One of the most well-known fads of all time was the art of Telephone Booth Stuffing. In taking part in this event, several students would squeeze themselves into a telephone booth, one after another, until no one else could fit in.
The fad is often associated with college students from the West Coast of the United States but, it was actually started in South Africa. 25 students there were able to pack in a booth and announce that they had set a world record in doing so.
Soon students in England, Canada and the United States were attempting to beat that mark. Some students in England went on diets as a method to achieve the highest efficiency for stuffing.
When they found themselves unable to pile more and more friends into the booths, they began challenging other universities’ “credibility” because of supposed violations of “rules”.
Some claimed all participants must keep their entire bodies within the booth, while others specified that someone inside was required to place a call.
The fad died out within a year in the United States but was reincarnated in the form of “Volkswagen Stuffing” a few years later and, in Britain, “Mini stuffing”.
