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‘Magician David Copperfield reportedly made a $2million (£1.2million) bid for a 100-year-old ‘talking Gypsy Fortune Teller‘ that he believes is the only one of its kind in the world – but she could fetch even more than that. Collectors are battling for ownership over the machine, which sat for decades amid Old West kitsch at a restaurant called Bob’s Place in Virginia City, Montana. When you drop a nickel in the slot, her eyes flash, her teeth chatter and her voice comes floating from a tube extending out of the eight-foot-tall box. David Copperfield told The Associated Press that he thinks she is ‘only one of one’ Theo Holstein, a California collector and renovator of such machines, said he thinks the Gypsy is wasted in Virginia City and should be placed in a private collection for proper care. He said he is trying to gather investors to make a $3million bid that would top Copperfield’s offer. Holstein said he wouldn’t be surprised if the machine ultimately sold for $10million (£6.1million) or more.’
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‘Bocca Della Verità fortune teller: ‘Saw this fortune teller in Kobe Japan last week. An interesting and clever idea to use the ancient Roman “truth mouth” as a theme. Just put your hand in the mouth and 100yen in the slot and out pops your fortune. I think the neon lit palm at the top was added as an after thought because no one in Japan recognised the theme! This machine was outside an arcade in a shopping Mall.’
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‘It cost one pound for your fortune to be read. He said to me “Come closer and listen to what I have to tell you, dream as if you live forever, live as if you die today. that’s right, you must live your days as if they were your last, because one day, they will be, you know what I mean. So go on, have fun” At the end he gave me a fortune card.’
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‘Blind Man Fortune Telling Machine, with standing figure beneath a glass dome who points his white stick to one of a number of written phrases when activated via a penny (1d) slot; a second coin slot is for charitable donations to the National Institute for the Blind, made by Walter Hart of Ramsgate, England, c.1920-1930.’
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‘At Dixieland Delights, located in the heart of downtown on Broadway, you’ll find more Music City souvenirs than you could ever possibly need. Before you leave though, be sure to have your fortune handed down to you by Willie Nelson. Okay, so the fortune might be printed on a card, and the psychic may be a machine, not the country music megastar himself, but where else can you get your future delineated to you by a major celebrity for just one dollar?’
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‘A dime for the horoscope and a nickle for the fortune. When you a nickel or a dime, the Genco Horoscope Grandma moves her head, moves both hands, and breathes. The hoppers inside rotates until the right scroll horoscope is delivered into the tray out front. There are thirteen different drawers, one for each of the twelve month horoscope rolls, and a 13th drawer for the fortune roll. The horoscopes and fortunes are rolled up into small plastic tubes. If a nickel is inserted a fortune is dispensed. If a dime is inserted, the user selected horoscope (or fortune!) is dispensed. Many Genco Horoscope Grandmas have a modification – if a fortune only is requested, grandma again moves and the glowing ball lights up “yes” or “no” for the fortune (nothing is dispensed if the dispensor drawer for fortunes is empty).’
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Odd chinese fortune telling machine
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‘This is a working Mystic Pen, which came out in the 1930s. These were often revamped by the Mike Munves Company in the 1940s and 1950s. The pen jumps around in the machine as if it is writing your fortune, after reading your palm, and then dispenses what looks like a hand written card to you.’
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‘Now you can get learn your future from a Ian Brown-themed fortune telling machine created for his latest music video that’s currently housed in Piccadilly Records Shop, Manchester. The machine originally appeared in the music video for Brown’s new single ‘From Chaos to Harmony’. With it glowing red eyes and clay-like appearance, the machine appears to be CGI, but in fact, it was designed and creator by the video’s director, John Nolan, who also installed it in the record shop for all in Manchester to visit.’
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‘Rare Mystic Mirror fortune arcade circa 1920’s with oak case. Directions state: “Place pointer on question you desire. Drop coin in slot then pull and hold slot down.”’
