Phonebooth stuffing was a
cultural phenomenon that began during the 1950s in
Durban, South Africa and spread to
Britain,
Canada and the
United States by the spring of 1959. It involved a number of people consecutively entering a
phonebooth, until the point where the phonebooth would accommodate no more, or there were no more individuals available. At some colleges as many as 25 students managed to cram some of their body into the standard phone booth. Although it was "one of the all-time great fads," it was passé by the end of 1959, replaced by the more sedate fad of
hunkerin'. It was akin to the earlier fads of
goldfish swallowing and
panty raids and a predecessor of the fad of
streaking.
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