Halloween Week so let’s start off with one of the most famously scary stories in American history – Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. It aired on this day in 1938 on CBS radio (click here.) (I have discussed this previously about how my Father-in-law Bill Raftery was living in Jersey when the supposed attack occurred and was sent out with a shovel to defend against the Martians before realizing that it was all a hoax (click here.))
If you Google “Famous Hoaxes” War of the Worlds will be on just about every list. The other famous American hoax that makes most of the top ten lists involves the Cardiff Giant. It has a semi-non-religious background in that it’s atheist creator George Hull designed it as a Biblical spoof (click here.)
Another spin off from the Giant came about when P.T. Barnum tried to buy the original but failed to do so. In true Trumpian fashion however, Barnum then built an exact replica of the giant and claimed that his was the real Giant and that the original was the fake giant. Barnum charged folks to see his fake Giant prompting a writer covering the story to quote the owner of the original giant as saying “There’s a sucker born every minute.” The line gets attributed to Barnum but now you know the rest of the story.
The “real” make that original Giant is currently on display at the Farmers Museum just north of Cooperstown, New York.
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| http://www.farmersmuseum.org/node/2482 |