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Category / Nostalgia

The Circus is in Town

A troupe of elephants and a zebra walk down 33rd Street in Manhattan in 1968 to mark the arrival of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. What a sight that would have been. As a great animal lover, the idea of the circus makes me all kinds of uncomfortable. But then again, the things…

Wait, they Hung Out?

As deeply disappointing as it is that someone at TIME Magazine obviously forgot to add Messy Nessy Chic to the list of best blogs of 2012 (sniffle, there’s always next year, eye of the tiger), I’m a good enough sport to recognize a few that made the cut. In particular, my favorite new discovery thanks…

The Bond Villain’s Lair: Skyfall’s Abandoned Island

Nearly forty years after people, the Japanese island of Hashima is lifeless, sagging and absolutely uninhabitable to man, unless of course you’re a crazed nemesis of James Bond, plotting to take down the British secret service. If you managed to get past the round-the-block queues outside of cinemas this weekend to catch a screening of…

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…

Swallowed by Nature

A friend sent me the above image this morning which recently appeared on the social media website, 9Gag. The photograph sparked a bit of a debate in the comments section of the site about where this image was actually taken. The source has not been identified and abandoned sites such as Chernobyl, Pripyat and Hashima…

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…

Just an Abandoned Igloo Hotel

As if Alaska wasn’t already wonderfully creepy enough (a minimum of zero hours of sunlight in winter= perfect for vampires), it’s also home to an abandoned igloo hotel. Located 20 miles from the nearest town of Cantwell (population: 222), along the George Parks Highway, this unexpected four-story structure has become a bit of a road-side…

Dancing with Modigliani in the Paris Night

I was unaware until now of a film biopic made in 2004 about the artist Modigliani, starring Andy Garcia (swoon). Now you may recall the story about the Paris Time Capsule Apartment here on MessyNessyChic in which one of the Italian’s paintings was discovered along with love letters from him to the lady of the…

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,…

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