Category:
1960s
1960s
Real-Life Dick Tracy
Original article here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 10, 2017 -
Comments (0)
Category: Law, Comics, 1960s
Operation Fragrant Cow
Back in the 60s, the U.S. Army employed scientists to sneak into Omaha stockyards and spray cows with deodorant. The logic behind this was to test how easy it would be for Soviet agents to spread hoof-and-mouth disease among American cows.Unfortunately, I can't find any more info about this operation, which is a shame because it raises so many questions. For instance, the important part of the operation must have been to see how easily they could gain access to the stockyards. So then, why bother to deodorize the cows? Was it just to add a touch of realism? Why not spray them with paint so that they could later count the "infected" ones?
Southern Illinoisan - Aug 5, 1994
Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 09, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Military, Science, Cows, 1960s
The High School That Rocked
"Before touring became big business for promoters who elevated rock shows to an art, even name-brand bands played pretty much anywhere. It’s an interesting component of the early rock era that’s explored in the upcoming documentary The High School That Rocked!, which takes a look at one Connecticut school that somehow managed to lure a slew of classic-rock legends — including Cream, the Doors and the Yardbirds, among others."
Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 08, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Education, Music, 1960s
Mystery Gadget 46
This machine produces what now?
The answer is here.
And after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 07, 2017 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology, 1960s
Le Canned Dress
Irwin Silver put a dress in a can, gave it a frenchified name, and then sold these for $25 a pop. This was back in 1966, and it was a marketing gimmick about as cynical as you might guess. Silver was cashing in on the mid-1960s fad for anything canned, and he figured that if people were stupid enough to buy canned air (i.e. an empty can), perhaps they'd also buy a canned dress. Apparently he sold around 100,000 of them.More info from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Dec 14, 1966:
Everything's packaged in cans these days, even candles and air. But the newest tinned item to roll into stores is "Le Canned Dress," the bright idea of sportswear manufacturer Irwin Silver.
"I was being driven crazy by cans," he says. "Every time I turned around, I seemed to bump into a can. First I saw canned candles, then someone gave me a tin of canned air. I began to wonder why dresses couldn't be put up the same way."...
The fashions produced by Silver's company, Wippette, each weigh 4½ ounces, come packed in gay one-pound cans and are tagged with silver labels designed to look like the top of a can."
"I was being driven crazy by cans," he says. "Every time I turned around, I seemed to bump into a can. First I saw canned candles, then someone gave me a tin of canned air. I began to wonder why dresses couldn't be put up the same way."...
The fashions produced by Silver's company, Wippette, each weigh 4½ ounces, come packed in gay one-pound cans and are tagged with silver labels designed to look like the top of a can."
Image source: Cabinet magazine
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Nov 26, 1966
Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 28, 2017 -
Comments (4)
Category: Fashion, 1960s
The Vidifont Titling Device
How did TV put a caption on the screen in the Sixties?Graphics, including all title graphics (i.e. "President Lyndon B. Johnson” or "Walter Cronkite”) were set in type or drawn by graphic artists. The graphic was photographed using 35-mm film, the film developed, and a 35-mm slide generated. The time to generate a slide exceeded one hour. The slide, when used, was placed in a special projector, scanned by a television camera, and keyed into the studio video feed. This method was known as ‘Superimposition’. Since the news department had to be prepared to identify any speaker who might appear before the cameras during the convention, Bass was faced with creating in excess of 4000 slides in advance for each convention. If an individual who was not a delegate or an alternate was called upon to give a seconding speech or to participate in an interview, a title slide probably would not be available. Bass was seeking an instantaneous, graphics-quality titling capability solution to the problem. The goal was to produce graphics that could be transparently mixed with artwork created using traditional methods.
Imagine then the delight when the Vidifont device was invented.
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 24, 2017 -
Comments (0)
Category: Technology, Television, 1960s, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #308
Yes, I want my product associated with the destruction of property and possible loss of life. That's a glamorous ambiance!
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 23, 2017 -
Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, 1960s, Cars
Ex-millionaire Lives With Pigs
Original story here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 20, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Eccentrics, Money, 1960s
Guestward, Ho!
Continuing our look at really dumb and inept TV shows.
Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 14, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Stereotypes and Cliches, Television, 1960s
The Total Environment Room
In 1963, GE engineer John L. Matrone came up with the idea of creating a "total environment" room. It would be capable of creating any environment (the deck of an ocean liner, a beach in Hawaii, a rainforest in Tasmania) inside your own home.Components for the fun room have long been on GE drawing boards.
The space would be 20 feet by 10 feet, with approximately 10 feet of overhead to contain a special piston arrangement and an "atmospheric preparation tank" for creating the real atmosphere of the desire scene.
(You could easily make it snow, said Matrone, but the problem would be "shoveling" all that stuff out afterward.)
One of the room's walls would be arced in 180 degrees for 3-D and motion location scenes.
The space would be 20 feet by 10 feet, with approximately 10 feet of overhead to contain a special piston arrangement and an "atmospheric preparation tank" for creating the real atmosphere of the desire scene.
(You could easily make it snow, said Matrone, but the problem would be "shoveling" all that stuff out afterward.)
One of the room's walls would be arced in 180 degrees for 3-D and motion location scenes.
I don't believe a "total environment" room was ever built, but it sounds quite a bit like the Holodeck in Star Trek (minus the holograms).
The Shreveport Times - Nov 3, 1963
The Shreveport Times - Nov 3, 1963
The Lincoln Star - Nov 3, 1963
Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 11, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Inventions, 1960s
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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. 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. Contact Us |