Read on Twitter
I am having a wide variety of reactions to this, all at once. https://twitter.com/LacombeMuseums/status/1362085149085732864
Here's an example from Lethbridge. Apparently this was a whole thing. https://twitter.com/BelindaCrowson/status/1362089029341077505
Another from Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1921. This one adds a fun "guess the name" element.
You know an event is going to be good if you can win either kitchenware or a real live baby. https://twitter.com/ty_olsen/status/1362090186973216769
Place: Chillicothe, Ohio
Year: 1908
Tickets: 5¢
Prize: Real Live Baby
Year: 1908
Tickets: 5¢
Prize: Real Live Baby
You know there's so much going on at this theatre when GIVING AWAY A LIVE BABY is put in such small print.
There are so many more examples of this.
I'm not kidding about how many examples of this there are.
Clockwise: 1916 (Fort Worth), 1927 (Lexington), 1909 (Winnipeg), 1919 (Regina).
Clockwise: 1916 (Fort Worth), 1927 (Lexington), 1909 (Winnipeg), 1919 (Regina).
As in... there are... far too many examples of this.
Have we collectively forgotten a past where 100s of babies every year for four or five decades were... raffled off primarily at theatres?
Here's another from Calgary in 1927.
Have we collectively forgotten a past where 100s of babies every year for four or five decades were... raffled off primarily at theatres?
Here's another from Calgary in 1927.
Were they really giving away real live babies at William A. Wellman's The Boy and the Laughing Dog show, sponsored by RC Cola in Tampa in 1963?
The answer is no, almost certainly not. A story from Coffeyville, Kansas, 1907:
Here's an ad from Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1962, promising that they were giving away real live babies *daily*.
So, what about the Lacombe mystery that made me search for this real live baby giveaway? https://twitter.com/LacombeMuseums/status/1362085149085732864
There was an article the next week (Oct 7) in the same paper:
I can't find anything in the following week's paper, which it probably would have been in, if it were, say, a real live human baby.
In conclusion:
1. I obviously can't guarantee that this was never done, or even that this wasn't the case in Lacombe, but ... "real live baby" certainly didn't always equal "real live human baby".
2. Well done, past jokesters. Well done.
1. I obviously can't guarantee that this was never done, or even that this wasn't the case in Lacombe, but ... "real live baby" certainly didn't always equal "real live human baby".
2. Well done, past jokesters. Well done.
