By Richard Shaver/Contributed by Bill Bliss
Editor's Note: Shaver was not just the godfather of Rock Books, he was a part-time marketing strategist. He was always thinking of money making schemes. Constantly. It must have been a hobby. His sense of invention is apparent in the pulp fiction work as well as nonfiction. We say "sense" of invention because he was a theorist/philosopher. We don't know of anything Shaver invented other than his extensive system for photographing rock books, and his self-taught painting techniques.
Here is one of his many mental marketing jaunts, put to him originally by Bill Bliss. Apparently, Shaver was taken by the notion of a hat that could improve thinking. However, his subsequent corry on the subject speaks of disappointment that he would never see a smart hat in the flesh. Nevertheless, Shaver had fun with it while it lasted...
Here is Richard Shaver's ad copy for
Want to out-think the smartest ones? You can!!!! THE THINK HAT decreases resistance in neuron conductors! A Harmless magnetic field decreases resistance, lets you think quicker -- better -- more! THE THINK HAT is a tiny battery powered field generator that attaches to the inside of your hat (clip is in the lining). NOW... does someone want to dicker with you about the price of a horse?
OR -- does the new lawn-mower need fixing and you can't think what the mechanic told you? ANY problem gets easier -- finds a solution quickly -- when you put on THE THINK HAT.
© the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie site
Only $8.95 plus tax. Deluxe model $52.50. money back guarantee if not elated, circumcised and generally bemused with its total effectiveness in increasing the amount of thought going on in your mind.
From Shaver, a few weeks later....
"Yours negatively received of April 18, '73 describing the lack of enthusiasm in selling smart hats... the negative view is always correct, who am I to argue with negativism? It rules the world via telaug.
"However, positively considering, it's a perfectly feasible idea. They are even now constructing and using them in California hippie camps, not for thinking, but to induce a high similar to euphoric drugs.
"There are several favorable angles, the police, to prove your gadget didn't work would have to prove they could think some in order to prove that your gadget did NOT improve their thinking and as the former is impossible so is the latter.
"So you don't want to put together a few things with a tiny camera battery and call it a think hat because it might not work and you might get arrested? do you think it would worry me? I could send you some nice notes in prison. Who am I to argue? don't. It's just an idea that would sell and there are several gadgets I have seen sold? One I recall was a large copper wire you slipped on your head like a wreath that was supposed to do it.
"All organs in the body, any organ, can be stimulated electrically is a fact. Witness they start/stop hearts with an electric shock, and in nuthouses they start stopped brains with electric shock therapy. You can find it's all documented in a number of unused library volumes circ 1930 in unused Carnegie libraries any one of which will give any applicant the equivalent of a college course in any subject he chooses and all for free, compliments of Carnegie. But alas, they are unused today because the kids all go to college where they can get sticks, grass with their course.
"However, it's so much easier to say no than it is to do a little research and put the thing together. I don't blame you for saying no negatively, however, it is a perfectly feasible and practical fact that Crile stimulated any and all organs electrically, and so did a number of others. "The hippies are doing it with Alpha E-wave generators of small size and a lot of the alpha (one of the five waves of the brain from encephalographic readings, is called alpha, and can be generated and induced into the brain via skin contact wires, and it gives a euphoric high like a gallon of wine would.
"So don't, it's just an idea like smart pills ... you can actually sell smart pills legally. They are the glutamic acid vitamin and perfectly legal to sell as smart pills because it's medically demonstrated they increase a rat's ability to unmaze itself by a factor of five to 10 depending on the rat.
"I don't much approve of commercialism the way it is done covering up the countryside with bill boards and TV programs with ads is not my idea of life. I could never see the soubrette for the ads she hung in her navel.
"However, the hippie think hat could be marketed as a new sort of anti-drug device, like the heroin substitute which they have decided is just as bad after government financing for years. The alpha high could be sold legally with the recommend it can be used to reduce a drug addict's drive.
"There is one device sold for $36.50 by one of the occult outfits. It consists of a whirling disc which you hang in the air and connect by wires to a box of binding posts. And it causes an electro-static sensation in the diaphragm which is supposed to cure you of high blood pressure and the whammie. There are a lot of such gadgets marketed of one kind or another, by mail and I always wonder what would happen to them if the so-called "law" started after them.
"Did you know life is sabotaged by space people using the telaug they make everybody think negatively and they all do so think, and never get anywhere? Some nut like Shaver says so."
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