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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Conny Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and we've

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Speaker 1: recently covered the photographer Wuigi on the show and as

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Speaker 1: you may recall, he allegedly got his nom de lens

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Speaker 1: because he was nicknamed after the Wigia board. And of

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Speaker 1: course that got me thinking about how I have been

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Speaker 1: planning for a long time, a really long time, to

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Speaker 1: do a spirit board episode, but I could never figure

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Speaker 1: out exactly how to tackle it. And that's because it's

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Speaker 1: hard because there is a lot of different information and

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Speaker 1: ways you can go, uh so to level set. This

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Speaker 1: is not going to be like a survey of ways

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Speaker 1: people have used spirit boards around the world through history.

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Speaker 1: Instead of what we're really talking about today is the

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Speaker 1: rise of the Weigia board in North America, and that

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Speaker 1: is different from just calling it a spirit board because

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Speaker 1: Weigia is a trademarked name and the story behind it

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Speaker 1: and how it became a corporate thing is kind of

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Speaker 1: a morass. Listen, this is a Halloween episode, but you're

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Speaker 1: going to get a lot of stuff you might not expect.

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Speaker 1: We're going to talk a little bit about spiritualism, yes,

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Speaker 1: but there is a lot more corporate intrigue and betrayal

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Speaker 1: and family feuds and litigation and even some psychology, And

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Speaker 1: there is so much that it is a two parter,

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Speaker 1: even having gone with a really limited scope of the

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Speaker 1: u s and the Weigia boards specifically. So for this

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Speaker 1: first part, we're going to cover how talking boards started

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Speaker 1: to show up in the press in North America and

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Speaker 1: then how that interested businessmen and ultimately how what seems

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Speaker 1: like a surprise player kind of comes out of nowhere

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Speaker 1: to essentially run the entire industry of spirit board production.

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Speaker 1: And then in part two we're going to continue with

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Speaker 1: the commercial manufacturer weig boards. Were also going to touch

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Speaker 1: on some exam poles of how it comes up in

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Speaker 1: pop culture over the years, as well as in legal cases.

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Speaker 1: That's where we get into probably more Halloween, certainly some

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Speaker 1: gruesome stuff. And then we will wrap by talking about

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Speaker 1: what is really happening psychologically when you play with a

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Speaker 1: Wigia board and become convinced that something or someone other

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Speaker 1: than you is controlling that plan set. So there's been

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Speaker 1: various devices intended to help the living speak with the

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Speaker 1: spirit realm really just about as long as there's been

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Speaker 1: recorded history. As Polly just alluded to, if this were

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Speaker 1: a global history of spirit writing and communication like that

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Speaker 1: would be a whole different episode. During the rise of

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Speaker 1: spiritualism in the United States specifically, there was an explosive

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Speaker 1: growth and the number and the variety of these kinds

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Speaker 1: of devices. They all had their pros and cons, but

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Speaker 1: towards the end of the nineteenth century, one approach to

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Speaker 1: solving transdimensional communication was embraced by believers and nonbelievers alike.

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Speaker 1: It is still popular today, and that is, of course

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Speaker 1: spirit boards or wegi boards as they came to be known,

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Speaker 1: and their commercial offerings. So just as a level set

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Speaker 1: in case you don't know what we're talking about, a

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Speaker 1: weed to board or a talking board or spirit board,

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Speaker 1: you'll hear all of those phrases used. Is a printed board.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it's painted, sometimes it's printed and then varnished. There

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Speaker 1: are lots of different ways they can be made. It's

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Speaker 1: usually rectangular or round with letters, numbers and a few

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Speaker 1: words printed on it. We're gonna talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about specifics in a bit, But then there is

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Speaker 1: a planchett that sits on top of the board and

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Speaker 1: players gently rest their fingertips on the plan schett. To play.

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Speaker 1: The players ask questions and then wait for answers to

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Speaker 1: be spelled out by the plantchett moving across the board

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Speaker 1: to land on the various options. Where do these answers

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Speaker 1: come from? Well, that is part of the fun, and

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Speaker 1: it's been actually a matter of debate since the beginning.

