Category:
1960s

The Hunger Show, 1969

Back in October 1969, a group of "antipopulation protesters" staged a "hunger show" (aka "starve-in") outside of San Francisco. The plan was to inflate a 100x100-foot plastic pillow, inside of which 300 of them would spend a week without food, only water. As they sat there, feeling hungry, they would have to watch "slides of pork chops and peas and carrots" and listen to taped sounds of restaurant noises. Also, sandwiches would be taped to the exterior of the plastic pillow, and non-participants outside would stage a pie-eating contest.

Participants were free to leave the pillow at any time, "but they can't return — they've died."

Organizer Stephanie Mills offered a slightly cryptic explanation of the goal of the protest: "People are just being too chicken, too chicken for their own good. We've got to encourage them not to be chicken."

The hunger show lasted half a week. Then it started to rain so they gave it up, saying, "We came here to suffer from hunger, not exposure."


[Pacific Stars & Stripes - Oct 9, 1969]

Posted By: Alex - Tue May 21, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Food, 1960s

Irish Car:  The Shamrock

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Why there is no Irish car industry today. From Wikipedia.

Shortly after production began, however, design flaws became apparent. Although the car was big and heavy, it used a relatively small Austin A55 1.5 litre engine, which limited performance. The A55 also provided the transmission and suspension. Another problem was that the rear wheels were shrouded by body panels and a rear wheel could not be removed (for puncture repair for example) without dropping its axle..... Production of up to 10,000 cars a year was talked about but as few as ten complete cars were produced during the six months before production ceased. After the factory closed, the unused parts were dumped into the local lake, Lough Muckno.

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 16, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Regionalism, Success & Failure, 1950s, 1960s, Europe, Cars

GI Joe in Space







After his old-school sedate debut in 1967 (first video), GI Joe's outer space adventures turned decidedly weird in the 1970s, thanks apparently to the influence of Stanley Kubrick.

Posted By: Paul - Wed May 15, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Movies, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Toys, 1960s, 1970s

Least Successful Dance “Craze” Ever

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 11, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Fads, 1960s, Dance

Super Green Beret

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Read all his adventures here.

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 09, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: War, Comics, Teenagers, 1960s

Briefly Married

Could this have been the shortest marriage ever? And does this kind of thing (dropping dead at the altar) happen often enough that it's no longer weird? [Source: The Day - Apr 3, 1967]

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 09, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, Husbands, 1960s

The ‘latest thing’ in bridal fashion, 1967


"Frilly culottes are the latest thing for the bride who dares to be different. Instead of the traditional veil, a bonnet and wide cloak of the same frilly lace."
[Evening Independent - Feb 3, 1967]

I think she looks a bit like Big Bird.

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 01, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Fashion, 1960s

Suntory Whisky



Nine shots and he can still walk! That must be some weak booze....

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 18, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, 1960s, Asia, Alcohol

Twinkle, The Star That Came Down From Heaven

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In the mid-1960s, when I was in elementary school, I had a subscription to HUMPTY DUMPTY MAGAZINE. A very weird comic strip therein was titled "Twinkle, The Star That Came Down From Heaven." (Seen above, drawn by Jerry Smath, and courtesy of the Flickr stream of Glen Mullaly.) Even as a kid, I knew it was strange. A living, sentient star who manifested on Earth in a bipolar costume and kept his face-equipped iconic star head? And did he come from the celestial heaven or the Christian Heaven? Far out!

Little did I know until recently that "Twink" had earlier adventures in the 1940s, in the pages of CALLING ALL KIDS, that were even more bizarre in their fashion. Unfortunately, no information remains about the writer and/or artist who was crazed enough to invent Twinkle.

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You can read several issues here.

This issue appears to be Twink's origin story.

I love those giant railroad engineer/welder's gloves he wears in his 1940s incarnation.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 15, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Comics, Children, 1940s, 1960s

Bernard Wheatley, Hermit

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The man depicted above is Dr. Bernard Wheatley who, after the deaths of his family, chucked a flourishing career to live as a hermit on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Read a long and fascinating article about him here.

In 1957 Dr. Bernard Wheatley - an African American physician from the Virgin Islands - made a pilgrimage to Kalalau Valley. Distraught after the death of his wife and son in a car accident, he kept questioning the meaning of life and other ontological problems until the answers finally came. In a remarkable religious conversion-like revelation he realized that life is eternal. He abandoned his medical practice, sold all his worldly possessions and sought a quiet, secluded place where he could earnestly seek truth without distraction. He arrived on the remote Island of Kauai and after seeing Kalalau from a ridge-top lookout in Kokee, he knew that he had found his home.... He passed on December 3, 1991 at the age of 72. His ashes were spread in Kalalau.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 10, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, Religion, Hermits, 1950s, 1960s, South Pacific

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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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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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