With all of the seemingly endless options for amusement we have today, it’s easy to forget that this hasn’t been the case for very long. Before the Internet gave us immediate access to whatever we feel like watching, listening to, or reading at the moment, those who came before us could get up to some pretty weird things in pursuit of a good time.

10Telegraph Sports

Practically as soon as the telegraph enabled instantaneous communication over hundreds of miles, local sports clubs in several major cities began using it to organize competitions with clubs in other states. For years, citizens could see scores posted in their local newspapers for the most recent telegraph sports matches.

The idea appears to have originated with bowling clubs and soon caught on, spreading to other sports. A 1905 issue of Shooting and Fishing magazine reported on the results of a telegraph shooting match between the Washington, D.C. Revolver Association and the Smith and Wesson Revolver Club of Springfield, Massachusetts. Telegraph bowling leagues in particular were very popular in the first two decades of the 20th century but largely died down by the 1920s.

9Wax Bullet Dueling

Dueling with pistols was still a popular, if prideful and lethal, pastime in America in the early 1900s. Especially in the South, taking up arms over petty slights was still seen as a way to potentially elevate one’s social status, and refusing a challenge to duel could make one a social pariah. But for a brief time, dueling became a spectator sport. Participants faced off wearing black robes and face masks, and used wax bullets.

The sport originated in France, with a “School of Dueling” being established in Paris. Wax bullet dueling was even featured in the 1908 Summer Olympics, with rules based on the honor codes of classic dueling. The duels were not completely without danger. The wax bullets could still cause some damage without proper protection, and spectators had to be wary of their eyes, as a stray hunk of wax could put one out.

8Staged Train Crashes

Humans have always been suckers for spectacle, from the Roman Colosseum to the latest Marvel film in IMAX 3-D. But in years past, spectacle could be hard to come by without putting oneself in danger. Enter “Head-On” Joe Connolly, perhaps the most famous promoter of the biggest events of their day: staged, head-on crashes between two locomotives.

Between 1896 and 1932, Connolly staged no less than 73 of these events, sending 146 trains to their fiery deaths. The first, and most infamous, of these staged wrecks ended in catastrophe. William George Crush, an executive with the Texas Railway Company, proposed the idea as a way to drum up ticket sales, and it took place outside a makeshift temporary city—“Crush, Texas”—in September 1896. Over 40,000 spectators showed up to watch, but the impact caused both trains’ boilers to explode, sending flaming debris raining down on the crowd. At least three died, and many more were injured.

7Bed Pushing

One strange campus craze, originating at the University of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and quickly migrating to Canada, was reported on by Time in February 1961: bed pushing. That is, pushing full size beds mounted on wheels over long distances and difficult terrain.

Canadian students “from Nova Scotia to British Columbia” could be seen pushing beds anywhere and everywhere, “over highways, prairies and frozen lakes.” At the time, the record for distance was an incredible 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi), set by an Ontario University team that “kept its Simmons rolling night and day for a week.” But the standing world record was set in 1979, years after the craze peaked, by students at Pennsylvania’s St. Vincent College. The team pushed their bed in circles around a shopping center for 3,000 kilometers (1,980 mi).

6Truckin’

The phrase “Keep On Truckin’ ” originated with a Blind Boy Fuller blues song in the 1930s but seemed to really catch on the ’70s, when it seemed to appear on every other shirt practically overnight. It appears to simply be an innocent way to express that one should keep going no matter how difficult things become, but American college students—with some inspiration from artist Robert Crumb—turned the phrase into a strange and pointless activity.

Crumb’s comic strip, “Keep On Truckin’,” featured caricatures of men walking with a pronounced, exaggerated strut, leaning back while making wide, swooping leg motions. College kids—the strip’s target audience—took this immediately to heart, and began copying the cartoonish walk in real life. The phenomenon was first documented in campus newspapers in 1970 but died out by the mid-’70s. Perhaps this was because Crumb was finally granted a copyright for his original image, used without license on merchandise for years, in 1977.

5X-Ray Shoe Fittings

In the 1920s, X-Rays were a strange and wonderful invention with a futuristic name. Scientists could hardly conceive of the potential; they could also hardly conceive of the potential dangers. This explains why, during that decade, X-Ray shoe fitting machines became all the rage in shoe stores across America—though they contained radioactive material, with no protection in place to keep this radiation from leaking into the atmosphere.

They were called “Shoe Fitting Flouroscopes,” and kids and adults alike loved them. By the early 1950s, there were over 10,000 of these extremely hazardous radioactive devices in department stores throughout the land. They were banned in the 1970s once the dangers became known, and while a few scattered cases of foot cancer in older patients have been linked to the machines, exactly how many may have been sickened will probably never be known.

4Balloon Jumping

Yes, the 1920s loved futurism, and nothing was more futuristic than flight. Science fiction of the time was packed with flying cars and bizarre airships, and some rich sportsmen thought of a way to bring the future into the present: balloon jumping.

The jumper was attached by a harness to a large balloon, large enough to provide some lift but not so large (ideally) that the jumper would drift off into the sky. Participants could achieve a kind of moonwalk-type bounce, flying up over trees, fences, and even houses. Sports publications throughout the 1920s fawned over this new sport, calling it safe, easy, and fun, but it never quite caught on among the public at large—perhaps due to a 1927 balloon jumping death in the UK, in which an experienced parachute jumper died while partaking in the activity.

3Fox Tossing

Going back much further, once can imagine that the opportunities for amusement were even more scarce in the 18th century. One forgotten sport, described in a German hunting manual from 1720, was known as “Fuchsprellen”—roughly translated, “Fox Tossing.”

The idea was to lay a series of tarps over a large outdoor playing area. Then, several foxes—along with badgers and small wildcats—would be let loose. Participants would chase them around, waiting for the moment when a hapless animal was positioned perfectly on one of the tarps; two players would then grab the tarp at either end and quickly pull it taut, launching the animal as high into the air as possible.

While one might think that such ridiculous activities involving cruelty to animals are a thing of the distant past, this is not necessarily so.

2Octopus Wrestling

In the 1950s and ’60s, skin diving was a popular pastime. It was quite competitive, with divers vying to see who could dive the deepest or stay submerged the longest, but soon enough a new element was added to the competition: how large an octopus could be wrangled to the surface.

