1980s
Miss Fine Brown Frame
A beauty contest inspired by a song! It started in 1947, but I'm not sure when it ended. But it was still active at least till 1983, as you can see below.Source of text.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 08, 2022 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Ethnic Groupings, Music, 1940s, 1980s
Death by Halloween costume
Redlands Daily Facts - Nov 2, 1981
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 31, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, 1980s, Halloween
Playing Music With Animals
Here is one track from this album (tracklist below). If you wish to listen to the rest, visit the Internet Archive and choose the Spotify option.The human's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 26, 2022 -
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Category: Animals, Music, 1980s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Deadsy (Deadtime Stories for Big Folk)
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 23, 2022 -
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Category: Death, Cartoons, 1980s, Sex
Haysi Fantayzee
Here's a live performance by a New Wave band that has arguably aged less well than many others, such as Blondie and The Cars. The rest of their 13-track playlist is here.Their Wikipedia page says:
Haysi Fantayzee was an avant-garde, new wave pop project emanating from the Blitz Kids street arts scene in London in the early 1980s. The group's music combined reggae, country and electro with political and sociological lyrics couched as nursery rhymes.[3]
Catapulted to stardom by their visual sensibilities, Haysi Fantayzee combined their extreme clothes sense – described[4] as combining white Rasta, tribal chieftain and Dickensian styles – with a quirky musical sound comparable to, but distinct from, other new wave musical pop acts of the era, such as Bow Wow Wow, Adam and the Ants and Bananarama
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 18, 2022 -
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Category: Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Music, 1980s
WABOT-2, the Organ-Playing Robot
WABOT-2 was created in the early 1980s, but I can't find any info on what's become of him since then. Whoever now owns him should be renting him out to play at weddings and funerals — recoup some of that $1.2 million it cost to build him.More info: Waseda University
Belleville News-Democrat - Sep 13, 1984
Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 08, 2022 -
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Category: Music, Robots, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, 1980s
Can’t Miss the Show
January 1985: The women of the Thurlow family proved they were serious fans of the TV show St. Elsewhere. Even as their house burned down around them, they remained parked in front of the TV set, watching the latest episode through the haze of the smoke, unwilling to miss a single moment. The firefighters had to drag them away. But as soon as the fire was extinguished, the women rushed back into the house and were able to catch the final 10 minutes.
Ocala Star-Banner - Jan 23, 1985
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 14, 2022 -
Comments (7)
Category: 1980s
Walking across the Australian desert to prove that God exists
1985: Six young Christians, carrying only "a Swiss army knife, adhesive bandages, cigarette lighters and three Bibles," set out to walk over one thousand miles across Australia's Nullarbor desert in order to "prove God exists." They were later joined by a 41-year-old man.They did so "in defiance of police warnings that the walk was dangerous, and complaints of blasphemy from religious leaders."
They made it. So they avoided winning a Darwin Award, though going on a hike in a desert without water would definitely put anyone in the running for one.
Port Huron Times Herald - May 18, 1985
"On the last leg of their trek: Rachel Sukumaran (12), Christine McKay (15), Dane Frick (42), Robin Dunn (19), Roland Gianstefani (22), Gary McKay (16) and Malcolm Wrest (22)."
Sydney Morning Herald - June 30, 1985
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 03, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Religion, Stupidity, 1980s
Death by cole slaw
According to his memorial page, John Ramsey died tragically in 1982 "when he slipped and fell into a cole-slaw making machine."
But according to news reports from the time, his death is somewhat more mysterious than that because it's not entirely clear how he managed to fall into the cole-slaw machine. From the Baltimore Sun (Oct 17, 1982):
When she climbed up the metal ladder, she said, she saw him inside the blending machine and began to scream. . .
Still, the question remained: How did he come to fall in?
Mr. Ramsey was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 145 pounds, according to the police report. When he stood on the top step of the metal ladder, the top edge of the blender, which is 6 feet off the floor, came up to his chest.
Mr. Wachs [president of the company] said he believes Mr. Ramsey might have dropped the bag of carrots into the metal bin, reached in to retrieve it, and was pulled into the machine.
He said employees know that an entire batch of salad may have to be discarded if a plastic bag falls into the blender. "But we always tell them if it falls, let it go. . . You are not going to be fired for it. But maybe he reached for it by impulse."
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 22, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Death, 1980s
Barbarian Men’s Fashions
The famous painter Boris Vallejo once did a series of ads for the clothing chain Chess King. What's your opinion? Does sword and sorcery imagery sell men's clothing?Here's a neat small essay on this campaign.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 22, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Fashion, Advertising, Fantasy, 1980s
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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 |