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Category / Obscure history

Was Homer Simpson stolen from this Vintage Cartoon ca.1949?

Seen this guy somewhere before? Meet Adamson – Homer Simpson’s vintage doppelganger. This cartoon comic was published in an Icelandic paper called Fálkinn in July 1949. It is the creation of Swedish cartoonist, Oscar Jacobson who enjoyed relative success as an illustrator, even in America where Adamson was known as Silent Sam. Could it be that Matt Groening’s iconic cartoon…

Before Google Earth: Camera Pigeons c. 1908

In 1908 Dr Julius Neubronner patented a miniature pigeon camera activated by a timing mechanism. The invention brought him international notability after he presented it at international expositions in Dresden, Frankfurt and Paris in 1909–1911. Spectators in Dresden could watch the arrival of the camera-equipped carrier pigeons, and the photos were immediately developed and turned…

The Era of Automatic Dining lives on in Amsterdam

I‘ve been clinging onto these old photos of an Automat diner in New York in the 1930s, thinking I would one day have a reason to show them to you. Having just returned from a long weekend in Amsterdam where I found this old-fashion fast-food style of dining still in existence, I think it’s time…

Introducing, 1960s Slimming Beds

So it’s not yet 11am here in Paris and I’m pretty much wasted on some brandy tea that I made myself earlier to soothe a sore throat. I may have over-poured with the brandy (and may have made do with whisky instead of actual brandy). Soothing has now worn off, alcohol has not. So anyhoo,…

How to Bury an Entire Museum

When German forces took Athens in April 1941, they expected to find thousands of centuries-old artifacts in the National Archaeological Museum, Greece’s largest museum. Instead, the neo-classical building was totally empty, besides the archaeologists and guardians still on duty. Officers asked them where the relics were hidden and “they answered enigmatically that antiquities are where everybody…

Who was Agent 355? The Mystery of America’s First Female Spy

You probably heard about Mata Hari, the infamous courtesan and female spy who beguiled the men around her into allegedly betraying national secrets to Germany during WWI. She became an icon of feminine seduction, Greta Garbo played her on the silver screen in 1931, and her story has inspired countless tales of romance and espionage.…

The Apocalypse came early for the Salton Riviera

There is a place where beaches are made not of sand, but of the skeletons of millions of fish. Luxury yacht clubs are now frequented only by pigeons, vacation homes lay open to the elements and RV camp grounds look more like burial grounds. (c) above Jeremy Engleman & JBennett Fitts below Not 60 miles from the…

The Great Paris Train Wreck

The Gare Montparnasse became famous for the derailment on 22 October 1895 of the Granville–Paris Express, which overran the buffer stop. The engine careered across almost 30 metres (100 ft) of the station concourse, crashed through a 60-centimetre (2 ft) thick wall, shot across a terrace and smashed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de…

Are you Popular? (circa 1947)

This is an example of post-World War social guidance films and golly jee whizz, is it a hoot! It can only be a positive thing that no one would ever make these instructional videos today. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqpe7Y_6rmQ&] Favorite moments: “Or if you’d rather go with the gang on a skating party and weenie roast. We’d…

McDonalds Pineapple Big Mac Ad, 1984 (Yes, this really happened)

I‘ve tried Hawaiian pizzas but this is just going too far, McDonalds. Going-too-far. Also, I may very well have have nightmares about giant pineapples tonight. Thanks Ronald. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm_r_DUaJu8&]

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