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‘You put in a coin (5 baht or 15 cents US) and the wheel stops on a number. You take a sheet from the bin with that number and your “fortune” written on it. Everything from money to live advice to love to the sex of your unborn child. It’s all there. We found this machine in the old Chinatown district of Bangkok.’
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Zelda the Mysterious Fortune Teller: ‘When a coin is inserted, the overhead lights turn off, and Zelda’s eyes turn on (powered by two small 7 watt 120 volt bulbs). Then Zelda’s eyes blink, her chest breathes, and her hand moves over the cards in unison with her head moving, and then she dispenses the patron’s fortune on a card. After the card is dispensed the overhead lights turn back on. Her crystal ball is lighted from underneath and is always powered on. The card dispensor is a simple vertical stacked mech, where the cards are stacked in alternating directions.’
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Ask the Skull: ‘This machine features the Skull looking outside of his black wooden coffin which has a clear window with the Skulls head inside and a red velvet background. When you insert a nickel into the slot the skulls head will move around inside of the coffin clear window section of the coffin. Also when the machine is not in use the top roof lighting unit inside of the machine will stay on for attraction mode. Once the movements are complete a fortune ticket will appear in the slot. The top marquee sign on the machine reads: Ask The Skull and the gothic style sign on the cabinet reads: Answers from Beyond.’
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‘At the Presidents Hall of Fame and Museum in Clermont Florida a famous central Florida roadside attraction you have a President George W. Bush fortune telling machine that you can use.’
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‘A rare antique Pepsin Gum embossed tin dispenser, coin-operated to accept 1 cent for both gum and a fortune, sold for $57,000 at an auction held Oct. 4-6 by Showtime Auction Services at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Ann Arbor. The dispenser was the top lot in a sale that grossed $1 million.’
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The Truthful Bear
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‘Fortune tellers such as The Educated Donkey (also known as Madame Hee-Haw and Donkey Wonder) were produced by the Roovers Brothers of Brooklyn, New York from about 1892 to the 1930’s. First produced in 1892, electrified in 1910, Donkey Wonder was a crowd pleaser. This exact reproduction is of the early all mechanical automation version. Place one cent in the round opening, pull the lever all the way down and Donkey Wonder comes to life. She turns her head, lifts the rod in her right hand, chatters her little lips, moves her ears, checks you with her “eye piece” and then spins the ship’s wheel which rotates rapidly until it slows down and stops on a number. You read your fortune from the two sheets on her sides as it corresponds to the number on the ship’s wheel. Total of 24 fortunes.’
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Bones, The Fortune Teller: Get Bones to answer your Yes/No question by electrocuting him to get it out of him.’
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‘Nazar Speaks is a fortune-telling machine arcade minigame featured in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of The Diamond Casino Heist update. The machine features the character Madam Nazar, a major character from Red Dead Online. The animatronic Nazar has red glowing eyes and operates rather clunky and robotic. The player can pay $1 (or free if in their own Arcades) to trigger Madam Nazar to recite a fortune to the player. The player then reacts, usually in confusion or deep thought.’
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‘Coin-op fortune telling machines in Japan temple. Machines that dispense fortune telling advice with 100 yen inserted. Three languages available – Chinese, Korean and English.’
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‘The Fortune Teller Zultan was an animatronic sold online by Spirit Halloween for the 2007 and 2008 Halloween seasons. It resembled an ornate gray fortune teller machine with purple curtains and the word “Zultan” written at the top. When activated, the curtains parted revealing the head of Zultan who held a crystal ball with a skull inside. Zultan and the skull spoke one of various fortunes as Zultan’s head floated around and his eyes, mouth, and the skull’s mouth moved. Additionally, Zultan and the skull both had lighted eyes as well as inside the crystal ball.’
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‘Mr Vend ZAMBINI Arcade Quarter Machine measures you in 6 different categories: Love, Health, Success, Luck, Friends, and Creativity and gives you a verbal and an increasing beeping and LED response. The crystal ball spins and glows in the dark. Zoltan speaks and says now look into my eyes and they light up and he starts to read your thoughts.’