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Speaker 1: In spring of six, an Associated Press news article that

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Speaker 1: was first published in the New York Tribune and then

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Speaker 1: got picked up and appeared in papers all across the

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Speaker 1: US mentioned spiritualists using what was referred to as a

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Speaker 1: talking board. This article ran under the title the New

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Speaker 1: plan Set. If you've ever played with a Wegia board,

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Speaker 1: you know that the plant set is a little tool

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Speaker 1: for the board. It's normally shaped like an inverted heart.

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Speaker 1: There's a small pointer window that it moves across the

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Speaker 1: game board to select letters or words as a means

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Speaker 1: of communication. But before the development of the Regia plant set,

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Speaker 1: the object that was usually called a plan set was

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Speaker 1: shaped the same basic way, but it had a pencil

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Speaker 1: attached to it vertically at one of the points where

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Speaker 1: it was touching the surface, so that surface would be

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Speaker 1: a piece of paper, not a board with printing on it.

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Speaker 1: That older version of the plant sett was invented in

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Speaker 1: France in the eighteen fifties as a divination tool, thus

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Speaker 1: the name it means little plank in French. As the

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Speaker 1: plant Sjett moved across the surface, that pencil on it

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Speaker 1: produced writing on the piece of paper, writing typically more

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Speaker 1: like a scribble that you had to discern and interpret.

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Speaker 1: It was really subject to different interpretations. Yes, and we're

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Speaker 1: giving you all of this background on the plant set

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Speaker 1: because it helps to understand the opening of that eight

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Speaker 1: eight six article Tracy just mentioned, which starts out Planchett

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Speaker 1: is simply nowhere, said a Western man at the Fifth

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Speaker 1: Avenue Hotel, compared with the new scheme of communication being

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Speaker 1: used in Ohio. I know of whole communities that are

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Speaker 1: wild over the talking board, as some of them call it.

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Speaker 1: I have never heard a name for it, but I

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Speaker 1: have seen and heard some of the most remarkable things

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Speaker 1: about its operations, things that seemed to pass all human

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Speaker 1: comprehension or explanation. The write up goes on to share

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Speaker 1: an interview with this unnamed Western man about the board

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Speaker 1: and the plant set. The description is gonna sound really familiar.

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Speaker 1: He sketched out a board for the reporter just about

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Speaker 1: exactly what you would see if you bought a commercially

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Speaker 1: available version today. According to this interviewee, it was about

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Speaker 1: eighteen by twenty inches. The board included the alphabet numerals

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Speaker 1: zero to nine, the yes and no options, and then,

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Speaker 1: according to this account, the words good eve and good night,

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Speaker 1: which sounds like the same thing to me, So like,

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Speaker 1: what uh to use this? There needed to be quote,

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Speaker 1: a little table three or four inches high with four legs.

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Speaker 1: According to the interviewee quote, anyone can make the whole

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Speaker 1: apparatus in fifteen minutes with a jack knife and a

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Speaker 1: marking brush. You can see this would be a lot

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Speaker 1: faster and maybe easier than trying to decipher scribbles that

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Speaker 1: had been created with the original style of plant set. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and to be clear, that little table four inches high

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Speaker 1: he's talking about is what would become the Wegia plan chet.

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Speaker 1: The four inches high seems very tall to me and

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Speaker 1: like it might careen around into kind of a tippy way.

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Speaker 1: But listen, I wasn't there. Uh. This whole right up though,

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Speaker 1: is pretty thorough in terms of just describing how the

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Speaker 1: board was used. It kind of reads almost like a

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Speaker 1: game manual. The Western man describes taking the board in

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Speaker 1: your lap across from another person, and each person then

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Speaker 1: grasping what he called the little table today as we said,

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Speaker 1: we'd call that the plan chet, and then asking the

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Speaker 1: question are there any communications? According to this account quote,

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Speaker 1: pretty soon you think the other person is pushing the table.

