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MinnesotaChef Regular user Minneapolis,MN 176 Posts |
Does anyone remember the Minnesota IceMan? It toured around the US, and I think back in the 50's or 60's was studied by scientist and thought to be real. The next time it came around it had been replaced by a obvious fake. Then the fake disappeared. I never heard the end of this story or what the outcome of the research was. Can anyone help?
P.S. Phillip Morris just came out that he was behind the bigfoot costume used in the famous Patterson film.
"Great restaurants are, of course, nothing but brothels.There is no point in going into them if one intends to keep one's belt buckled."- Fredric Raphael
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M. Perk Loyal user Hilton Head Island 292 Posts |
A wonderful book on this subject is The Museum of Hoaxes by Alex Bose. It is still available from Amazon.com. It covers some of the hoaxes mentioned above plus much more. Highly recommended.
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constantine Regular user Memphi, on the Mighty Muddy 189 Posts |
Quote:
On 2004-09-22 19:57, Xmosis wrote: True True True....the point is the fireman story is also true Bobby Reynolds mermaid,the real one,woundn't fool Hellen Kellers,but Xmosis strange things look real to me. I haven't heard about the Minnasotta Iceman in years.Jerry Mallone had beautiful six hundred pound Iceman.Don't know if thay were related.
Constatine 49%er
“The way of the transgressor is hard—to quit.” —Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith |
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drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
Sorry, gang, I have the real Feejee Mermaid. Well, one of them, anyway. The Peabody Museum at Harvard has the other one. Here is the story.
Yours, Paul |
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
Nice story 'Doc'.
Ripley's also displays what they call 'real' Feegee's...most have deteriorated to just the wooden armature....but they are as 'real' as any other. FeeJee or FeeGee's also known as Jeny Hannivers have been displayed for hundreds of years...PT's Fiji, came late in the procedings with the odd little monstrosities having been displayed in Europe long before he got one. The first more than likey having been made by Japanese artisans. PTs version looked NOTHING like the Peabody's 'specimen' and was much larger and was not a 'Belly Flopper'. I recreated the PT type for Bobby Reynolds years ago...and even had it on the road myself a few times...Bobby also displays some others of various lineage including a nice one carved of Balsa wood (but it doesn't look it) by a French gaffer that is a true work of art. The point is these things have been cropping up forever...and their individual histories are not exactly broadcast or even written down as the owners and most times the artists themselves would rather not reveal the derivation or who made it. (of course) I have no doubt Doc that you have a very old version of the things but to say one is real over another when they are all fake is stretching it to me. Some were made of a Mummified Monkey Head and Dried Fish Body. My friend Mark Frierson still does the Full Taxidermy kind which are incredible. Some were sculptures with wooden armatures...some were wooden armatures overlayed with fish skin...some were of clay...some of cow skin...etc. etc. and there is the kind I have been making since the early 70's and are still being displayed here and there, many of them totally original 'takes' on the legendary critters and of course the old funny looking Tate's which were made of Wood Paste and Toilet Paper, molded then colored with shoe polish...and sold by the hundreds to showmen in the 1940's & 50's and displayed for profit...(don't laff too hard...one of his exhibits STILL makes HUGE money in Arizona!) or there's the Frierson 'Rubber' variety which are still out there and have even appeared in the tabloids! There are the 'Pond Lilly Bills' which were created in the 60's & 70's from Plaster of Paris and animal hair and bone etc. (he was a river guide and trapper and made them up untill his death at age 93!)...and there is the amazing and unsurpassed work of the Nelson Supply Company which made the most realistic gaffs ever...I used to have one in my big Dime Museum...Olaf The Giant (which had been displayed at the Seattle World's Fair after decades of being 'on the road'... their Giant Mummies can still be found here and there...they also made MANY Dead Bodies and of course...yep...Feegee Mermaids. This company used real bones and teeth and skin and had tricks today's FX geniuses would flip over. So it's splitting semantic hairs, (and ignoring some really fine artists and gaffers and hoaxers as well)...but to say one is more 'real' than another when they are all fakes and products of an artists hand no matter the age or materials used is a stretch UNLESS the term is used to Ballyhoo the thing...then ANYTHING GOES! I would love to see a picture of your 'Mer' Doc...I'll bet it's sweet! Doug aka 'The Phantom Of The Midway'
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drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
Doug,
You are a treasure! I sent you a PM with some photos. As you can see, it's not a "belly flopper" either. As for stretching it "a bit," it is in my performing persona to stretch it all the way to the moon if that's what it takes. What I learned this summer is that the Feejee Mermaid is a performance piece. From the bally outside the tent, to the banners, to the inside lecture before uncovering the display case, it is all one big hypnotic presentation. When they get their first look, you have to read them just like a Tarot reader and morph into what they want to see. If they want history, they get history; if they want to talk about their personal experiences in crytozoology, you have to morph into a researcher; if they want entertainment you have to sparkle. It is a great experience. I know some folks just run a tape loop and people can walk by and look, but it is so much better to give them that personal service... Yours, Paul |
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
You are dead on the nail Paul! Perfect way to describe HOW-TO show a gaff. I rarely used a tape and always had the most fun 'reading them' and then doing the lecture. Some real funny stuff is said inside! hahaha.
