Table of Contents

• French Actress Kidnapped
• Skyforest Orange Trees
• Hawaiian Flying Saucer
• Flying Bus
• Pennsylvania Flying Saucer
• German Flying Saucers
• “Too Sexy” headline banned
• The Dailys
• Firemen Don’t Respond
• Singing Telegrams
• References

French Actress Kidnapped

French actress Nicole Riche stumbled into a Paris police station at 3 a.m. on the morning of April 1, 1950, claiming she had been imprisoned for the past two days by “Puritans” who had lectured her constantly about her immoral lifestyle. The police had been searching for her ever since she had disappeared in between acts of No Orchids for Miss Blandish, the play she was starring in at the Grand Guignol Theater. Riche’s bizarre story made headlines around the world, but it was soon exposed as an April Fool’s Day stunt engineered by the Grand Guignol’s manager, Alexandre Dundas. For more details, see The Kidnapping of Nicole Riche.

Skyforest Orange Trees

Residents of Skyforest, near Lake Arrowhead in Southern California, staged an elaborate prank. Twenty-five of them, led by cartoonist Frank Adams, crept out during the night and strung 50,000 oranges in the pine and cedar trees along a one-mile section of the scenic Rim of the World highway. The oranges were leftovers from the recent National Orange Show in San Bernardino.

Hawaiian Flying Saucer

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin published a picture of a flying saucer that had supposedly crashed into a mountain on the island of Hawaii. The joke unintentionally took in victims thousands of miles away when a local ham radio operator, believing the picture to be real, broadcast a description of the flying-saucer crash. An amateur radioman in Michigan heard the broadcast and reported it to his local paper, the Herald-Press. The Herald-Press only realized the report was an April Fool’s Day joke after it queried the AP, who in turn queried their office in Hawaii.

Flying Bus

International Soundphoto distributed a photo of a flying bus swooping over the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. The photo ran in many papers, accompanied by the caption: “Well, Well, look how all those Parisians are being missed by the bus at Place de la Concorde. Anything can happen in the French capital on April Fool’s day, they say, but it is suspected that some zany darkroom jokester had something to do with this.”

Pennsylvania Flying Saucer

The Progress (Clearfield, Pennsylvania) published a picture of a flying saucer, supposedly hovering over the business section of Clearfield. The text accompanying the picture read, “Scoring an unquestioned scoop on the other newspapers of the nation, Life, and Look magazines and other pictorial publications, The Progress proudly presents today the first published picture of a ‘flying saucer’ in the air.”

German Flying Saucers

Several German newspapers also reported sightings of UFOs on April 1st. The Cologne Neue Illustrierte published a picture of “a tiny, aluminum-covered man” who had supposedly been rescued from a saucer that had crash landed. The report stated that the saucer had been shot down by American anti-aircraft guns. A newspaper in Frankfurt quoted the “American Aeronautical Institute” to report that flying saucers had been found aground in the United States.

“Too Sexy” headline banned

The Guidon, student newspaper of Adelphi College, ran a headline announcing “Mating Season Open.” Adelphi President Dr. Paul D. Eddy deemed this headline to contain too much sex and temporarily suspended publication of the paper.

The Dailys

Firemen Don’t Respond

When fire station No. 2 in High Point, North Carolina received an emergency call from fire station No. 1, they decided not to respond, thinking it must be an April Fool gag. They were incorrect. It turned out that fire station No. 1 really was on fire. An explosion had resulted in flames which damaged their truck.

Singing Telegrams

Western Union chose April 1, 1950 to reintroduce their singing telegram service, which they had suspended during the war. But instead of personally delivered messages, “the messages were sung by women operators at the company’s switchboards.”

References

• “‘Kidnapped’ Paris Star Reappears on April 1.” (Apr 2, 1950). Los Angeles Times.
• “Firemen thought it was April Fool gag.” (Apr 2, 1950). Waterloo Sunday Courier.
• “Singing telegram returns; hundreds get on bandwagon.” (Apr 2, 1950). Chicago Daily Tribune.
• “What’s this—- The bus missing the passengers?” (Apr 1, 1950). The Daily Courier, Connellsville, Pa. pg. 8.
• Newsweek. (Apr 10, 1950). p. 38.
• “Tiny Man, No Less.” (Apr 6, 1950). The Charleston Daily Mail.
• “Too sexy, paper is banned.” (Apr 3, 1950). Syracuse Herald-Journal.
• “Californians work hard on April Fool’s Day prank.” (Apr 2, 1950). The Independent Record (Helena, Montana).
• “Saucer tale just a gag.” (Apr 4, 1950). The Herald-Press (St. Joseph, Michigan).

Categories

• April Fools Day
• Era
  • 1950-1976