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Speaker 1: He thinks you are doing the same. He told the

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Speaker 1: reporter that the communication starts with the use of yes

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Speaker 1: or no and then progresses to spelling out more detailed

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Speaker 1: replies to questions. The only real difference in this description

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Speaker 1: to the way a Weegi board functions today is that

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Speaker 1: the users would look for where the legs of the

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Speaker 1: table or the plan chet landed on the board instead

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Speaker 1: of having that clear window to see what letters centered

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Speaker 1: in it. This created some confusion and people would have

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Speaker 1: to re ask questions because of course two legs could

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Speaker 1: be touching letters at the same time. But the account

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Speaker 1: reads quote, some remarkable conversations have been carried on until

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Speaker 1: men have become a measure superstitious about it. This ap

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Speaker 1: article really sets out the whole life that the spirit

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Speaker 1: board would have because It also offers some cautionary tales

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Speaker 1: about its dangers. The interviewee mentions a man named Jack

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Speaker 1: who became so distressed at his family's obsession with this

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Speaker 1: talking board that he burned it. Allegedly, when the wife

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Speaker 1: had it replaced and asked what happened to the first one,

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Speaker 1: the new talking board spelled out, Jack burned it. This

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Speaker 1: account mentions valuable business information being communicated, and even the

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Speaker 1: possibility that a person not touching the plan set could

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Speaker 1: silently ask a question if two other people were touching it,

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Speaker 1: and that the answer to that silent question would still

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Speaker 1: be spelled out. This had become hugely popular in a

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Speaker 1: lot of Ohio towns, and according to the rite up,

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Speaker 1: it was replacing card games at parties as an amusement.

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Speaker 1: All all of the superstitious stuff, all of all of

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Speaker 1: the functioning. But this article also mentions the bias with

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Speaker 1: which people approach the board, although it doesn't call it that,

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Speaker 1: Western man merely says quote. There are, of course any

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Speaker 1: number of nonsensical and irrelevant answers spelled out, but the

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Speaker 1: workers pay little heed to them. If the answers are relevant,

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Speaker 1: they talk get over with a superstitious awe. This entire

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Speaker 1: thing that we've been discussing has so many ingredients about

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Speaker 1: what the board was, what it could do, and how

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Speaker 1: informative and or spooky it could be that if it

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Speaker 1: hadn't come out several years before the commercial release of Luigia,

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Speaker 1: it would be easy to think it was sort of

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Speaker 1: a nineteenth century viral ad campaign in the style of

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Speaker 1: the Blair Witch Project. So in just a minute, we'll

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Speaker 1: be talking about a talking board that made its way

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Speaker 1: to the White House. But first we will pause for

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Speaker 1: a sponsor break. In the second half of six that

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Speaker 1: was the year that article we mentioned in the first

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Speaker 1: section appeared. The New York Times ran a very brief

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Speaker 1: but really interesting note under the headline the President's witch Board.

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Speaker 1: It turns out that when Grover Cleveland got married, the

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Speaker 1: Lemonster Massachusetts company W S. Read to Wait in Manufacturing

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Speaker 1: sent him what the company called a witch board as

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Speaker 1: a wedding gift. The President's response was all that was

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Speaker 1: included in the Times blurb with the header of Executive Mansion, Washington,

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Speaker 1: June twelfth, six It reads, quote, Dear Sir, I acknowledge

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Speaker 1: with thanks the witch board you sent me as a

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Speaker 1: wedding present. I accept it as an evidence of kind

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Speaker 1: feeling and friendship, and can admire it for its ingenuity,

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Speaker 1: but I hardly think that I shall immediately test its

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Speaker 1: power to quote disclose the past and foretell the future.

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Speaker 1: Yours very truly, Grover Cleveland. So that date is important.

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Speaker 1: It is an account of a company making a witch

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Speaker 1: board for a president in eighteen eighties six. As we

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Speaker 1: look at the rise of the Luigia board, it's notable

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Speaker 1: that this one predated it, but it's not clear if

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Speaker 1: this was a product that was intended for a short

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Speaker 1: run of production, or whether it was some kind of

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Speaker 1: prototype or one off. We do know that WS Reid

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Speaker 1: did not start offering the talking boards widely to consumers

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Speaker 1: until a few years after that. So this leads us

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Speaker 1: to the point that there are varying stories of the

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Speaker 1: invention of the Wigia board. Many even among a very

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Speaker 1: small group of men who were part of the first

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Speaker 1: big manufacturer and marketing push. The story varies, and it

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Speaker 1: has changed over the years. Now. Some of that is

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Speaker 1: probably just a matter of memory failure, but some of

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Speaker 1: it was due to legal disputes and various stakeholders trying

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Speaker 1: to ensure the story that circulated supported their claims. That

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Speaker 1: ap article that we were talking about earlier was seen

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Speaker 1: by Charles Kennard, or it probably was. He was certainly

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Speaker 1: aware of the growing interest and talking boards. Canard was

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Speaker 1: a businessman who was born in Delaware in eighteen fifty seven,

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Speaker 1: and he had made an early fortune by developing a

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Speaker 1: fertilizer made from bone meal that was rich in phosp fit.

