category
April Fool's Day Hoaxes, 1950

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." [Newsweek, Apr 10, 1950.]

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 along a one-mile section of the scenic Rim of the World highway, making it appear that the region's pine and cedar trees had suddenly grown fruit. The oranges were leftovers from the recent National Orange Show in San Bernardino. [The Independent Record (Helena, Montana), Apr 2, 1950.]

On Wednesday March 29, 1950, between the second and third acts of No Orchids for Miss Blandish at Paris's Grand Guignol theater, actress Nicole Riche suddenly disappeared. Stage hands said she had been handed a note, went pale as she read it, walked outside, and then vanished. Unable to continue the play, the theater gave everyone in the audience their money back. The police, who suspected kidnapping, launched a massive manhunt. Her disappearance made headlines around the world. Some papers noted it was an odd coincidence that she had apparently been kidnapped while starring in a play about a woman who is kidnapped. Two days later, early on the morning of April 1st Riche, walked into a police station dressed in the same flimsy white negligee and furcoat she had been wearing during the play, plus a sweater she said some friendly gypsies had given her. She claimed she had been imprisoned for the past two days by "Puritans" who lectured her endlessly about her immoral lifestyle before finally abandoning her in a forest. The police were skeptical about her story since there's wasn't a speck of dirt or dust on her. Eventually Riche broke down and admitted she hadn't been abducted by Puritans. Her disappearance had been an April Fool's Day publicity stunt engineered by the Grand Guignol's manager, Alexandre Dundas. (For more details, see The Kidnapping of Nicole Riche.) [Los Angeles Times, Apr 2, 1950.]

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."

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." [Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr 2, 1950.]

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. [Waterloo Sunday Courier, Apr 2, 1950.]

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. [Syracuse Herald-Journal, Apr 3, 1950.]

Several German newspapers 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. [The Charleston Daily Mail, Apr 6, 1950.]

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin published a picture and article about 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 news report 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. [The Herald-Press (St. Joseph, Michigan), Apr 4, 1950.]