While incredibly illegal today, octopus wrestling became a popular spectator sport in the Pacific Northwest. Competitors had to find and extract an octopus from its lair and wrestle it to the surface of the water; they were judged on the weight of the animal, with extra points awarded for forgoing any breathing equipment. In 1963, over 5,000 spectators showed up to Puget Sound in Washington State for the World Octopus Wrestling Championships. Organizers guaranteed action by placing a few octopi in strategic locations along the beach, as they had to ensure an exciting match; the event was being televised.

1Auto Polo

In 1912, a Kansas Ford dealer held what he hoped would be the first of many sporting matches with an eye toward generating business. It was held between the two inaugural teams, the Grey Ghosts and the Red Devils, of America’s newest sport: Auto Polo. It was played pretty much exactly as one might expect, like traditional polo but with cars instead of horses.

As cars were initially marketed as a replacement for horses, this makes a strange sort of sense. In this first match, held in a Kansas alfalfa field, two teams of three men competed: two men to drive the car and one to swing a giant mallet at a basketball-sized rubber ball. Despite (or perhaps because of) the likelihood of crashes, injuries and deaths, the sport skyrocketed in popularity for the next several decades, with the last matches taking place in the mid-1950s.

Typically, movie lists on the Internet are centered around genres or finding the best film of a particular year. While those certainly work well enough, they don’t take as broad an approach as possible.

This list takes advantage of the fact that Hollywood has been pumping out movies for over a century. Instead of choosing the best film of a particular year or genre, the films on this list were selected from the decade they were released.

Finding the right movie from each decade considers a film’s box office draw, critical acclaim, awards received, and cultural impact. Odds are, many won’t agree with these picks, so load the comments with the movies you think should be at the top of a particular decade.

Top 10 Movies Better Than The Best

10 1920s—Metropolis

You might not think of the 1920s as a decade of outstanding cinematic achievement, but this was when movies like Battleship Potemkin, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Nosferatu were released. Feature films were coming into their own by proving the technology was no passing fad. They may have been silent, but that limitation was overcome through an entirely visual means of storytelling.

The best film of the 1920s is Fritz Lang’s gorgeous expressionist sci-fi drama, Metropolis. This was one of the pioneers of the science-fiction genre. While it lacked in sound, it more than made up with its stunning visualization of a dystopian urban society. Metropolis took 17 months to complete, and the filming process was something of a nightmare.

Despite this, Lang managed to complete the film with nearly 2.5 times the original budget. The film pioneered numerous visual effects techniques, including the Schüfftan process (named after the film’s VFX artist, Eugen Schüfftan), which used mirrors to reflect actors onto miniature sets.

Metropolis did not do well upon release. H.G. Wells reviewed the film, saying it was “foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general.” Decades later, several restorations of the original film have brought it before modern eyes, and it has since been recognized as one of the greatest movies ever made.

9 1930s—The Wizard Of Oz

Some of the greatest films of all time were released in the 1930s, including Duck Soup, King Kong, Bringing Up Baby, M, Gone with the Wind, and City Lights. While there were tons of immortal classics from the decade, the movie that stands above the rest is 1939’s The Wizard of Oz.

When it was released, The Wizard of Oz was already the eighth adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic tale. While some of the stage plays and silent films were exceptional, they don’t hold a candle to the musical directed by Victor Fleming.

The film’s use of black & white film being interrupted with glorious Technicolor was only one of the fantastic elements that make the movie stand out among its peers. It’s probably safe to say that most people alive today have little to no experience watching movies from the 1930s, but there’s a caveat to that statement.

Odds are, nearly everyone has seen The Wizard of Oz at least once in their lives, which easily makes it the most influential movie of the decade. The Library of Congress declared that it has “been seen by more viewers than any other movie.”

8 1940s—Citizen Kane

The 1940s kicked off with Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, The Great Dictator, and that was just the beginning. Other notable films from the decade include Double Indemnity, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Grapes of Wrath, and Casablanca. There’s tons to love about the 1940s, but you can’t neglect what many call the greatest movie ever made.

When Orson Welles narrated The War of the Worlds, he attracted the attention of RKO Pictures. The studio wanted to work with him so badly that they offered him a contract to act, produce, write, and direct two films. This was something the reluctant Welles couldn’t resist, and his first film was Citizen Kane.

Welles worked with Herman J. Mankiewicz to write a semi-autobiographical film based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. The story of Charles Foster Kane and his beloved “Rosebud” was unleashed upon the world in 1941. Like many beloved classics, it didn’t do remarkably well upon release.

It was a critical success, but a box office bomb, having failed to recoup its costs. It didn’t begin to receive the critical acclaim it now enjoys until the mid-1950s. Since that time, it’s become the best film of all time, according to the AFI, most film critics, and directors.

7 1950s—Sunset Blvd.

In a decade dominated by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Igmar Bergman, finding the right movie to label as the #1 film of the decade is no easy task. After all, this was the decade Some Like It Hot, Singin’ in the Rain, North By Northwest, and Rear Window were released.

Each of those films stands the test of time, but the best the decade offered comes from director Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film, Sunset Blvd. This is one of those movies that you may not have seen, but you’ve definitely seen clips of, as it’s one of the best black comedy film noir films ever produced.

The movie centers around Joe Gills, a screenwriter who’s drawn into the life of a former silent-film star, Norma Desmond. It features some excellent cameos of silent movie stars from the previous era to sell it, and it totally works, thanks to Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson, and H.B. Warner.

Sunset Blvd. was highly praised when it was released, and it’s often considered one of the best movies of all time. It was among the group of the first films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, and there’s little wonder why.

6 1960s—Psycho

The 1960s saw the rise of science-fiction as a more approachable and viable artform for a wider audience via 2001: A Space Odyssey. It also featured some of the best westerns ever made, thanks to the rise of the “spaghetti western” with films like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Other notable films include Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, and Rosemary’s Baby.

There were definitely some amazing films produced throughout the decade. Still, the one that easily clinches the top spot is none other than Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary classic, Psycho. Hitchcock’s psychological thriller is a master class in suspenseful storytelling, and it’s easily one of the best cinematographic films of all time.

