$eeing $tar$

Evangeline Adams was born on this day in 1868 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Adams' career as a prognosticator began in March 1899, when she claimed her astrological chart told her she should go to Manhattan. Checking into the Windsor Hotel, she advised the owner that he had bad stars; the next morning his hotel had burned to the ground, and Adams was celebrated by the papers as an amazing fortune-teller.

In 1914 she fought and won a lawsuit attempting to restrain her from earning her livelihood as a seer. Later she predicted the duration of Lindbergh's historic Atlantic flight within 22 minutes and Rudolph Valentino's death within a few hours. As the bull stock market of the 1920s emerged, Adams set herself up in a Wall Street office (complete with ticker tape machine and copies of the Wall Street Journal) and began providing stock tips, for ever-increasing fees, based on astrological principles. Among her clients were J.P. Morgan, Jr., Mary Pickford and King Edward VII.

In May 1929 she predicted that the "Dow Jones could climb to Heaven," but by October 29, known forever as "Black Tuesday," the market had clearly gone to hell. She consoled her faithful, telling them that the market would come back, and promptly told her own broker to sell out her entire position.

Following a stint as the host of her own popular radio show, she died in November 1932.

Categories: Business-&-Finance