April 1, 1964, Appleton Post-Crescent
With The Beatles being the biggest thing going for 1964 teenagers, is it any wonder that the Post-Crescent would lampoon Beatlemania for April Fools Day? The only thing more absurd might have been a report that the Fab Four were coming to Menasha to give a free concert in Jefferson Park and staying at the Hotel Menasha! Happy April Fools!
Good one!
ReplyDeleteAlmost as good as the one J. N. Stone played on Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly newspaper in 1867. Stone was proprietor of the Island City Times and did a story headlined "L'lesgiba!- An Inundation of Fish." He reported that a flood of fish on April 1st in Neenah and Menasha was so bad that the mill waterwheels were "clogged with fish" and unable to turn. The races were so full of fish that the water "was thrown back by this great fish dam till the banks were in danger of overflowing." Perch, sturgeon, pike, bass, sunfish, catfish, whitefish and salmon trout were all being picked up and hauled away. Ice breakup and shoving on the east shore of Winnebago was offered as the most feasible explanation.
Leslie's newspaper claimed to have had a reporter on scene and created an illustration of the events. It was just abigsel'L.
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/flood-of-fish-1867-granger.html