If there was any doubt about Hitchcock’s storytelling before Psycho, the one or two people who filled that group were silenced by this movie. It’s easily the director’s most famous film, and it often tops the list as his best movie, though Rear Window and North By Northwest aren’t far behind it.

Psycho enjoyed a stellar box office performance, making $32 million off a budget of little more than $800,000. It’s often considered to be one of the greatest (and first) slasher films ever made. Its influence can be seen in every significant slasher/thriller released since 1960.

5 1970s—The Godfather

There were tons of notable films released in the 1970s, including Star Wars, Annie Hall, Alien, Apocalypse Now, and A Clockwork Orange. This was the decade of The Sting, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Rocky, so choosing the best film is no easy task. Still, the greatest film of the 1970s is and must be Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.

If you can get through film school without watching this movie, there’s a good chance you were in a coma for a significant amount of time. It’s one of the most studied and beloved films of all time, and it’s an epic masterpiece. The film chronicles the Corleone family from 1945 to 1955, which sees the rise of Michael Corleone as the family’s new Don.

The movie has everything from violence to romance and everything possible in-between. It received universal acclaim for every aspect of the film, with a significant amount of praise heading straight to Marlon Brando, helping to revitalize his career. It’s because of The Godfather that he wound up in Apocalypse Now, Superman: The Movie, and Last Tango in Paris.

The Godfather’s influence on modern cinema and popular culture is widespread. It’s often considered one of the greatest movies of all time while also standing as the best gangster movie ever made. Its sequel came out in the same decade, and while it’s absolutely amazing, it all started with The Godfather.

4 1980s—Raiders Of The Lost Ark

The 1980s was the decade that gave the world The Empire Strikes Back, Labyrinth, Beetlejuice, The Princess Bride, and The Goonies. There were terrific fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, and family films, but the one that easily beats out the competition is Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Harrison Ford’s starring role as a college professor who moonlights as an artifact hunter/Nazi fighter is more than an epic adventure — it’s a hell of a lot of fun! The movie has romance, action, adventure, and comedy all mixed into a tale of biblical archaeology, and it works. It wasn’t just a great movie; it also gave the world an amazing character.

The movie was a huge success when it was released in 1981. It had a significant impact on cinema released throughout the decade, which saw multiple imitators in films like Romancing the Stone. That influence continued into the following decade, with movies like The Mummy and Indiana Jones’ influence continues to this day.

Raiders of the Lost Ark created a franchise, and it’s one of the best movies of its genre. The decade featured two sequels, both of which were just as successful as the first, and while the fourth movie wasn’t as well-received, it won’t be the last. A fifth film is slated for release in 2022.

3 1990s—The Shawshank Redemption

In a decade that gave the world Pulp Fiction, Schindler’s List, Forrest Gump, Fight Club, The Silence of the Lambs, and plenty more, determining the best film of the ’90s is no easy task. The 1990s were full of intense action, beautifully written dramas, evocative thrillers, and gorgeous sci-fi, but the film that takes the decade has got to be The Shawshank Redemption.

Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a man convicted for murdering his wife and her lover. The film follows Andy’s life in Shawshank Prison through the interactions with the friends and enemies he makes along the way, all while planning his escape.

That escape was something that came as a surprise to the warden, his friends, and the audience. Darabont managed to keep the audience guessing, and just when it looks like Andy is about to commit suicide, he pulls one over on everyone. It’s masterful storytelling of a beautiful story set in a horrible place, which isn’t easy to do.

The Shawshank Redemption did horribly in its theatrical release, but it managed to recieve a ton of award nominations. This resulted in a theatrical re-release to capitalize on the acclaim, which helped. Still, it really made its money in the home video rental market. These days, it’s regularly broadcast on television and remains one of the best and most popular films of the ’90s.

2 2000s—Spirited Away

The 2000s gave the world the MCU via Iron Man, heartache over the first five minutes of Up, and the beginning of Peter Jackson’s magnum opus in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Batman went up against the Joker in The Dark Knight, and the world saw Scarlett Johansson stun audiences in Lost in Translation.

There were a plethora of incredible films kicking off the new millennia. Still, the beauty, scope, and enchantment of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away takes the prize as the best movie of the decade. Miyazaki consistently produced fantastic films for years, but it took Spirited Away for the majority of westerners to take notice.

The story centers around Sen (Chihiro), who takes a job working at a witch’s bathhouse. She does this after the witch (Yubaba) turns her parents into pigs. All she wants to do is find a way to undo their transformation and escape the world of Kami to return to the human world.

Like all of Miyazaki’s films, Spirited Away perfectly expresses the notion of “every frame a painting,” as it is absolutely beautiful. Nothing takes the screen’s time without purpose, and the story has a way of drawing the viewer in through its magical appeal and gorgeous presentation of Japanese Shinto folklore. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and there’s little wonder as to why.

1 2010s—Boyhood

You may have thought you’d find movies like Avengers: Endgame, Get Out, The Social Network, or The Grand Budapest Hotel taking the top spot of the past decade. While those movies and many more were exceptional, the leader of the last ten years is a relatively obscure film from Richard Linklater called Boyhood.

Linklater proved he had no problem playing the long game when it came to filmmaking with Boyhood. The movie took him 12 years to shoot, but it wasn’t shot consecutively. Instead, the director managed to convince Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, and others to sign on for a 12-year production that saw them return to film their parts over the years.

What is left is a true coming-of-age drama that actually depicts a young boy’s coming-of-age from when he was six years old to becoming 18. Taken individually, each segment isn’t necessarily special, but when they’re examined as a whole, it’s truly a remarkable film. Watching Coltrane’s Mason grow from youth to a young Texas teenager feels natural in Boyhood.

In a decade dominated by superhero movies and high-intensity action stories, Boyhood managed to bring in audiences for its analysis of what makes us human. The movie gained media attention because of how it was filmed, but it excelled despite that, easily becoming the best film of the decade.

Top 10 Remakes Better Than The Original Movies

One of the hardest things to do well in comedy is pairing one comic with another. History is filled with people who tried, but getting the right chemistry isn’t as easy as slapping a couple of names together. For a true comedy duo to work, both members have to bring their A-game, so the team can’t be one-sided.

Movies have offered an excellent medium for comedy duos to stretch their comedic talents, and some of the greatest stuck around for decades. Because they have been around for over a century now, it’s possible to look at each decade to find the best movie comedy duo going back 100 years.

