The Amazing Criswell
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Jeron Criswell King (August 18, 1907 – October 4, 1982) born Jeron Criswell Konig, and known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell, was an American psychic who was famous for his wildly inaccurate predictions. In person, he went by Charles Criswell King, and was sometimes credited as Jeron King Criswell.
Criswell said that he had worked as a radio announcer and news broadcaster early in his life. He began buying time on a local Los Angeles television station in the early 1950s to run an early equivalent of infomercials for his own "Criswell Family Vitamins." To fill in the airtime, he also began his "Criswell Predicts" segments as part of the show. The shows made him something of a minor, off-beat celebrity in Los Angeles and around Hollywood, and his friendship with old show-business types like Mae West and other up-and-coming fringe celebrities like Korla Pandit made Criswell an entertaining presence at parties.
His fame brought him appearances on the Jack Paar show, among others, and he published two books of predictions.
Criswell found cinematic infamy in the movies of Ed Wood, including Plan 9 from Outer Space (filmed 1956, released 1959) Night of the Ghouls (filmed 1959, released 1987) and Orgy of the Dead (1965). He was portrayed by actor Jeffrey Jones in the biopic Ed Wood (1994), in which it is suggested that Criswell was simply a showman and never claimed to be a real psychic. However, those who knew him, such as actress and fellow Plan 9 alumna Maila Nurmi ("Vampira"), have disputed this. According to writer Charles A. Coulombe, whose family rented an apartment from the psychic, Criswell told Coulombe's father "[I] had the gift, but … lost it when I started taking money for it."
Criswell was a flamboyant figure, best remembered for his spitcurled hair, his stentorian speaking style, and his sequined tuxedo. He was the possessor of a coffin, in which he claimed to sleep (he had grown up in a troubled family in Indiana with relatives who owned a funeral home, and said that he had gotten comfortable with sleeping in caskets in the storeroom). The casket found its way into a later Ed Wood film, the pornographic Necromania from 1971.
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[edit] Predictions
Criswell's predictions were nationally syndicated. Additionally, the psychic appeared on the television show Criswell Predicts on KCOP Channel 13 in Los Angeles, as well as being kinescoped for syndication on other television stations. Criswell's announcer, Bob Shields, would eventually be the announcer on Divorce Court. Criswell was notorious for wearing his heavy pancake makeup outside the studio.
Criswell authored several books of predictions, including 1968's Criswell Predicts: From Now to the Year 2000. In this book, the author claimed that Denver would be struck by a ray from space that would cause all metal to adopt the qualities of rubber, leading to horrific accidents at amusement parks. He also predicted an outbreak of mass cannibalism and the end of the world, which he set as happening on August 18, 1999 (perhaps coincidentally, his birthday).
Criswell's most famous prediction was made on The Jack Paar Program in March 1963, when he predicted that John F. Kennedy would not run for reelection in 1964 because something was going to happen to him in November 1963.[1]
[edit] Private Life
Criswell was married to a former speakeasy dancer named Halo Meadows, who once appeared on You Bet Your Life, and who Coulombe describes as "quite mad": "Mrs. Criswell had a huge standard poodle (named 'Buttercup') which she was convinced was the reincarnation of her cousin Thomas. She spent a great deal of time sunbathing … which, given her size, was not too pleasing a sight."
Criswell was longtime friends with actress Mae West, once predicting her impending rise to the position of President of the United States, whereupon she, Criswell and George Liberace, the brother of showman Liberace, would ride a rocket to the moon. West used Criswell as her personal psychic, as well as lavishing him with gifts of homecooked food, dropped off via chauffeur. The food was often then eaten by Criswell and Nurmi, who refused any direct contact with West after a many-decade-old unpleasant experience with the film actress. Additionally, West was known to sell Criswell her old luxury cars for $5. For her 1955 album The Fabulous Mae West, she recorded a song about the psychic, titled, appropriately enough, "Criswell Predicts."
Criswell was reputedly homosexual, and was a habitué of The Gold Cup, a defunct Los Angeles coffee shop at the corner of Las Palmas and Hollywood Boulevard that served as an informal meeting place for homosexual encounters.
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