The Dangerous Sports Club at the Golden Gate Bridge

Article source.

Their Wikipedia page.

Article about other bungee-ers at the bridge.



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 18, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Antisocial Activites | Architecture | Crime | Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers | Twentieth Century | Twenty-first Century

Relationship of noise tolerance to martini consumption

Back in the sixties, researchers weren't afraid to tackle the really important questions...

Knoxville News Sentinel - Dec 2, 1962

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 17, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Science | 1960s | Alcohol | Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

DIY Bikini

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 17, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Contests, Races and Other Competitions | Fashion | 1960s

Shoe Gongs

Anthony Faranda of Yonkers, NY worried that children didn't like wearing rubber-soled shoes because they made no noise when walking on a pavement. So, he invented a shoe gong. Or, as he called it, a "footwear actuated noise maker." He patented it in 1957.

It was a disc and clapper that could be worn over shoes. He explained: "The arrangement is such that upon normal walking steps or running strides the clapper is activated to make noise and thereby promote the interest of children in wearing shoes with soles that do not make an audible sound in engaging firm or rigid surfaces."

Maybe kids would have liked these, but not, I imagine, their parents.

He assigned the patent to the NY advertising agency McCann-Erickson. It's unclear what plans they might have had for these things.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 16, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Inventions | Shoes | 1950s

Linda Lawson, Miss Cue

From her Wikipedia page:

On May 5, 1955, Lawson was dubbed "Miss Cue"[4][5] in reference to a series of nuclear tests conducted by the US military under "Operation Teapot," and publicized as "Operation Cue" in a short film distributed by the US Federal Civil Defense Administration. [6]

Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 16, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Death | Government | Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings | Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters | 1950s

Goth researcher

This researcher looks strangely out-of-place in the 1930s. He looks more like a singer in a 1980's goth band.

Minneapolis Star Tribune - May 11, 1930

For example, he could easily have been a member of Bauhaus.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 15, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: 1930s

Follies of the Madmen #466

This was part of a campaign that made far-fetched comparisons between the animal kingdom and a desire to eat Jello.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 15, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Business | Advertising | Food | 1950s

Sprink

I wonder how much consumer research this company did before deciding to name their product 'Sprink'. I'm guessing they thought it was a catchy shortened form of 'sprinkle'. But the problem is that the name sounds too much like 'Stink', which is exactly the wrong association for a room-rug freshener. Must be why it doesn't seem to have been on the market more than a few months.

Rocky Mount Telegram - June 18, 1963

Cincinnati Enquirer - Oct 21, 1962

Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 14, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Odd Names | Products | Fetishes | 1960s

Donkey Bike

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 14, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles | Inventions | 1960s

Serve More Cottage Cheese

A 16-page recipe book published in 1954 by the National Dairy Products Corporation, Sealtest Division.

A better name for the cover recipe would be Vomiting Clam.





via reddit

Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 13, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Food | Books | 1950s