Precursors

Before Annie Lennox sang for Eurythmics, there was just Eurythmie.  From Die Bühne, 1930.

Here's a precursor to drones.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1935.

Here's a precursor to Maurice Sendak's Alligators All Around.  It's the insignia of the Calcutta Pococurante Society, courtesy of West Bengal Public Library Network.

"Where a scene is laid in total darkness," from Pearson's, 1904.  This is a precursor to "Why darkness? Why now?" from Larry Blamire’s Dark and Stormy Night, a very funny spoof of the "old dark house" mystery genre and Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians in particular.

Here's a precursor to Paris Syndrome (first diagnosed in 1986), in which the filth and rudeness of that city puts romanticist tourists into a state of extreme shock (including anxiety, dizziness, tachycardia, vomiting, and hallucinations).  "So this is Paris!"  From Medical Pickwick, 1922.

Here's a precursor to the fishy tasting coffee in Twin Peaks -- fishy tasting lemonade.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1935.

"Believe it or not, boxing is dancing," said Frank Abderholden in 2007.  Here's proof, from Ulk, 1930.

Our very own The One Minute Mystic (2009) is a precursor to Simon Parke's One-Minute Mystic (2010).

Here's a precursor to video conferencing -- looking through the telephone in Die Muskete, 1933.

Here's a precursor to Rob Lowe.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1937.

Long before "Lucy in the sky with diamonds," there was Lucy of the Stars (Frederick Palmer, 1906).

Here's a precursor to the joke about the six-inch pianist.  From Popular Mechanics, 1927.  (Keep in mind that nobody was buying this magazine for the articles.  The first 95 pages of every issue are classified ads and notices for home instruction in employment skills.) 

Here's a precursor to actor Jeff Goldblum selling out.  From Ulk, 1920.  (Just kidding.  The phrase "Jeff Goldblum sold out" is a Googlewhack.)

Here's a precursor to Where's Waldo.  There are actually two figures wearing red-striped shirts hidden within the image.  Also don't miss the giant cat on skiis, the lady with a "no parking" sign on her derrière, the angel on a hobby horse, the sun itself on skiis, as well as the two knights in armor and the frog skiing.  Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie is in there, too.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1938.

Here's a precursor to Tim Powers' Last Call.  "I told you when you played that king, we'd lose the trick."  From The Harvard Lampoon, 1902.

Before the nightmare of "Room 101" in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), there was "Room No. 90" in Pearson's, 1898.

Before the Mickey Mouse Club, there was the plain old mouse club.  From English Illustrated, 1898.

Here's a precursor to William Castle's buzzer-rigged seats for his marvelous film The Tingler (1959).  From The Miscellaneous Reports, Vol. IX, 1894.