1970s
Follies of the Madmen #309
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 31, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, Nature, 1970s
Gotta Get Over the Hump
Your new theme song for Wednesdays.
Gotta get over da hump!
More on the creators.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 29, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1970s
Pack It Right
This Department of the Army video continually uses a woman in a well-stuffed bikini to illustrate how to "pack it right."
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 28, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Government, PSA’s, Sex Symbols, 1970s
The Vidifont Titling Device
How did TV put a caption on the screen in the Sixties?Graphics, including all title graphics (i.e. "President Lyndon B. Johnson” or "Walter Cronkite”) were set in type or drawn by graphic artists. The graphic was photographed using 35-mm film, the film developed, and a 35-mm slide generated. The time to generate a slide exceeded one hour. The slide, when used, was placed in a special projector, scanned by a television camera, and keyed into the studio video feed. This method was known as ‘Superimposition’. Since the news department had to be prepared to identify any speaker who might appear before the cameras during the convention, Bass was faced with creating in excess of 4000 slides in advance for each convention. If an individual who was not a delegate or an alternate was called upon to give a seconding speech or to participate in an interview, a title slide probably would not be available. Bass was seeking an instantaneous, graphics-quality titling capability solution to the problem. The goal was to produce graphics that could be transparently mixed with artwork created using traditional methods.
Imagine then the delight when the Vidifont device was invented.
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 24, 2017 -
Comments (0)
Category: Technology, Television, 1960s, 1970s
Star Wars Celica GT
Back in 1977, as a stunt to help promote the opening of Star Wars, Toyota created a custom Star Wars Celica GT. Then they raffled off the car. Somebody won it, but nobody knows who. The fate of this car has become something of an obsession among fans of the movie. Was it destroyed? Is it still sitting in a garage somewhere? The mystery endures...More info: SpeedHero, jalopnik
Santa Ana Register - Oct 8, 1977
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 23, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Cars, Movies, 1970s
Makes bomb threat from jail
October 1971: While being booked on charges of malicious mischief at Los Angeles police headquarters, Frank Elby Taylor asked to exercise his right to make a phone call. He was allowed to do this, so he called the airport and made a bomb threat. The call was quickly traced back to the police station. The police got Elby out of his cell and booked him again on felony charges.
Reno Gazette-Journal - Oct 30, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 21, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Crime, 1970s, Pranks
Divorcee banned from chess club
1971: 16-year-old Soni Romans was banned from all extracurricular activities at at Channelview High School in Houston. This included school choir, chess club, drama, and the National Honor Society. The reason for the ban was that she had been married and divorced and had a child (which she gave up for adoption). Therefore, the school felt that she shouldn't be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities because, during them, she "might discuss sex with other students."However, if she had simply had the child without getting married and divorced, the same regulation wouldn't have applied. Unwed mothers were free to participate in the extracurriculars. Romans sued the school and won, so the ban was eventually lifted.
The Cincinnati Enquirer - Nov 14, 1971
The Akron Beacon Journal - Feb 17, 1972
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 19, 2017 -
Comments (3)
Category: School, Regulations, Divorce, 1970s
Gary Numan Unicef Concert: 1979
This is exactly the kind of performance that evokes for me the tragedy of starving Third World children.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 19, 2017 -
Comments (4)
Category: Aliens, Charities and Philanthropy, Eccentrics, Music, 1970s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Toys R Us Corrected
The logo for Toys R Us typically includes a backwards R. But when a Toys R Us opened in Cerritos, California in 1972, the local city council insisted that the store spell its name with the R the "correct" way around on the front of the building, so that it wouldnt confuse young children who might be struggling to learn the alphabet.The store had to keep the corrected R until 1981 when the city council finally voted to allow it to switch to the backwards R. Noted a council member: "All the bags, the price tags in the store had the backwards 'R.' It really wasn't accomplishing anything to have it correct on the outside."
Of course, as Steve Harvey noted for the LA Times, if you really want to be grammatically correct, the name should be Toys R We.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a single picture of the store with the corrected R.
Los Angeles Times - Mar 3, 1981
The normal logo
The corrected version
Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 18, 2017 -
Comments (3)
Category: Regulations, 1970s
Mr. Zap of the USPS
Full story here.
Original article here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 13, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Stupid Criminals, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, 1970s, Postal Services
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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 |