Branding, Necromancer-Style

A Necromancer advertisement (what?! they have to advertise to, you know!) from somewhere in Rhode Island in the late 1800s.  

Some of the tiny text is worth reproducing here, as it may be too hard to read.   Yes, it really does say “oracley.”

Skeptics of Holy Writ have denounced their Skepticism as they behold demonstrated in this Nineteenth Century the original and more Marvelous Illusions than was ever performed by the Ancient Egyptians or the Necromancer of India.

The Wonderful Power of Producing Realities from Nothing and Commanding Articles to be Constructed from the Ashes of the Earth; and yet more Startling is his Sorcery of calling forth from any desirable source, true flesh and blood, covered with nature’s raiment, BREATHING, MOVING, AND LIVING Creatures as perfect and natural as made by the hand of Nature.

His Marvelous Powers of Conjuring is Manifested by merely asking for or moving his and that his desires are complied with.  So strange and yet so oracley is PROF REYNOLDS that the mints of the earth are subject to his comand, he has only to reach forth his hand and grasp as much gold or silver coin as his heart desires…..

Don’t Miss this Opportunity of seeing that which will never appear before you again

The Globe Tower Scam

It was to be the largest steel structure in the world. At 700 feet tall, the building would be three times larger than any structure then-existing in New York City.  It was to house the world’s largest amusement park and the world’s largest ballroom.  It was to host a circus and a rollerskating rink, a bowling alley and a theater and the world’s largest rotating restaurant. 

 It was the Globe Tower.  And it was a total scam.

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In 1906, an advertisement appeared in the pages of the New York Herald.  A developer named Samuel Friede was seeking investors for his ambitious Globe Tower project.  He acquired some land on Coney Island, next door to the popular Steeplechase amusement park.  

Friede promised his investors a 100 percent return on their money every year.  In retrospect, that probably should have been the first sign of a rat.  But thanks to Friede’s personal connections and some arm-twisting by Edward Langan, who was a corrupt elevator inspector in Brooklyn, more than $300,000 worth of stock was sold. 

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Tower was held in May 1906.  There were speeches and fireworks and a concert.  Strangely enough, nearly a year passed with no progress made on the site.

Investors got anxious, so Friede organized a second ceremony in early 1907.  He announced plans to install 800 concrete pilings for the tower’s base.  Each slab of concrete was 30 feet tall and 5 feet around, which probably looked very impressive to the investors.  Of course, nowadays, any good architect would question whether even pilings that size could hold up a building designed to hold 50,000 people.  There never were 800 pilings installed, anyway… the real number was closer to 30.

Then a man named Henry R. Wade, who had been the treasurer for the project, was convicted on unrelated embezzlement charges.  As part of his testimony, he confessed to a New York courtroom that the entire Globe Tower project had been a scam.  He claimed that Friede and Langan, along with the project’s architect and its bookkeeper, had divided the $300,000 between themselves and disappeared. 

Wade, the only involved party to serve any jail time, was only paid $4,000.  And the owner of Steeplechase Park was left with the problem of how to remove 30 useless concrete pilings from the property.

So You Want to be a Geek?

A snake-chomping Wild Man at a sideshow in Donaldsonville, Louisiana in 1938.  

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Now, I’ve been called a geek, I’ve referred to others as geeks.  You probably have, too.  But this here is what the word actually means: the geek is the guy at the sideshow that bites the head off a snake or (more commonly) a chicken. 

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Keep this in mind next time you geek out…