This list features the best comedy duos from each decade, beginning in the 1920s and ending in 2020. Take a look below, and if you think there’s a funnier comedy duo from your favorite decade, share their hilarious exploits in the comments!

10 1920s—Laurel & Hardy

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are probably the best-known comedy duo of all time, and they haven’t performed together in decades. The team came together out of vaudeville and the silent film industry, and they complemented one another perfectly.

Comedy duos at the time typically relied on a comedian playing off a straight man, but both Laurel and Hardy were comics to their core. Despite the change-up, they managed to always get laughs, and when one needed to play it straight, they managed to do so with perfection.

The pair came together in the early 1920s, though they weren’t officially considered a team. That didn’t happen until they did a short together in 1926, and from there, the comedy act of Laurel and Hardy was born.

The duo became iconic throughout the 1920s. They continued their success well into the ’40s with their final film collaboration, Atoll K, coming out in 1950. Throughout their partnership, Laurel and Hardy acted opposite one another in 107 films, 32 short silent movies, 40 short “talkies,” and numerous guest appearances on television.

Laurel and Hardy helped shape the direction of comedic cinema for decades, and their influence can be seen to this day. Mark Hamill once said, “If you don’t like Laurel and Hardy, you are no friend of mine,” and he’s hardly in the minority when it comes to the classic comics.

9 1930s—Pitts & Todd

Laurel & Hardy dominated in the 1920s and ’30s, but they weren’t the only team making waves throughout the Depression years. Men like Wheeler & Woolsey produced some great comedy, but there was another team that deserves some attention.

Hal Roach, the creator of Laurel & Hardy, envisioned a team of comedic women. In 1931, he created the first major female comedy team. Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts’ place in history is important for both comedy and advancements made by women in the craft.

Roach put together a blonde bombshell beauty queen who specialized in playing comic relief with one of the most prolific character actresses in the business, and the pairing worked! They didn’t stick together for long, but what they created stands the test of time.

Pitts & Todd managed to work together for 17 short films. They even managed to snag an appearance of Laurel and Hardy in one of their movies. Their partnership came to an end after only two years when Pitts left the group.

Roach kept it going by replacing women several times. Each attempt at recreating the chemistry between Pitts and Todd resulted in some funny films, but the magic was lost when the original group ended.

8 1940s—Abbott & Costello

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are probably one of the best-known comedy duos from their era. Both men began working in vaudeville before making the jump to radio, and finally, film. You probably know them for their “Who’s on First” routine, but they did so much more than that.

Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, Abbot & Costello dominated the industry. They toured throughout the ’40s and entertained the troops during World War II, becoming the highest-paid entertainers in the world at the time.

These guys were all over the map in terms of entertainment. They showed up for live shows, popped up on television, dominated the radio waves, and had a massively successful film career.

They started working in films together in 1940 with One Night in the Tropics, though they showed up in supporting roles. Despite this, they stole the show and continued to make hit after hit together throughout the decade.

They made 25 films in the 1940s and continued working together in the ’50s. Ultimately, they disbanded their partnership in ’57 due to career fatigue and the fact that they didn’t really like one another very much. Despite everything they did, they’re probably best known for “Who’s on First,” which they performed an estimated 15,000 times.

7 1950s—Martin & Lewis

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are another comedy duo that’s stood the test of time. The pair began working together in 1946 doing live performances in clubs, and by ’49, they were killing it on the radio.

They developed their act through a great deal of improvisation and slapstick. The pair managed to play the straight man/funny man act to perfection. They transitioned their show from the stage to radio to television and film.

Their first film was released in 1949, and the remainder of their movie collaborations came the following decade, which they dominated. Martin & Lewis starred in 16 feature-length films throughout the 1950s. Many were exceptionally hilarious, including Sailor Beware, Living It Up, and You’re Never Too Young.

Throughout the ’50s, the team changed its name to Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. This was done to help them further their solo careers once their partnership came to an end. That came in 1956, and they didn’t speak to one another privately for 20 years. They finally reconciled in 1976, thanks to some help from Frank Sinatra.

6 1960s—Lemmon & Matthau

The 1960s is a decade that would go to the Smothers Brothers had they specialized in film instead of television variety shows. Since this list is all about film comedy duos, the honor of best team-up from the 1960s goes to Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Unlike the other teams on this list, this pairing wasn’t your typical comedy duo. When they got together on-screen, they were often at odds with one another. While their on-screen characters were often contentious, their chemistry could not be denied.

The two men, who were the best of friends in real life, hated one another whenever they came together on-screen. While that may sound like an excellent recipe for a drama, it was played to the best of laughs in films like The Fortune cookie and The Odd Couple.

That last pairing is probably the duo’s most famous, and it only furthered their opportunity to work together. Decades later, they appeared opposite one another in a similar fashion via the two Grumpy Old Men movies, and their chemistry hadn’t waned at all. Overall, they made eight films together, and their work in the ’60s is some of the best comedy to come out of the decade.

5 1970s—Cheech & Chong

The 1970s was a great decade for comedy, thanks to folks like Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Monty Python. When it comes to comedy duos, the decade begins and ends with none other than Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.

The two began working together in 1971. Cheech & Chong’s popular stand-up routine led to their success in studio recordings and numerous feature films. Pretty much everything they did together revolved around counterculture, free love, and drugs… a lot of drugs (especially marijuana).

These guys loved pot so much, they did a movie about them searching the country for pot while driving a van made of “Fiberweed;” you can guess what the exhaust fumes did. Cheech & Chong were incredibly popular throughout the ’70s and into the 1980s, which is actually the decade featuring most of their movies.

Despite this, they are probably best known for their first movie, Up in Smoke, which was released in 1978. The pairing ended in 1987 when Cheech opted to focus on his solo career by distancing himself from the drug-fueled acts of their work together. They ultimately reunited and began working together in the early 2000s.

4 1980s—Wilder & Pryor

For the most part, successful comedy duos were always the same race, and that race was typically Caucasian in prior decades. Before Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder came together, there were numerous attempts and making a mixed-race duo work. There have been plenty since, but none did nearly as well as these guys.

Their comedy pairing began the previous decade with 1976’s Silver Streak, which did well but wasn’t their greatest hit. That came in 1980 with Stir Crazy, arguably the pair’s best collaboration. They continued to work together in the 1980s with See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and their last pairing came in 1991’s Another You.

Of course, they worked together in other ways, as Wilder appeared in 1974’s Blazing Saddles, which Pryor co-wrote. He was supposed to be in the film, but the studios wanted Cleavon Little instead, so it was a few years before they managed to share the screen.

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor’s on-screen chemistry is the stuff of legend. They always managed to play off one another perfectly. While they worked together well on-screen, Pryor’s substance abuse problems made their friendship difficult. Despite this, they had a great deal of respect and admiration for one another.

3 1990s—Farley & Spade

The 1990s were filled with all manner of comedy duos, many of them coming straight out of Saturday Night Live. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s Wayne’s World led to two films, and while they were great together on-screen, you can’t talk about 90’s comedy duos and not look to Chris Farley and David Spade.

These two guys had some of the best on-screen chemistry in the history of the medium, and they couldn’t have been more different. Spade is all about deadpan snarkiness, while Farley was the kind of comic who would do anything for his laugh, even if it meant crashing through a coffee table or making fun of his weight.

Both comics appeared in Coneheads together, though they played minor characters. Their first true collaboration was Tommy Boy, which pitted the two off-screen best friends against one another in comedic gold. They followed this with Black Sheep the following year, and they managed to recapture their on-screen chemistry.

Sadly, their collaborations ended with Farley’s untimely passing in 1997, only one year after Black Sheep’s release. Spade was noticeably absent at the funeral, fueling speculation of a falling out. Years later, Spade explained that the funeral was too difficult for him, as the two were the greatest of friends.

2 2000s—Pegg & Frost

Picking the best comedy duo of the 2000s is no easy task. It’s the decade that saw exceptional pairings, including Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson, Will Ferrel & John C. Reilly, John Cho & Kal Penn, and many more. Despite all the offerings, the decade goes to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

The pair began working together in 1999 on Spaced, and they kept their incredible on-screen chemistry going for years — and they’re still at it. During the first decade of the 21st century, Pegg and Frost appeared in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.

Those films include Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, which came out in 2013, so it’s a bit outside the scope. The first two films are arguably the best they’ve done together, and they continue to work together in both film and television to this day.

Their most recent collaboration is the Amazon Prime series Truth Seekers, which was released in October 2020. Both comics remain close friends and collaborators on numerous projects, which is something that is likely to continue well into the next decade.

1 2010s—Fey & Poehler

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have known one another since 1993, and it wasn’t long before the two became close friends. They began working with one another soon after, and by the turn of the century, both were working on Saturday Night Live.

They spent the first decade of their career working alongside one another, with most of their efforts being in the world of television. They made their first jump into working together on the silver screen in 2002’s Martin and Orloff, though it’s unlikely many people saw it.

Two years later, they dropped Mean Girls upon the world, and their careers skyrocketed from that point forward. They co-starred in Baby Mama in 2007, and by 2015, they shared the top billing in 2015’s Sisters.

2019 saw them working together once more in Poehler’s directorial debut, Wine Country. The movie dropped on Netflix and scored a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They also killed it hosting the Golden Globes in 2021, which isn’t a movie, but it’s another excellent example of this pairing’s chemistry and comedic expertise, which was tested through a few thousand miles of lockdown separation.

People sometimes talk about that eureka moment when something occurs to them, and a great discovery is made. And it’s called a moment because it seems like it happens instantly. But if you spend years working on something before that moment, did it really happen instantly? Or was it a discovery years in the making? History is full of examples of discoveries that took an incredibly long time, some might argue too long, to make. In some cases these discoveries took decades.

10. The Mystery of Bobby Dunbar

Bobby Dunbar disappeared in the summer of 1912 when he was just four-years-old. His family had gone camping in Louisiana and the boy wandered off in the night sometime. At first it was assumed he’d drowned in the lake, but his hat was later found much further away. Suddenly, the idea that he had been kidnapped came to mind. What started as a tragic tale soon became more and more bizarre.

Nearly a year later, a drifter traveling with a young boy in Mississippi was arrested. The boy was about Bobby’s age and the man’s story made no sense. He said he’d been traveling with the boy for a year but his mother, Julia Anderson, had given permission. Anderson agreed, but she said it had just been for a few days. The Dunbar family went to see the boy and accounts of whether the boy recognized them vary. But finally, Mrs. Dunbar identified the boy as Bobby based on some moles and a court agreed. The Dunbars took custody of the boy and returned home.  

Suspicious that things were hinky, a newspaper paid to bring Anderson to town. She was shown Bobby and four other boys of the same age. She couldn’t identify the one that was supposedly her son and none recognized her. The next day she was able to identify him but by then it was too late. She went home alone.

Bobby Dunbar was raised by his parents, became a man, had a family of his own, and died in 1966. Years later, the granddaughters of Dunbar and Anderson met up to put the story to rest. Through DNA testing they were able to confirm Bobby Dunbar was not actually Bobby Dunbar at all. He really had been the son of Julia Anderson and the real Bobby Dunbar had never been found. 

9. A Missing Ring Turned Up After 47 Years

Losing a ring is not all that uncommon an event. People probably lose jewelry all the time, and it has to be upsetting in the moment but you eventually get over it. Debra McKenna no doubt got over losing her class ring in a Maine department store back in 1973 when she’d taken it off to wash her hands and forgotten about it by mistake. Since it was just a class ring and not something like an engagement ring, though the man she eventually married gave it to her, she probably never thought about it again until 2020. 

The ring showed up in the mail in 2020 after it was found by a man named Marko Saarinen. Saarinen didn’t find it in that department store, however. Nor did he find it in Maine. He was using a metal detector in a forest near a town called Kaarina in southwest Finland. 

The man read the inscription, SM, and looked up the school’s alumni association. They tracked down the owner, and his wife, and got the ring back to its rightful owner. 

8. The Greatest Ball Game of All-Time

The 1960 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees has been called the greatest world series of all-time. The Yankees were seen as the dominant powerhouse team but the Pirates took them all the way to game seven when Bill Mazeroski of the Pirates hit a game winning home run in the 9th inning to take the series. It was the first time a series had been won with a home run; it was an incredible upset and it was down to the wire. It was everything sports fans love. And it seemed like it was lost. 

For years there were no tapes whatsoever of that final game. VCRs didn’t exist in 1960 so fans were not recording it at home. TV stations reused tapes back in the day so all old games from before the 1970s had been erased. Fortunately, no one had accounted for how big of a baseball fan Bing Crosby was.

Crosby, who was part owner of the Pirates, was afraid to watch the game live. He thought he’d jinx their chances. Instead, he went to Europe and had the game recorded so he could watch it later. Then he stored the tape in his wine cellar where the precise temperature and humidity perfectly preserved it until 2010 when it was discovered again. The game was restored and transferred to DVD and can now be watched by fans once more.

7. The De-Extinction of the Lord Howe Stick Insect

Species go extinct at an alarming rate with some estimates saying a few dozen species vanish every day. One of the species we came to terms with losing in 1983 was the Lord Howe Island stick insect.That was when it was officially declared extinct, though no one had seen one since about 1920.

The bugs were discovered in 1918 with a shipwreck on the very tiny, mostly desolate island. Rats from the ship are believed to have invaded and eventually killed off the native insect population and that, as they say, was that. 

Despite their apparent extinction, in 2001 some of the insects were rediscovered on a tiny little volcanic outcropping called Ball’s Pyramid, 23 km off the coast of the main island. The island has barely any vegetation on it at all but what it does have turned out to be a habitat for the bugs. They identified just 24 of the bugs. 

One breeding pair was rescued and taken to Australia. From them, 13,000 eggs were harvested and now a breeding program has been set up in zoos around the world.

6. Glass Sponge Reefs 

The world below the waves is still a mystery and every day we discover new creatures that live in the ocean’s depths. By that same token, we lose many species as well. One thing we thought was long since dead is the glass sponge. These sponges are known to build reefs, growing up to nearly 46 centimeters tall, and the reefs they create become habitats for all kinds of fish and other marine species. They use silica dissolved in the sea water to build delicate skeleton-like structures, which is where the glass name comes from.

Obviously this is a good thing for the ecosystem and the sponges are a species worthy of protection. That’s ironic, of course, because up until recently they were thought to be extinct. And not just a little extinct, either. It was believed they had died off about 100 million years ago. Their remains, called mummies, are well known and a 2,900-kilometer reef of ancient glass sponges stretches from Spain to Romania.

In 1987, off the coast of BC in Canada, new reefs of living glass sponges were discovered, proving the ancient species had not vanished as once thought, they were just deeper than anyone expected them to be.

5. Randy Bachman’s Missing Guitar

Randy Bachman was famous for his work in ’70s rock bands Bachman Turner Overdrive and The Guess Who. His most famous songs include “Takin’ Care of Business” and “American Woman.” He wrote that last one on a 1957 Gretsch guitar that he’d bought as a teen and was basically his signature instrument. He learned how to play guitar using it and he played it all the time. Until 1977 when someone stole it from a hotel room. 

Bachman said he was remarkably possessive of the instrument. He slept with it and he chained it to hotel toilets so no one could steal it. But it was the day that his road manager took it, just long enough to check out of their hotel and then pick up the band, that someone managed to steal it for real.

For decades Bachman lamented the loss and was hopeful he’d find it again one day. In 2020, a fan named William Long who’d heard about the loss in a YouTube video figured he could help out with his own skills as an investigator. Remarkably, after learning the guitar inside and out and scouring the internet for images, Long discovered the guitar in Japan where a musician named Takeshi had bought it in 2016. He had no idea it had been stolen but agreed to trade Bachman for another one.

In the summer of 2022 at the Canadian embassy in Japan, Bachman met with Takeshi and traded him another guitar for the stolen one. He went out of his way to find a nearly identical guitar, in fact, made the same week and with a nearly identical serial number. 

4. A Car Discovered After 20 Years

Imagine how frustrated and angry you’d feel if you discovered someone had stolen your car. That happened in 1997 to a man in Frankfurt, Germany. He parked in a garage, went about his day and came back to find the car missing. Twenty years went by and then the garage was set to be torn down but the owners had one small snag – there was a car parked in it still. It was that man’s car.

Turns out the man had forgotten where he parked. For 20 years his car hadn’t moved at all, and so he discovered it exactly where he’d left it all those years ago. By that time it was rusted out and immobile, but definitely not stolen.

3. The Glowing Wounds of Civil War Soldiers

A lot of crazy things can happen in war but you rarely expect to hear about wounds glowing blue and healing faster than normal, at least not outside of science fiction. But that happened at the Civil War Battle of Shiloh and for years it remained a mystery.

The massive battle saw 40,000 Confederate soldiers square off against the Union with as many as 16,000 casualties. As The wounded waited up to two days in the mud for treatment,some began to glow blue at night. It was noted that those who did glow had a better survival rate. 

It wasn’t until 2001 that a non-supernatural explanation was discovered. A bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens that lives in soil, which inhibits pathogen growth by secreting an antibiotic compound, could have been growing in the wounds and inadvertently saving the lives of the soldiers. 

2. Twins Accidentally Swapped at Birth

About 1 in 250 natural pregnancies results in twins. Fraternal twins are more common than identical twins and about two-thirds of those pregnant with twins will have fraternal twins. So there’s not necessarily any reason to be shocked if you have twins and they don’t look alike. Certainly, in 1974 in the Canary Islands when twins Begona and Delia were born, their mother wouldn’t have been suspicious.

It would be 28 years before anyone realized that there was a third baby at the hospital that day. A girl named Beatriz was accidentally swapped for Delia and the two sisters, who were identical, were now believed to just be fraternal since of course Beatriz didn’t look like her sister. 

The women only found out when a friend of one of the twins met the other, got confused, and arranged a meeting. A DNA test soon followed, and the twins realized the truth of what happened. Despite that, they were reluctant to share the news. Their biological mother learned first but the mother who raised Delia wasn’t told for almost 9 years. She didn’t take it well. 

1. Relocating Bouvet Island

You may have heard that buying land is a good investment because no one makes it any more. That’s mostly true, but it doesn’t mean you can still discover land every once in a while. Sometimes it just gets lost and needs to be re-found, which is what happened to Bouvet Island.

Bouvet Island is the most remote place in the world and 1,750 kilometers from Antarctica, its closest neighbor, and an island no one would or should ever want to visit. It was discovered in 1739 and consists of rock and ice and a handful of penguins. Plus it’s where Alien vs Predator was set. Explorer Jean-Baptiste Bouvet de Lozier discovered it on an Antarctic exploration mission and then promptly mislabelled it on a map such that it went missing again for another 69 years because no one knew how to find it. 

When it finally was rediscovered, it was hundreds of kilometers from where Bouvet had recorded it so no one was even sure if it was the same place. It wasn’t until 1898 when it finally had a fixed location on maps.

It is difficult to give accurate statistics regarding the number of children that go missing every year, given that this type of data is not available in many countries. However, an estimated 460,000 children are reported missing every year in the United States alone, and 112,853 children in the United Kingdom.

The term “missing” can encompass a variety of scenarios, from children that have run away to a child that has gone missing under a set of unknown circumstances to children that either family members or strangers have kidnapped.

Regardless of the circumstance behind a child’s disappearance, each passing day, month, and year leaves the family with more questions than answers, especially when there are no solid leads or clues about the child’s whereabouts. Sadly, some cases are never solved.

However, for the families on this list, just when all hope seemed lost, they received a true miracle—a notification that their child had been found 20, 30, or even 50 years after their disappearance.

Here are the stories of ten abducted children who were miraculously reunited with their families decades later.

10 Mao Yin

Mao Yin was born on February 23, 1986, in China and was described as a “very clever, cute, and healthy” baby. However, on October 17, 1988, when Yin’s father was bringing him home from nursery school, the toddler asked for water, so the two stopped near the entrance of a hotel in Xian. Unfortunately, as Yin’s father attempted to cool down some water for the boy to drink, Yin was taken.

Yin’s mother worked tirelessly to find her son by handing out approximately 100,000 flyers, quitting her job, appearing on local TV networks, and even volunteering for a group called “Baby Come Back Home,” which helped parents locate their missing children. While Yin’s mother helped 29 other children find their way back home to their families, her own son was still missing.

Then, on May 10, 2020, Mother’s Day in China, and over 30 years after the disappearance of their son, Yin’s parents received the news they had desperately been waiting for. Yin had been located.

Thanks to an incoming tip regarding a man who had purchased a child from Xian in the late 1980s, police were able to use a photo of Yin as a young boy and create an adult image of what he might look like. The image was then run through a government database which located a man with a similar resemblance. From there, a DNA test was done, confirming the man was indeed Mao Yin.

Yin had been sold to a childless couple for $845 (6,000 yuan) and raised under the name Gu Ningning, never aware that his parents had spent the last three decades searching for him. They were reunited on May 18, 2020.^[1]

9 Melissa Highsmith

Alta Apentenco had put an ad in the local Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper in 1971 searching for a babysitter for her daughter, Melissa Highsmith. Unfortunately, while Apentenco was at work, her roommate allowed Highsmith to go with a woman who answered the ad. This was the last time the 21-month-old girl was seen.

Numerous tips came in over the years, although none of them panned out. Highsmith’s family never gave up hope of finding their daughter. Then, in one final attempt to locate their missing daughter, on November 22, 2022, Highsmith’s father submitted his DNA to the 23andMe website, which matched him to the three children of a couple named John and Melanie Brown.

“Melanie” turned out to be Melissa, who was still living in Fort Worth, Texas, just a few miles from where she was abducted. Highsmith was reunited with her family on November 24, 2022, Thanksgiving Day, after 51 long years.^[2]

8 Holly Clouse

In 1980, married couple 21-year-old Harold “Dean” Clouse Jr. and 17-year-old Tina Gail Linn Clouse, along with their baby Holly left their home in Volusia County, Florida, for Dean to pursue a carpentry position in Texas. The couple wrote letters to their families back home, but the last time anyone received correspondence from the couple was in October of 1980. However, a few months later, Dean’s family received a phone call from someone claiming to have information about the couple.

The caller, who identified herself as “Sister Susan,” stated she was in possession of the couple’s car, which they were willing to return in exchange for $1,000. Dean’s family agreed to meet the caller at a racetrack in Daytona, Florida. It was during this encounter that “Sister Susan,” along with a group of other women, stated Dean and Tina had joined their religious group and wanted no further contact with their families and were giving up their possessions.

Naturally suspicious, Dean’s family contacted authorities, who reportedly took the group of women into custody, although no formal police report was ever recorded.

Then, on January 12, 1981, Dean and Tina’s bodies were found in a wooded area near Houston, Texas. However, at the time, the bodies could not be identified, only known as the “Harris County Does.” It was not until October 2021 that genetic genealogy would provide a break in the case and allow the Clouses to finally be identified.

While their families were glad to finally have answers, the question remained—what happened to Dean and Tina’s daughter Holly? Therefore, in an attempt to find answers, the Hope for Holly Project was launched, and thanks to DNA tests, screening, and the use of genealogy, Holly was located eight months later in Oklahoma. She was finally able to connect with her family 42 years after her disappearance, on what would have been her father’s 63rd birthday.

Investigators in the case have learned that Holly was dropped off at a church in Arizona in November of 1980 by two women belonging to a nomadic religious group. The investigation into Dean and Tina’s deaths is still ongoing.^[3]

7 Li Jingwei

When Li Jingwei was only four years old, he was kidnapped from his village in Zhaotong, China, by a neighbor and sold into a child trafficking ring in 1989. Jingwei was then taken to live with another family in the Henan province, over 1,118 miles (1,800 kilometers) away.

While Jingwei was very much aware of his abduction growing up, given that he had been taken so far and had no recollection of his own name, his parents’ name, or the name of his village, returning home seemed impossible.

On the other hand, Jingwei could remember the most vivid details of his village, such as where trees and bamboo shoots grew, the twists and turns of roads and rivers, and even where cows grazed, and he often drew maps of his village as a child. It would be Jingwei’s photographic memory that would lead him back home.

In a final attempt to find his parents, Jingwei drew a detailed picture of his village on December 24, 2021, and posted it to the video-sharing app Douyin. The drawing went viral and was shared across social media platforms, eventually getting the attention of the Ministry of Public Security, which then began assisting Jingwei in his search.

Shortly after that, authorities were able to locate a woman they believed was Jingwei’s mother, and on December 28, 2021, a DNA test confirmed their findings. Jingwei was finally reunited with his mother on January 1, 2022, more than 30 years after his abduction. Unfortunately, his father had already passed away.^[4]

6 Jermaine Mann

On June 24, 1987, 21-month-old Jermaine Allan Mann was abducted by his father, Allan Mann Jr., during a court-ordered visit in Toronto, Canada. Later that year, Mann moved to the United States, creating a new life for himself and Jermaine using fake birth certificates. He also later told Jermaine that his mother was dead.

Although it took nearly three decades, thanks to more than 200 tips received by authorities in both the United States and Canada, they were able to track down Mann using facial recognition. He had been living in Vernon, Connecticut, under the alias of Hailee Randolph DeSouza. Mann was arrested on October 26, 2018, by officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after discovering his birth certificate was counterfeit. Jermaine and his mother were finally reunited on October 27, 2018, after 31 long years.

Mann was charged with making false statements and making false statements to obtain HUD housing after having received more than $180k in housing and Medicaid benefits during his time in the United States. Mann was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was ordered to be deported to Toronto to face abduction charges after serving his sentence in the United States.^[5]

5 Carlina White

When Joy White and Carl Tyson’s 19-day-old daughter, Carlina, began running a high fever on August 4, 1987, they brought her to the Harlem Hospital in New York for treatment. Little did they know that was the last time they would see their daughter. A woman named Ann Pettway, who pretended to be a nurse taking the baby for treatment, kidnapped Carlina and raised her under the alias of Nejdra Nance.

However, as Carlina grew older, she noticed the lack of resemblance between herself and her “mother.” Her suspicions only grew when Pettway could not produce a copy of her birth certificate or social security card, claiming Carlina had been given to her by a woman who used drugs.

It wasn’t until December 2010 that Carlina went on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website. Imagine her surprise to find a photo similar to her own baby pictures. Carlina then called their hotline and was put in touch with her mother, Joy White.

DNA tests later confirmed Carlina was, in fact, her missing daughter, and they were reunited in January 2011, 23 years after her abduction. Pettway turned herself in on January 23, 2011, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.^[6]

4 Sun Wei

Four-year-old Sun Wei was walking home from kindergarten in Lianshan Yi when he was given sweets by a stranger, lured into a van, and kidnapped in 1995. He was taken to the city of Jieyang, sold to a couple, and given a new name and birthdate. While Sun Wei’s identity was changed, he never forgot his kidnapping.

The boy’s father, Sun Zhenghua, reported the kidnapping to the police, but given that he and his wife had no photographs of their son, finding him seemed impossible. However, Zhengua refused to give up and began a cross-country journey, working odd jobs across several provinces in hopes of finding his son. Unfortunately, his attempts were unsuccessful. Refusing to be defeated, Zhengua later registered his DNA with the Chinese missing persons’ authorities.

When Sun Wei was 14 years old, he quit school to begin working and was later persuaded by his friends to register his DNA in the missing person’s database as well. The family was reunited in October 2015, 20 years after Sun Wei’s kidnapping.^[7]

3 Dollie Ann Henson

At the age of five, Dollie Ann Henson (who was born Darlene McDaniel) was playing at a neighbor’s house in Houston, Texas, when the woman asked her if she wanted to go on a train ride. Little did Henson realize at the time that the “train ride” was a kidnapping. She was taken to Louisiana before ending up in San Francisco, California, 1600 miles (2,574 kilometers) away from her family.

Henson’s kidnapper changed her name, birth date, and birth certificate, even going so far as to keep any information that would lead to Henson’s past locked in the trunk of her car. While Henson’s kidnapper claimed her biological family never wanted her, that wouldn’t stop Henson from eventually finding them. However, the challenge was a bit harder after a fire destroyed all the documents in the car, and her kidnapper passed away in 1977.

After getting married and having children of her own, Henson told them the story of her abduction. It was her daughter Kia’Ora who contacted a local television station that allowed Henson to go on-air and share her story on November 12, 2009.

Miraculously, Henson’s family members happened to be watching the broadcast, and they were able to connect by phone on November 13, 2009. Unfortunately, Henson’s birth mother had already passed away, but she was able to spend Christmas that year getting to know the rest of her family and making up for the previous 55 years.^[8]

2 Susan Gervaise

Susan Gervaise, born Susan Preece, had a rough beginning as a young child. Her mother was a single mom, and she and her six siblings lived on a traveler’s site, in and out of foster care in Yorkshire, England.

Therefore, when a Scottish couple who also lived on the site offered four-year-old Gervaise the opportunity to go to Disney World in 1969, her mother agreed. The couple asked Gervaise’s mother for her birth certificate as well so “she could be put on their passport.” Unfortunately, this ruse was nothing more than a disguised kidnapping that would take Gervaise from Canada to New Zealand and Australia.

While Gervaise claimed she had “a cherished life where she was spoiled rotten” with her traveling family, it wasn’t until she was 16 years old that she found out she had been stolen from her family. Gervaise later moved to Australia as an adult, got married, and had three children, never thinking much about her “real family.” That is, until a friend of Gervaise’s, who had been adopted, caused her to think about what her family must have gone through all these years.

Gervaise then located a Facebook page dedicated to the auburn of Pontefract, where she had been taken, and posted her story. Within 30 minutes, her family had been found. Gervaise was reunited with four of her six siblings and other family members in September of 2022, 53 years after her disappearance. Unfortunately, Gervaise’s biological mother had passed away eight years prior.^[9]

1 Feng Lulu

At 22 months of age, Feng Lulu was abducted in 1989 while playing outside her home in Xinxing, China. Lulu was later sold to another family and renamed Zhang Qianqian. While her foster family later claimed that Lulu’s parents couldn’t afford her as the reason they sold her, that was far from the truth.

However, thirty years would pass before the All-China Women’s Federation learned of Lulu’s parents’ search for their missing daughter and assisted them in contacting local police. Thanks to a “statistical database,” Lulu was located, and a DNA test confirmed her identity on March 30, 2021.

On April 2, 2021, Lulu was reunited with her parents after 32 long years and was able to meet her younger brothers and sister for the first time.^[10]