Category:
Success & Failure

Tri-Ang Bolo Game

The Tri-Ang Toy company in the UK seems to have been a conventional and successful business. But then, in some fit of madness, they chose to release "Bolo--The New Game."





Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 11, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Inventions, Really Bad Ideas, Success & Failure, Toys, 1940s, United Kingdom

Intros to Failed 1970s TV Shows

Another collection of never-made-it TV shows.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 26, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Success & Failure, Television, 1970s

18 UNEARTHED TV INTROS TO SHORT-LIVED 70s SITCOMS

What a parade of forgotten flops! And yet, perhaps some of us will have a keen memory of seeing one of these shows in our youth!



Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 18, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Success & Failure, Television, 1970s

The Edsel Show

Even titanic star power could not save this famous automobile disaster. The interspersed commercials are great too.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 01, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Success & Failure, Television, Disgrace, Shame, Infamy and Downfalls, Advertising, 1950s, Cars

TV INTROS TO 18 SHORT-LIVED SITCOMS OF THE 70s

Wow, what a bunch of bizarre stinkers from an odd decade.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 20, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Success & Failure, Television, 1970s

Failed Suicide Champion


Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 12, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Success & Failure, Suicide, 1910s

Harley-Davidson Perfume

Classic business failure: "Hot Road," an eau de toilette released by Harley-Davidson in the mid-1990s and quietly discontinued a year or two later. It wasn't exactly an "on brand" product.

More info: Milwaukee Magazine



image source: parfumo.net

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 18, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Products, Success & Failure, 1990s, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

The Palace of the Soviets

Take what metaphors and allegories you will from this famous failure.



The Wikipedia page tells us:

The Palace of the Soviets (Russian: Дворец Советов, Dvorets Sovetov) was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the palace was to house sessions of the Supreme Soviet in its 130-metre (430 ft) wide and 100-metre (330 ft) tall grand hall seating over 20,000 people. If built, the 416-metre (1,365 ft) tall palace would have become the world's tallest structure, with an internal volume surpassing the combined volumes of the six tallest American skyscrapers.[10]


The music on this video is annoying--hit MUTE--but otherwise it's well done.



Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 15, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Architecture, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Government, Success & Failure, Russia, Twentieth Century

Kentucky Roast Beef

Here's a neat article about this failed venture by Colonel Sanders.

You won't find the image below at that page.


Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 21, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Food, Success & Failure, 1960s

Who’s Nobody in America

Back in 1979, when being in Who's Who still had some kind of cultural cachet, Derek Evans and Dave Fulwiler decided to create an anti-Who's-Who, which they called "Who's Nobody in America." To acquire entries, they placed the following ad in newspapers:

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO NOBODY

Will your name be omitted from the 1980 edition of Who's Who?

Nobody Press is currently compiling the 1980 edition of Who's Nobody in America. This handsomely bound and widely distributed reference work will, for the first time, provide a comprehensive list of American nobodies.

If you think you might be a nobody, or know of one, at no cost or obligation, complete the attached request for applications."

Applicants included:
  • A woman who complained she had been seeing her psychiatrist monthly for eight years and he often called her Evelyn. Her name was Mildred.
  • An entire American Legion post in Newport, Ky.

More info: Washington Post



Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 28, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Clubs, Fraternities and Other Self-selecting Organizations, Success & Failure, Books, Satire

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Who We Are
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.

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