The April Fool Archive

Flight to the Moon    (April Fool's Day - 1941)


New York City's Hayden Planetarium advertised that at 2 o'clock on April 1st the "first non-stop rocket ship flight to the moon" would take place, leaving from the planetarium with Professor William H. Barton Jr. at the controls. The announcement was accompanied by an illustration by artist Tom Voter.

Before the actual "flight," Barton offered a clarification to the New York Times: "The only April Fool element in this miracle flight is that the 240,000 miles of space between the earth and the moon will be spanned in the comfort of the imagination, aided by trick photography, weird lighting effects and a realistic reproduction of the fantastic lunar landscapes."

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