As a kid, I remember visiting Crystal Beach amusement park in Ontario, Canada. On the Midway, there was an arcade with one of those old fortune teller machines that would dispense a card with your answer on it. At the same time, the Skylon Tower here in Niagara Falls had a 1920s Mutoscope Grandmother Predictions fortune teller at the entrance of a doll exhibit. Despite being really creeped out, for some reason I was drawn to these mysterious machines. Everyone's captivated now since one recently made headlines that have captured America's attention.
Virginia City, Montana, was once a gold rush town that evolved into a ghost town turned tourist attraction. In 1998, the state paid $6.5 million for almost 250 buildings and their contents in Virginia City and nearby Nevada City from the son of Charles Bovey. Bovey Sr. was a collector who over the course of several years bought the buildings to preserve the two ghost towns and to store his large collection of music machines like calliopes and coin-operated antique games including stereoscopes and strength, shock and romance tests.
In Bob's Place, a restaurant, sat the 8' tall Gypsy since the 1950s, dusty and out of order. When the Montana Heritage Commission (MHC) decided to restore her 5 years ago, interest was piqued when it was discovered she was a treasure, perhaps even a one-of-a-kind. Instead of a card, the Gypsy was verbal. Upon inserting a nickel, her eyes flashed, teeth chattered and she told your fortune through a tube using two Edison cylinder machines inside the mechanism. There were two coins slots, male and female, and where you put the coin determined which machine would be activated.
Though unable to complete a full restoration, the curators were careful to keep her as original as possible. Only period materials or exact replicas were used otherwise the part wasn't repaired or replaced. In 2008, she became the highlight of the Gypsy Arcade on Virginia City's Main Street where she is located at the rear, isolated by ropes and out of public reach.
The Gypsy was made between 1904 to 1907 by the Mills Novelty Co. Most of the earlier machines are from the 1920s/30s so she is a very early example. Moving automatons, as these machines are known, were first introduced in the late 1800's by manufacturers like Exhibit Supply and in the 1930s the machines were fixtures in penny arcades. The mannequins in these machines, sometimes wax, were incredibly detailed and fantastically lifelike. In the 1950s, old-fashioned games grew popular again and many more machines were produced, albeit without the same attention to detail as the older versions.
Production continued into the 1970s and since then reproductions have far outnumbered originals. The newer versions and repros can fetch $2000 to $8000 but the older ones can command much higher prices. The 1928 Doraldina fortune-teller machine sold in 2010 for $12,500 and the asking price for Cleveland's Grandmother's Predictions from 1932 is currently $32,500. The remade version sells for about $8000. The famous Zoltar machine from the Tom Hanks film Big is a much later example and the machine pictured is the one of the most custom reproduced automatons today.
The debate of course is now over whether or not to sell her. Some believe there might be a couple more in the world but collectors like magician David Copperfield believe she is the only verbal machine still in existence. Copperfield is a collector of turn-of the century penny arcade games and reportedly offered 2 million plus a replacement fortune teller machine and a promise to promote Virginia City. Another interested party is Theo Holstein, a collector and renovator, who is trying to raise $3 million to outbid Copperfield. He believes the Gypsy needs special care to be restored to full functionality which can only be done in a private collection. Holstein also feels the machine could sell for as much as 10 million.
The curators of the MHC are against the sale of any of the items in the buildings from Bovey's collection. There are in fact hundreds of thousands, many that have yet to be uncovered by the curators. Marilyn Ross, the commission's acting director stated, “That is not something we would ever consider, selling off these antiques.” Unfortunately, the state feels differently. The recession caused budget cuts in order to keep Montana fiscally healthy and the MHC was reorganized to cut $400,000 from the commission's budget which resulted in the loss of four state curator positions. Department of Commerce deputy director Andrew Poole said any offer in writing would be considered but will have to be consented to by the MHC and the public.
Where will the Gypsy end up? I suppose the answer is most likely with the highest bidder. I see the MHC's side; they only want her to be seen. The collector however, will tell you she needs to be preserved and working again. I predict whether kept or sold, the Gypsy will inevitably end up somewhere like the Smithsonian, isolated by ropes and out of public reach...
