• LIFE
  • curiosities

The Original CES: See Crazy Photos from the 1958 Gadget Show

2 minute read

Since its inception in 1967, the Consumer Electronics Show has witnessed the debut of such technological essentials as the VCR, the CD and the Xbox. But for every multinational company premiering the Next Big Thing at CES, there are countless lonely inventors, tinkering with gadgets that may never see the light beyond the walls of a run-down garage.

An article in the May 12, 1958 issue of LIFE titled “Have Invention, Need Angel” featured a handful of these innovators, entrepreneurial enough to bring their inventions to that year’s International Gadget and Invention Show in New York. The show, according to the article, was “a sort of lonely hearts club where misunderstood inventors can meet with understanding investors and perhaps make a match.” In the photographs, shot by Ralph Morse, the creators demonstrate the creations they hope investors will deem worthy of their cash.

And though, as the author writes, “their families often think they are crazy and sometimes they are,” a few of these Edison wannabes ended up with early versions of inventions that would later be produced en masse: an automated card-dealer, an early version of the treadmill and a disposable umbrella (predecessor to that $5 piece of junk that goes from your hand to the trashcan within ten city blocks). But that lady drinking milk upside down should probably get up before all the blood rushes to her head.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Gadget Invention Show, 1958
Caption from LIFE. Disposable plastic umbrella to be sold by stores to customers stranded in sudden showers by the inventor Harry Heavner.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
Caption from LIFE. Frank Wirth spins device that deals four card hands at once.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
Caption from LIFE. Flying Sprinkler, here sailing over inventor, Benjamin Forman of Edison, N.J. uses propeller and jet action to lift hose and sprayer over lawn.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
Caption from LIFE. Remote smoker to be placed at the bedside is demonstrated by Anton Widrich of Eatontown, N.J. and his granddaughter, Helen. Base catches ashes.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
Caption from LIFE. Rocking hammock is set in motion with foot pressure by inventor, MacArthur Wardell Jr. It sways from head to toe rather than side to side.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
International Gadget and Invention Show, New York, 1958.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
International Gadget and Invention Show, New York, 1958.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Gadget Invention Show, 1958
14-year-old inventor Donald Rich with "Robotron," a walking robot designed as a computer.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

More Must-Reads from TIME

Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com