Bathtub hoax: Difference between revisions
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The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity ... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions. |
The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity ... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions. |
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== Fillmore Days == |
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[[Moravia (village), New York|Moravia]], [[New York]], the closest town to Millard Fillmore’s birthplace in [[Summerhill, New York|Summerhill]] and the location of Fillmore’s wedding, hosts an annual celebration called Fillmore Days in July. One event involves four-wheel bathtubs racing down Main Street in honor of this hoax.<ref>[http://www.ilovethefingerlakes.com/fun/funstuff-first.htm Fillmore Days in "Who's on First?: More Interesting Facts About the Finger Lakes"]</ref> |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 10:26, 17 July 2013
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2013) |
The bathtub hoax was a famous hoax perpetrated by the American journalist H. L. Mencken involving the publication of a fictitious history of the bathtub.
"A Neglected Anniversary"
On December 28, 1917, an article titled “A Neglected Anniversary” by H. L. Mencken was published in the New York Evening Mail. It claimed that the bathtub had been introduced into the United States as recently as 1842, the first ones having been made of mahogany lined with lead. The article went on to describe how the introduction of the bathtub initially was greatly discussed and opposed until President Millard Fillmore had a bathtub installed in the White House in 1850, making the invention more broadly acceptable.
The article was entirely false but was still being widely quoted as fact for years, even as recently as January 2008 when a Kia TV ad referenced the story with no mention of its fictional nature.[citation needed]
In 1949 Mencken wrote:
The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity ... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions.
References
Further reading
- H. L. Mencken (1949). A Mencken Chrestomathy. Alfred A. Knopf.
- H. L. Mencken (1958). The Bathtub Hoax and Other Blasts and Bravos. Alfred A. Knopf.