Competing To See How Many People Could Fit Inside a Telephone Booth
In 1959, the world – or at least the English speaking world – was swept by a silly pastime, as people competed to see how many folk they could stuff within the confines of a public telephone booth. The faddish pastime lasted only a few months, but while it lasted, it attracted a lot of public attention, and was widely covered by the media, both print and broadcast.
The fad is often assumed to have gotten its start in US West Coast colleges, but it actually began in Durban, South Africa. There, in early 1959, twenty five students tried to see if they could all fit inside a phone booth. With considerable effort, they managed to pull it off, and submitted their weird deed to the Guinness Book of World Records. Word of their stunt spread, and before long, phone booth stuffing had become a faddish pastime in England, Canada, and the United States.
Participation was simple. People – college students for the most part – had to cram themselves into a phone booth, one after another, until nobody else could fit in. While seemingly straightforward, there was a lot of complexity involved, and college students began skipping class to devise plans to beat the record. Schematics were drawn to try and figure out the optimal configuration for squeezing the most people into a small space. The pastime was named “telephone booth squash” in Britain, where some students went on diets to reduce their bulks. Across the Pond, in MIT, some turned to geometry and advanced calculus to figure out the most efficient configuration for stuffing bodies into the limited confines of a public phone booth.
As the competition heated up, some claims were challenged because of violations of supposed rules that should have been followed. Some argued that a telephone booth stuffing did not count unless somebody inside was able to make a phone a call. In some universities, the count was based on how many people managed to place any part of their body inside the booth. They were challenged by other campuses, who contended that it only counted if all participants had their entire bodies inside. Eventually, amidst heated recriminations, the fad faded out and died out by the end of 1959.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Sources & Further Reading
ABC News – The Pet Rock Captured a Moment, and Made its Creator a Millionaire
Bad Fads – Telephone Booth Stuffing
Boredom Therapy – 20 Beloved Historical Figures Who Did Truly Terrible Things
Guardian, The, October 20th, 2013 – The Psychology of Spiritualism: Science and Seances
History Link – Dance Marathons of the 1920s
Mental Floss – 5 Historical Manias That Gripped Societies, Then Disappeared
Mental Floss – The Rise and Fall of 5 Claimed Mediums
Mortal Journey – Flagpole Sitting (1920s)
Adventure Medic – Dromomania – an Uncontrollable Impulse to Travel