Easter on April 1st! What could go wrong?

I got to wondering this morning about when was the last time Easter fell on April 1st. So like any other denizen of the Internet; I Googled it. It was over 60 years ago 1956. Since 1900, Easter has fallen on April Fool's Day only four times - 1923, 1934, 1945 and 1956. It won't happen again until 2029.

No wonder I couldn’t remember the last time. Heck it is hard enough for me to remember that Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox. That’s why it jumps all over the calendar.

We celebrate April Fool's Day on April 1. Since ancient times there has been a holiday typically occurred around the time of the first day of spring, signaling a change from the dark days of winter to the brighter and cheery days coming. It has been observed in some form since the ancient Romans, who had a holiday set aside for frivolity and pranks.

A day set aside for frivolity and pranks. Add radio to that and what could go wrong? Let me count the ways.

On March 31, 1940 Philadelphia radio station KYW broadcast the following message: Your worst fears that the world will end are confirmed by astronomers of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Scientists predict that the world will end at 3 P.M. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. This is no April Fool joke. Confirmation can be obtained from Wagner Schlesinger, director of the Fels Planetarium of this city. KYW later issued an apology and an explanation. The announcement was, of course, false, but the station denied responsibility for it. It said that it had received the announcement from William Castellini, press agent for the Franklin Institute and had read it in good faith, believing it to be genuine. However, Castellini had intended it as a publicity stunt to publicize an April 1st lecture at the planetarium titled "How Will the World End?"

Also in 1940 Radio comedian Don McNeill staged experiments in the lobby of Chicago's Merchandise Mart to test whether people would still fall for some of the oldest April fool gags. He discovered that 20 of the first 25 people who saw a bill fold lying on the floor stooped to pick it up, only to have it yanked away. In addition, McNeill set up an aquarium with a sign "Invisible Peruvian fish." He asked spectators to estimate the length of the fish. Fifty-six of the spectators turned in written estimates.

In 1954 Hawaiian disc jockey Hal Lewis (better known as "J. Aukhead Pupule" or "Crazy Fishhead") announced on KPOA that the Senate had repealed islanders' income taxes and provided for return of 1953 taxes. The announcement elicited a huge reaction. Radio stations, newspapers, and the Internal Revenue Bureau were all flooded with calls. Many believed the announcement because, less than a month before, Hawaiian congressman Joseph Farrington had demanded that islanders be given a refund of all federal taxes if Hawaii was not granted full statehood. (It was made a state in 1959.) An IRS agent subsequently called the station and asked it to leave his office out of any further pranks.

Left: Douglas Edwards on the set of the CBS Evening News Perhaps the best one of all was “The Spaghetti-tree Hoax”. It was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current-affairs program Panorama, purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the family "spaghetti tree". At the time spaghetti was relatively little known in the UK, so that many Britons were unaware that it is made from wheat flour and water; a number of viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. An estimated eight million people watched the program on 1 April, and hundreds phoned in the following day to question the authenticity of the story or ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC reportedly told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best". I still remember Douglas Edward’s coverage of the hoax on Douglas Edwards With the News (The CBS Evening News) which included black and white film of empty shelves in the UK after the run on spaghetti. Walter Cronkite wouldn’t replace Edwards on the CBS Evening News until April 16, 1962.

So every year, almost every radio station in the US rolls out their tried and true April Fools announcements. Especially the morning drive jocks. It is almost mandatory. I must admit that I’m guilty of rolling my own out back in the day. My last one was in 2013, the last year that April 1st fell on a Monday. If my memory serves, it was about Elvis being spotted living in a nursing home in Bora Bora. I admit that wasn’t very unique, but it is all in the presentation. Geesh – I had better ones in the 60s but I can’t remember them. Too much memory space taken up with old song lyrics, I guess.

Don’t worry about tomorrow; I will forgo any April Fool’s shtick, since it will be the second. That’s too bad, because there is a good one out there this year; since Easter is April 1st. Don’t hide any Easter eggs then tell the kids to go out and look for them. Happy Easter everyone! Oh MY!