Gun-Shaped Makeup Compacts, ca. 1920s

Conceived as a crime deterrent, some ladies makeup compacts fashioned in the shape of an inoperable pistol; complete with powder, cheek rouge and lipstick in the shape of a bullet. These were popular with Flappers from the 1920s.

Back in the 1920s, Many Radium Water Producers Advocated Drinking Radium Water as a Necessity of Healthy Living

“The radium water worked fine until his jaw fell out.”

From the early 20th century up to the 1930s the use of radioactive materials for dubious quack medical cures were common. There were various machines which could irradiate the body, radium laced salves and creams, radioactive medicines, radium cosmetics, and a wide variety of other radioactive products. One popular product was radioactive health water.

Often distilled water containing radium, it was marketed to treat or cure a wide variety of ailments. Whether you suffered from rheumatism or cancer, or if you simply need a boost of revigorating energy in your day to day life, radium water was a miracle cure for just about anything.

Many radium water producers advocated drinking radium water as a necessity of healthy living. At first companies simply sold bottled radium water on its own. Later, various products were marketed as a way to make your own radium water at home. Such products were either inserts which were placed in a jar of water, or were radium lined crocks with a tap which one used to brew radium water.

Radium water was legally sold until 1932 when a famous athlete named Eben Beyers died that year. Beyers was a popular consumer and spokesperson for Radithor, a brand of radium water manufactured by Baily Radium Laboratories Inc. It was founded by Dr. William J. A. Baily, who was not a real doctor but claimed his concoction of distilled water, radium, and mesothorium gave the consumer extra energy and strength. In 1932, Beyers had to have his jaw removed due to mouth cancer. A short time later he was dead. The Wall Street Journal did an expose of Radithor entitled “The Radium Water Worked Fine Until his Jaw Fell Out”. Outrage from Beyers’ death forced the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the dangers of radioactive health products, which eventually led to a ban in 1933.

See more»

27 Strange and Creepy Album Covers of Ventriloquists Posing With Their Dummies

Why did they use to make so many albums of ventriloquists lovingly singing with their dummies? Below is an unsettling collection of 27 ventriloquist album covers that will terrify you!

See more»

M. Trilety’s Nose Shaper Model 25, a Wacky Beauty Treatment Used for Shaping and Correcting the Nose From the 1920s

The 20th century has seen a huge upsurge in the importance placed by Western society on physical beauty, particularly for women. The fashion, cosmetics and plastic surgery industries have thrived on 20th century preoccupation with physical appearance. It is a preoccupation that affects women in every sphere, whether they choose to pander to it or not.

For the first two decades of the 20th century, many of the attitudes towards beauty associated with the 19th century remained. In Victorian society, it was considered a woman’s duty to make herself beautiful. In the early 20th century, this was coupled with the idea of “self-presentation” as enjoyable, expressive and creative. However, some of the more bizarre and painful “beauty aids” of the Victorian age continued to be marketed well into the 1920s. A particularly unpleasant example is “M.Trielty’s Nose Shaper,” described as a “metal object ... held over the nose by straps buckled round the head and adjusted with screws.”

The Model 25 has “six adjustable pressure regulators, is made of light polished metal, is firm and fits every nose comfortably. The inside is upholstered with a fine chamois skin and no metal parts come in contact with the skin. Thousands of unsolicited Testimonials ….”

It’s incredible how long this company lasted, considering its offer of “your money refunded if you are not satisfied.”

Here, below are some Trilety’s ads from 1920s magazines:

See more»

Curious Pair of Shoes Called “Soles” Ardèche From the Late 19th Century

This footwear, called “Soles”, made in the Ardèche region of France in the 19th century. The soles are heavy duty shoes whose soles are studded with sharp blades. They were in wood for the sole, leather for the portion covering the foot and metal for the dents.

The soles were used to peel the chestnuts, once the fruit freed from its shell adorned with fearsome spines and after a drying time. Each shoe weighs about 2kg.

(via Paul Bert Serpette)

Early Fun Rides: The Terrifying Sport of Flume Riding From the Early 20th Century

V-flumes were used to transport logs, lumber, working material and supplies but they were also used to transport people and for entertainment from the early 20th century. A sick or injured person from the mountains would many times be placed in a “flume boat” and sent to the valley, sometimes alone and sometimes with family or friends in attendance, for medical treatment. It was the fastest way to get them help.

A very ‘trendy’ date night would include asking your date to walk with you along the flumes, especially at 100 feet above ground at the highest trestle points (which have no railing, but you are in a shallow flume), to show how much you cared for her and how bold and courageous you were. Including lunch or dinner only made the date that much more special.

Loggers liked the flumes since it got them to town much faster for one of their few nights off. (Remember many logging towns did not allow drinking.) The loggers would build small boats to fit the flume with which they could ride down to town.

But for the early loggers the most fun was the sport of flume riding. This daring sport gained popularity in 1865–1895 starting out as log-riding and then becoming the more ‘refined’ sport of flume riding.

Some of the more interesting rides would have the ‘logger boat’ flying off the flume endpoint at an exorbitant height and speed where the passengers needed to make sure they ejected from the log before the log hit the water and they were safe and far from where the log would land.