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Speaker 1: But then Kennard and his partner, Henry clay Chase kind

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Speaker 1: of faltered in their fertilizer business that was a very

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Speaker 1: competitive industry. Other problems like drought had impacted their production

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Speaker 1: and they lost the plant. Kennard moved to Baltimore, Maryland,

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Speaker 1: to start over once more in fertilizer. The change in

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Speaker 1: market really didn't help his efforts, though, so soon he

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Speaker 1: turned from fertilizer to real estate, which was more successful.

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Speaker 1: The address of his Baltimore fertilizer factory would become important

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Speaker 1: to the Wegis story. It was the address he used

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Speaker 1: to form the company that he would use to manufacture them.

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Speaker 1: That company, which was exclusively intended to make and sell

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Speaker 1: what would become WIGI boards, was the Kennard Novelty company

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Speaker 1: that was started in eight ninety by Charles Kinnard and

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Speaker 1: four other businessmen. So it was Kennard, Colonel Washington Booey,

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Speaker 1: Harry Wells Rusk, John F. Green, and William H. A. Moppin.

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Speaker 1: To be clear, no one involved with the Canard Novelty

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Speaker 1: Company was a spiritualist. They were businessmen who saw interest

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Speaker 1: in a product that they thought they could capitalize on them.

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Speaker 1: There was another person in the mix early on who

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Speaker 1: did not become a part of Canard Novelty. That was

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Speaker 1: ec Wright, who made his living building cabinets and coffins.

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Speaker 1: During a period before Kennard opened his business in Baltimore,

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Speaker 1: he was in Chestertown, Maryland, and had an office right

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Speaker 1: next to Rice, and Cannard is said to have described

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Speaker 1: these talking boards that he had heard about. He asked

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Speaker 1: Rice to make some. This would lead to Rice later

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Speaker 1: claiming that he was the inventor of the Weigia board

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Speaker 1: and that Kennard had taken it from him and started

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Speaker 1: his business. Cannard did sell the boards in Chestertown for

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Speaker 1: a few years immediately following that eight article, but he

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Speaker 1: clearly had a larger vision for the scope of his

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Speaker 1: sales efforts. Another important figure in the mix was a

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Speaker 1: man named Elijah Bond. Kennard met Bond, who was a

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Speaker 1: lawyer after he moved to Baltimore, and it was Bond

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Speaker 1: who applied for the first patent on Theligia board. Bond's

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Speaker 1: sister in law was instrumental in securing that patent and

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Speaker 1: for naming the board. You've probably read, or maybe worked

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Speaker 1: out for yourself, that the word luigia is a combination

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Speaker 1: of the French and German words for yes, we and yeah.

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Speaker 1: That may be true, but the lore for the name's origin,

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Speaker 1: as given by Cannard Novelty, was very much different. According

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Speaker 1: to their story, the board named itself with the help

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Speaker 1: of a medium, and that medium just so happened to

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Speaker 1: be Elijah Bond's sister in law, a woman named Helen Peters.

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Speaker 1: According to the publicized story, the group held a sort

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Speaker 1: of seance with Helen leading it, and they asked the

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Speaker 1: board what to call it. It's spelled out O U

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Speaker 1: I J A. When asked for a meaning to the word,

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Speaker 1: the boards told the assembled group that it meant good luck.

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Speaker 1: But there is a second version of that story that

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Speaker 1: is not so mystical. And it may just involve bad eyesight.

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Speaker 1: According to notes that were exchanged among those businessmen, Helen

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Speaker 1: Peters was wearing a locket with a woman's picture in it,

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Speaker 1: which had the word Wuijia over her image. A Smithsonian

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00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,920
Speaker 1: article from by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie suggests that this actually

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Speaker 1: could have been a portrait of the woman known as Weeta,

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Speaker 1: which was the pen name of English novelist Maria Louise

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Speaker 1: remay Remy would have been alive when the Wigia board

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Speaker 1: was named, and she would have been in her early sixties,

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Speaker 1: so it's possible because she was also, you know, a

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Speaker 1: pretty outspoken feminist, and a lot of women really followed

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Speaker 1: her story, so it's certainly possible Helen Peters had her

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Speaker 1: picture in a locket. Whether or not Helen Peters really

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Speaker 1: tried to channel spirits to name the board, that will

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Speaker 1: probably remain a mystery. But she was present at a

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Speaker 1: demonstration of the Weigia board at the U S. Patent Office.

