I remember him very much in the great movie Plan 9 of Outer Space. He spoke very well!
Gosh! That's Amazing!
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My rather eccentric boss from my first job on this side of the pond used to talk about the Amazing Kreskin. Th!anks for this Batgirl
Fischer would have eaten his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
Some tricks are just tricks, others can't be easily explained. While I don't feel comfortable with "mind reading", I do think the mind is capable of amazing feats. The game of chess itself stands as beautiful proof of what the mind is capable of.
"Fischer would have eaten his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."
. . .and Fischer wondered why so many people disliked him! sheesh!
At least Fischer honored him by pairing him with a chianti instead of a two-buck Chuck.
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George Joseph Kresge bills himself as The Amazing Kreskin. Though he still performs today, the apex of his career as a professional mentalist was in the 1970s when he had his own television show.
In 1978 he gave the chess-related demonstration reported on below by the famous writer/thinker Isaac Asimov. Asimov's reportage is somewhat tainted by an overt attempt to debunk Kreskin in a manner as ineffective as it is obvious. Asimov also seems to have only a passing insight into chess and makes some dubious comments. I don't know anything about Kreskin other than what I've learned in 30 minutes with Google, but his demonstration seems to have been rather unique as well as quite impressive.
New York Magazine
Sept 4,1978; p. 38.
Gosh, Kreskin, That's Amazing!
by Isaac Asimov
The amazing Kreskin, who bills himself as the "world's foremost mentalist," played chess with Cleveland Amory and Jacques d'Ambroise at the Raga restaurant last Tuesday. Kreskin was blindfolded, and he announced he would call out his opponent's moves after they made them, presumably by reading their minds. He called out the first two moves of each opponent, then called a halt to that part of the demonstration.
Both Amory and d'Abroise made the common Pawn-to-King's-Four opening move, and Kreskin guessed the move - after much patter and visible suffering. Kreskin moved his Queen's Pawn up to Amory's piece, and Amory promptly took it with his King's Pawn. In being taken from the board, the two chess pieces made a pronounced click - a dead giveaway. Kreskin guessed the move again with suffering and delay.
The suffering was highly dramatic and effective. It made the whole thing seem hard, which i what any good showman would want to do, and Kreskin, an appealing person, is a very good showman.
For the second part of the demonstration, Kreskin had Cleveland Amory place a Knight on another chessboard with the 64 squares numbered sequentially. Although blindfolded and with his back to the chessboard, Kreskin guessed that the Knight was on No. 35. I don't know how he did it, but I presume any good mentalist can do it. He then called off the number of 63 other squares in order, squares to which the Knight could move by legitimate Knight's moves.
The various "Knight's tours," which is what these are called, are well known to chess players, and I suspect it is quite possible to memorize a Knight's tour and then, having established the starting number, rattle off the other 63 numbers in the correct order.
Kreskin suffered through every number, though, asking for quiet, then pattering and squirming endlessly. He got the numbers right, of course.
He expressed surprise at one point that one position was followed by another square bearing a number higher than the previous one. There are 42 different positions on the squares that allow a move to another position ten higher in number by a Knight's move, so his surprise was itself surprising.
Kreskin is offering to meet Bobby Fischer, together with the winner of the Korchnoi-Karpov match, and play them both simultaneously, himself blindfolded. If that should happen and Kreskin proceeds with constant chatter as last Tuesday, I wonder which of his two opponents will kill him first. Probably Fischer.