Does Spaghetti Grow on Trees? People in the U.K. weren’t sure
On April Fools’ Day in 1957, the BBC ran an episode of their current affairs show, ‘Panorama’. One segment of the show showed a family in southern Switzerland, working hard to harvest noodles from their ‘spaghetti tree’.
But how could they believe that?
In the 1950’s spaghetti was not commonly found in many households in Britain. Tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce was considered to be a treat… something exotic. Many Brits had no idea that pasta was made from wheat flour and water.
It seemed so official
The idea came from one of the ‘Panorama’ cameramen who remembered a teacher in his hometown in Austria telling some of his classmates that they were so dumb they would probably believe that spaghetti grew on trees. The cameraman went to the show’s editors with the idea, they gave him a small budget and he left to record the footage.
Adding to its authenticity was the voice-over given by a highly respected BBC broadcaster named Richard Dimbleby.
“The biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled” – CNN
In 1957, nearly half of all homes in Britain had television sets. On the evening of April 1st an estimated eight million people were gathered around those television sets to watch ‘Panorama’.
The following day hundreds of viewers phoned in to the BBC to both question the segments authenticity and to ask for more information about growing their own spaghetti tree. It’s reported that the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
Enjoy the segment in its entirety below.
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