Radio
Miss Brick Throw of 1959
We've looked at the humor of DJ Rege Cordic at Radio Station KDKA in a previous post.The home page of Rege Cordic.
But here's a stunt not covered there.
He decided to stage a gag beauty contest for "Miss Brick Throw of 1959."
It was announced in 1958 in BILLBOARD.
Eventually a winner was chosen, "Miss Twerpie Walker," and a fake magazine was printed for the occasion.
Listen to three minutes of the gag here. NOTE: sound file begins to play automatically.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 11, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Humor, Pranks, Radio, Regionalism, 1950s
National Radio Silence Day
From Wikipedia:No Martian messages were received.
More info: ufopast.com
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 14, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Aliens, Radio, 1920s
Strange to Your Ears
Jim Fassett started as a broadcaster on WBZ Boston in the 1920s. He eventually moved to New York where he took a position with CBS Radio. In the 1950s, he hosted a radio programme which highlighted his interest in the manipulation of sound on tape. The programme was called Strange to Your Ears and some of the results of that show became the basis of this LP.
Over the course of the album, Fassett plays weird and other-worldy sounds which he then proceeds to deconstruct revealing the original sound source. There are sound sources like roosters crowing and babies crying.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 25, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Radio, 1950s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Chickenman
The Wikipedia page explains everything.Do not confuse with Super Chicken, below.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 22, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: Radio, Television, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, Superheroes, Cartoons, 1960s
The Teppaz Transistradio
Besides having an unpronounceable name and being ugly, this French radio-turntable looks like very kludgy tech.The entry at the Radio Museum.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 08, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music, Radio, Technology, 1960s, Europe
The Humor of Regis Cordic
Wikipedia entry for Regis Cordic.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 27, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Aliens, Humor, Parody, Satire, Inventions, Radio, Advertising, 1950s, 1960s, Alcohol
The Stunts of TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES Radio Show
Many folks of a certain age might recall TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES as a TV show. But it began on radio in 1940, and was known for its far-out stunts, as detailed on this page.Excerpt below.
A 1942 contestant told Edwards that her 17 year old son was serving in the Marines - as if Edwards didn’t know this in advance when she was “randomly” selected to appear on the show. Her consequence was to count pennies - pennies mailed to her home by listeners to buy War Bonds for her son. Broadcasting magazine reported within a week that the woman received 301,464 coins, mostly pennies, totaling over $3,100. Variety reported that after ten days the amount of mail had reached 236,000 pieces and the amount was $3,560. To handle the massive amount of mail Edwards temporarily rented office space and hired 200 clerks to pick it up, open it, count the money and track the postmarks to learn where it came from, valuable research for NBC and sponsor Procter & Gamble.
Edwards sent a 1944 contestant on an involved and hilarious search for a thousand dollars that climaxed after a month with listeners mailing 18,000 old books to the man‘s home which were donated to servicemen and veterans’ hospitals - after the contestant was directed to leaf through the books to find the missing half of a thousand dollar bill sent to him by the show.
The fact that they gave out big money prizes didn't hurt their popularity either.
Source: Lancaster New Era (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) 08 Dec 1947, Mon Page 3
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 25, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Money, Publicity Stunts, Radio, 1940s
Combined Clothes Hanger and Radio
It's fairly common to use metal clothes hangers to extend the range of a radio's antenna. So John Jerome Spina had the idea of combining the radio and clothes hanger into one. The metal of the hanger would serve as the antenna. He was granted a patent for this invention in 1978.I'm not sure he thought through what would then happen if you hung something on the hanger, such as a coat.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 28, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Radio, Technology, 1970s
The Philco Overnighter
Those gals! Can't even listen to music without touching up their lipstick!
Ad source.
Photo source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 25, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Cosmetics, Radio, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1950s, Women
The LUX RADIO THEATRE “Most Beautiful 15-Year-old Contest”
Part of our "strange beauty contest" series.It seems highly unlikely that any company could stage this today.
Full article here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 23, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Radio, 1940s
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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 |