Once upon a time, there was a kindly old lady who specialized in creating gruesome murder dioramas. Her name was Frances Glessner Lee, and her little scenes went on to educate criminologists for decades.
Apparently, the painter John Graham was highly eccentric, both in his personal life and in his art. One fascination he had was with crossed eyes, as seen above.
His self-portrait below shows a certain, ah, uniqueness.
Nowadays, stories about men, women and children being kept prisoner in strange circumstances--sometimes for years or decades--are so common that I'm certain Chuck will soon declare them "no longer weird."
But fifty years ago, such stories seemed more rare. One such inspired the classic novel by John Fowles, The Collector, which appeared in 1963.
The trailer of the film version can be seen above.
Fowles was inspired in part by a true story. I believe I've found that account, as seen below.
Enjoy the debut of what was to become a whole category of weird news.
Ralph Pearson's 15-minutes of fame came in 1951, when he briefly gained some notoriety as the Drugstore Hypnotist. He was a drugstore owner who hypnotized his customers, making them believe they were flying an airplane, or that they were the Statue of Liberty. This was in the days before CVS and Walmart, when people actually hung out and socialized in drugstores. You can read more about Ralph Pearson in the Google News Archive.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Tue Mar 27, 2012 | Comments (2)
Category: 1950's, Brain
Sometimes even generals come to their senses. The notion of airborne nuclear reactors proved too worrisome even for the military, despite the brilliant failsafe plan of catastrophic ditching into water.
Category: Animals, Rube Goldberg Devices, Cartoons, 1950's