Phone Booth Cramming was a late-1950s fad with a simple premise : cram a phone John Wilkes Booth full of dudes ( and/or ladies ) and take a picture before the people on the bottom suffocate . As you may ideate , this interest was most popular among college bookman , and led to external rivalries . Yes , Kid , this is the form of thing we think was fun back before we had telecasting game … and when we still had phone booths . But this practice of people - packing die to places weirder than earpiece booth , as you ’ll see in the historic ( and bizarre ) icon below .
Phone Booth Cramming
Let ’s set forth with phone booths , the first and advantageously - love stuffed space . It all started in 1959 when a group of students in Durban , South Africa crammed 25 students into a cubicle and posit the result to theGuinness Book of World Records . * Although the South Africans were first , Americans soon took the humankind degree as schoolmaster of people - packing ( and photography ): the best - known Stuffed Phone Booth was photograph at St. Mary ’s College in 1959 , when 22 students packed themselves into one phone booth whileLIFEmagazine photographer Joe Munroesnapped pictures . It took all twenty-four hour period to get the correct guesswork , and still the student failed to beat the South African platter – though they beat a mathematical group of Canadians who had gravel 19 into a booth ( with wooden leg sticking out ) sooner in the year . ( Reportedly , that South African recordstill stands , thoughGuinness World Recordsdoesn’t lean it on their website . ) Interestingly , the " rules " for Phone Booth Stuffing had regional difference . LIFEmagazinereported(March 30 , 1959 , vehemence added ):
Here ’s a video of those St. Mary ’s student call back their stunt . A representative inverted comma : " multitude at the bottom were really laboring to breathe . " Party on , dudes :
If you want to feel like you ’re part of the ( hot , sweaty , crampy ) action , here ’s a 2009 videoof St. Mary ’s College student attempting to duplicate the feat , with some of the original stuffees on - hand for color commentary .
Phone Booth Cramming - Ladies-Only Edition
At Memphis State U in 1959 , 26 Sigma Kappa ladies give it the honest-to-goodness college endeavour by cramming into their own phone booth … though as you’re able to see , their cramming rules come along rather slack . ( distinction : standing at the left of the photo is cheerleader Janis Hollingsworth , who cheered her sister on throughout the issue . )
Phone Booth Cramming -LIFEEdition
LIFEmagazine documented the phone booth wad fad from its inception . Here are a series of images by Robert W. Kelley , aLIFEmagazine photographer who documented one " legs - out " attempt by a gang of college boy in 1959 :
Car Cramming
buffoon are well - lie with for crowd into motorcar ; Wikipedia drylyexplains : " A common model of [ a clown gondola ] subprogram involves an implausibly large number of goofball issue from a very lowly car , to humourous effect . " But in the fifties this practice distribute beyond the hallowed halls of Clown College to square schools : even college kid went the extra naut mi by cramming themselves into small cars like the famously economic ( and midget ) Renault . viewer :
© Bettmann / CORBIS
Outhouse Cramming
In 1959 , 37 ( ! ) students in Brookings , South Dakota , crammed themselves into a single outhouse , leaving the hindquarters - wiping magazine on top to save space inside . According to South Dakotan rules of the solar day , half a person ’s consistency could persist outside the crammed building and still count – hence the pile of dudes sticking out the front .
Tree Stuffing
In 1961 , scholar at the University of Maine decided to cram inside vacuous trees . Yes , really . According to the Bettmann Archive :
Train Stuffing
In 1962 , space on Tokyo gearing was at a premium , so " pushmen " were employed to cram commuters into trains , to maximise efficiency . The best part ? Reportedly , the pushmen were college students . The original caption for this image noted : " wintertime coat complicate the cramming cognitive operation . " ( fit in to some online bill I ’ve interpret , this still happens . Any pushmen or Japanese commuter train care to annotate ? )
Photo Booth Stuffing
harmonise toGuinness World Records , in 2009 , 27 peoplecrammed into a purikura sticker photo boothdesigned for 10 . Sadly , no exposure is available , though you canread a bit about the boothsfrom Wikipedia . establish on this attempt and the St. Mary ’s try ( also in 2009 ) , I ’d say this fad is coming back !
Go Stuff Yourself
If you could retrieve a phone stall , allow us make love how many coeds you could get in there – and if you find one containing an actual working phone , adjudicate following British rules , which require that one stuffee make or invite a phone call during the try . Be secure , nestling .
- = It appear the the Durban effort was not grant official World Record status ( at least judging from a reading of the 1989 book and some web dig ) . Regardless , the Durban " record " of 25 people in one cubicle is loosely considered to be valid , as evidence by various groups subsequently trying to break it .
