April Fool's Day, 1957

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (1957) The respected BBC news show Panorama ran a segment revealing that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees.

Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest is one of the most famous, and most popular, April Fool hoaxes of all time.

The Ryatts (1957)

The Yonghy Bonghy Bo (1957)
Rear Admiral Tully Shelley, managing director of a company of oil refinery and construction engineers, designed a match striking machine as an April Fool's Day joke. He called it his "Yonghy Bonghy Bo" (an allusion to Edward Lear's poem, "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo"). The machine actually did work and could be used to light a cigarette.

Pranksters’ Delight (1957)
Cass Casmir Jr., of Hammond, Indiana, found a victim for a time-worn April Fool stunt — the elusive wallet. Arthur Jennette of Calumet City went along with the gag.

[Hammond Times - Apr 1, 1957]

Not What It Used To Be (1957) Peanuts by Charles Schulz - April 1, 1957.

The Lumistron (1957) Radio-Electronics published its annual April Fool article in which its staff writer, Mohammed Ulysses Fips, revealed his invention of an "electronoptic transistor" or "Lumistron." This device used a glass transistor to convert radio waves into light waves at an exceptionally high efficiency. What this meant is that when the Lumistron detected radio waves it lit up. But it did so without needing any batteries. Fips explained:

"What use will they have? As pocket flashlights that have neither battery nor incandescent bulb and cost nothing to operate if there is a powerful shf transmitter in the vicinity. The Lumistron has no switch — it works all the time. As it gives off no heat, you can keep it in your pocket. Thus you always have a light with you. The Lumistron makes a perfect night light, too."