June 23, 2009

House Shaped Like Elephant (Jan, 1937)

Filed under: Architecture, Just Weird — @ 12:33 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1937
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House Shaped Like Elephant
A HOUSE built in the shape of an elephant is located at Margate City, N. J. Erected in 1882 by James V. Lafferty, the novel home is said to be the only one of its kind. The body is 38 feet long, the circumference, 80 feet. The head is 26 feet long and 48 feet around. Legs are 22 feet long with a diameter of 10 feet. Glass eyes have an 18-inch diameter.

March 11, 2009

Madman MORAN - Screwball Promoter (Mar, 1949)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 11:42 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1949
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Madman MORAN - Screwball Promoter

THE man is mad! He spends his time on crazy projects like the ones shown in these pictures: (1) Getting half-baked by exposing half his body at a Florida beach to test its sunshine against California’s supercolossal rays; (2) personally hatching an ostrich egg; (3) finding a needle in a haystack—he sifted two tons of hay for 82-1/2 hours before he spotted the thing, and (4) riding across a river near Reno in an Uncle Sam outfit to prove that any American can change horses in midstream.

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February 15, 2009

O.K. Murphy’s Electrical Massagers (Sep, 1953)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:22 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1953
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O.K. Murphy’s Electrical Massagers

OWEN K. Murphy of Adamsville, Pa., is a relaxed fellow with an invigorating mind. His mechanical massage units have resulted in making people, from housewives to businessmen, massage-conscious. His Niagara Manufacturing Company puts out 14 different electrical units which are designed to relax and tone up tired muscles. They can be used anywhere from weary feet to throbbing heads. Prince Sulaiman of Saudi Arabia bought five Niagara chairs for his wives.

February 2, 2009

Drug Said to Cause Clairvoyance (Apr, 1932)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 11:06 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1932
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Drug Said to Cause Clairvoyance
A SOUTH AMERICAN plant called Yage is believed by natives to have the magical property of enabling the drinker to see great distances or through obstacles. Before the drinker falls asleep everything seems to be filled with hazy bluish rings. As the stupor deepens the sleeper sees vivid visions of things or people known to be somewhere else. This is the reason the drug is supposed to cause clairvoyance.

February 1, 2009

Black Spray (Dec, 1947)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 11:06 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1947
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Black Spray
of carbon is blown into the face of this industrial worker to test the efficiency of a respirator incorporating a revolutionary new dust filter. The mask was developed by the American Optical Company to protect laborers exposed to microscopic poisonous and disease-producing
dusts smaller in diameter than 24 millionths of an inch.

January 31, 2009

Snowshoes, Jelly Beans and Rat Bait Cheese (Oct, 1955)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 10:53 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1955
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Snowshoes, Jelly Beans and Rat Bait Cheese

YOU can buy anything from a buggy whip to a bustle at the Old Country Store, South Sudbury, Mass. Wilfred Allen, originator and proprietor of the old-time emporium, has it packed to the rafters with relics that would have made your great great grandpa do a jig of joy. Modern items are also sold because Allen has to balance the budget, but it is the antique furnishings that give his shop its unique charm and flavor of days gone by.

January 21, 2009

The House That Death Built (Jun, 1937)

Filed under: Architecture, Just Weird — @ 12:08 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1937
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The House That Death Built

by Dean S. Jennings

DEAD leaves, whipped from stark lonely trees by the valley wind, sing a dirge in the night glow of a winter’s moon.

Behind the skeleton screen of withered oaks whose rotting limbs droop to pungent ground, you can see the house, gabled and gaunt, rising wraith-like against a blue shadowed mountain backdrop.

They call it the “mystery house,” and “the house that death built” or “ghost house.”

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January 15, 2009

STAINLESS CHOPPERS (Apr, 1957)

Filed under: Cool, DIY, Just Weird — @ 12:18 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1957
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Wow, this is actually the second guy I’ve seen with homemade stainless steel dentures. Here is another from 1937. I wonder how common this was.

STAINLESS CHOPPERS
STEELY SMILE of John Gilpin, village blacksmith of Livingston, Mont., is really friendly although strangers are sometimes awed by it. Gilpin broke a set of store teeth 16 years ago, replaced them with rugged stainless steel.

January 13, 2009

Fish-Net Shirt (Nov, 1949)

Filed under: Just Weird, Personal Appearance — @ 10:45 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1949
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Fish-Net Shirt is a satisfactory substitute for the Eskimo caribou garments in the Arctic. It allows body perspiration to evaporate and form a vapor barrier, thus conserving all possible natural heat needed in frigid climates. First used in the Canadian Arctic by Operation Musk-Ox, this hole-some shirt is now worn under army winter underwear.

January 5, 2009

Hangover Heaven (Apr, 1947)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 12:47 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1947
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Madness I tell you, pure madness.

Hangover Heaven is the apt name of the unusual bonnet at right. Originally developed by makeup man Max Factor for the benefit of actresses who wish to refresh their faces on hot studio sets without spoiling their makeup, the facial ice pack was quickly diverted to another purpose by festive Hollywoodians. The headpiece, adorned with water-filled plastic cubes, is kept in the refrigerator while the water freezes.

January 1, 2009

Personology—Science of Success (Apr, 1953)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:34 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1953
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Personology—Science of Success

Bob Whiteside, Personologisf, is startling the scientific world with an amazing new system for determining a person’s aptitudes by his physical appearance.

By Lee Edson

THE man and woman standing in front of the studio audience at a recent San Francisco radio show were plainly skeptical. And so was the audience itself.

They stared at ex-newspaperman Bob Whiteside with a show-me attitude that for a lesser person might have been disconcerting. But Whiteside, who was on the program to demonstrate what he could reveal about a person merely by looking at him, was used to skepticism. He looked his subjects over carefully. He had never seen them before and there was little about them that could distinguish them from thousands of others.

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December 31, 2008

10,000,000 UFO witnesses can’t be wrong! (Jun, 1967)

Filed under: Just Weird — @ 1:48 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1967
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Err, yes they can.

10,000,000 UFO witnesses can’t be wrong!

By Otto O. Binder

A GALLUP POLL discloses the astonishing fact that 5 million Americans claim to have seen a UFO at one time or another since 1947. Even if 80 per cent of these so-called sightings can be proved to be of such ordinary objects as balloons, high-flying aircraft, birds, stars, etc., that leaves 1 million unsatisfied witnesses. In America alone!

But UFOs also have been reported from more than 70 other countries and the estimated grand total of living witnesses for this little orb called Earth exceeds 10 million. Ten million men, women and children who have seen something out of the ordinary in the sky!

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