Category:
1950s

The Wurlitzer Electric Piano

Pre-digital, this device worked by striking steel reeds.



Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 30, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Music, Technology, 1950s

Musical Prisoner



In 1949, LIFE told us about Frank Grandstaff, who composed a cantata while jailed, and earned a brief release to hear it performed. But what happened afterwards?

Original story here.



Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 19, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Crime, Music, 1940s, 1950s

Accidental Marriage

The final paragraph of this article sounds like it could be the start of a novel:

Mr. and Mrs. de Leon decided several days later they no longer were in love. It was then they learned they were married.


The Canonsburg Daily Notes - Aug 30, 1952

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 16, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Marriage, 1950s

The Singer Gazelle



Wikipedia page here.



Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 11, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: 1950s, Cars

Runaway Groom



Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 01, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Drugs, Marriage, 1950s, Brain Damage

Atomic Bomb Car



In 1953, Corwin D. Willson of Flint, Michigan patented the Atomic Bomb Car. Though the official title on the patent was a "sedan having versatile structure."

His idea was that if the United States were "atomically attacked," people would need to flee the cities, and then they'd have to live in their cars. But most cars aren't designed to be lived in. The solution: turn cars into mobile bomb shelters that could provide temporary housing for people. Essentially, he was patenting a camper car, but he was trying to market it as a defense against atomic attack.

From the patent:

Obviously, today's family car, while as numerous as dwellings, would fail, under threat of atomic attack, to meet the needs of millions of families simultaneously for widely diffused family shelter during an emergency probably timed to occur in mid-winter and to be of some duration. yet, once some practical: i.e., simple and economically possible, means is found for making the average car quickly convertible to housekeeping use, then the threat of the atom bomb to our cities loses some of its menace.

And also:

It is commonly acknowledged that the physical structures of congested areas are doomed once atomically attacked, The real problem is: how sensibly to save the lives of the inhabitants of cities thus marked for destruction and temporarily house them so that the business of resistance may go on in spite of the chaos engendered? Americans own as many motorcars as dwellings: 30,000,000 cars. If these cars were built as taught herein and if the civilian masses, against whom the next war acknowledgedly will be waged, were trained to diffuse in an orderly fashion to points prepared in advance and to occupy their convertible motorcars as temporary family dwellings till the danger passed, then one of the greatest problems to face the coming generation would have found a simple, economically sound and eminently satisfying solution.

More info: JF Ptak Science Books, Patent #US2638374A

Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 27, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s

The Ford House of Aurora, Illinois



1951 article here.

Apparently still extant, according to this great set of current pics.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 26, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Architecture, 1950s

Target Practice

Did she hit her target, or miss?

Grand Prairie Daily News - May 13, 1954



In Gutersloh, Germany, police arrested Friedelina Kleine-Beek after she followed her husband to a local tavern, watched through the window as he raised a glass of beer to his lips, then carefully aimed a rifle and fired, shattering the glass, but leaving her husband unscathed.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 24, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Marriage, 1950s, Couples

The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish



Lately I have been listening to a lot of Martin Denny, the inventor of exotica music. I think he certainly qualifies as weird. As do Exotik-A-GoGo, modern interpreters of his work.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 22, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Space-age Bachelor Pad & Exotic, 1950s

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Who We Are
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.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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