Chris
Sometimes I look at old photos and wonder if everyone back then was just winging it 100 percent of the time or if it just comes across that way. No seatbelts, no helmets, no common sense. Just pure unfiltered chaos and vibes.
Meanwhile, I get nervous if my phone battery dips below 20 percent.
These rare and fascinating photos are the kind of thing that makes you pause and question everything you thought you knew about the past. People were bold. People were weird. And honestly, kind of iconic.
Compared to this, modern life feels like one long loading screen. So let’s take a little scroll through the kind of history they didn’t teach us in school.
1. I know you’ve seen a bicycle built for two… but how about a bicycle built for FOUR:
2. This is the eight-year-old bodybuilder Patricia O’Keefe, carrying a 200-pound man on her back:
3. The Michelin Man not only used to be absolutely terrifying, but he used to run with a gang of several other musically inclined Michelin men:
4. This is Diane Stopky, winner of International Posture Queen in 1957, posing with her award-winning spine:
5. People used to be able to have picnics at the Los Angeles alligator farm:
6. Here’s a picture of a very safe, normal setup for parents and a baby to enjoy ice skating from the late 1930s:
7. Speaking of which, this is “Boy Samson,” the 14-year-old “strongest boy in the world” holding up a grown man on a motorcycle circa 1932:
8. This is Stephan Bibrowski, otherwise known as Lionel the Lion-faced Man. Stephan had a condition known as hypertrichosis that caused hair to grow up to eight inches long all over his body including, obviously, his face:
9. This is the cross-section of the 1,300 year-old Mark Twain sequoia tree, cut down in 1892 for display in New York:
10. Here’s another strange way to learn how to swim. Each one of these kids is connected by rope to this “merry-go-round” contraption:
11. This is George Stern and his prized invention, a fast-vaporizing fluid that basically let you light your hands on fire and not get burned:
12. Before airplanes were pressurized for commercial use, flyers had to wear oxygen masks at higher altitudes:
13. In 1936, architect André Basdevant proposed making the Eiffel Tower accessible by car. It would look like this:
14. This is the Dynasphere, a giant wheel vehicle invented by Dr. J. A. Purves that could go as a fast as 30 MPH:
15. This is a scene from the I’m sure absolutely electric “Prettiest Ankle Competition” in London in 1930:
16. Speaking of high honors, here’s Gail Hooper AKA Miss National Catfish, 1954:
17. This is a rubber beauty mask designed to eliminate wrinkles, massage the face, and promote skin health from the 1920s:
18. Here’s a bunch of soldiers practicing their swimming moves while on land:
19. Speaking of exercise and weight-loss, for a brief, wonderous moment, portable saunas were a thing. Just look at how happy this man is:
20. Speaking of babies, they used to travel up with the luggage on planes:
21. This is Henry Behrens, at one time the world’s smallest man, doing a little tango with a cat:
22. In 1924, a game of Human Chess was played in the Soviet Union:
23. Huntington Beach in California used to have a bunch of oil derricks on top of it:
24. These gigantic contraptions are apparently one of the first life preservers ever made:
25. This picture, from the early 1900s, shows an early basketball game, kneepads and all:
26. In 1918, over 30,000 soldiers came together to make a giant human-shield:
27. In the 1930s, this couple won an Atlantic City dance marathon after dancing for 1,473 hours:
28. This is Robert Earl Hughes, the one-time world’s heaviest man and his pet dog:
