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This page is part of the Museum of Hoaxes' Hoax Photo Archive, a catalog of photo fakery throughout history. Images are categorized by theme, technique of fakery, and time period.
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Wisconsin’s Capitol Collapses
Status: April Fool's Day joke
Technique of Fakery: Composite Images.
Date and Time Period: April 1, 1933; (1920-1939)
Themes: Architecture, Humor, April Fool's Day, Politics
Technique of Fakery: Composite Images.
Date and Time Period: April 1, 1933; (1920-1939)
Themes: Architecture, Humor, April Fool's Day, Politics
The Madison Capital-Times ran this photo on its front page to accompany an article, in honor of April Fool's Day, about the dome of the Wisconsin state capitol supposedly collapsing because "large quantities of gas, generated through many weeks of verbose debate in the Senate and Assembly chambers, had in some way been ignited."
By modern standards the picture looks phony, but many readers in 1933 were fooled. One particularly irate reader wrote in declaring the hoax "was not only tactless and void of humor, but also a hideous jest."
By modern standards the picture looks phony, but many readers in 1933 were fooled. One particularly irate reader wrote in declaring the hoax "was not only tactless and void of humor, but also a hideous jest."
References:
April Fool's Day 1933, Hoaxipedia.
April Fool's Day 1933, Hoaxipedia.
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