1980s
Unauthorized Dwellings 3
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 04, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Crowds, Groups, Mobs and Other Mass Movements, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1980s
Miss Garlic
"Miss Garlic will be chosen on the basis of personality, congeniality, talent, knowledge of garlic — and breath."
Greenville News - Feb 10, 1986
Southern Illinoisan - Feb 11, 1986
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 06, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1980s
The Maid of Cotton Pageant
Continuing our intermittent look at oddball beauty pageants.The Maid of Cotton pageant began in 1939. The annual pageant was sponsored by the National Cotton Council (NCC), Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans. The pageant was held in Memphis, Tennessee, in conjunction with the Carnival until the 1980s.
In mid-December every year the NCC released a list of contestants. Contestants were required to have been born in one of the cotton-producing states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas or Virginia. They might have also been born in the cotton-producing counties of Alexander, Jefferson, Massac, Pulaski, Williamson or Madison, Illinois or in Clark or Nye counties of Nevada. There were usually twenty contestants each year.
Contestants were judged on personality, good manners, intelligence, and family background as well as beauty and an ability to model. A Top Ten were chosen and then a Top Five, and finally second and first runners up and a winner. Winners served as goodwill and fashion ambassadors of the cotton industry in a five-month, all-expense tour of American cities. In the mid-1950s the tour expanded globally. In the late 1950s a Little Miss Cotton pageant was begun but lasted only until 1963 before being discontinued. In the mid-1980s Dallas,Texas took over the pageant, in conjunction with the NCC and its overseas division, Cotton Council International. In 1986, to bolster interest and participation, the NCC eliminated the rule requiring contestants to be born in a cotton-producing state. The pageant was discontinued in 1993, one of the reasons being that Cotton Inc. stopped contributing scholarship money as well as waning public interest and changing marketing strategies.
More details here.
And also here.
The 1952 winner.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 21, 2017 -
Comments (3)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s
Vision-Dieter Glasses
The Vision-Dieter glasses were weight-loss eyeglasses, created by Arkansas entrepreneur John D. Miller who sold them for $19.95 each. They had a different lens for each eye: one brown and the other blue. Miller claimed that the different colors caused a low-level of confusion in a person's subconscious that led to a loss of appetite, and thus weight loss. In 1982 the U.S. attorney stopped the sale of the glasses because Miller hadn't registered them with the Food and Drug Administration. Also, there was no evidence they actually worked as a diet aid.
image source: Flickr
FDA employee Karen Kowlok models Vision-Dieter glasses
Newport News Daily Press - Mar 21, 1985
From the Wilmington News Journal - Aug 6, 1982:
Perhaps tinted eyeglasses could reverse the attraction to food by affecting the subconscious, Miller hypothesized. And he went to work.
The experiments began with employees of one of his enterprises, the Miller Vision Centers. Soon the research was extended to his patients.
At first, the results were mixed. He had chosen the wrong colors. Then he hit upon crimson brown and royal blue.
"It's crazy. I can't tell you exactly how, but it works," Miller said.
Soon testimonial letters were coming into Miller's office by the dozens. In virtually every case, people who wore the glasses said they weren't eating as much. He conducted control experiments with the help of a psychologist and claimed a 97 percent success rate.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 29, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, 1980s, Dieting and Weight Loss, Eyes and Vision
Brick: “Summer Heat”
"That summer heat makes me want to get down! The moonlight's making it easier for me to see/That it's time for love--or Mother Nature's playing tricks on me!""
Wikipedia page here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun May 28, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, 1980s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Gregg Peters: Elvis Impersonator
Let me know when you bail...
Posted By: Paul - Fri May 26, 2017 -
Comments (7)
Category: Celebrities, Disguises, Impersonations, Mimics and Forgeries, Music, 1980s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
The Shabby Millionaire
1989: John Barrier of Spokane, Washington went into Old National Bank to cash a $100 check. Then he asked to have his 60-cent parking ticket validated. The cashier refused, saying that merely cashing a check didn't entitle him to free parking. Barrier had a manager called, who also refused to validate the ticket. Barrier suspected that they were refusing because he was dressed in shabby clothes like he had just gotten off a construction job. So he withdrew the entire $2 million he had deposited there and took his money to another bank, Seafirst Bank of Spokane.The tale of the shabby millionaire eventually ended up being told in Seafirst's company newsletter. From there it made its way to a local newspaper column, and then leapt to the front page of USA Today and national headlines.
Both banks confirmed the basic details of what happened, although a representative for Old National Bank later insisted that they had, eventually, validated Barrier's parking ticket.
Detroit Free Press - Feb 21, 1989
The Akron Beacon Journal - Mar 29, 1989
Posted By: Alex - Sat May 13, 2017 -
Comments (4)
Category: Money, Pranks and Revenge, 1980s
Thrashin’
Wikipedia entry here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon May 08, 2017 -
Comments (2)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Sports, 1980s
Chipmunk Punk
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 06, 2017 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Music, Cartoons, 1980s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Inmate Escape Pod
1980: Fred Caddedu escaped from Millhaven penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario by concealing himself inside an "escape pod" made out of a hollowed-out stack of dirty food trays.The food trays were loaded onto a truck and taken to the unguarded, off-site kitchen to be cleaned. Once there, Caddedu just walked away. He was caught and returned to prison several months later.
His escape pod later became an exhibit in the Correctional Service of Canada Museum.
Image source: Museopathy
The Ottawa Journal - July 14, 1980
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 26, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Prisons, 1980s
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