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Speaker 1: This would have been a really unusual patent filing, because

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Speaker 1: how do you prove that a printed board with the

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Speaker 1: plan chet is capable of channeling messages from the spirit realm?

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Speaker 1: According to family lore. When Elijah Bond and Helen Peters

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Speaker 1: went to the patent office, the clerk they spoke with

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Speaker 1: was worried that he'd become a laughing stock if he

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Speaker 1: issued a patent on their application. So to prove that

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Speaker 1: the board worked, the investigating patent officer asked that Bond

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00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:41,480
Speaker 1: and Peters use it to spell out his first name.

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Speaker 1: They did successfully. The clerk was allegedly a little shaken,

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Speaker 1: and Bond received the patent on February tenth. But it's

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Speaker 1: worth noting here that Bond was a patent attorney, he

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00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:58,359
Speaker 1: probably knew everyone in the patent office, or he would

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Speaker 1: have been able to acquire such a formation pretty easily.

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Speaker 1: Something that's interesting, though, is if you read the text

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Speaker 1: of the patent, it does not really give any mention

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00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:13,679
Speaker 1: of channeling spirits. It mentions questions being answered by the board,

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Speaker 1: but it gives no explanation of how that takes place.

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Speaker 1: The patent summary reads quote, My invention relates to improvements

300
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Speaker 1: in toys or games, which I designate as an Uigia

301
00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:29,400
Speaker 1: or Egyptian luck board, and the objects of the invention

302
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,359
Speaker 1: are to produce a toy or game by which two

303
00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:37,199
Speaker 1: or more persons can amuse themselves by asking questions of

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00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:40,879
Speaker 1: any kind and having them answered by the device used

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00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,080
Speaker 1: and operated by the touch of hand, so that the

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00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:48,920
Speaker 1: answers are designated by letters on the board. The invention

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00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,959
Speaker 1: consists of a board of suitable thickness, having the letters

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00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,919
Speaker 1: of the alphabet printed, painted, engraved, or affixed upon it

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Speaker 1: in any suitable manner, but flush with the sir fists,

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Speaker 1: and also the numerals from one to zero inclusive, as

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Speaker 1: well as other configurations, and in conjunction, therewith of a

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00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:12,800
Speaker 1: peculiarly shaped table having legs and a pointer, and said

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00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:16,400
Speaker 1: table operated by the hand when placed upon said board,

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Speaker 1: all of which will be more fully described here and after,

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Speaker 1: and specifically pointed out in the claims reference being had

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Speaker 1: to the accompanying drawings and the letters marked there on.

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Speaker 1: It's an interesting patent because there's no here's how this works.

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Speaker 1: It's just like I invented two things. They go together.

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Speaker 1: But there's nowhere in the patent even when you read,

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Speaker 1: like into the deeper discussion in details, is there here's

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Speaker 1: how it works. Um, you can see why this would

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Speaker 1: have been a tricky one. But once that patent was secured,

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Speaker 1: Bond assigned it to Charles Kinnard and William H. Mobbin.

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Speaker 1: They then sold the patent to the Canard Novelty Company,

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Speaker 1: which applied for a trademark on the name we Jim.

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Speaker 1: Although the company bore his name, Kennard was the general manager,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't the president. Harry Wells Rusk was president. Was

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Speaker 1: because he had more experience in that type of thing.

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00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 1: Colonel Washington Booie was the treasurer, and he also held

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Speaker 1: a controlling interest in the company, having provided more of

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Speaker 1: the capital than anyone else. Are going to talk about

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Speaker 1: Colonel Booey a bit more in just a moment after

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Speaker 1: we hear from the sponsors. That keeps stuffy missed in

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Speaker 1: history class going. Colonel Washington Booie the third was born

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Speaker 1: into a wealthy family. He was well educated. He had

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Speaker 1: become a prominent customs figure with an appointment to the

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00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:52,160
Speaker 1: role of Acting Surveyor of the Port of Baltimore. Role

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Speaker 1: he was appointed to you by President William McKinley. When

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Speaker 1: Buoye and his four colleagues founded the Canard Novelty Company,

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Speaker 1: there was a point in their incorporation papers that would

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Speaker 1: become really significant. Point five of those papers stated quote.

