Goldfish swallowing

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Goldfish swallowing was a college fad of the 1930s, consisting of exactly what its name implies.

A 1963 letter to the New York Times claimed that the fad began in late 1938 when Lothrop P. Withington, a Harvard freshman with "presidential aspirations," was encouraged by his "campaign managers" to do so as a publicity stunt. "Reporters and photographers were inadvertently present in the Harvard Freshman Union when Withington swallowed his live goldfish (with a mashed potato chaser) and started a nationwide fad in the spring of 1939." The editor, however, replied that "Unless the Editor's memory is deceiving him, the goldfish-swallowing craze among school and college boys had begun at least as early as 1930." ^[1]

Within the next few months many other undergraduates boasted in swallowing an increasing number of goldfish, until the fad died out by the 1970s.^{[citation needed]} This is a good example of a behavioral meme.