Any reliable cites for the Big Giant Head, the Big Giant Balloon or the the Railroad scare? They are nice stories if true, but similar to the recent question about whether native Americans could see Columbus’ ships.
Big Giant Head? Weren’t there paintings, posters, and other marketing props for circuses and the like? Arrested for a filmed murder? The police never saw Hamlet staged? Sure, it’s possible that these are true to some extent (I’d say that even today someone somewhere is screaming about Giant Heads), but common reactions?
In the James Lileks book Mommy Knows Worst, there’s a photocopied page from a turn-of-the-century parenting book that advises against playing with your new baby too much, because 1) you may damage his delicate little organs, and 2) you may give him an exaggerated sense of self-importance that will eventually land him in an insane asylum.
Of women learning too much. Their petite brain wasn’t cut out for it.
Of the uterus wandering around the body. It was called hysteria.
Of masturbation making you blind.
In the interest of introducing a little actual knowledge to this thread: check out this recent, creepily-comprehensive piece from Slate about the rise and fall of the threat of quicksand, particularly in movies and TV.
A lot of the sci-fi concepts we now see being kicked around and attributed to genetic engineering (or related biology boogymen) are very similar to those a generation ago attributed to nuclear radiation. Or those a generation before that attributed to electricity and magnetism.
Men with long hair. Time was someone who looked like Tom Brady would get beaten up if he went into a locker room.
Imagine there were people who would seriously argue that if you let them grow their hair pretty soon they’re going to want to marry other dudes or something!
I don’t think anyone was scared of Sputnik itself, except maybe the tin-helmet brigade. The point was, by putting Sputnik into orbit, the USSR proved they had the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead to any point on the planet.
They weren’t scared of Sputnik itself. They were scared that if the Reds could put a beeping space basketball in orbit, they could put a nuclear bomb in orbit. And they were right, ICBMs were just around the corner.