Before Get Smart's cone of silence, there was the tube of silence.  From The Children's Newspaper, 1937.

Here's a precursor to Snakes On a Plane: "An awkward moment in the clouds.  Snake aboard.  Uninvited passenger on the Australian flight."  From The Children's Newspaper, 1928.

Forty years before a mouse cut the wire in Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, a rat cut the wire in The Children's Newspaper, 1920.

Here's a precursor to Burgess Meredith as The Penguin in Batman.  From Le Rire, 1913.  We previously discovered this other Penguin precursor, as well as surprising proof that the Maltese Falcon ended up in Batman's house.

Chicken broth, milk, cream, and consommé from a plant -- a precursor to vegan alternatives.  From The Echo-Maid by Alice Aspinwall, 1897.

Here's a precursor to The Three Faces of Eve.  From Purple Parrot, 1948.

Here's a precursor to British comedian Jennifer Saunders, from the Bombay Sunday Chronicle, 1945.

Long before the Friday the 13th movies, there was the novel, though this one has nothing to do with the movies.  By Thomas W. Lawson, 1907.

Here's a precursor to those candles that smell like old books.  "Aroma de l'antique" and other scents of yore are actually excavated, as we learn in Wheaton College's 1921 yearbook.

Here's a precursor to the Swan Hotel at Disney World.  From Ohio State University's College of Medicine's 1952 yearbook.

Here's a precursor to Sadako crawling out of a TV screen in the Ring series.  From The New Communicators by Dorothy Forbes, 1978.

Here's a precursor to the Flintstones.  From Mr. Punch’s Prehistoric Peeps by E. T. Reed, 1902.  (Hat tip: the winsome Jonathan.)

Here's an 1887 precursor to Batman's villain The Human Magnet (1952), from Zwischen Donau und Kaukasus by Amand von Schweiger-Lerchenfeld.

Though "Herbie Biscuits," in the plural, would be a funnier cat name, this is a precursor to comedian Bob Mortimer's curation of funny cat names.  From Toike Oike, 1946.

Today, they call it "urbex."  From St. Nicholas, 1915.

A precursor to Gilligan's Island?  From Illinois State Normal's 1951 yearbook.

Here's a precursor to the famous hall of mirrors scene in The Lady From Shanghai (1947).  From Nick Carter Weekly, 1914.

Here's a precursor to Honey I Blew Up the Kid.  By Pamela Colman Smith.  From St. Nicholas, 1915.

Here's a precursor to the bands Backdoor Men (Ohio, 1977 and Sweden, 1982).  From Goshen College's 1967 yearbook.

Here's a precursor to the dog-pulled sleigh in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  The question mark over the dog's head recalls the single antler in Grinch.  The whip master even holds a mask-like hat, just as the Grinch of course impersonates Santa.  From Duke University's 1922 yearbook.