Category:
1970s

A typewriter for people who don’t know how to read

In its Apr 20, 1972 issue, New Scientist magazine drew attention to Mildred Olsen's unusual invention (Patent No. 3,501,849):

The Olsen invention is intended to help illiterates learn typing. (Why we need illiterate typists the patent doesn't explain.) It divides the keys of a typewriter keyboard into eight sectors, each including several individual keys. Each sector has a different colour. The would-be typist wears coloured rings on her fingers and watches a visual indicator, which shows a colour either with or without an arrow. Where there is no arrow, the typist presses her finger with the associated colour directly downwards. Where there is an arrow, the typist first moves the correct colour finger up, down or along one key in the direction of the arrow.

I think New Scientist was being overly harsh. In the patent itself, Olsen explained that she believed her invention could help students learn to read, as they simultaneously grew familiar with using a typewriter. I can't find any more info about her invention, but I'd be curious to know how students responded to it.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 15, 2025 - Comments (1)
Category: Technology, Patents, 1970s

Judge Noel Cannon, the “Miniskirt Judge”

Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Noel Cannon gained national fame due to her flamboyant fashion style and eccentric habits. She liked to wear babydoll dresses and miniskirts. So she became known as the "miniskirt judge."



Her eccentric habits included decorating her judicial chambers entirely in pink, holding her pet chihuahua on her lap during cases, and keeping a mechanical canary in her chambers whose chirping could be heard during court proceedings.



She reached the peak of her fame in 1967 thanks to a widely published picture of her brandishing a pearl-handled Derringer revolver. She was demonstrating to the press how she would defend herself if attacked.



Her downfall started in 1972 when a police officer pulled up beside her while she was driving and told her she was using her horn excessively. She was, and he was right to tell her so, but he didn't know she was a judge. She cursed him out, drove off, and later ordered him into her court and threatened that if he ever crossed her again she would give him "a .38 caliber vasectomy."

By 1975, the California Supreme Court had removed her from the bench. The incident with the police officer wasn't the only reason. She was also accused of "abusing her contempt power, interfering with the attorney-client relationship by arbitrarily appointing new counsel, interfering with bail and bench warrants, setting unreasonable bail amounts, intimidating defense attorneys, abusing the prerogatives of her high office, engaging in curt and rude conduct, [and] engaging in 'bizarre' behavior."

She subsequently disappeared from public life and died in 1998.

For more details, the Los Angeles Public Library has a two-part article that tracks her rise and fall: "Loose Cannon: Reassessing Los Angeles Municipal Judge Noel Cannon" Part 1, Part 2

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 10, 2025 - Comments (1)
Category: Law, Judges, 1960s, 1970s

Stalking the Wild Cranberry

After years of FOLLIES OF THE MAD MEN, it's time to look behind the scenes of the advertising game. Enjoy the fashions of this era!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 05, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Documentaries, 1970s

Webster Lewis & The Post Pop Space Rock Be Bop Gospel Tabernacle Chorus and Orchestra

Good name, but their music sounds a bit like muzak to me.

More info: Webster Lewis (wikipedia)

Springfield Morning Union - June 2, 1975



Winston-Salem Sentinel - June 18, 1977



Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 02, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Space-age Bachelor Pad & Exotic, 1970s

Drop Kick Me Jesus

A 1976 Grammy nominee for best country song.

Phil Dirxc, a columnist for The San Luis Obispo Tribune, argued that it would be more accurate if the song were titled "Place kick me Jesus" since drop kicks are rarely used in American football.

More info: Stereo Stories

Goleta Sun - Sep 9, 1976



Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 24, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, Religion, Sports, 1970s

Curtricia Miles, escape artist

Curtricia Miles was convicted of killing a massage parlor employee during a robbery in 1974. The next year she escaped from her jail cell by tunneling out using a knife, fork, and spoon. (I don't think she had to tunnel far. Sounds like the building was on a raised foundation, so she only had to get through the floor.)

A month later she was arrested in Las Vegas on a marijuana charge, but she told the police her name was "Caroline Bendy" and they released her without bond.

She didn't stay free for long. The police found her a week later in a downtown casino. This final time she didn't manage to get away.

Toronto Star - July 16, 1975



Sacramento Bee - Aug 8, 1975


Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 23, 2025 - Comments (3)
Category: Crime, Prisons, 1970s

How to choose a pot

There's an ancient Hindu ceremony called Kumbh Vivah in which a woman will marry a pot. Details from vice.com:

Kumbh Vivaha or ‘pot-marriage’ is a commonly practiced Hindu astrological precaution in India. Men and women born under the slight or complete influence of the planet Mars—known as Mangliks, or ‘Mars-cursed’—are said to be astrologically destined to wreck their marriages. (I do, however know many Mangliks who have managed to make it last, often longer than the non-Mangliks.) The only preventative measure is to marry a pot prior to your marriage to an actual human. Or a tree. Sometimes even a dog. No sex is involved, if you were curious.

I'm pretty sure that Farberware didn't have this in mind when they made the ad below.

Boston Sunday Globe - Oct 31, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 22, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Husbands, Marriage, 1970s

The phone company wants installers like Alana MacFarlane

In the early 1970s, AT&T was faced with bad publicity. During congressional hearings, it had been revealed that although the phone company was the largest employer of women in the country, almost all of those women were employed as low-paid telephone operators. There were almost no women in higher paying jobs, such as in repair or installation. AT&T responded to the criticism with the two ads below.

Ms magazine - July 1972



Sports Illustrated - June 12, 1972



Was Alana MacFarlane a real person? Absolutely. Even before the magazine ads appeared, AT&T had been making sure to let the media know that it had hired a female installer. The media responded with nudge-nudge wink-wink headlines:

Long Beach Independent - Dec 16, 1971



Torrance Daily Breeze - Apr 7, 1972



But the national spotlight AT&T had placed on MacFarlane proved uncomfortable for her. Within six months she had requested to be transferred to a desk job, ending her brief career as an installer.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser - Sep 14, 1972



A one-page blogspot blog, "Alana Macfarlane's story," created in 2010, gives some info about what subsequently became of her. She left AT&T, joined the Air Force for a while, and eventually became an engineer. It reveals that she was paid all of one dollar by AT&T for the ad she featured in.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 21, 2025 - Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Gender, Women, Telephones, 1970s

Malicious Enticement

Nov 1971: The mayor of Evansdale, Iowa left his wife to be with a city clerk. This prompted the mayor's wife to sue the clerk for "maliciously enticing" him away from his wife. The husband of the clerk simultaneously sued the mayor on the same grounds. Therefore the mayor and the clerk were potentially guilty of maliciously enticing each other.

I hadn't been aware of 'malicious enticement' as a legal category. A search for the term mostly turns up uses in the business world, where a business could be held liable for maliciously enticing employees away from another business.

The Hollywood ad men missed an opportunity by not crowning a young woman 'Miss Maliciously Enticing'.

Davenport Quad-City Times - Nov 5, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 17, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Lawsuits, Divorce, 1970s

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