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Speaker 1: We do further certify that the said corporation will be

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Speaker 1: managed by five directors, and that Harry Wells Rusk, Charles W. Knard,

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Speaker 1: William H. A. Moppin Washington Booey, and John F. Green

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Speaker 1: are the names of the directors who will manage the

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Speaker 1: concerns of the said corporation for the first year. We're

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Speaker 1: mentioning that here because it is going to come back

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00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,400
Speaker 1: up in just a moment. We Ji boards started appearing

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00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 1: in newspaper advertisements in that timing is not surprising. It's

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Speaker 1: right when spiritualism was having a major surge in the US,

351
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:47,359
Speaker 1: and the advertising really played on that. For example, one

352
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:51,760
Speaker 1: ad read Wigia, the Egyptian luck Board, a talking board.

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Speaker 1: The Wigia is without doubt the most interesting, remarkable, and

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Speaker 1: mysterious production of the nineteenth century. It's operation are always

355
00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: interesting and frequently invaluable, answering as it does questions concerning

356
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 1: the past, present and future with marvelous accuracy. It furnishes

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00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 1: never failing amusement and recreation for all classes, while for

358
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Speaker 1: the scientific or thoughtful, it's mysterious movements invite the most

359
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:23,399
Speaker 1: careful research and investigation. Apparently forming the link which unites

360
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:27,040
Speaker 1: the known with the unknown, the material with the immaterial.

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00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 1: It forces upon us the conviction that great truth was

362
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,120
Speaker 1: contained in the statement of the Danish prince there are

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00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,359
Speaker 1: more things in heaven and earth Horatio than where ever

364
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 1: dreamed of in thy philosophy. Although the Wigia board may

365
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:47,080
Speaker 1: have caused some to fear it, it was really kind

366
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 1: of seen as a harmless pastime right from its introduction

367
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Speaker 1: in a society column in the Denton Journal of Denton,

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00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:59,120
Speaker 1: Maryland on January thirty. One of the entries casually mentions

369
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Speaker 1: the board right alongside other innocuous games. Quote Wigia cards,

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00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,359
Speaker 1: tiddly winks, and a delightful repast were the features of

371
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 1: the entertainment given the Thursday Evening Sociable by Mr and

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00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 1: Mrs G. A. Dekine this week. A week before that,

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Speaker 1: there was another mentioned, this time in the Catoctin Clarion

374
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,160
Speaker 1: of Mechanics Town, Maryland that ran an opinion piece titled

375
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 1: the Wuijia Craze. The brief write up called it the

376
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 1: latest fad and made it clear that, in the opinion

377
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,520
Speaker 1: of the writer, only people who were prone to superstitious

378
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: behavior would take it seriously. That article goes on to say, quote,

379
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,919
Speaker 1: it is, in its way a most convincing proof of

380
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 1: the existence of a vein of superstition, more or less

381
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:49,600
Speaker 1: potent to control belief in every human. It mentions that

382
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:52,919
Speaker 1: there are two Wigia boards in the town, and that

383
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 1: while reports are flooding in about the quote marvelous answers

384
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 1: that people are getting through them. The writer's doubtful concludes

385
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:06,640
Speaker 1: with quote, at our first opportunity, these questions will be asked,

386
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 1: and should the answers astound us, we will honestly confess it.

