The golden age of street stunts

Do those blokes holding Golf sale signs drive you nuts? The golden age of street stunts was in the 1920’s, when the publicity-hungry were dafter and more creative.

The age saw flagpole sitting, public goldfish swallowing and other outdoor marathons to generate ballyhoo. The prohibition era in the States initiated an entire underground economy of peddlers coming up with wheezes to generate attention.

The big hero of flagpole sitting was a man called Shipwreck Kelly who sat on top of a pole for a week, to promote Roth Motor cars. Kelly’s pole was welded to the top of a car which changed location hourly.

Papers ran competitions challenging readers to find him and then rush back to the editorial office to collect their prize.. Roth motors later used a pig to drive a car down Broadway for the sake of a stunt! Unfortunately the swine crashed the car, the subsequent media generated a flurry of outrage.