Curtis Howe Springer

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Curtis Howe Springer bigraphy, stories - American fraudster

Curtis Howe Springer : biography

December 2, 1896 – August 19, 1985

Curtis Howe Springer (December 2, 1896 – August 19, 1985) The site notes that their record of Springer has not yet been verified against Veterans Administration records. was an American radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and Methodist minister best known for founding the Zzyzx Mineral Springs resort located within Southern California’s Mojave Desert. He was also the host of well-known evangelical syndicated radio programs that were broadcast throughout the United States for several decades.

Springer was in actuality neither a doctor nor a minister, and he described himself as the "last of the old-time medicine men."Lawrence Journal-World article: "." In 1969, the American Medical Association labeled him the "King of Quacks".LA Times article: "." – Page 3. In the early 1970s, the federal government discovered that Springer held no legal rights to the land where Zzyzx stood; consequently, he was evicted from the space and briefly imprisoned.

Death

Curtis Springer died in Las Vegas on August 19, 1985, at the age of 88. He was buried in the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California, on April 26, 1991. Two notable publications, the journal Word Ways and the book Weird California, have incorrectly reported Springer’s year of death as 1986.

Biography

Personal life

Curtis Howe Springer was born December 2, 1896, and hailed from Birmingham, Alabama. He was married to Mary Louise Berkebile. They separated at some point, and he remarried a woman named Helen.US Court Record: "." – Helen Springer is listed as Curtis’ wife. Springer had several children, including a daughter, Marilou,LA Times article: "." – Page 1. and a son, Curtis Jr., who later became a judge in Montgomery, Alabama.Montgomery Advisor article: "."

Early career

He claimed to have been a private in the United States Army, where he taught boxing.Jazz Age: People and Perspectives by Mitchell Newton-Matza, ." In Springer’s early life, he "drummed up crowds for William Jennings Bryan’s tirades against demon rum" and was a sheet music vendor at Billy Sunday’s evangelical services.Daytona Beach Morning Journal article: "." Following World War I, Springer worked at a school in Florida. In the late 1920s, Springer moved to Chicago, where he became involved with an automotive technical school called Greer College.Journal of the American Medical Association article: "." September 14, 1935. Springer was fired by 1930, and the school was forced into bankruptcy shortly afterward.

Throughout the 1930s, Curtis Springer gave lectures throughout the midwestern United States, claiming to either to be the "Dean of Greer College", or that he represented/attended the fictional institutions of the National Academy, The Springer School of Humanism, the American College of Doctors and Surgeons, the Westlake West Virginia College, and two non-existent osteopathy schools in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Although all his lectures were "free", Springer would ask for donations part-way through his speech, and often attempt to sell audience members private courses in psychoanalysis for $25 per session. In advertisements for his appearances, he would often follow his name with M.D., N.D., D.O. or Ph.D.

Chicago was largely Springer’s home base until the summer of 1934. After he applied for airtime on WGN radio, the station contacted American Medical Association’s Bureau of Investigations for information regarding Springer. The AMA and Better Business Bureau quickly began to take note of his completely falsified education record. Before long, Springer had been labeled as a notorious fraud and doctor-impersonator by the medical community. An extensive article in the September 14, 1936 edition of Journal of the American Medical Association titled "Curtis Howe Springer: A Quack and His Nostrums" detailed his exploits and lack of education.Nostrums and quackery: articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 3, pp. . The book concluded that "a most thorough search fails to show that Springer was ever graduated by any reputable college or university, medical or otherwise."