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When radio broadcasting began in the early 1920s, the radio was a magic box aglow with the future, drawing humanity into a new age. Some thought it would dissolve the distance between time and place, others that human minds would become transparent, one tuned to another. Performers claiming psychic powers turned radio broadcasting into a fabulous money machine. These "mentalists," born from vaudeville, circuses, sideshows, and the Spiritualist and New Thought movements of the mid-late 19th century, used the language of wireless technology to explain their ability to see the past, present, and future. Casting their mystical knowledge as a scientifically honed craft, these mentalists persuaded millions to pay for dubious advice until governmental and public pressures forced them off the air.
This book is a history of over 25 performers who practiced their art behind studio microphones during the early years of radio broadcasting, from about 1920 to 1940. Here, laid out for the first time, is the tale of how they made cash rain from the heavens and harnessed the sensation of the radio in search of wealth, health, love, and success.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Broadcasts from the Borderland
The Mentalist Performance¿7 delete¿ deleteMagicians, Mediums, Magnetists and
Astrologers¿9 delete¿ deleteWireless Millennium¿23 delete¿ deleteHuman Radios¿36 delete¿ delete
Transmitting Secrets¿42 delete¿ deleteThe Rise and Fall of Radio Mentalism¿45
1.¿First on the Air
Hope Eden¿49 delete¿ deleteJulius Zancig¿63 delete¿ deletePaul Karä68
2.¿Front Yard Burial
Leona Lamar¿78 delete¿ deleteHamid Bey¿86
3.¿Sex Secrets Revealed
Signa Serene¿93
4.¿Who Am We?
Princess Wahletkä103 delete¿ deleteJoveddah De Rajah¿113
5.¿Hypnotized by Radio
Vishnu and Zinniä119 delete¿ deleteCharles Harad¿124
6.¿The Long Blindfold Drive
Francill¿133
7.¿Persuaded by Shadows
Norman Baker¿154 delete¿ deleteGayle Norman II¿168 delete¿ deletePhenomenä172
8.¿Spirits of the Air
Ethel Duncan¿177 delete¿ deleteAlma and Zandrä183
9.¿Across the Border
Mel-Roy¿197 delete¿ deleteRalph Richards¿206 delete¿ deleteMarjah¿216
10.¿Bank on Belief
Koran and Rose Dawn¿221
11.¿A Family of Troupers
Alburtus¿244
12.¿Wizards' War
Rajah Raboid¿267 delete¿ deletePrincess Yvonne and Doc Irving¿286 delete¿ delete
Bob and Larry Nelson¿298
13.¿What the Audience Will Bear
Gene Dennis¿320 delete¿ deleteJoseph Dunninger¿339
Coda
Appendix: Some Other Mentalists in Early Radio
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
John Benedict Buescher is the former chief of the Tibetan Broadcast Service of the Voice of America. He has authored articles on radio broadcasting to Tibet and books on the history of Buddhism and on the history of 19-century American Spiritualism. He is a co-director of the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals. He lives in Georgetown, Texas.