I had one of my showman..I think in Mass. who was at some small fair and he had one of my Mers...he did the usual great (live pitch) and turned ther tip...he was presenting it as The Strange Thing (like I mentioned above) and one of the main banners outside (no pictorials) was what I recomend to all who are showing a 'questionable' exhibit "WHAT IS IT? THAT'S WHAT WE'D LIKE TO KNOW!" (one reason is every smartass on the midway will PAY YOU to tell you what it IS! and it gets you off the hook as well. ) Anyway this guy steps up and takes over the lecture! he tells everyone that this is obviously (some latin name I can't pronounce) a form of pre-historic such and such and the ONLY such specimen in the world! he then presented his credentials and was a pin head profesor from the University Of Mass (I think that's the one). He went on to write a letter for the showman authenticating it!!!! On Univ Letter head! hahahaha. I have lots of those stories. (The best I think is about Prof. Grover Krantz of Washington State University (the Bigfoot expert and Anthropoligist)...we got him GOOD! But that's another story. Good luck with your beautiful lady Doc! (and if you ever need an Atomic Fish....) Doug
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drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
Doug,
I will be posting some stories at Sideshow Central, but here is one of my favorites. A lady inside the tent looks me square in the eye and says, "You made this." I look around at the dust, the swaying of the cheap tent in the wind, the way my bamboo cane has started to splinter from me staggering around with it for the last four days and say, "If I could make something like this, would I have to stand in the dust at the Blue Hill Fair charging two bucks for people to look at it?" She thinks about it for a minute and says, "No, I guess not." Of course, Doug, craftsman that you are, you would need to do a bit more acting than I did at this point. I could just tell the truth. Like Dr. Tarbell says, just tell them the truth, and that will fool them every time! Yours, Paul |
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Cheshire Cat Special user Wilmslow, UK 941 Posts |
Just wondering what is the greatest hoax ever? I sincerely hope it's not a hoax, but a beautiful reality, but one cannot help wondering about faith, religion, and the promise of eternal life.
This is not intended to offend by the way, as I had a Christian family upbringing, and have brought my children up as such. But . . . |
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
Paul: My favorite one like that is (and I told this in one of my books on the subject and I think on Sideshow Central...can't remember but...)
I was doing the Placerville County fair and I had my Lost Pygmy Tribe Of The Amazon show...a few litle pygmy mummies...a bunch of authentic amazon tribal stuff and weapons etc....any way through out this one particular day there were two teachers (fem) who kept coming back to see the mummies...over and over...that they were facinated is an understatement...at the end of this day...they came back one last time and declared that my exhibit was far to valuable to be in a side show with a Circus... (I was set up next to happy Time Circus)...that these specimens should be being studied in a University! What could they do to acquire them? I called them aside and said, "They are here because I made them in my kitchen". DEAD SILENCE! Jaws dropped...I smiled and they finally broke out laughing and couldn't believe they had been 'had'. It was great...throughout the day I had given them a REAL education on the Amazon and the tribes that lived there...I always learn as much as I can about an area to help 'sell' the show...so they had assumed I was an out of work college professor trying to get by....hahahaha...I love this stuff!! This was the same show where we logged over a dozen ADULTS asking the question: "Are the Mummies Alive?" Doug
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drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
Doug,
I had read that great story of yours over at Sideshow Central, and the pygmy mummies really got under my skin. It was one of the reasons that I wanted to do a sideshow. I was asked by many people whether this specimen had been DNA tested! People are looking for scientific validation. I read a wild book about Feejee in the 19th century by a woman who lived there. It's "Life in Feejee" by Mary Wallis. Her account starts in 1844 (two years after Barnum's big splash). This and everything else I read turned out to be necessary. I was visited by a professor who teaches museum curation at the local college. She loved it, and came back with another academic. I was also visited by Avracadavra, who is here at the Café. Yours, Paul |
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
Wow...I was an inspiration...how 'bout dat!