387
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 1: For the present, we doubt Both of this and the

388
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:20,440
Speaker 1: previous Society column piece ran before Cannard Novelty had their patents. Yeah,

389
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 1: it seems like they probably had made these boards and

390
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 1: given them to people in society that they knew because

391
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 1: these are all businessmen to play with, and that like

392
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: kind of drove their early word of mouth advertising. There

393
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: is an element in the multifaceted marketing identity of the

394
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,159
Speaker 1: Weichi board that offers an interesting case study in the

395
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: crossover of business and spiritualism, because the board was marketed

396
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,440
Speaker 1: both as an amusement or a toy, as well as

397
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,439
Speaker 1: an object that just might connect people with the afterlife

398
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,240
Speaker 1: of the spirit realm. The net was cast really, really

399
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 1: wide to catch all kinds of different levels of interest

400
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: in such a thing, ing people who believed in spiritualism

401
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,159
Speaker 1: wanted them, people who thought it would just be a

402
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 1: fun parlor game wanted them, and kids wanted them. Some

403
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,440
Speaker 1: mediums started using them, but there were plenty who did

404
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:16,280
Speaker 1: not appreciate the fact that a d I Y seance

405
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 1: tool had been made available to the masses, thus cutting

406
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 1: into their business. We mentioned in our recent episode on

407
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:26,439
Speaker 1: Rose Makenburg that she had warned people that the number

408
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: of people fraudulently claiming to be psychics jumped up in

409
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:34,440
Speaker 1: times when there was panic and war and economic uncertainty.

410
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: The same holds true for sales of Luigi Board, so

411
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:42,200
Speaker 1: in times following some kind of social crisis, sales would rise.

412
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: The Luigia Board had a great success right out of

413
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: the gate. Demand was already outpacing production, so a second

414
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 1: factory had to be opened, and then more. The company

415
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: opened up factories in New York, Chicago, and London, in

416
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,959
Speaker 1: addition to the two in Baltimore. But there was another

417
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: big change for Canard Novelty Company in eight nine two

418
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:10,720
Speaker 1: a huge change in leadership, instructure, and in name. Booie

419
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:14,400
Speaker 1: and Rusk reorganized the entire company, and in the process

420
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: they pushed out the other three founders. That meant that

421
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: Charles Kennard, for whom it was named, was no longer

422
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,400
Speaker 1: part of the organization. But it also didn't stay Canard

423
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 1: Novelty for very long because Booie and Rusk also changed

424
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 1: the name of the company two Uigion Novelty Company, and

425
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:33,399
Speaker 1: they moved it out of the offices that Kennard had

426
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:37,200
Speaker 1: established at two twenty South Charles Street to a new location.

427
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 1: It almost seems that Buoye, who had the controlling interest

428
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 1: because of his larger financial contribution to the startup, had

429
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:47,360
Speaker 1: had a plan in mind all along to take over

430
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: the company completely, thus our mention of that we're going

431
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: to run it together for one year clause. But perhaps

432
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:58,120
Speaker 1: the most significant change was that they put a man

433
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 1: named William Fold into a position of head of operations.

434
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: William Fold had been part of the early Kennard Novelty

435
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: Company team. He was hired as an employee and also

436
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: became a stockholder. He was also good friends with Booie

437
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,200
Speaker 1: and Rusk. He and Booie were particularly close, and this

438
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: friendship would lead to a lot of opportunities for Fold.

439
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: William Fold, who was born in eighteen seventy, was said

440
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,719
Speaker 1: to have been imaginative and inventive from the very beginning

441
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 1: of his life. As a kid, he made up games

442
00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,479
Speaker 1: to entertain his nine siblings, So it seems sort of

443
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: right that he landed a job at a company that

444
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: made what many people considered to be a game. He

445
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 1: got his first job at the company as a shop foreman,

446
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,399
Speaker 1: according to one report. Others list him as a varnish er.

447
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: Some other accounts kind of combine those two and say, like, yes,

448
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,399
Speaker 1: he was doing things like varnishing, but he was also

449
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: overseeing other people in the shop. But in any case,

450
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: it definitely was a massive jump up the ladder to

451
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 1: suddenly be named general manager. Once he moved into a

452
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: leadership position at Wegia novelty company, Fold started filing more

453
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: patent applications, making improvements to the wegi board. Ultimately, he'd

454
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 1: file several patent and trademark applications, all of them as

455
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 1: a means to protect the company's legal interests. Five years

456
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: into folds tenure running the company, things once again shifted significantly,

457
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: so up to that point, Colonel Washington Buey and Harry

458
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:29,640
Speaker 1: Wells Rusk were still involved in the day to day

459
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: operations of the company, but they were both ready to retire,

460
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: although they didn't really want to give up that really

461
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: nice revenue stream that they got from Wigi Board. So

462
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: the Wegia Novelty Company assigned its assets to Buoy and

463
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: Rusk proportionate to their holdings of the company. That meant

464
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: that went to Buoy and the remainder to Rusk and

465
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: Fold opened up the Wigia Board to licensees approved by

466
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 1: the Regia Novelty Company. One of those licensees was William Fold.

