Weird Universe Archive

August 2017

August 12, 2017

Miss Beverly Hills 1960

In our continuing annals of oddball beauty contests, this 1948 event must qualify as exceptional.




Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 12, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Children, 1940s

August 11, 2017

The X-Rated Hypnotist



In the 1970s, hypnotist Charles Lamont got the idea of promoting himself as an "x-rated hypnotist." He kept this up until the 80s. But what exactly did this involve? Below is the only description of his act that I could find:

His name is Charles Lamont, and he bills himself as "the X-rated hypnotist." Lamont did his thing for a full house at the Tally-ho nightclub in North Wilmington last week. The club wants him back.

The crowd, including those who volunteered to be hyponotized, loved the act. Apparently the only one disgruntled was a fellow who sort of went under by accident and turned out to be the best subject of the second show.

When his friends told him what kind of fool he had been, he got angry and stormed out of the club.

But first he let Lamont know he wasn't pleased to have hugged and nuzzled the gentleman sitting next to him on the stage, a gentleman he had been led to believe was a beautiful young lady. Or to have fondled in public a foam rubber appendage he thought was real.

But the dignified, bearded fellow we first met seemed quite happy when he was done. Maybe nobody told him about his antics.

At Lamont's suggestion, he: told the girl sitting next to him his name was, um, something you say when you're asking for a sexual kick; drank a glass of water he thought tasted like urine (and quickly spit out); thought the young lady next to him was naked (and smiled widely).

And the clincher. Lamont told him to imagine he was both male Japanese samurai and his horny female sweetheart. Oh the moaning, oh the gestures, oh the intensity.

Another fellow in the first show was told that everyone in the house was having an orgy. He watched, smiled and shook his head in amazement.

But Lamont soon snapped his fingers and that fantasy ended. Another suggestion may last longer. Lamont told him he'll want to make love to his wife till the sun comes up — every Tuesday night from then on.

Near the end of the first show, which turned out to be the better even though there were more volunteers for the secon, all three of the men were told they were musclemen. Oh how they strutted. Then they were told they were gays on Fire Island. They strutted again, but somewhat differently.

One guy was told to take a drag off a cigarette. It would be the best joint of marijuana imaginable. He flew quite high until Lamont snapped his fingers and told him to go back to sleep...

The girls, including a chesty lovely who was "almost wearing" a striking dress, according to Lamont, were given less lively roles. (Among both sexes thre were some who didn't "go under." Lamont worked around them.)

"You have to go easy with the girls in the first show," said Lamont after that one. "Their boyfriends might get mad, things like that."

But the female volunteers weren't much more active in the second show. Mostly they served as straight men, so to speak, for the guy who later was sorry about the whole thing.

-Wilmington Morning News - Oct 7, 1979


Kingston Daily Freeman - Jun 12, 1962

Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 11, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Entertainment, Hypnotism, Mesmerism and Mind Control, 1970s

The Beachcomber Bar, UK



Anglo Hula: less is not more.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 11, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, 1960s, Dance, Parody, Europe, South Pacific

August 10, 2017

Spreadsheet Championship

John Dumoulin of Virginia recently won an international competition on Microsoft Excel proficiency, which was part of the larger Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship held in Anaheim, CA. People come from all over the world to test their skills at Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. (Though it's restricted to ages 13-22).

Said Dumoulin: "Some of the foreign countries, they've been training for hours and hours and hours on end. When you first meet the international students, everyone's friendly, but when they find out you're competing against them in the same category, they get this fire in their eyes. They want to win."

More info: CTV News

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 10, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests

August 9, 2017

Sexy Pineapple Diet

This diet from 1970 was simple. Just eat only pineapple for two days every week. On the other days you can eat whatever you want. The book is apparently quite a rarity, because I haven't been able to find any used copies for sale.

Over at vice.com, a guy recently tried the diet and claims that he lost 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) in three days. Which, actually, isn't a lot. Evidently, he was able to find a copy of the book. He also discovered that one of its authors, Sten Hegeler, was still alive, 93 years old. When contacted, Hegeler admitted that not a lot of deep thought went into the concept of the diet:

"Pineapple with whipped cream was the preferred dessert back then, so I thought, 'My god, I can have as much pineapple as I want for two days,' and that sounded splendid."

And a bonus for linguaphiles: The word "erogetic" appears to have been invented for this book. I'm not sure what it means.



Fort Myers News-Press - Sep 16, 1970



Chicago Tribune - Nov 5, 1970

Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 09, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Food, 1970s, Dieting and Weight Loss

JFK as Angel




Source of text.


Regretably, the only image I could find has this watermark hiding some of the details.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 09, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Religion, Statues and Monuments, 1930s, 1960s, Europe

August 8, 2017

Romanian Jail Craze

No matter how bad you think things might be, at least you're not in a Romanian jail pounding rusty nails into your head.

For a related post, from way back in 2012, check out The Method of the Nail.

The Guardian - Aug 6, 1995

Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 08, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Prisons, 1990s

George Washington Glick



As you can see from this 1914 article George Washington Glick was practically unknown when his statue was new. Is it any wonder then that, as Wikipedia tells us, "In 2003, Kansas became the first state to replace a statue [in the National Statuary Hall] when it replaced Glick with a bronze of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Glick's statue was moved to the Kansas History Center in Topeka."



Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 08, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Forgotten Figures and Where Are They Now?, Politics, Statues and Monuments, 1910s, Nineteenth Century

August 7, 2017

Doesn’t notice plane crash

If a plane crashes in your yard and you didn't heard it, did it make a sound?

Arizona Republic - Apr 24, 1993

Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 07, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Air Travel and Airlines, 1990s

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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 books such as Elephants on Acid.

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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.

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