The guy in the jockstrap is Joe Knowles, a Boston man who announced that he was doing a survivalist trek through the Maine woods in 1913 barefoot and wearing only the jock. Here he is being seen off by a group of journalists and supporters. It was later found out that he actually spent the time he was supposed to have been trekking in a comfy cabin and got a ride to the finish point.
Did not know jockstraps were a thing back then. Great story, too.
ReplyDeleteYes, that male garment goes way back.
DeleteKind of like the original Naked and Afraid.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteKnowles had returned home suspiciously muscular and with too few bug bites. He claimed he clubbed a Bear to death in a Pit. Yet his famed bearskin coat reportedly showed no signs of clubbing, but instead, on closer inspection, bore four neat bullet holes. He paid a Hunter for it. Everything he had claimed was untruthful. But he made roughly $29,000 in today’s dollars each week from his speaking fees telling a story that was a lie. If interested read Jim Motavelli’s authoritative 2008 history, Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery.
DeleteThanks for the details.
DeleteAnd he tried to prove man could live off nature without modern conviences, lol !
ReplyDeleteA stunt to sell newspapers is in Boston, and so it goes….:)
Some thing haven't changed.
Delete