Conehead Sumo Wrestlers

1994: The Japan Sumo Association finally got around to banning the practice, apparently quite common among young sumo wrestlers, of implanting lumps of silicone beneath their scalp in order to meet the minimum height requirement of 5 feet 8 inches. The Association probably wouldn't have done anything if they hadn't become embarrassed by media reports of conehead wrestlers.

Before the silicone technique became popular, some wrestlers used to hit themselves on top of their head to raise large bumps before being measured.

Morristown Daily Record - July 13, 1994

Sumo wrestler Mainoumi, before and after scalp implant

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 27, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Sports, Wrestling, 1990s

The Art of Hayley Newman

Below are some of the captioned images that artist Hayley Newman displayed at her first solo show, "Connotations - Performance Images 1994-98".

Lock-jaw Lecture Series (1997/1998)
"Over the period of a year I was invited to give a series of lectures on my work. Before each lecture I visited a local dentist and had my mouth anaesthetised. With my mouth made immobile, I gave my feeblest apologies to the students and staff before attempting to talk on my work."

B(in) (1996)
"Sitting in a bin bag waiting for bin men to pick me up in New York. When the bin men arrived at 4pm, I jumped out of the bag and ran home."

Crying Glasses (An Aid to Melancholia) - (1995)
"Over a year I wore the crying glasses while travelling on public transport in all the cities I visited. The glasses functioned using a pump system which, hidden inside my jacket allowed me to pump water up out of the glasses and produced a trickle of tears down my cheeks. The glasses were conceived as a tool to enable the representation of feelings in public spaces. Over the months of wearing the glasses they became an external mechanism which enabled the manifestation of internal and unidentifiable emotions."

Spirit (1995)
"Soho, London: Dressed as a ghost for Halloween I ran into various pubs in London's Soho, stole a drink and then left."

Here's the punchline, which Newman revealed if you read the fine print in the exhibit guide:



Image sources: Lock-jaw, Crying Glasses, B(in), Spirit

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 09, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Photography and Photographers, 1990s

Left by wife, becomes caveman

There's two ways to read this. Either this guy really took the break-up hard. Or, after his wife left him, he decided to live exactly as he wanted, and he was the happiest man in the world.

I suspect there's a lot of married men who would revert to a caveman-like existence (perhaps to a less extreme degree) without the influence of their wives.

The Deseret News noted that he was known only as "Darab." But otherwise there's no more info to be found about this mysterious, wifeless hermit.

Philadelphia Daily News - Oct 24, 1996

Posted By: Alex - Tue May 02, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Divorce, Marriage, 1990s

Chilly Bang! Bang! Squirt Gun

The brief, controversial product life of the Chilly Bang! Bang! juice-filled squirt gun. Kids put the gun barrel in their mouth and squeezed the trigger to enjoy a refreshing squirt of juice.

First sales were halted because the plastic tab at the end of the barrel was deemed a choking hazard. Then in 1991 it was banned outright. New York Senator Nicholas Spano noted, "The last thing we should teach our children is to put gun barrels in their mouths."

Democrat and Chronicle - Aug 30, 1989

Democrat and Chronicle - Sep 6, 1989

The Ithaca Journal - May 18, 1991

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 13, 2017 - Comments (8)
Category: Toys, 1990s

Helmet Law Suicide

In 1992 California began requiring that motorcycle riders wear a helmet. Despondent, Gerald Marotta, 48, put on his helmet and shot himself. He left behind a note, "Now I can't ever ride again."

Attorney Wendy Lascher, who had challenged the law, said, "from what I heard about his note, I think the law did have something to do with his death, in that [riding without a helmet] apparently was his only outlet."

Los Angeles Times - Jan 10, 1992

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 31, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Death, Suicide, 1990s

Louis Marinoff, Philosophical Counselor

Original article here.

His Wikipedia page.

Still teaching.

Still counseling, via Skype.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 30, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Education, New Age, Philosophy, 1990s

Jennifer Bornstein, collector

In 1994, Jennifer Bornstein appeared on a local LA cable access program that featured ordinary people and their collections. Bornstein showed off her collection of zip-lock bags, coffee bar merchandise, fast-food containers, potato chips, and breath mints. She had carefully framed and archived all of it.

It would have been funnier if it was a genuine collection, but I think it was actually intended as an artistic statement on how "any worthless mass-market products can be turned into coveted objects via absurd relations and vice versa" (according to Kadist.org). So she was essentially pranking the show.

Although she looks quite young in the pictures, Bornstein was at the time a 24-year-old grad student at UCLA. And she's still an LA-based artist.

You can see read more about this (and see some images) here: Radcliffe, ingrum.org, Moscow Biennale, "Obsession, Compulsion, Collection."

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 25, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Collectors, 1990s

How I Stole Elections

Marlin Hawkins served as an elected official in Conway County, Arkansas for 38 years — for most of that time as sheriff. He built up a legendary political machine, being able not only to win reelection for himself (19 times) but also to deliver votes for other candidates. He often boasted that he could accurately predict the outcome of every election in the county.

It was long suspected that he was rigging the elections, especially since absentee voters would always vote for him by a wide margin, but no one could ever prove anything.

After he retired in 1978, Hawkins eventually wrote his autobiography, which he brazenly titled How I Stole Elections (available on Amazon). He joked that he "stole" them by "treating my neighbors right."
But no, he stole them by ballot fraud.

His book came out in 1991. The year after, some people who were remodeling their house discovered a whole stash of marked ballots from a 1968 election hidden in their attic. The house had previously been owned by one of Hawkins' deputies.

Hawkins got away with it because the statute of limitations had expired in 1974. He died in 1995.

More info about him at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Palm Beach Post - Jan 9, 1992

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 09, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Government, Politics, Books, 1990s

Timothy Leary:  While Birds Sing

Album info and track listing.

Let me know when you bail!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 09, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Drugs, Psychedelic, Music, Surrealism, 1960s, 1970s, 1990s

The Monopoly Killer

July 1991: While preparing to play a game of Monopoly, Marc Cienkowski and Michael Klucznik got into a fight over who would use the car playing piece. Cienkowski insisted that since they were at his house, he got to be the car -- and not the hat or thimble. But Klucznik insisted that he was going to be the car, and continued to insist this even after Cienkowski hit him in the face. So Cienkowski fetched his bow and arrow and shot Klucznik through the heart. Cienkowski later pleaded guilty to criminal homicide.

Philadelphia Daily News - Feb 7, 1992
Click to enlarge

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 08, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Crime, Games, 1990s