24. 1939 Saw the Birth of a Gross Fad – Which was Unfortunate for Goldfish
One of America’s strangest viral trends of the twentieth century began with a brag that led to a dare and a bet in the spring of 1939. Harvard Freshman Lothrop Withington Jr., who saw somebody swallow a goldfish when he was a child, bragged to his friends that he had done it himself. His friends called bull, he swore he had, and things escalated and got heated. Eventually one of Lothrop’s friends decided to call his bluff and bet him ten dollars that he couldn’t do it again. Backed into a corner by his big mouth, Lothrop, like most young men in similar situations, was not about to back down. He accepted the wager, and the rest was stupid viral history.
Lothrop had never actually swallowed a goldfish before, but he wasn’t about to expose himself to his peers’ ridicule. With a “death before dishonor” attitude, he manfully prepared himself. In the days leading up to the bet’s settlement, Lothrop started off small, and swallowed tadpoles. He then gradually worked his way up to baby goldfish, to midsized ones, and finally to full-grown goldfish. The spring of 1939 was probably a slow news stretch in Boston. It must have been, because the local media extensively covered what was, after all, just a silly bet between college kids. On the appointed day, March 3rd, 1939, a crowd of eager college kids, peppered with townies and some reporters, gathered to see if Lothrop would put his mouth where the money was. As seen below, he did.