Mr. President Game

Just in case you have not gotten your fill of politics this year, why not search out a copy of the Mr. President Game and play a few rounds?

Visit Board Game Geek for details.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 01, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Games, Politics, 1960s

Politician promises weight loss

A low-ambition campaign promise: Adeline Geo-Karis promised that, if elected Comptroller of Illinois, she would lose 50 pounds. She didn't win.

Bloomington Pantagraph - May 23, 1986

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 05, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Politics, 1980s, Dieting and Weight Loss

Presidential Songs and Slogans

In this election year, we could do with some innovative songs and slogans--but I doubt if we'll get any that compare to these historical ones.

Taken from THE BOOK OF POLITICAL LISTS.

Posted By: Paul - Mon May 20, 2024 - Comments (5)
Category: Music, Politics, Proverbs, Maxims, Sayings, Folk Wisdom and Quotations, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

Gilbert Young, most rejected author ever

Gilbert Young first came to the attention of the British press in the 1960s as a crusader for a single world government. He ran repeatedly for various political offices but never won an election.

Below is an ad he placed in the papers seeking new members for his "World Government Party."

Bristol Daily Press - Jan 29, 1964

But his real claim to fame came in the mid 1970s when the editors of the Guinness Book of Records learned that, for years, Young had been trying to get his book published but had only received rejections from publishers. His book, World Government Crusade, had, by 1974, been rejected 80 times. So Guinness listed him in its 1975 edition as the record holder for the "greatest recorded number of publisher's rejections for a manuscript."

Bristol Daily Press - Sep 26, 1974

Guinness Book of Records 1975

For over fifteen years Guinness continued to list him as the holder of this record. Every few years it would update the number of his rejections. By 1990 his book had been rejected 242 times.

Guinness Book of Records 1991

I thought that perhaps Young's book would now be available to read or purchase somewhere on the Internet. But no, as far as I can tell it's still unavailable.

Posted By: Alex - Tue May 14, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Politics, World Records, Books

The Fifth Dimension Sings “The Declaration of Independence”

Was this the secret origin of SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK?

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 26, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Law, Music, Politics, PSA’s, Twentieth Century

Cold War Coloring Books

AboutComics.com recently released an expanded edition of Cold-War Coloring: Political Adult Coloring Books of the Kennedy Era, and WU played a small part in its creation.

The book collects together politically-themed, satirical coloring books of the 1960s. Such as the JFK Coloring Book and Khrushchev’s Top Secret Coloring Book.

For the expanded edition the editor, Nat Gertler, wanted to include the Sing along with Khrushchov coloring book, published in 1962. However, he couldn't find a copy of it. There were no copies in libraries and none for sale.

Then he discovered that we here at WU happened to have posted a scanned copy of it online back in 2020. I tried to connect him with the reader who had sent us the scanned copy, so that he could get a higher-quality version of the pdf, but no luck there. But thankfully Nat was able to make do with the copy we had. So now this obscure title is once again in print.

Glad we were able to help prevent it from being lost forever.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 19, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Politics, Books, 1960s, Satire

A Comic That Scared the Senate

The infamous Senate Hearings on horror comics in the 1950s are well known. And in fact, you can read the whole 316-page transcript here.

I thought it might be fun to see one of the actual stories that triggered the politicians. It follows after the next two images.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 19, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Horror, Politics, Scandals and Controversies, Comics, Children, 1950s

Will Rogers Nominates Henry Ford for President

The election season heats up!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 17, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Politics, Historical Figure, 1920s, Comedians, Cars

The Synthetic Party

Over in Denmark, an AI chatbot called Leader Lars is a candidate in the country's November general election. It's the representative of The Synthetic Party. Apparently this is the first time a form of artificial intelligence has run for political office. (It would be too easy to make a joke about whether any form of genuine intelligence has ever run for office, so I won't do it).

You can chat with Leader Lars and ask it questions in English. However, it responds in Danish.

More info: vice.com

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 17, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Politics, Strange Candidates, AI, Robots and Other Automatons

Bertolt Brecht Before The Committee On Un-American Activities

Want to empty out the dance floor? Just pop this on the turntable.

Player embedded below.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 19, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Hollywood, Politics, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, 1940s