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1950’s Ask the Swami fortune teller napkin & menu holder
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Bollands Heaven and Hell Fortune Telling Machine: ‘1d, or one Britsh penny, coin-operated fortune telling machine produced by Bollands Amusement Machine Supply Co. in 1952. It features a central circle with half heaven and half hell fortune choices and a spinning arrow that points to your fortune.’
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‘Visitors to the Market Magic magic shop located in the Down Under level of Pike Market can’t help but see the Elvis ‘Rock Star’ Fortune Teller in the back corner of the shop. There is a bright blue neon light that says ‘Fortune Teller’ above the machine and you can see Elvis’ torso, wearing his trademark sunglasses inside the glass box and inviting you to throw your 75 cents into the machine to get your fortune told by the ‘King of Rock and Roll’…’
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‘Morgana was a fortune teller coin-op that appeared in the early 1970’s. No one knows the real date because there is no information on this game other than the flyers. It was released by Bally as a giant box version and by Bacchus(look up that name, it was also used in an episode of the Smurfs) as a single player version. My guess is the big box was the older model. These games had a Styrofoam head which was white with no face and a projector with a film strip. When you inserted your coin it would trigger the modified projector to play one segment of the film revealing a fortune projected on the head to make it look like it was alive.’
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‘Zobor The Great is a Robot fortune teller. Zobor reads your palm scan as well as the Tarot cards one at a time delivering your personal fortune!’
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British Beauties Bureau
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‘The Psychic Hive-Mind Fortune Teller is a fairground arcade-type attraction which can tell your fortune. Even better than that though – it’s also a web-connected Twitter application that can harvest tweets and regurgitate them as fortune readings! The Fortune Teller reads the mind of a twitter discussion. It takes people’s thoughts from their tweets, then deconstructs them into base content. It then reconstructs that content with randomised connecting text fragments to create the fortune reading. By doing this, it creates readings which are not just unique, but also context-specific and completely up-to-date as they are generated from current discussion happening live in real time. As well as speak your fortune and tweet it back to you, it also has a window into its brain, through which you can see the inner thoughts of the twitter discussions it is scanning.’
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‘Miss Kitty will give you your her words of wisdom if you give her a dollar! At the end of her message she will dispense a fortune card.’
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‘I grew up in the pre-liberalisation Delhi of the 1980s. It was the age of the railway-station weighing machine. For me the greatest thrill was receiving a one rupee (or was it 50 paise?) coin from my parents to slot into one of the ubiquitous weighing machines that dotted train stations. Once the coin was in, the multicoloured pinwheels located behind the glass casing along the semi-circular top of these machines began spinning like manic ballerinas accompanied by all manner of whirring and pinging. Rows of green, red and blue lights flashed. And then out came a rectangular ticket-sized piece of cardboard with not only one’s weight printed on it, but also a fortune. The railway weight ticket was the Indian version of the Chinese fortune cookie.’
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‘The first time I had my fortune told, it cost me two gold tokens in a slot that woke up Esmeralda. She was a torso and a head that shook to life, rumbling the kiosk that held her sleeping, until someone needed their fortune told. She was safe. Maybe because she was a doll. There was spindly concertina music and a hint at thunder, the lights flashing and Esmeralda groaning, calling out “I am Esmeralda!” waving her plastic hands over a deck of cards. Then, the machine shuddered and went black again, putting Esmeralda back to sleep with an anticlimactic shuffle of paper, which slipped to a lower compartment. It was my fortune.’
“You have had a lot of trouble, for which others are largely responsible, but you are now reaching a point when you will be able by your own efforts, to control your own affairs. You are not easily understood, as you keep much to yourself. You are fond of the fine arts and like to be alone a great deal. You some times have a desire to destroy things, especially in your young days, for which you are sorry afterward. Be careful of the figure 7 appears on any money transaction and keep your eyes open to some of your “would be” friends.”
