Here's another prediction of yesteryear that never panned out. Found in the Kingsport News - Apr 2, 1959:
J. McLaren Thomson, president of the National Hairdressers Federation, predicts that both men and women will have their hair short by 1999 so that they can wear space helmets. He said women will have a collection of wigs to wear with special dresses for gala occasions.
Fritz von Opel was one of those early-20th-century rocket-besotted guys who pioneered this exotic means of propulsion. Just look at his rocket car go in the film clip above! (Narration in German, but not necessary to comprehension.)
But von Opel's innocent excitement had its darker side. I give you the 1929 newspaper article below. Specifically, the enlarged sentence.
Back in 1968, the artist Gianangelli unveiled these metal bathing suits that he described as the "lunar fashion from the year 2000." In hindsight, his belief that we'd still be going to the moon in the year 2000 was more wrong than his fashion prediction. [Calgary Herald]
Several pieces of art have been left on the moon during the missions to its surface. These are the two that I'm aware of, though there may be more:
Moon Museum — a tiny piece of ceramic wafer on which six artists (Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Forrest Myers, and Andy Warhol) drew pictures. It was attached to a leg of the Intrepid landing module (though this was never confirmed by NASA) which landed on the moon and was left there in November 1969. Warhol contributed the rocket/penis in the upper-left corner.
Fallen Astronaut — An aluminum sculpture of a humanoid figure that's supposed to represent an astronaut in a spacesuit. It was left on the surface of the moon on August 1, 1971, next to a plaque listing astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the advancement of space exploration.
So we've left a picture of a penis on the moon, as well as a sexless humanoid figure. I wonder if this will confuse future alien archaeologists who find the art.
Isn't it a shame that bright young ambitious girls today, who might wish to serve their nation's astronautics corps, can no longer dream of becoming--SPACE SECRETARIES!?!
Category: Space Travel, Hair Styling, Headgear, Yesterday's Tomorrows