u/HiddenLensHistory

Viola Grey won by eating 28 hot dogs in 12 minutes at a Coney Island hotel... or Delancey street depending on the source. The fact that Nathan's famous "1916" origin story for hot dog eating contests is actually admitted to being made up, this might be closer to the real, first one. It's messy at best having looked into it today. I found a bunch of others slightly earlier, but this by far, was the best. *Washington Times, Aug 19, 1926

His story checks out, too! There is newspaper coverage of Ruth's catch in July 1926, and in 1918 of Michael Angelo Bessolo catching a baseball from an airplane at 700ft, and in 1908 of Gabby Street catching one from 500ft out of the Washington Monument. What a strange record.

*Washington Times, August 18th, 1926

Harold Berger needed some new friends.

Jackie Strong, 7 years old, got separated from his brothers while they were fishing near Mount Hood, OR. Lost for three days, he THRIVED. Ate fish and huckleberries. Didn't know what all the fuss was about when the search party of over 200 people found him. "Scared? Me. Why no." His parents had faith knowing just how much he looked up to Tarzan, and welcomed wilderness challenges.

What an incredible survival story - I wonder what amazing things Jackie went on to do. According to a brief search, he lived until 2010.

It would show up again on April 7th, 1930 at the Milwaukee Week Industrial Show (Times Record News 4/7/1930), and another time either in 1930 or 1932 with actress Rae Samuels holding it for publicity. *this from Milwaukee Leader Aug. 15, 1926

...but only on the south park. According to wire reports in other papers, the west park officers weren't into it, and would remain enforcing the ban. One west officer said, "Give the young people good exercise and sports and they will forget about spooning." Ha.

*New Britain Herald & The Ithaca Journal Aug 14th, 1926

>"Somersaulting, careening, twisting automobiles are used in this game as the means of driving the huge ball through the opponent's goal."

[via The Reporter Aug 13th, 1926] Part of a Sunday celebration in Horicon, WI, alongside a WWI 'sham battle' and a hot air balloon parachute act. Admission was 35 cents, kids under 12 free.

At least that was the claim in the ad. But aviation history disagrees. 1914 had an air boat flying from St. Petersburg to Tampa; and at least one other in Kansas City tried after that. But this PRT service was genuinely remarkable. $15 one way or $25 for a 15-day round trip ticket. Running twice a day. It served 3965 passengers in just 5 months, making up nearly 2/3 of all air passenger's that entire year. And it only lasted 5 months. Closing down the same day Philadelphia closed it's sesquicentennial celebration. The service never had a single mechanical issue, and out of 688 scheduled flights, only 75 were cancelled all due to weather (without any radio beacons along the route). Even with it's ultimate failure, the management company that ran it said personal air travel like this was absolutely possible commercially if the right business model was in place. Sources: Washington Times August 12th, 1926. Aircraft Year Book 1927

This story is genuinely wild. The chimp was caught the next morning after escape "in the unromantic folds of a dogcatcher's net" ha. The leopard would go on to terrorize New Jersey until mid October. The whole story is wild and I dug into all of it.