Footprint Rugs

A fad in the early 1970s. I can't find them available for sale anywhere now, however.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 20, 2018 - Comments (7)
Category: Interior Decorating | 1970s

Mystery Gadget 65

What's this machine do?

The answer is here.

And after the jump.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 20, 2018 - Comments (5)
Category: Technology | 1910s

Girl Frozen Alive

A popular publicity stunt for selling cars during the 1960s.

Philadelphia Inquirer - July 10, 1968

Louisville Courier-Journal - Nov 12, 1965

Marion Star - June 17, 1965

Lebanon Daily News - Oct 7, 1968

Cincinnati Enquirer - May 7, 1969

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 19, 2018 - Comments (5)
Category: Death | Publicity Stunts | 1960s

The Anti-Dancing Devil

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 19, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Antisocial Activites | Costumes and Masks | 1920s | Dance

Urban transport of the future

"The nightmare of traffic jams. On a street in New York City, the postal clerk George A. Compton, immobilized with his car in a traffic jam, after an exasperating wait went berserk. He got out of the car and took off his shoes and started to climb the river of cars, leaping easily from car to car."

"Will cities be like this? Here's how the problem of traffic in cities could be lightened, if not completely solved: tiny single-seater cars that occupy a small area."

Source: La Domenica del Corriere - December 16, 1962 (via ebay)

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 18, 2018 - Comments (5)
Category: Mass Transit | Transportation | 1960s | Yesterday's Tomorrows

Follies of the Madmen #384

How the heck did that tub get out there, and how's that naked gal going to get home?

And without plumbing, will she fill it, pail by pail, with seawater?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 18, 2018 - Comments (5)
Category: Business | Advertising | Nature | Baths, Showers and Other Cleansing Methods | 1950s

The Stay-Alert Game

Briefly experimented with in 1969 as a way to motivate U.S. troops in Vietnam to stay alert, fight better, and avoid casualties. The idea was that combat would be turned into a game. Each platoon was awarded points for enemy troops killed, weapons captured, and rice caches discovered. But they lost points if they suffered any battle casualties. The winning platoon would receive two or three days off at a rest center.

Troops hated the stay-alert game, so it was quickly mothballed.

Appleton Post-Crescent - May 5, 1969

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 17, 2018 - Comments (0)
Category: Games | Military | War | Armed Forces | 1960s

Glow Bowl Fresh

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 17, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Bathrooms | Hygiene | Body Fluids | Excrement | Chindogu

Bacchus After-Shave

Very strange 1969 ad campaign for Bacchus after-shave. The premise is that instead of leaving a giant horse outside of Troy, the Greeks actually left a "towering bottle of Bacchus," and that this caused the Trojan women to become so wild with lust that the Trojan men no longer had time for fighting.

It then follows this up with the tagline: "The Romans conquered an empire with it. Go out and conquer yours."

But what do the Romans have to do with the Trojan horse? Rome didn't even exist at the time of the Trojan war. I guess there's a vague connection because the Romans believed they were descended from the Trojans, but even so the history seems hopelessly muddled.

Esquire - Jan 1970

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 16, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: History | Advertising | 1960s | Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

Follies of the Madmen #383

Our swill is so vile that nothing is possibly beneath it.

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 16, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: Business | Advertising | 1970s | Alcohol