Why, Dr. Einstein! (March 9, 1932)

A young woman has been appearing at the Warner Brothers’ Theatre, in Hollywood, California, about whom there is an unusual fact. She is a professional prophet; her name is Gene Dennis; and the unusual fact referred to is that she appears before the Hollywoodenheads with the endorsement of Professor Albert Einstein.

According to Upton Sinclair, Professor Einstein has long been concerned with psychic matters and has done some investigation in the field. When, therefore, he encountered Miss Dennis while weekending at Palm Springs (a desert rest place patronized by tired Hollywood Intellects) he was furiously interested. Miss Dennis disclaims all connection with clairvoyance, fortune-telling, mind-reading and crystal-gazing. All she claims is an ability to foretell the future. She can tell you whether you are going to sell your property; whether you are going to make a success in your profession; or where your wife happens to be, if she has run away an assuming that you are interested. Theatre employees transmit your questions and all you have to do is stand up. Miss Dennis is not solemn. She has a sense of humor and uses it. But she believes in herself sufficiently to tell you what you want to know and to believe that she is telling the truth.

Gene Davis has faith in auras. She announced to the press: “Dr. Einstein is indeed the most remarkable personality I have ever contacted. [Sic.] And his aura is just sublime—pure blue electric sparks, instead of color. It was just like talking to God.” At the same time Dr. Einstein said: “She told me things no one possibly could know, things on which I have been working, and she demonstrated to me that she has a power to do things I cannot at this time explain. Now, I must tell some of my associates about this. It was miraculous indeed.”

Wonderful! Wonderful! And so the scientific method goes crashing to the ground and the world’s greatest relativist becomes an endorser of a “psychic” vaudeville act. He joins hands with the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who exclaimed that Gene Dennis was “the eighth wonder of the world!”

Insufficient attention has been paid to the astounding metamorphosis Dr. Einstein has undergone since he first made a visit to America. Then he was a retiring, diffident, charming man who commanded the respect of all and sundry. Now he is the tamest lion in the intellectual zoo. He goes everywhere. He attends picture openings with the regularity and aplomb of Clark Gable. He is at all the public dinners. “A year ago,” runs a newspaper comment, “when Einstein first came to Pasadena to study his famous theory of relativity in the light of the latest astronomic discoveries, he was ‘camera shy,’ although he was to become one of the most photographed celebrities who ever visited California.” He is in a fair way to be known as a “camera mad” celebrity. His place as a publicity-shy celebrity has been taken by Greta Garbo.