No one knows where flume riding started – probably in ancient Roman aquaducts – which more closely resembled the box flumes with large volumes of water moving at slow speeds. V-flumes changed the sport.

(This original article was written by Judy DePuy, and published on Truckee-Donner Historical Society)

Strange Beauty Mask, 1940

March 1940 — At the International Beauty Shop Owners’ show in New York City, Ruth Scott modeled a mask to heat the face and tone up the skin. The scratchers on her fingers were brass thimbles to protect nail polish until it dried.

Newsweek - Mar 25, 1940

(via Weird Universe)

Spooky Hidden Mother With Scratched Out Face Photographs

The hidden mother, or, more accurately, the hidden mother’s body, in family photos is a metaphor for what can happen to a woman’s identity when she has children. She’s no longer considered a valuable person in her own right, but instead becomes known first and foremost as somebody’s mother and is primarily judged accordingly.

Motherhood often coincides with middle age, a time when women begin to feel invisible because they no longer meet the cultural definition of eye candy. They disappear from movies, get shuffled out of prime-time TV spots and replaced with younger women. If older women do appear, it’s mostly in ads selling scented candles and life insurance.

A while back, bizarre photos of baby pictures with hidden mothers from the Victorian era circulated around the internet. The mothers hid themselves under curtains or sheets to make themselves invisible. In some cases the mothers’ faces seem to be scratched off the photos. Some have asked “if it is the mother why scratch out the face?”

The theory that most “hidden mothers” were actually assistants of the photographer who helped prepare the women and children for their photographs and held the children when needed. The theory is that if it was the mother there would be no need to hide them and certainly, as in these cases, to block out the face.

See more»

Fritz Dietl the Stilt-Man

Born on July 11, 1911 in Vienna, Austria, Fritz Dietl was educated in the Vienna schools and held a Master’s Degree in Engineering. An internationally known and respected figure skater, professional skating instructor and judge, Dietl began ice skating at age 12 on the Old Danube River in his hometown of Vienna. Though he trained to become a professional tennis player, he chose a career in skating, spending winter months as a skating instructor in Austria and later in Switzerland and England.

In the 1930s, Dietl had his own European ice skating show where he was featured as a stilt skater. He was also an original member of the Ice Capades. He came to the United States in 1940 and began skating with the Olympic champion, Sonja Henie. Together they toured the nation.

Walking on stilts is already impressive enough, but this man pushed it one step further and skated on stilts! Fritz Dietl, who was better known as the Stilt-man, was photographed practicing his skills with four-year-old Pat Kemp at the Empire Pool in Wembley.

In 1958, he opened the Fritz Dietl Ice Skating Rink, which is still in operation today in Westwood, NJ. Dietl coached Scott Allen, who won an Olympic bronze medal in 1964 at the age of 14.

He was a charter member of the Ice Skating Institute of America and was named to the association’s Hall of Fame. He also was a founding member of the International Professional Skating Union and a board member of the Professional Skaters Association who recognized him with the Honorary Member and Lifetime Achievement Award. The PSA Fritz Dietl Ice Arena Award of Excellence was also named after him.

Although retired, Mr. Dietl continued to be active in figure skating until his last month. He was 91 when he died of complications of heart trauma on March 29, 2003.

Funny Vintage Postcards Depict People Falling From Donkeys in Le Plessis-Robinson, France, ca. 1900

Le Plessis-Robinson is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 10.5 km (6.5 mi) from the center of Paris. It was first mentioned in 839 as Plessiacus apud Castanetum, meaning plessis near Castanetum. A plessis was a village surrounded by a fence made of branches.

In 1112 the village church was founded, of which the romanesque tower still survives as the oldest monument of Le Plessis. At the end of the 12th the village was renamed Le Plessis-Raoul, after the local lord Raoul, chamberlain of king Philip II of France. In 1407 it came into the hands of Jean Piquet de La Haye, who built a castle in the village, now called Le Plessis-Piquet. In 1614 a monastery of the Congregation of the Feuillants was built in the village.

In 1682 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Minister of Finances under Louis XIV had a pond dug which fed the fountains of the nearby Château de Sceaux. Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnan purchased the estate in 1699, and expanded the gardens. In 1790, as a result of the French Revolution, Antoine Moullé was elected the first mayor of Le Plessis.

The commune was renamed Le Plessis-Liberté. The monastery was nationalized and demolished. The commune was renamed back to Le Plessis-Piquet in 1801. In 1848, a guinguette (cabaret) was established in the area as a suite of interconnected tree houses. It was named Le grand Robinson after the tree house described in Swiss Family Robinson, a novel itself named after Robinson Crusoe. Several other popular establishments arose in the area, and remained popular until the 1960s.

In 1909, the commune of Le Plessis-Piquet was officially renamed Le Plessis-Robinson, after Le grand Robinson. In 1854, Louis Hachette bought the castle and the grounds. He later became the mayor of Le Plessis-Piquet and a city councillor. The village and the castle were ruined in the War of 1870, but the castle was rebuilt by the Hachette family.

Here, these vintage postcards depicting people of Le Plessis-Robinson falling from their donkeys ca. 1900:

See more»