467
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 1: Really it was William Fold and his brother Isaac Fold,

468
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 1: under a company named Isaac Fold and Brother. Their license

469
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: was agreed to in July and had a term of

470
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 1: three years. William and Isaac manufactured wigi boards as well

471
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 1: as other novelties during that time, but when the three

472
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: year term ended, Williams next move just destroyed his relationship

473
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 1: with his brother. Isaac. Fold and Brother were not given

474
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: the option to continue to manufacture Wigi boards, but the

475
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 1: Wegia Novelty Company did enter into a new licensing agreement.

476
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: This time with William fold only excluding Isaac. There's a

477
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: little bit of a Chicken or the Egg situation here,

478
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: because we don't know if William and Isaac had a

479
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: falling out that led to this business decision, or if

480
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: the business decision was a betrayal that rendered their relationship

481
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: as brothers irreparable. We're gonna get into what happened after

482
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: all of this uh in our next episode, and in

483
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,440
Speaker 1: part two of this two part episode, there is a

484
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 1: lot more coming. Like I said at the top, we

485
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: will also talk about UH, some court cases involving which boards,

486
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: some pop culture references to each boards, and some psychology

487
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: of it, as well as more corporate intrigue on the

488
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: next one. But in the meantime, I have a little

489
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,120
Speaker 1: brief listener mail. This is from our listener e J,

490
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 1: and it is about our WEIG episode, which I mentioned

491
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: at the top of this episode. I have been saving

492
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,560
Speaker 1: it for when we finally got to Wigi boards UH,

493
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 1: just to have a little nice bookender. So this is

494
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 1: a brief emale. It says, Hi, my name is e J,

495
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: and I love your podcast. I listened to it every week.

496
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: I wanted to write and tell you about Wednesday's episode

497
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 1: about we G. I had one of the craziest days

498
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: of my life this Wednesday, and I got into the

499
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: car after work crying. I'm sorry, I have been there.

500
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 1: It's a really terrible feeling. But e J says, my

501
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: mood turned around when I turned on your podcast and

502
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: it was about my favorite photographer of all time. No

503
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 1: one knows about him, and I love to hear people

504
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: talking about his unique work. It was a glimmer of

505
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 1: good in what seemed like an awful day. Thank you

506
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: for giving me that little bit of joy. Another thing

507
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: about Weg that many people don't know is that they

508
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: suspected that he had mob connections. He would show up

509
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: minutes after mob hits and would say it was because

510
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 1: of the police scanner, but a lot believed he was

511
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 1: tied into the mob. I thought that was a cool

512
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: fact that not many people know about. Thank you for

513
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 1: giving me this podcast to listen to each week, e J.

514
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: E J one, I'm so sorry you had a bad

515
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: day too. I'm so thankful we could help in our

516
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: small way, uh and turn it around a little bit. Three.

517
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: I had heard that that mob connection thing, but I

518
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 1: could never find any thing beyond sort of rumory stuff

519
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: about it, so I didn't include in the episode, but

520
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: it's sure makes sense given that he did, as you said,

521
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 1: show up right as things seemed to be happening. Uh,

522
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,840
Speaker 1: and I well before the police. We did mention he

523
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 1: got to a lot of crime scenes before the police did,

524
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: which seemed a little I don't know if suspicious is

525
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: the right word, but a little confusing. That is, after all,

526
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: how he got his name. We do because they joked

527
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: that he was psychic. Um, So thank you for sharing

528
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:09,959
Speaker 1: that with us, and I'm glad, like I said, that

529
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,240
Speaker 1: we can help make a bad day a little bit better.

530
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can

531
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcast at i heeart radio dot com.

532
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 1: You can also find us on social media as missed

533
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:22,480
Speaker 1: in History And if you would like to subscribe to

534
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 1: the podcast and you haven't gotten around to it yet,

535
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: it is the easiest thing in the world. I promise

536
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 1: you can do that on the I heart Radio app

537
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: or anywhere else you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff

538
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of I

539
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

540
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

541
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows,