An Irish barman spent 61 days buried in a coffin outside a London pub did it all in a bid to become famous and is now immortalised in Guinness World Record History.
Mikey Meaney erupted into the country's consciousness as a household name in the 1968 after undertaking the mammoth challenge, which nowadays sounds more like something out of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
Mr Meaney, then aged 33 and from Tipperary, Ireland, originally wanted to be a world-famous boxer, but when he suffered an injury which ended his career he sought to find another way to get him name in lights, My London reports.
“They called him the human JCB back then,” his daughter Mary told the Irish Post.
“He could literally lift up a tree and throw it over his shoulder. Incredible strength. The strength of 10 men.
“But when he couldn’t become a boxer he said he’d find another way. As he said himself being buried alive was all the rage at the time and I reckon he said: 'I’ll do that. I’ll get into the Guinness Book of Records and I’ll be world famous.'”
He already had some experience of being buried alive after a workplace accident some years before, and knew how to stay calm.
He also trained on a diet of cigarettes and steaks whilst embarking on several practise rounds until the morning of February 21, 1968 rolled around.
Meaney was placed within a coffin, lifted out of a window of a pub in Kilburn, and lowered seven feet underground as a crowd gathered to watch.
Food was served through two tubes running from ground level down to Meaney below, and these tubes also served to provide some ventilation.
A hatch was also built to ensure Meaney could use the toilet when required.
Knowing his wife would say no to him doing the challenge he never told her - and she only found out about his attempt after hearing it on the radio.
To add an extra element of the challenge there was also an American trying to beat the same record at the same time, meaning the two men were in direct competition with one another.
During his time in the coffin Meaney would wake up at 7am, exercise as much as he could with the limited space of the coffin, and read the daily newspaper or some of his books.
Sometimes people would talk to Meaney through the tubes, which he is understood to have enjoyed.
And, after a whopping 61 days underground, Meaney emerged, outlasting his rival in the United States, who emerged from his confinement after 55 days.
Mr Meaney's world record has not been beaten to this day.
