Traditions and trends have long been a part of society as a way to connect and make statements or as a right of passage from one phase of life to the next. The 20th century saw a great many trends and movements that shaped the United States and its people. Many of these trends and movements took place on college campuses where youthfulness and individuality had great meaning. There were the iconic sweeping movements that defined generations but there were also the more obscure and odd trends that have come and gone with the change of time. One such of these trends was that of Goldfish swallowing in the late 1930's and the impact on the college culture of the time.

Goldfish swallowing was an American school trend popularized in the late 1930s^[1], where a live goldfish was swallowed. Although it is not clear how the fad emerged, various people have made claims. A 1963 letter to the New York Times claimed that it was started by a man named Lothrop Withington Jr., who was a freshman at Harvard University and supposedly did so as part of a bid to become class president ^[2][3]. Withington's stunt for the class presidency started a craze of competition between the prestigious universities at the time. What started as a single gold fish soon became multiple in an effort to beat the other school out of the title. Schools involved included Penn State, MIT and Withington's own Harvard^[4][3]. It wasn't long before women got in on the craze and in April of 1939 Marie Hensen from the University of Missouri made the headline as the first women to swallow a gold fish^[4]. Although once widely practiced, the stunt is rare today but it has made its appearance in recent entertainment. In 2000, Jackass star Steve O swallowed a live gold fish only to puke it up moments later. More recently, Jonah Hill did a scene in the 2013 movie Wolf of Wall street where he swallowed a live goldfish ^[5].

Another possibility in the origins of goldfish swallowing comes from Chicago bartenders, most notably Matt Schulien (who performed magic while tending bar at his family's restaurant), who would cut up carrots to look like goldfish tails. When performing the stunt, bartenders would reach into a bowl of goldfish kept behind the bar while palming the carrot piece, placing that in between their pursed lips, using their tongues to lever it up and down to mimic the actions of a live fish, finally swallowing the carrot piece. The trick dates back to the 1920s, and some people believe that the fad could have been started by college students fooled by the trick.^{[citation needed]}

According to the National Museum of American History, goldfish swallowing was such a craze at universities during the early-20th century that it made appearances in several news publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.^[6]

Legislation

The stunt became so popular that the Massachusetts state legislature decided to make a bill to “preserve the fish from cruel and wanton consumption.”^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Goldfish Swallowing at Bad Fads Museum
• College Fads from The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture^{[dead link]}

See also

• Panty raid
• Phonebooth stuffing
• Consumption of Tide Pods