THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT?

 




Tik Tok: people dance, sing, make food, extoll the virtues of a good book, basically anything to get attention. But two trends from the 1920s and 1930s became popular crazes without the aid of social media - flagpole sitting and goldfish swallowing. Those trends have died out over many years, but once were popular attention getters. Newspapers covered these antics, and record setters became stars. Now these trends are all but forgotten, even though both seem perfect social media fodder.


Flagpole sitting was exactly what it sounds like. Ordinary people would  ascend flag poles in high traffic areas, place themselves on a platform and ... sit. And sit. And sit. The trend started with a man called "Shipwreck" Kelly - called that because he alleged to have survive the Titanic. A Hollywood movie theater hired Kelly to sit atop the flagpole and promote a new film. The novelty caught on and businesses hired "sitters" to advertise sales and other promotions. A record-setting frenzy set in, with sitters - men and women - sitting atop poles for hundreds of hours. Shipwreck Kelly traveled to promote the sports, visiting 28 cities. The trend died out as the depression set in, with public interest focused on the lagging economy and businesses unable to pay sitters. Flagpole sitting was revived a few times post the 1930s, mostly as art performance or protest.


Goldfish swallowing was one of human kind's stranger trends. Legend says Harvard student Lothrop Withington Jr. alleged to a crowd of pals he swallowed a life goldfish. On a $10 dollar bet he swallowed another fish, only this time a Boston newspaper covered the event. Life Magazine picked up the story and soon swallowing living, real goldfish was a trend. One student set a record for swallowing 89 fish in one sitting. Women competed in gulping contests as well (Yay Feminism?) U Penn and MIT competed against one another (MIT = 42 / U Penn = 25.) An association was set up to enforce competition standards, but a Massachusetts senator filed a bill to ban goldfish gulping. The fad died out, as all fads do. Too bad no one ever gulped the goldfish atop a flagpole - now that's a Tik Tok worthy stunt.


SOURCES :

Pole Sitting. Wikipedia.

Serafino, Jason. On Top of the World : Remembering the Lost Trend of Flagpole Sitting. Mental Floss, 9, February 2023.


Clark, Laura. The Great Goldfish Swallowing Craze of 1939 Never Really Ended. Smithsonian Magazine. 27 February 2015.
Goldfish Swallowing. Wikipedia.

FURTHER MEDIA : 

Bowlin, Ben / Brown, Noel, hosts. "The Great Goldfish Gulping Craze That For Some Reason Swept America." Ridiculous History, iheartradio, 16 January 2020.



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