April Fool's Day, 1944

The Radium-Radio Receiver (1944) Radio-Craft magazine staff writer Mohammed Ulysses Fips described his invention of a revolutionary radio tube that made use of radium for its electronic emission. It required no batteries and had a theoretical life of 2500 years. It was also cheap, costing only 30 cents a tube, because of the extremely small amount of radium it used.

Unfortunately, because his Radium-Radio (or Ra-Ra) tube posed such a threat to various business interests, Fips found himself kidnapped by "burly gangsters" who kept him locked in a prison with his pet aardvark, Annie, for two years. After this experience, Fips decided not to market his invention himself, but rather to describe it in the pages of Radio-Craft instead.

All Bottled Up (1944) "Evelyn Parent decided that to keep a man in these times one must take drastic steps, so she promptly sprayed her choice with a reducing fluid and bottled him up. How did she get him in there?? Maybe she has the old sea captain's secret of putting the ship in the bottle. Or it is just possible that this is all the photographer's idea of an APRIL FOOL joke." [Lewiston Evening Journal - Apr 1, 1944]

Nancy - Brick in Hat (1944)
Nancy by Ernie Bushmiller.

Nazis in Times Square (1944)
"When Goebbels, Hess, Hitler and Goering, suitcases in hand, marched through Times Square in New York, pedestrians ignored them. But then, maybe it's because on closer inspection, they look suspiciously like Alexander Pope, Victor Varconi, Robert Watson and Martin Kosleck, as they appear in the movie, 'The Hitler Gang,' and if you'll look at the calendar you'll see it's April First." [The Ogden Standard-Examiner - Apr 1, 1944]

April Fool Gadgets (1944) "Fun-loving Americans spend about $8,000,000 a year on tricky gadgets which make good fun on April Fool's Day. Here are a few you should watch out for this year: Plate Lifter — Your blueplate gets a bouncing wanderlust; Hot Salt — It comes out pepper; Inseparable Saucer — Sticks to cup; Tough Doughnut — A rubber sinker; Dribble Glass — April showers." [AP Features]