April Fool's Day, 1945

Blue Lobster Fishing (1945)
Norman Rockwell created a second April Fool cover for the Saturday Evening Post. His first such cover, in 1943, had been the magazine's most popular cover ever. Like its predecessor, the 1945 cover contained numerous "mistakes and incongruities" — 50 in all, according to Rockwell. However, the Post editors warned readers that the blue lobster didn't count as a mistake, noting that the "blue lobster is a rarity, but every once in a while one of them turns up in Maine waters."

The Visie-Talkie (1945) Radio-Craft magazine, in an article credited to Grego Banshuk, announced what it declared was "the biggest development in television up to now" — the Visie-Talkie. It was a portable television handset. In other words, a handheld videophone. Banshuk explained that the device had been made possible by the invention of "non-scanning television" technology, which involved "thousands of fine wires... bunched very close together."

Radio-Craft's April Fool articles typically described inventions that were "not only feasible, but usually in a decade or more... will become realities." This was the case with the Visie-Talkie. The first mobile videophone to be sold commercially was the VP-210 VisualPhone, released by the Kyocera Corporation in 1999.

Dog Owners Hoaxed (1945) Over 200 dog owners gathered with their pets near the Porta San Lorenzo in Rome after reading in the Ricostruzione newspaper that the municipal veterinary authority had demanded that all dogs be brought in for "vaccination against a sudden outbreak of typhus" that was easily communicable to humans.

"While Allied medical officers expressed astonishment, those who took the notice in good faith learned that even the address given in the story was nonexistent."

The Ricostruzione paper was itself a victim of the hoax, having fallen for a fake April Fool announcement. [New York Times - Apr 2, 1945]

Bob Answers The Phone (1945) When pranksters called the Toledo Zoo on April Fool's Day, the laugh was on them. Because when they jokingly asked for Mr. M. Key, they got an answer in monkey talk. Bob the Performing Chimpanzee was manning the receptionist desk, all ready to receive the flood of phone calls.

Aqua Pura (1945) A York, Pennsylvania diner advertised "Today's [Soda] Fountain Special — Aqua Pura — only 5 cents."

Those who ordered the "Special" discovered that Aqua Pura was simply pure water. All profits from the joke were donated to the Red Cross.