
In 1939, Kent Knowlton of Randsburg, CA, assembled a curious meal of petrified food for his amusement and that of others.
We have a record that it was still being exhibited a year later. Then, the "Original Rock Dinner" vanishes from history--until this very year!
An article on the "ghost town" of Randsburg features what appears to be a photo of the petrified food, nearly 75 years after its debut. I'd recognize that "cauliflower" anywhere!
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 26, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Collectors, Food, Regionalism, 1930s, 1940s, Natural Wonders
Smoke Smoke Smoke
The first musical anti-smoking propaganda?
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 05, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music, Smoking and Tobacco, 1940s
Follies of the Madmen #197
As gross-outs go, the notion of a giant head raining its dandruff on helpless humans (or is that a normal-sized head raining on shrunken doll people?), is pretty far up the scale. Not sure, however, that it makes me want to buy the product.
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 24, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Disasters, 1940s, Hair and Hairstyling
Alfred, Meet Jimmy
Recent scholarship has traced the roots of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Newman back to the nineteenth century. But I don't believe anyone has ever before noted his resemblance to this animated version of Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen, as seen in the 1942 Superman cartoon "Showdown," embedded above.
How fitting that today both Jimmy and Alfred are owned by the same company, Warner Bros.!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 14, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Humor, Magazines, Twins, Lookalikes & Doppelgangers, Comics, 1940s, Nineteenth Century
What cigarette would your doctor recommend?
An ad campaign for Camels from the mid 1940s. The Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising site (where I found them) notes:
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 10, 2013 -
Comments (11)
Category: Addictions, Advertising, 1940s
Japanese Skull War Trophy
[Click this text to enlarge.]
Original picture here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 05, 2013 -
Comments (10)
Category: War, 1940s, Asia, Skulls, Bones and Skeletons, Love & Romance
Patrick O’Connor, Wrestler and Artist
There aren't that many people who seriously pursue art and wrestling at the same time, but Patrick O'Connor was one of them. Back in the 1940s, he was heavyweight wrestling champion of Ireland, but also had a Greenwich Village art studio. He was an artist of the "conservative Realist and Romantic school." Apparently he viewed art as his true passion. Wrestling was just a way to make money. From The Evening Independent, Sep. 9, 1944:Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any examples of his art, except for the ones that can be seen behind him in the pictures below. O'Connor is the one with the beard. The pictures were taken in his art studio.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 02, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Sports, Wrestling, 1940s
| 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 |