*
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Is there a mellotron on that track? Only one way to find out, I guess. ** CAUTIVOS, Hi, thanks. Super nice here too, but the imminence of summer’s heat-based misery hangs over everything. Yes, I’m in Paris, same old same old. Paris used to have relatively mild summers, but now … you never know. Last year it was tolerable except about a week of complete hell. We’ll see. But generally the climate here is pretty swell. Thanks, pal. Right now I’m concentrating on a new film and a theater piece, but I’m working on some fiction here and there, and it’ll add up to something. Have a superb day if you can. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, I really thought the ARTE experience would stand as the worst producer experience ever, but our current situation almost makes those days warrant nostalgia. Almost. I think I would say based on experience that you should feel lucky that they don’t sing and beg on the trains. I’m heavily on board with your love’s magic power of Saturday, even though I hate asparagus for some reason. So maybe I’d make a slight alteration and turn them into, oh, broccoli? Love given the unexciting task of making a significant portion of the many people I’m reaching out to right now and asking to make a donation to our film project make a donation, G. ** Misanthrope, Artists still use mellotrons sometimes, but not with the ambition like they used to, but rather to give their music a retro vibe. My weekend wasn’t a huge amount of fun, but fingers crossed that yours was. ** Jack Skelley, Hi, Jack. Awesome confabbing with you on Saturday, most naturally. Thank you ever so much in advance for the digital file. Yay! Have the best ever week in the history of weeks. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Well, being someone who puts Guided by Voices and Pavement at the very top of the higher echelon of all-time greatest bands, I encourage you to dig in, although GbV’s body of work is dauntingly gigantic. Tips about where too begin if you want them. Thanks again, man! ** Robert, Hi, Robert! I listened to early Genesis a lot in my own high school days, or, wait, just post-high school days, and I saw them live once with Gabriel at the end of his tenure there, and, yes, they were wild. Me, too, obviously about that sound. It does something to my ears that nothing else can manage. Hope you’re great. ** Bill, Hi, B. Thanks a lot for the demo. I’m all over it any minute. I have a coal miner helmet light, but it’s broken and set to ‘strobe’. Monday + you = ? ** Steve Erickson, I did, actually. Back when I had my psychedelic high school rock band, we rented one on one afternoon to see what we could do with it. Actually George Miles, who was the keyboardist of the band, did the most testing of it. And, yes, it was way too complicated to figure out well enough to use in any useful way, sadly. Everyone, Mr. Erickson has a couple of announcements: ‘I’ve written a new song, “Molten Gun”, inspired by the cycle of gun violence over the last two weeks. Features harsh, distorted percussion, samples of ASMR and Boguslaw Schaeffer! I’ve also made an Apple Music playlist of the best new music I’ve heard this month.’ ** _Black_Acrylic, Even though I don’t remember precisely, I feel pretty certain that The Dreadful Flying Glove must’ve loved the mellotron. I keep waiting for him to pop in here out of the ether one of these days. Yes, Zac in fact told me he went out to visit a friend who lives near the stadium on the night of the match, and he said on the way there the train was full of giddy British fans, and, by the time he went home, the train was full of very depressed and angry British fans, but no violence on the train. Although the consequent citywide mess was all over the news this weekend. All the positive vibes you could ever need from me and mine re: the podiatrist visit today. How did it go? ** Brandon, Ah, damn. Well, there are lots of surreptitious videos of their performance out there, as I’m sure you know. I guess your poor friend is okay if you were going out again. Intense. Well, it’s good to know I’m not alone in my suffocated state, but let’s fight our way out of it somehow like, I don’t know, the heroic buddies in a zombie movie or something. Good day to you! ** Okay. Today’s post is the result of getting an odd idea and following through on it and being surprised by the resources available and making a post as a consequence. My suspicion is there is fun to be had, but that’s your call, obviously. See you tomorrow.
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