Category:
1930s

Follies of the Madmen #255

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[Click upper and/or lower half of ad to enlarge]

Who knew that fresh coffee promoted dancing?

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 27, 2015 - Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Coffee and other Legal Stimulants, 1930s

Old Quaker Booze

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Once upon a time, thanks to Schenley liquors, you could get as wasted as old Ben Franklin (note: not a Quaker, just partied with them), in the manner of this Curly-Howard-lookalike above. Then you'd be "feeling your Quaker Oats."

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 25, 2015 - Comments (1)
Category: History, Historical Figure, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, 1930s, Alcohol

Give a Party for the Party!

A 1930s party-planning manual for members of the American Communist Party, downloadable as a PDF here. Let's just say, those guys knew how to throw a cheap party.

More info from a 2003 article in the NY Times:

Published in the late 1930s by the party's New York state branch and recently rediscovered by a Brandeis University historian, it's a 15-page illustrated tutorial in the art of ideologically correct fraternizing. Among the suggested high jinks: cutting editorials from The Daily Worker into pieces and having guests see who can put them back together fastest, or holding a mock convention on, say, nonintervention in Spain. "One guest is made chairman. Another is Chamberlain, another Leon Blum, a third Mussolini," the pamphlet cheerfully explains. Or why not try a round of anti-Fascist darts? "Draw a picture of Hitler, Mussolini, Hague or another Girdleresque pest. Put it on a piece of soft board with thumbtacks. Six throws for a nickel, and a prize if you paste Hague in the pants, or Trotsky in the eye," the pamphlet instructs.

Also, advertise "All the free beer you can drink!" but charge expensive admission at the door ("Yes, people will pay!"). And then:

Pour your beer in the center of the glass not down the inside. POURING IN THE MIDDLE GIVES MORE FOAM AND LESS LIQUID — STRETCHES EACH BARREL FURTHER.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 23, 2015 - Comments (2)
Category: Games, Politics, 1930s

Pistol-Packin’ Mouse Trap

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I am just going to go out on a limb and say that this is the best goddamn mousetrap ever invented!

Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 16, 2015 - Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Death, Hygiene, Appliances, 1930s

Laundry Shaming

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This would be so great if it happened today. Can you imagine the ruckus on social media if some darling tyke came home with an accusatory advertisement pinned to its clothes?

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 30, 2015 - Comments (2)
Category: Family, Hygiene, Advertising, 1930s

George Bennie’s Railplane



I want to live in a world where a system of Bennie Railplanes has been in existence for eighty years.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 29, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Inventions, Air Travel and Airlines, Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails, 1930s

Ice Cream as Health Food

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Original ad here. (Scroll to the left.)

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 13, 2015 - Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Children, Junk Food, Nutrition, 1930s, Australia

I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas



Gangsta rap!

Well a pretty little mom tried to put me on the run

But I had to burn her down with a Thompson Gun

I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas babe

You oughta see me do my stuff

I'm a ding dong daddy baby

And liquor is my racket

Lots of times when things are dull

I deal in other traffic

I can sell you morphine coke or snow

Take a little shot and you're raring to go

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 11, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Drugs, Music, 1930s

Hitting a golf ball off an elephant’s ear


"AN ELEPHANTINE HAZARD — Driving a golf ball from the ear of Jenny, a 12-year-old circus elephant, constitutes real sport for Billy Drews, above, as he shoots a game of miniature golf in New York."

Source: Valley Morning Star - May 3, 1931

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 27, 2015 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Sports, Golf, 1930s

Ostrich Feather Fan

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Just in time for summer!

Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 19, 2015 - Comments (2)
Category: Chindogu, Appliances, 1930s

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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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