Category:
1980s

Death by cole slaw

According to his memorial page, John Ramsey died tragically in 1982 "when he slipped and fell into a cole-slaw making machine."



But according to news reports from the time, his death is somewhat more mysterious than that because it's not entirely clear how he managed to fall into the cole-slaw machine. From the Baltimore Sun (Oct 17, 1982):

A co-worker, Lorraine Davenport, told police she was handing bags of salad ingredients to Mr. Ramsey and had turned her back to him to pick up another bag. She said that when she turned around he was gone but one of his boots—a black, waterproof, oversized boot similar to those worn by other employees—was on the ground.

When she climbed up the metal ladder, she said, she saw him inside the blending machine and began to scream. . .

Still, the question remained: How did he come to fall in?

Mr. Ramsey was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 145 pounds, according to the police report. When he stood on the top step of the metal ladder, the top edge of the blender, which is 6 feet off the floor, came up to his chest.

Mr. Wachs [president of the company] said he believes Mr. Ramsey might have dropped the bag of carrots into the metal bin, reached in to retrieve it, and was pulled into the machine.

He said employees know that an entire batch of salad may have to be discarded if a plastic bag falls into the blender. "But we always tell them if it falls, let it go. . . You are not going to be fired for it. But maybe he reached for it by impulse."

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 22, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, 1980s

Barbarian Men’s Fashions

The famous painter Boris Vallejo once did a series of ads for the clothing chain Chess King. What's your opinion? Does sword and sorcery imagery sell men's clothing?

Here's a neat small essay on this campaign.











Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 22, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Fashion, Advertising, Fantasy, 1980s

The Good Book Cookbook

Not a lot of nouvelle or fusion or fast-food cuisine in this volume. (Read it here.)

I did a search for "locusts" within the book, but no recipes, with honey or otherwise. However, you can source them here, at Biblical Protein.









Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 22, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Food, Nutrition, Cookbooks, Religion, 1980s

Automatic Washing Machine for Dogs

Mario Altissimo was granted Patent No. 4,505,229 in 1985 for his "Automatic Washing Machine for Dogs and Like Animals".

I wonder if anyone has ever created an equivalent type of automatic washing machine for humans.

Science Year 1983





Update: Paul gave me a heads up about this Three Stooges take on a washing machine for dogs. A clear example of prior art!

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 13, 2022 - Comments (5)
Category: Bathrooms, Patents, Dogs, 1980s

Ratboy

The Wikipedia page says:

The film's scenario is at times comic or serious, and one of its peculiarities is that there never is any explanation for Ratboy's origin and existence as a human-rat hybrid.

Ratboy had a troubled production[2] and was both a critical and commercial failure





Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 23, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Movies, 1980s

The Frozen Woman

Dec 20, 1980: On a cold winter's evening, 19-year-old Jean Hilliard's car got stuck in a ditch, so she decided to walk for help. She was found the next morning, two miles away, frozen solid.

Later, people told her she'd made it to her friend's yard, tripped, and crawled on her hands and knees to his doorstep. They said she lay there for six straight hours, with her eyes frozen wide open. Hilliard doesn't remember any of that.

Remarkably, doctors were able to thaw her out even though she was so rock hard that needles broke on her skin. She suffered no serious injuries — just some blistered toes.

Read the full story at MPR News

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 16, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Human Marvels, 1980s, Weather

Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal

Paula Begoun calls herself "The Cosmetics Cop". And as such she firmly believes that blue eyeshadow is violating some kind of law.

You can read the full book (published 1985) at archive.org.





In 1991, she came out with a follow-up: Blue Eyeshadow Should Absolutely Be Illegal. Evidently her feelings on this matter had only grown stronger over time.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 14, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Cosmetics, Books, 1980s

A legendary moment in live theater

During a Dublin production of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, sometime in early 1986 (or maybe late 1985?), the actor Alan Devlin, who was playing Sir Joseph Porter, abruptly stopped in the middle of his performance, proclaimed, "F... this for a game of soldiers," left the theater, and headed to the pub next door to have a drink, with his microphone still on.

Surprisingly, he wasn't fired and was even re-hired for the London production a few months later.

Alan Devlin (right) during the London production of H.M.S. Pinafore



Noel Person, who was the theatrical producer of the play, later described the incident to an Australian journalist (The Melbourne Age - Aug 22, 1986):

"We had this actor named Alan Devlin who was very fond of his drink. During the show one night, he arrived absolutely bombed out of his mind. We used to fly him in from the top of the proscenium. When he came down he tried to start, "I am the mon... monar... mumph" and he couldn't. So he started again, then again, and finally said "Oh, --- it! I can't do it". And he walked out. Through the orchestra pit, in his uniform, through the audience, out the theatre and around to the pub and ordered a pint. Some of the audience thought this is taking Gilbert and Sullivan to the limit.

"The guy that was playing Dick Deadeye and the girl who was playing Buttercup, well, they freaked. But they were very experienced actors. So they cut to the end of the first half. The understudy was already in the show so they began the second half with him."

Happily, Noel Pearson hired back Mr. Devlin for the show's London season. "I got him to sign a contract in blood: he had to be in the theatre an hour before or he got paid only half his salary until the end of the run; we gave him a minder... When we opened at the Old Vic we had publicity like you never saw. On the opening night, when he appeared on stage, he practically got a standing ovation."

On Twitter, someone who was in the audience that night has posted their memory of what happened. An excerpt below:

The first verse went perfectly well. It was when Devlin came to the second verse, and discovered that he couldn't remember it, that the visible trouble began. He improvised by simply repeating the first verse. And again, for a third time. People started to wonder.

Then he tried to leave the coracle. Surmounting he brim of it - about two feet high if my imperfect memory serves - gave him great difficulty. But after a couple of attempts he managed it, and stood center stage, swaying slightly as though in a moderate breeze.

After briefly considering his options, he then announced "ah f*** this for a game of soldiers," hopped down into the orchestra pit (with more adroitness than you'd have expected from his swaying), strode along the central aisle through the audience, and left by the main exit.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 06, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Theater and Stage, 1980s

The Bosom Battle of Mesquite

April 1988: In Mesquite, Texas, two women came to blows at a truck stop while arguing over which of them had the biggest bosom.

Witnesses told police the two women had been arguing earlier over citizens band radio and, about 2 a.m., agreed to meet at the truck stop to compare bosoms.

Abilene Reporter News - Apr 21, 1988



About a year later, a reporter tried to track down more info about this incident. He was able to speak with both the police officer who investigated the case and an employee at the truck stop, both of whom remembered the incident very well. But no record remained of who these women were, or which of them won the size contest.

Clarion Ledger - Sep 26, 1989

Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 03, 2022 - Comments (9)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, 1980s

Care Bear Abuse

Feb 1987: Wanting to do something special for her son, Jeania Denny wore a Care Bear costume to his school on Valentine's Day. However, she soon found herself being violently attacked by a crowd of sixth-graders. Said Denny, "I kept yelling at them to stop, that they were hurting me, but the more I yelled the more they attacked."

I've heard reports of children (and adults) at Disney theme parks hitting the costumed characters, which seems similar to what happened to Jeania Denny. In the minds of the children, the costume must dehumanize the wearer, which then makes it seem okay to hit them.

Tampa Bay Times - Feb 17, 1987



I'm guessing this was the type of costume that Denny was wearing:

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 30, 2022 - Comments (6)
Category: Violence, Psychology, 1980s

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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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