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Category / Obscure history

That Time Barbie Actively Encouraged Starvation Dieting

Playing with dolls that have a weight-loss complex doesn’t particularly spell out ‘fun’ for me, but 50 years ago, Mattel decided this was just what playtime was missing. In 1963, a series of Barbie dolls came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight, which simply advised girls in capital letters: “Don’t eat!”. The dolls’ accessories also…

The Shoreditch Live Animal Market, 1946

Once upon a time, you could purchase a lion cub on the streets of Shoreditch. At the Club Row Animal Market, just north of Bethnal Green Road, every Sunday the cobblestone road would transform into a theatrical scene where the whoop of monkeys, the howling of dogs, the singing of exotic birds and the hissing…

The Moving Houses of San Francisco

It’s moving day for MessyNessyChic. Today we’re carrying furniture up the winding Parisian staircase, unpacking boxes and settling into the first official MNC hub in Paris– or as I have taken to calling it, “the MNC Parisheadquarters!” Now usually, this whole moving malarkey is supposed to be impossibly stressful, even potentially disastrous they say; but late last night as I…

Beauty School Dropout

Today, the internet bus driver is dropping us off at the Helena Rubinstein beauty school, circa 1940-something. This might sound like a lovely, pink and fluffy sort of place, but as you’ll soon realise, beauty school is anything but. Photographs by Nina Leen, fished out from one of my favourite places on the net, the…

All Aboard the Mortuary Railway (and other Secrets of Sydney)

A sparkling harbor, surfers, beaches, possibly kangaroos and the like tend to pop up when you think of Sydney, Australia. But what about the off-beat? What about the little treasures you may pass on the street that hold a whole history, but are overlooked as simply background and overshadowed by the Opera House’s gleaming sails? Well,…

The Babes of Sydney’s Criminal Past

Femme Fatales and Devious Divas were the ruling forces of Sydney’s underbelly during the 1920’s. These convicted ladies knew how to get into trouble in the most fashionable ways possible. Posing for their mug shots, they came dressed to the nines in furs, pearls, stylish hats and sassy drop-waist frocks. Even if they were being…

Waiting for the End of the World: Fallout Shelter Tourism

Most people travel the world to visit various natural wonders, take a tour of the famous monuments or go in search of authentic cuisine. Richard Ross goes in search of bomb shelters. Armed with his camera, Ross took a five-year journey into the underground world, documenting not only the bomb shelters of the United States, but also…

Reviving the Studio 54 of Paris: Fame & Debauchery in a Bathhouse turned Nightclub

Before it became an icon of Parisian nightlife, it was Marcel Proust’s favourite bath house a century earlier. In 1978, it became Paris’ answer to Studio 54, overflowing with famous faces; a cultural institution fuelled by sex, drugs, disco … and midnight swimming. Photographs (c) Foc Kan “Magnifique, Magique, Mythique”, writes one former patron describing…

Vintage Atkins, Torture Machines and Fat-Shaming: Getting Slim the 1950s Way

Here’s a rather eye-brow raising television clip from 1958 showing various diet and weight loss methods of the day. We learn that Dr. Atkins certainly wasn’t the originator of the ‘fat’ diet as we speak to the doctor behind “Eat Fat, Grow Slim”, and receive various slimming tips courtesy of the British Pathé commentator, such as,…

The 1950s Flying Saucer Conventions at an Underground Rock House

Have you ever heard the one about the guy who literally lived under a rock in the Californian desert, where legendary flying saucer conventions were held in the 1950s? It’s one of those weird stories that a friend told me at a dinner party, which I of course Googled as soon as I could leave the…

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