Coin doctors in literature

[shirohniichan]

I've found my first reference to a coin doctor in American literature, and it isn't a flattering portrait.

 

I'm reading Frank Norris' novel McTeague, and I read the part where McTeague's miserly wife (Trina) polished a gold eagle with ashes and soap to make it sparkle. Later in the book she works her magic on a pile of double eagles, even going to far as to sleep naked on top of them scattered over the bedsheets.

 

Has anyone else read about coin doctors in American or foreign literature?

[physics-fan3.14]

Later in the book she works her magic on a pile of double eagles, even going to far as to sleep naked on top of them scattered over the bedsheets.

 

Sounds rather cold and uncomfortable. What was the point?

[rrantique]

Later in the book she works her magic on a pile of double eagles, even going to far as to sleep naked on top of them scattered over the bedsheets.

 

Sounds rather cold and uncomfortable. What was the point?

 

Artificial toning. Warm and humid environment.

[jman425]

Some people have fantasies of sleeping on a pile of money, I guess hers was gold !!

[Hoot]

Ashes and soap would impart the same luster as sudzy ammonia. As for sleeping with coins, that's an old trick and EVP used to call it "doin' the Demi."

 

What's the publication date?

 

Hoot

[shirohniichan]

Ashes and soap would impart the same luster as sudzy ammonia. As for sleeping with coins, that's an old trick and EVP used to call it "doin' the Demi."

 

What's the publication date?

 

Hoot

 

It was published in 1899, so I can assure you Mrs. McTeague doctored no St. Gaudens double eagles.

[DWLange]

Eric Von Stroheim directed a film adaptation of Frank Norris' novel in 1922-23. It was shot entirely on location in San Francisco, Oakland and other sites in California. Stroheim shot every scene depicted in the novel, so the completed movie was about 12 hours long. Even he realized that this was unworkable, but he could only bring himself to edit it down to about four hours which, he suggested, could be viewed by movie-goers on two consecutive nights.

 

MGM didn't buy into his plan and used someone else to cut the movie down to about two hours, at which point Stroheim walked away from the whole episode a bitter man. Titled "Greed" and released in 1924, it's still a great movie in its surviving length, though silent films are not easy for most viewers to follow.

 

The scene with Trina (Zasu Pitts) rolling around on her bed over piles of coins is still powerful. The madness and obsessive greed that ruins her marriage and drives her husband to murder her is completely believable through Pitts' performance. True to Stroheim's commitment to absolute realism, actual gold and silver coins are used in this scene and are clearly identifiable by type (Hollywood typically used stage money until quite recently). Since the film version was set in the current day (1922), the coins reflect those which would have been encountered at that time.

[IGWT]

Later in the book she works her magic on a pile of double eagles, even going to far as to sleep naked on top of them scattered over the bedsheets.

 

Sounds rather cold and uncomfortable.

Sounds hot to me.

[shirohniichan]

Eric Von Stroheim directed a film adaptation of Frank Norris' novel in 1922-23. It was shot entirely on location in San Francisco, Oakland and other sites in California. Stroheim shot every scene depicted in the novel, so the completed movie was about 12 hours long. Even he realized that this was unworkable, but he could only bring himself to edit it down to about four hours which, he suggested, could be viewed by movie-goers on two consecutive nights.

 

MGM didn't buy into his plan and used someone else to cut the movie down to about two hours, at which point Stroheim walked away from the whole episode a bitter man. Titled "Greed" and released in 1924, it's still a great movie in its surviving length, though silent films are not easy for most viewers to follow.

 

The scene with Trina (Zasu Pitts) rolling around on her bed over piles of coins is still powerful. The madness and obsessive greed that ruins her marriage and drives her husband to murder her is completely believable through Pitts' performance. True to Stroheim's commitment to absolute realism, actual gold and silver coins are used in this scene and are clearly identifiable by type (Hollywood typically used stage money until quite recently). Since the film version was set in the current day (1922), the coins reflect those which would have been encountered at that time.

 

Holy cow! I'd love to be able to find the 12-hour version and watch it over a week. It looks like some St.Gaudens may have been harmed in the filming of the movie.