Category:
1920s

Mystery Gadget 18

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Take your best guess first!

The answer is here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 18, 2013 - Comments (9)
Category: Technology, 1920s

Man inherits 143 Trillion Marks

From the Daily Kennebec Journal - Aug 23, 1928:

Remarkable confidence in the future ability of the German nation to redeem at "a reasonable price" all outstanding German paper marks issued during the World War is found in one of the clauses of the will of a wealthy out-of-State man whose death occurred recently and whose will has been filed with Assistant Attorney General Philip D. Stubbs for the assessment of the Maine inheritance tax on the shares of the Maine corporations in the estate. The will was drawn in June of 1926.

The deceased left an estate of approximately $800,000, aside from one hundred and forty-three trillion German marks which had cost him about $6,000. The will is unique in the fact that the executor is directed to hold these marks until such time as they shall be redeemed rather than to appraise them as practically worthless.

The following clause in the will covers this point:

"In the belief that the German people will ultimately require redemption of all outstanding German paper marks issued during the World War of 1914-1918 at a reasonable price, I direct my said executor and trustee to continue to hold the German paper marks of such issue as may belong to me at the time of my death (amounting to about one hundred and forty-three trillion marks according to the American method of reckoning) until such marks can be sold at about the cost thereof to me, namely about $6000."

Although the article says the trillions of marks were acquired during World War I, that must be wrong. The period of German hyperinflation occurred from 1921-1924.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 07, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Money, 1920s

Miss Treasury Department


Shown is Helen G. Sweeney who won the title of Miss Washington D.C. back in 1924. But she also served, more specifically, as Miss Treasury Department.

Apparently young women were chosen to represent all the various offices of the federal government. So in addition to Miss Treasury Department there was:
  • Miss Bureau of Standards (Betty Grace Tucker)
  • Miss Veterans Bureau (Elsie L. Schulze)
  • Miss Commerce (Estelle Meisenheimer)
  • Miss Navy (Etelka Kearney)
  • Miss State Department (Adeline Shuler)
  • Miss Post Office (Ellen S. Waller)
  • Miss Department of Justice (Helen T. Gallagher)
  • Miss Civil Service (Irma Beaver)
  • Miss Labor (Margaret McKinley)
  • Miss Bureau of Engraving (Elizabeth Thompson)
  • Miss War Department (Pearl B. Henry)
  • Miss Government Printing Office (Evelen M. Smith)
  • Miss Agriculture (Jewell Sager)
  • Miss Interior (Minnie Jean)
  • Miss Federation (Margaret M. Mattare)
  • Miss Interstate Commerce (Sarah M. Boyle)
  • Miss U.S. Employee's Compensation Commission (Edith S. Webb)
Source: The Washington Post, Dec. 1, 1924

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 22, 2013 - Comments (6)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Government, 1920s

Fishing for Humans

This would be the PETA-approved version of fishing. From the Wilmington Sunday Morning Star - Jan 6, 1929.

Posted By: Alex - Sat May 25, 2013 - Comments (1)
Category: Sports, 1920s

The Six Brown Brothers



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Blackface, clownsuits and saxophones: a winning combo in any era!

Learn the whole story here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 05, 2013 - Comments (0)
Category: Clowns, Music, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s

Singing Eskimos

On his 1925 Arctic expedition, Admiral Donald B. MacMillan used singing eskimos to test the effectiveness of short wave radio as a communication tool for the world's navies. His experiments are credited with helping to open up previously "useless" radio frequencies.

In the picture, MacMillan is second from right. The guy standing behind him is Eugene McDonald, founder of Zenith Radio Corporation. His company built the special short wave radio gear used on the expedition. All others in the picture are the singing eskimos.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 30, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Music, Radio, Experiments, 1920s

Los Angeles 100,000 years in the future


A headline in the Los Angeles Times, Apr 15, 1923. The author of the article, Ransome Sutton, elaborated:

Hairless, toothless, earless, toeless, head-heavy, all the useless scaffolding removed from the body, all the animal instincts erased from the mind, man will sit in a cushioned chair — a Jovian brain in a simplified body, like a dynamo housed in papier-mache — wielding thunderbolts.

So much concerning the inhabitants of Los Angeles in the year 101,923 AD.

Within the memory of old men, Los Angeles has grown into a city of some 700,000 inhabitants. Barring earthquakes, glaciers, acts of God and the public enemy, it should continue to grow, at an increasing rate, so long as mouths can be fed and the inhabitants housed. For it affords attractions of everlasting value — summery sunshine, health, rare air, good soil, scenery, the mountains in the background and in front the sea. Railroads extending to the eastward like a fan, and ocean routes radiating to the westward. Here, more surely than almost anywhere, continuous growth is insured.

Of course, he failed to foresee how bizarre many of the residents of Los Angeles would have become a mere 90 years later, let alone 100,000 years in the future!

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 24, 2013 - Comments (11)
Category: Utopias and Dystopias, 1920s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

Sideways Art


The Fossil Hunters is a painting by Edwin Dickinson, created between 1926 and 1928. Its claim to fame in the history of art is that it was accidentally hung sideways first at the Carnegie International Exhibition of 1928, then subsequently at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the New York Academy of Design, where it received an award. Finally someone noticed that it was incorrectly oriented (according to what Dickinson said was supposed to be the right-side up).

I think it looks better on its side (below). At least, I can kinda make some sense out of the painting from that angle. But then, who said art was supposed to make sense!

Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 12, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Art, 1920s

Happy Easter 2013!

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Personally, I think it's weird that we can peek at our ancestors from nearly 85 years ago. Be sure to catch the sylph-like dancing starting around the four-minute mark.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 31, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Holidays, Movies, 1920s

Fritz von Opel



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.

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Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 29, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, War, Space Travel, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Europe, Cars

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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