Vintage Pulp

July 27 2017

GIFT OF GAGS

Aussie mag proves humor has a shelf life.

Gals and Gags was an Australian publication put together by the same people that brought you Adam. Its focus was on humor rather than art and fiction, which would be fine if the gags were funny. But no such luck. We’ve run into this problem before—quippy humor just doesn’t have much staying power. Which is why everyone will eventually stop reading our website. But Gals and Gags’ humor has gone particularly stale because it’s almost exclusively devoted to disparaging female intellect. We guess the writers didn’t realize women are smarter than men. Why do we say that? Well, the planet is just about ready to self-destruct and men have been running it the entire time. What would you call that? Scintillating genius? Gals and Gags published at least twenty-two volumes of issues, so at some point millions of readers thought it was funny, even if we don’t. But we consider it a sociological window to the past—to July 1964 specifically. We recommend you file the gags away for next time you chat with your granddad.

Australia, Gals and Gags, magazine art

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 14

1967—Summer of Love Begins

The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with between 20,000 to 30,000 people in attendance, their purpose being to promote their ideals of personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological preservation, and higher consciousness. The event is considered the beginning of the famed counterculture Summer of Love.

January 13

1968—Cash Performs at Folsom Prison

Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison in Folson, California, where he records a live album that includes a version of his 1955 hit “Folsom Prison Blues.” Cash had always been interested in performing at a prison, but was unable to until personnel changes at his record company brought in people who were amenable to the idea. The Folsom album was Cash’s biggest commercial success for years, reaching number 1 on the country music charts.

January 13

2004—Harold Shipman Found Hanged

British serial killer Harold Shipman is found dead in his prison cell, after hanging himself with a bedsheet. Shipman, a former doctor who preyed on his patients, was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, with two-hundred and eighteen murders positively attributed to him, and another two-hundred of which he is suspected.

January 12

1960—Nevil Shute Dies

English novelist Nevil Shute, who wrote the books A Town Like Alice and The Pied Piper, dies in Melbourne, Australia at age sixty-one. Seven of his novels were adapted to film, but his most famous was the cautionary post-nuclear war classic On the Beach.

January 12

1967—First Cryonics Patient Frozen

Dr. James Bedford, a University of California psychology professor, becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation. Bedford had kidney cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and was untreatable. His body was maintained for years by his family before being moved to Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona.

January 11

1957—Jack Gilbert Graham Is Executed

Jack Gilbert Graham is executed in Colorado, U.S.A., for killing 44 people by planting a dynamite bomb in a suitcase that was subsequently loaded aboard United Airlines Flight 629. The flight took off from Denver and exploded in mid-air. Graham was executed by means of poison gas in the Colorado State Penitentiary, in Cañon City.