Article April Fools Day - 1959
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes.
Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1959.
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The Hawaiian Tax Refund
A radio station in Hawaii announced that Congress had authorized an amendment to the recently passed Hawaii Statehood Bill (admitting Hawaii to the union as the 50th state). According to this amendment, all the income taxes that Hawaiians paid during the previous year would be refunded to them. Thousands of people called up the station to find out how to claim their refund.
Kokomo Police Cut Costs
The Kokomo Tribune, a paper based in Kokomo, Indiana, announced that the city police had devised a plan to cut costs and save money. According to this plan, the police station would close each night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. An answering machine would record all calls made to the station during this time, and these calls would be screened by an officer in the morning. The police reportedly anticipated that the screening process would save the city a great deal of money, since many of the calls would be old by the morning and would not need to be answered. A spokesman for the police admitted that “there will be a problem on what to do in the case of a woman who calls in and says her husband has threatened to shoot her or some member of the family.” But in such a situation, the spokesman explained, “We will check the hospitals and the coroner, and if they don’t have any record of any trouble, then we will know that nothing happened.”
