Professor A Victor Segno arrived in Los Angeles in 1900 where he set up a business in fortune telling and palm reading, both the practice and teaching of such. He then claimed to be the creator of the New Science of Mentalism and set up an organization named The American Institute of Mentalism. For the sum of $10 per year, which was equivalent to about $200 in today’s purchasing power, he would send his so-called Success Waves to world-wide subscribers twice a day, and their lives would miraculously improve in the areas of love, hope, peace, wealth, health, ambition, happiness, influence and success. By 1903 he had more than 12,000 members of his Success Club. This talk will focus on the success of Professor Segno in the European African Colonies via ephemera and covers from the British, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese Colonies.
Figure 1: Professor sending a Success Wave to his Spanish clients
Figure 2: Censored registered letter from the Anglo-French Occupation of Togo to the American Institute of Mentalism in 1917.
