Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators
Banvard’s Folly
I am halfway thru reading this book and can testify to its greatness, and to its allure for all WU-vies. I have already learned about so many hoaxes, weirdos and charlatans I never knew about before.Here's how the book opens:
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 01, 2021 -
Comments (8)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, History, Historical Figure, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Inventions, New Age, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Books, Goofs and Screw-ups
Fake Disco Moves
Source: The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) 04 Apr 1979, Wed Page 1
I love the names of these moves, especially "Funky Elbows" and "Shoulder Sniff."
For some reason I am reminded of this classic video.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 04, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Self-help Schemes, 1970s, Dance
The Revlon Fingernail Rumor
For decades, beginning around World War II and persisting until at least the 1980s, a rumor circulated alleging that Revlon was willing to buy people's fingernails "for experimental cosmetic purposes" as long as they were over an inch long. The going price was said to be around $10 per nail.Revlon repeatedly denied the rumor. Nevertheless, it continued to circulate.
I wasn't able to find any references to the rumor online. So it must have finally faded away.
The Miami Herald - Jan 18, 1969
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The Indianapolis News - June 18, 1979
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 19, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Body, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Myths and Fairytales
The Night Mayor
Night Mayor, Guy Maddin, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
An explanation.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 25, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Inventions, Movies, North America, Twenty-first Century
My Old Flame
A song that goes rapidly off the rails around the one-minute mark, with some Halloween relevance.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 25, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Horror, Music, 1940s, Parody
Colonel Barker
Wikipedia says:
Victor Barker, born Lillias Irma Valerie Barker (1895–1960), who also went by the pseudonyms John Hill and Geoffrey Norton, was a transgender man who is notable for having married a woman. He was an officer of the National Fascisti, a bankrupt and a convicted criminal.
Good article here.
A contemporary report from 1933:
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 24, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Gender-bending, Twentieth Century
The postman who pretended to be paraplegic
Ian Moor had qualified to compete in the 1979 National Paraplegic Championships, in events such as table tennis and wheelchair discus. But when a picture of him ran in the Yorkshire Evening Press, people recognized him as their postman, who was fully capable of walking.His deception revealed, Moor was kicked out of the Paraplegic Championships. But he never faced any criminal charges because he hadn't benefitted financially from his deception in any way.
The Guardian - Aug 23, 1979
Los Angeles Times - Aug 23, 1979
Posted By: Alex - Fri May 22, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Sports, 1970s, Differently Abled, Handicapped, Challenged, and Otherwise Atypical
The Painter Joachim Raphaël Boronali
NOTW and Weird Universe have covered innumerable art world hoaxes and farces. Paintings hung upside down, installations destroyed by janitors, large prize money for unmade beds, and so forth. Here is one of the first such japes. A painting done by a donkey with a brush tied to its tail, and exhibited at a famous Paris salon as the work of a new painter named Joachim Raphaël Boronali.
Read the whole story here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 14, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Art, Avant Garde, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Twentieth Century
Happy April Fool’s Day 2019
Jokes were more gruesome in 1909.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 01, 2019 -
Comments (4)
Category: Customs, Death, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Holidays, Humor, 1900s
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence
An honest mistaken memory, or a deliberate hoax to cash in on the early glamour of the American Revolution? You decide!
The Wikipedia page.
History Channel account.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a text published in 1819 with the claim that it was the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Lexington. If the story is true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year. The authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration has been disputed since it was published, forty-four years after it was reputedly written. There is no verifiable evidence to confirm the original document's existence and no reference to it has been found in extant newspapers from 1775.[citation needed]
Professional historians have maintained that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is an inaccurate rendering of an authentic document known as the Mecklenburg Resolves. The Mecklenburg Resolves were a set of radical resolutions passed on May 31, 1775, that fell short of an actual declaration of independence. Although published in newspapers in 1775, the text of the Mecklenburg Resolves was lost after the American Revolution and not rediscovered until 1838. Historians believe that the Mecklenburg Declaration was written in 1800 in an attempt to recreate the Mecklenburg Resolves from memory. According to this theory, the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration mistakenly believed that the Resolves had been a declaration of independence, and so he recreated the Resolves with language borrowed from the United States Declaration of Independence. Defenders of the Mecklenburg Declaration have argued that both the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Mecklenburg Resolves are authentic.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 12, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Antiques, Anachronisms and Throwbacks, Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Government, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Politics, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century
| Who We Are |
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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 |