Category:
Entertainment

League of Exotic Dancers On Strike



These Hollywood strippers, members of the League of Exotic Dancers, refuse to work because "the low wage scale of $95 at week" they receive when they take time off. They are (l-r): Champagne; Daurene Dare; Jennie "The Bazoom Girl" Lee, president of the league, Rusty Lane; and Novita.





Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 24, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Entertainment, Dance, Tradesmen, Manual Laborers, and Skilled Workers, Burlesque, Exotic Dancing, Stripping and Other Forms of Staged Nakedness, Public Indecency, 1950s

Louis Duprey’s Trapdoor Theater Seats

One of the minor annoyances of going to a theater is having your view blocked if someone in front of you gets up from their seat. Or having to stand from your seat to let someone get by.

Back in 1924, Louis Duprey patented a solution to this problem. He envisioned a theater in which guests would enter through a subchamber, get into their seats, and then be raised upwards by a hydraulic lift, through a trapdoor, into the theater itself. Anyone who wanted to leave early could simply lower themself back down, disturbing no one else.

It's an over-engineered solution to a minor problem, but I would happily pay extra, at least once, to experience a theater like this. Though I'd probably spend the entire time going up and down in my chair.

More info: Patent No. 1,517,774
Related Posts: Thomas Curtis Gray's horizontal theater, Theater in a Whale, Lloyd Brown's Globe Theater





via New Scientist

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 20, 2022 - Comments (6)
Category: Architecture, Entertainment, Theater and Stage, Patents, 1920s

HAIRPIN HARMONY, Legendary Broadway Flop



Theater expert Laura Frankos Turtledove says:

[The critics] all commented on the audience fleeing the scene of the crime at intermission. They, alas, were stuck with the second act.
The plot? Of course I can tell you the plot. There’s a baby food manufacturer who is looking for an act he can use to promote his product on a radio show. This guy has a sixteen member all-girl band, the Hairpin Harmonettes, led by his girlfriend and singing triplets. The trio consisted of the real life teenaged Clawson sisters, who billed themselves as Triplets, but actually Barbara was a year older than twins Doris and Dorothy. (These girls were managed by their dad, who got some radio spots for them before and after this disaster. Poor Barbara was professionally renamed “Dawna.” They were named Miss Subways in May 1944, which brings to mind a whacked out alternate version of ON THE TOWN, in which Gabby falls for all three of them…)
Anyway, the band promoter himself is the one who gets the gig (ooh, spoilers!) because he has a fine falsetto. So he wears diapers (for a radio spot? Well, maybe PR photos?) and talks baby talk, thus saving the day for everyone.
Except Harold Orlob.




Source of text.








Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 02, 2022 - Comments (8)
Category: Entertainment, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Music, 1940s

The Amazing Acro-Cats







Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 05, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Entertainment, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Cats

Mystery Illustration 104

Which world-famous actress, still living but at the height of her career in the 70s and 80s, is seen here in these three childhood shots?

The answer is here and also here.

Also after the jump.









More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 28, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Entertainment, 1970s, 1980s

The Great Cardini

Man, that's a lot of playing cards and cigarettes!



His Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 11, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Entertainment, Magic and Illusions and Sleight of Hand, Tobacco and Smoking, Twentieth Century

Ameta

I like the tornado effect towards the end.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 13, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Entertainment, Dance, Special Effects, 1900s

The Toto Brothers



Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 01, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Entertainment, Human Marvels, 1910s

Lunar Striptease

Edited to stop short of bare bosoms.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 22, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Aliens, Body, Entertainment, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Performance Art

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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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