Coin operated fortune tellers have always been a popular feature at penny arcades. There is something truly unique about these machines that seems to capture the imagination. 
The earliest fortune teller, Verbille, was made by the Mills Novelty Company. Verbille was a gypsy in the back of her wagon and had a phonograph player inside that would speak your fortune. 
In the 1930's fortune tellers had motion; breathing, eyes moving, hand waving, head nodding, etc. They also vended a card with your fortune. 
An extremely popular theme was a grandmother fortune teller. There were many variations including: Gypsy Grandma, Grandmother Predicts, Ask Grandma, and Horoscope Grandma.
My grandma made great hot chocolate and complained about assorted health problems, (real and imagined). I don't seem to remember her ever stopping mid sentence to go into a psychic trance or having premonitions of any sort, but then again I was probably too busy drinking my hot chocolate to notice. (It's chocolate for crying out loud. Don't even try to tell me that you've never been so caught up in trying to retrieve a piece of Dove dark chocolate, which you ingeniously hid in an air vent for just such a PMS emergency, that you accidentally caught a potholder on fire, set off the smoke alarm, and burned dinner. Yeah, feeling a little humbled now aren't you? I told my husband this happens to all women. I told him! He seemed to be under the illusion that these 'crazy situations' (his words, not mine) are exclusive to me and Lucille Ball. )
And now back to our regularly scheduled program:
The Musee Mecanique had fortune tellers that dispensed cards, read your palm, and my daughter Taylor's personal favorite, The Zodi, which was an old fashioned type writer that typed your fortune as you watched, cut the paper, and shot it, (with amazing force!), out the side of the machine.
The Musee Mecanique had fortune tellers that dispensed cards, read your palm, and my daughter Taylor's personal favorite, The Zodi, which was an old fashioned type writer that typed your fortune as you watched, cut the paper, and shot it, (with amazing force!), out the side of the machine.
I have always loved these old fortune teller machines. They are obviously the inspiration for my Zoltar necklace. I suspect I'm not alone in this fascination as Zoltar has consistently been my most popular piece out of all my designs. (A close second is my Your Fortune Teller necklace.) 
I wonder if these fortune teller machines could warn me of coming mishaps like potholders catching fire...
Actually, my 'womanly cycle' documented on a calender would probably do the trick.
Coming Next: The final installment of this spell binding trilogy... really weird machines.
And an adorable little film by my daughter, Lauren, of the Musee Mecanique. No kidding, it's really cute. Yes, I know I'm her mom, but I'm telling you it's cute. Not 'cute' as in the "of course you're attractive honey" sense of cute that all moms must abide to. We're talking honest to goodness cute as in 'this is a film made by my daughter' and yes, in a totally unrelated and independent way, 'this film is in fact cute'.
I'm telling you it's cute.
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3 comments:
Zoltar was on TV this past weekend.
PBS featured the movie BIG.
It still creeps me out just watching that thing move without being plugged in (IN THE MOVIE)... But it is movies like that, Pinocchio, A Little Princess, and more that helped me have faith and believe that WISHES CAN COME TRUE.
And they really do!
I hope you learn to stash your chocolate in a safer place.
Like maybe hidden within a ziplock tucked in a jacket pocket, in your closet... Oh wait, you did mention the girls wear your clothes... Um, maybe you can hide it in the same plastic bag buried behind your books... OR make a dummy book! Cut out the center of an old book and Viola' you have a hiding place!
Or perhaps hide it in an old sock...
I doubt anyone would look for it there!
OK... I was just trying to make myself laugh... And it worked.
Not sure if you did, but I did!
Your husband sounds cool. Mine feels the same way though about having the mess I make in the middle of the night cleaned up by the time he get home from work the next day. I get the same look!
Who are they kidding?
Yeah we can clean it up... But there will just be another mess made again shortly...
:o)
Amber,
When I first started making my Zoltar I tried a design where his eyes would 'light up' like in the movie. I had a strip of paper you could pull across with his reg. eyes and then lit up eyes. It looked completely creepy.
I actually stashed some of my beloved Dove chocolate under my pillow while reading in bed one night. I woke up the next morning to the sound of my dogs licking nonstop. I was have awake and thinking what are those two nutballs doing now?! I opened my eyes and discovered melted chocolate all over the bed. Actually it was nice to have breakfsat already made...
Jamie,
I really wanted that Zoltar necklace--but I was too afraid my children would quickly lose all the little fortunes out of it. I HAD to come and tell you how much I am LOVING my Moulin Rouge necklace though. I am such a fidgety, easily-bored girl---like yesterday evening when I was sitting in a meeting being bored to death---and then I remembered: hey! I'm wearing a TOY :)! It was great entertainment!
I bet you got a ton of inspiration from such an amazing trip! I'm off now to go look at the pictures in the other post.
And keep blogging---I promise with a great sense of humor like yours, you'll have tons of readers and commenters in no time. It took me a good 4 months to break that "4 comments" mark.
All the best to you!
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