Category:
1950s

Weird Easter Hats

The strange hats appear about halfway thru.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 15, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Holidays, Headgear, 1950s, United Kingdom

Person-Alysis Game

Reveal which member of the family has an Oedipus Complex! Who's a sociopath? Good fun!

The entry at Board Game Geek.



Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 14, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Games, Hobbies and DIY, Psychology, 1950s

Miss Electric Bedding

Advertising Age ran a photo of "Miss Electric Bedding" in its Nov 10, 1952 issue. But it didn't give her name.

Advertising Age - Nov 10, 1952



A month later, reports appeared in a number of newspapers stating that actress Viveca Lindfors had declined to be crowned "Miss Electric Bedding."

Daily Mirror - Dec 16, 1952



I'm not sure if that's Viveca Lindfors in the Advertising Age photo, but it definitely could be. I'm leaning towards thinking it is. And if it is, it's confusing why it was reported that she declined to be Miss Electric Bedding. After all, there she is.

My best guess: the Advertising Age photo shows her modeling as Miss Electric Bedding for the Chicago Electric Association. The later news report says she refused an offer from the New York Electric Assn. So she must have done the electric bedding modeling gig in Chicago, but then declined to do it elsewhere.

Viveca Lindfors - image source: wikipedia

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 10, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1950s

Husbands too like Premarin

Make your wife pleasant again with Premarin!

The physician who puts a woman on "Premarin" when she is suffering in the menopause usually makes her pleasant to live with once again. It is no easy thing for a man to take the stings and barbs of business life, then to come home to the turmoil of a woman "going through the change of life." If she is not on "Premarin," that is.

By the 1990s, Premarin had become the most frequently prescribed medication in the United States. Now, according to Wikipedia, it's down to number 283.

The word 'Premarin' is a portmanteau of PREgnant MAre uRINe.



JAMA - Aug 16, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 05, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Medicine, Advertising, Husbands, Wives, 1950s

Falsies on Freeway

Falsies, or miniature Kendall paracones?

Los Angeles Times - Oct 26, 1954



Rushville Republican - Oct 26, 1954

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 02, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Transportation, 1950s

Making a road safe for the Queen Mother

I'm puzzled by the timing of the operation described below. Tarmac was laid, the Queen Mother arrived and reviewed the guard of honor, then the tarmac was removed again — all within the space of two hours. That doesn't seem like long enough for the tarmac to have dried. Did they have her walking on wet tarmac?

London Sunday Dispatch - May 18, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 22, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Royalty, 1950s

Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat

In the 1950s there was a brief effort to make rabbit meat a more mainstream part of the American diet. In 1957, this led to the crowning of "Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat," whose job it was to convince housewives to buy more frozen rabbit meat.

I know it's possible to get rabbit meat in specialty butcher shops and markets here in the U.S., but I've never seen it in an American supermarket. So the effort to make it more mainstream evidently fizzled.

More info: Lola Mason's imdb page
Related Post: Recipes for Cooking Domestic Rabbit Meat

Daily Telegraph - Oct 26, 1957



Longview Daily News - Mar 31, 1958



Below, part of the marketing campaign to get Americans to eat more rabbit.

How many times have you said to yourself, or perhaps out loud, "I wish there were some new meat animal"?

Baltimore Evening Sun - July 18, 1957

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 17, 2024 - Comments (10)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Food, 1950s

Mystery Illustration 113

What famous actress is this? HINT: her most notable role involved even more makeup than she wears here.

The answer is here. Or after the jump.





More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 16, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Cosmetics, Hollywood, 1950s

Amazons of the Year 2000

THE DAILY SENTINEL of Colorado predicts in 1950 that all the women of the year 2000 will be giants.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 09, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, 1950s, Women, Twenty-first Century

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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.

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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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