30s
Not The Loch Ness Monster
RETRO
The ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’, as it came to be known – a supposed glimpse of Nessie papped from the lochside – was debated by Loch Ness Monster aficionados for decades after being published in a sensational front-page splash by the Daily Mail on 21st April, 1934. Taken by London gynaecologist Dr Robert Kenneth Wilson, the photo …
Dord: The Ghost Word
RETRO
Webster’s New International Dictionary (Second Edition) was the largest book to be mass produced, but – as was revealed on 28th February, 1939 – it contained an embarrassing error: on page 771, between the entries for Dorcopsis (a type of small kangaroo) and doré (golden in colour), was the word ‘dord’. Which doesn’t exist. The …
The First Hijack
RETRO
Pan-Am pilot Byron Rickards was surrounded by soldiers and told he had become the prisoner of a revolutionary organisation shortly after landing in Arequipa, Peru on 21 February 1931 – the first recorded aircraft hijack in history. Rickards refused to drop pro-rebel propaganda, leading to a stand-off – although, astonishingly, it wasn’t the only time …
The Chastity Belt and the Frenchman
RETRO
Henri Littière and his adulterous wife Suzanne thought they’d come up with a novel way to combat her philandering – by commissioning a custom-made chastity belt. But on 21st January, 1934, Littière was sentenced to three months in prison for cruelty to his spouse. It’s a strange story, but not half as weird as how …
New York meets Snow White
RETRO
Disney’s long-awaited feature ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was rapturously received at Radio City, New York, inspiring three-hour queues for tickets. The reviews that America woke up to on 14th January 1938 were euphoric: a masterpiece had landed. “It is a classic as important cinematically as The Birth Of A Nation”, Frank Nugent wrote …
Birth of the Big Things
RETRO
In the early days of advertising, tyre company Goodyear sent a giant tyre on a coast-to-coast publicity trip. It was photographed on 42nd Street, New York on 10th November, 1930. Was this the birth of the ‘big things’ phenomenon that has lead us to roadside giant prawns, record-breaking sausages, and Instagrammable statues of Jeff Goldblum? …