September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
September 30, 1960: The Pittsburgh Press captured a hoax being played upon Pittsburghers trying to pick up a shiny coin affixed to a manhole cover. No identifying information of those depicted was provided. Published October 3, 1960.
OK, Pittsburgh sleuths and historians, we need your help on this one.
In our photo archive from The Pittsburgh Press, there exists a folder labeled “HOAXES – GENERAL.” It’s a hodgepodge of old pictures with stories of fakery and forgery both, but this one stood out from the rest. It’s hardly even a hoax. More like a foolish practical joke.
It’s a sequence of photographs created September 30, 1960 on an unidentified Pittsburgh street. Anthony Kaminski, photographer for The Pittsburgh Press, captured them — presumably in tandem with a local prankster. Affix a coin to a manhole cover, see if anyone will stop to pick up the shiny object, photograph them failing to do so, repeat cycle.
Good for chuckles in the moment, but in hindsight, it’s really not all that funny. Especially that last image, which is blatantly cruel.
The photos ran in the Oct. 3, 1960 afternoon edition of The Pittsburgh Press, a copy of which has not survived at our office. The microfilm here contains only the morning edition, and so there is no context for why this ruse was perpetrated on unsuspecting pedestrians. The main stories from the morning paper are all about the beginning of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and New York Yankees — great reading for any Pittsburgh sports fan, but not at all helpful to this quest.
Let’s hear from you: Do you know where and why these images were made? Do you have a copy of that afternoon edition of The Pittsburgh Press?
And, most of all, do you recognize any of those who were hoaxed?
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Believe that is Grant & 6th. Looks like the William Penn in the background.
It’s 6th and Grant, I think. Porter Building is in the background of one photo and what looks like the William Penn in another.
In the last photo, above the man with the dark hat, the word “PORTER” and the letters “BU” can be seen. Probably the Porter Building downtown.
In the first photo, the building in the background is the William Penn facing Grant St. In picture 5, you can see the marquee with “Penn Sheraton”, which is what it was called in 1960. The building in the background of the last picture is the Porter Building, on the corner of 6th and Grant. I looked at a 1939 map from the Historic Pittsburgh site: http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?view=entry;cc=maps;entryid=x-29v10p06 . Based on the skinny corner where the men are standing in the last picture, the road should be Dante Way where it meets Grant St. Dante Way no longer exists.
The “coin glued to the pavement” gag was a classic April Fool’s Day prank, back in the day. It was pretty common for papers to do photo features about this prank from the 20s up until the 60s. So my first guess is that a) maybe the date of the photos is a mistake, and these were an april fool feature. or b) the date is correct, and maybe the photographer was creating the photos in anticipation of April 1st.
I’ve been collecting examples of April Fool news stories for a while, and I’ve got several examples of photo features posted on my site that are very similar to what you have here:
http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/penny_prank
http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/coin_on_the_pavement_gag
Alex: That’s a great website and collection. Thank you for the links.
The guy at the far right in the last photo… pretty certain he is responsible
for the term “Jagoff”. His tailor pulled an April fools joke of his own. Looks like he’s really enjoying the moment. Ah the good old days.
Thanks, community! Great bunch of feedback.
6th and Grant in front of the William Penn it must be.
Google News Archive has the “Final Edition” of the Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 3, 1960
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=osAbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kU4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4885%2C1073000
The coin/manhole photos don’t appear to be in it.
Also, when did the Press have a morning edition? I’m finding sources from 1960 referring to the Press as an afternoon paper, not a morning + afternoon one.
Ah, the photos and accompanying story were on Page 2 of the Sunday paper (Oct. 2):
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=osAbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kU4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4000%2C112633
There it is! Excellent find, Guido.