Friday, June 25, 2021
Obscure old scam
Via Vintage.es, here's an old tech fake I'd never seen before.
Radiana, a crude "robot" who toured with a magician in the '20s and '30s, was obviously based on the old mechanical Turk chess player. Radiana was a box with a giant plaster head on top, and obviously human hands sticking out of plaster arms. The "professor" manipulated an obviously fake set of levers while a set of light bulbs blinked in front. As usual, a small live woman was inside the statue providing the hands.
I tried searching for Radiana or "Professor" Popjie in the publications at American Radio History, with no results. Billboard magazine included lots of obscure magic acts, but not this one. There are a few references elsewhere on the web, but they're just the same text that Vintage.es used.
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 1:26 PM