I was able to get a bunch of folks in the 'game' over the years. Real proud of that. There was a time in the late 70's when Side Show Museums and Exhibits were dead and gone. Thanks to Circus Report where I had a weekly column and my ads offering Strange Objects, suddenly little shows began appearing coast to coast...in small fairs and flea markets. Many of them magicians who, like myself had PT Barnum as a long dead role model. In oreder to make it work, I had to figure out why it was dying out in the 1st place...it was a matter of re-writing the rules by breaking most of them and coming at it oblique and ass backwards...darn if it didn't do the trick. Even the old showmen were taken aback. Regarding the DNA Q etc. I came up with a dynamite way to not only deflect all that intellectual hoo ha...but to elliminate it completely while garnering further believability from those who might question ESPECIALLY if they are an egg head! Once again I call on the inimitable Dr. Art Fay, Curator of Crypto Studies at True Wonders Museum. I will send you the letter from D. Fay that you can display along side your 'zibit. Of course all you really need to know about Art Fay is Pig Latin. I'll compose the letter and send it to you as an attachment in the next day or so. Trust me...it works and will make you smile when it does! Doug
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drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
Thanks much, Doug!
Since someone asked what our favorite hoaxes are, here is one that really is my favorite. Most of you probably have not heard about it unless you follow the financial press. It is a real zinger! This is from the mid-to-late 1990s. The hoax (or scandal) involves a company called Bre-X. This was a gold mining firm that claimed to have found the world's biggest gold reserve in Indonesia. Investors want numbers, and Bre-X had them. They had engineering teams shipping thousands of mineral samples to outside firms to determine the amount of gold in the samples. There was really good evidence that this was the Mother of All Gold Strikes and the stock went to the moon. Just about the time a few stick-in-the-muds started asking tough questions about all this, the chief mining engineer for Bre-X "fell" out of a helicopter several hundred feet in the air. People started wondering whether the samples were "salted" with gold bought on the open market. There was talk that the gold in the samples was in the wrong form. The trouble is, in order for all those samples to have been faked, the company would have had to have a warehouse with a hundred workers working seven days a week to make them all. Well, it turns out, they did! The stock trajectory then looked like the path that the mining engineer took, the stock was delisted, and some of the executives fled to offshore havens. There is a book (which I haven't read) on Bre-X, I'm sure if you Google around you can find out more. That's my favorite hoax. Runners-up: 1. Cold fusion (OK, the perps may have been self-deluded, but it was still really good) 2. War of the Worlds, already described 3. The Fox Sisters and their little kiddie prank that turned into the fastest-growing religion in the history of America 4. Piltdown Man, actually buried with a prehistoric cricket bat so that people would see it for a joke, but they didn't get it and figured it was a tool 5. J.B. Rhine and his experiments at Duke University --- again, the perp may have been self-deluded, but this was a big one 6. Uri Geller --- you just gotta love the guy! 7. The Moon Landings. Just kidding! I wanted to see if you would read this far. Yours, Paul |
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
My favorites are the TATE exhibit attractions (I describe one in the Pro Intro thread in FX topic.)
Leats favorites are the daily frauds that occur from low life polititions...they prove 24/7, that sleaze and public stupidity is alive and well...at least they try hard. Self serving liars by the truck load. And that's the wrong kind of hoax.... I like the hoaxes that purvey a sence of wonder...create a brief moment of fantasy in the spectator...like your FeeJee...or one of my Mummy shows..or a two headed pig (though they are real in most cases)...PT had it all right...if I had a time machine THAT'S where I'd be!
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jonesc2ii Loyal user Oxford, England 235 Posts |
Fascinating stuff gentlemen. Could you PM me some photos too? Please !
www.ixyl.co.uk/forums - for when you fancy a debate or a quiet chat.
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MinnesotaChef Regular user Minneapolis,MN 176 Posts |
Two things, Has any one read the Factiod Book "Big Book of Hoaxes" from Paradox Press ?. It tells about hoaxes throughout history in 1-2 page comic stip form? It's a great starting point for further exploration of this facinating topic. Great for the Bathroom!
While watching Public Acess Cable a local evangelist was giving an anti-evolution (Pronounced Evil-ution)lecture and had a picture of what looked like a mounted baby Loch Ness Monster with a big fishing hook in it's head. He claimed that it was proof that Dinosaurs did not die out, but got smaller and are still alive in Lake Michigan! I am not making this up! The picture was of a guy in a plaid shirt and glasses holding up this creature mounted on a piece of driftwood. It was green, had a long neck, flippers, big eyes, and a very large fishing hook in it's head. The hook looked like Steve Martin with the arrow, but with a hook. The preacher guy said it was caught in Lake Michigan and died from the injuries it sustained while being caught. Is this one of your guy's work? It had the look of a man made mystery. Please feel free to be outraged for it's use in this manner.
"Great restaurants are, of course, nothing but brothels.There is no point in going into them if one intends to keep one's belt buckled."- Fredric Raphael
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
Aquatic 'critters' have been my specialty and I have done a few 'Sea Monster' type 'zibits...but never one with a hook in its head. Would like to have seen the images and maybe identify the source...as to the Preacher...if he paid for it he can do what he wants with it...heck I made Hitlers Pickled Weenie in a jar for a guy in the UK once many years ago! hahaha. Have no idea what he wanted it for.
Doug
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