Weird Universe
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Category:
1940's

Follies of the Mad Men #182

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"World War II was won by superior American staples. We're not saying that just because we make and sell them."

The personal bonus: Bostitch is a company from my home state of Rhode Island.

Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon May 14, 2012 | Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Engineering and Construction, Technology, War, 1940's

Jughead Licks An Old Man Wearing Ice Cream

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[Click to enlarge]

Forever will the image of Jughead licking icecream off the head of Pop Tate haunt your every waking moment.

But if that's not enough old-school Archie weirdness for you, please click the link and purchase the newest volume of the Archie Archives.

Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri May 11, 2012 | Comments (2)
Category: Food, Comics, Fetish, 1940's, Eating, Goofs and Screw-ups

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths

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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.

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Follow the link for a whole book about her.



Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue May 08, 2012 | Comments (8)
Category: Crime, Death, Eccentrics, Education, Toys, 1940's, 1950's

Slimming Down the Old Way

All women have to do to slim down is SHAKE IT!

Or.... is there a more sinister reason for all these machines?

Posted By: Expat47 | Date: Mon Apr 30, 2012 | Comments (5)
Category: 1940's, Women

Do You Kiss Betty and/or Veronica With That Mouth?

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This is not an artifact of me fooling around with Photoshop. Nor can I imagine some Google drone did this during the newspaper-scanning process. You're welcome to look at the original here.

My guess is some bored artist or letterer in 1947 seeing what he could sneak past the editor.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sun Apr 22, 2012 | Comments (12)
Category: Obscenity, Comics, Teenagers, 1940's, Butt

Stop That Tank!





Disney creates terrorist training films! I'm sure al-Qaeda is watching this to learn how to stymie our forces in Afghanistan.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Apr 16, 2012 | Comments (6)
Category: PSA's, War, Armed Forces, Weapons, Cartoons, 1940's

Most Televised Girl in America

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Was the rightful bearer of this distinction Rita Morley?

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Or was it Sue Read?

Morley's claim is better documented. I can't really learn much about Read other than this:

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Anyhow, who could rightfully claim the title today?
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Apr 13, 2012 | Comments (10)
Category: Celebrities, Television, 1940's, 1960's, 1950's

Pay Phones



What was once normal and not-weird becomes weird with the simple addition of that magical ingredient, "time."

Imagine an era when NYC had "tens of thousands" of payphones!

The other two segments of this video are less strange, but still worth watching.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Apr 06, 2012 | Comments (12)
Category: Communications, Money, Technology, 1940's, 1950's

John Graham

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[Click either to enlarge]

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.

Read more about him in this LIFE magazine article and at this site.

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Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Apr 05, 2012 | Comments (2)
Category: Art, Surrealism, Eccentrics, 1940's, 1960's, 1950's, Russia

Germans Agog At Negro GIs

Descriptions of white explorers meeting dark-skinned tribes who have never seen a white person before are pretty common in travel/exploration literature. So common they're almost a cliche. Leave it to the Germans to switch things around a bit: Teutonic tribespeople bewildered by the sight of dark-skinned travelers from across the ocean. From the Chicago Tribune, Apr 14, 1947:

Posted By: Alex | Date: Wed Mar 21, 2012 | Comments (12)
Category: Ethnic Groupings, Racism, 1940's, Europe
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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.