Tag Archives: fortune telling machine

Photo: Historical Fortune Teller in Barcelona

Whilst wandering through an exhibit in Barcelona’s wonderful CCCB — Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona — we happened upon this benign-looking but eerie-feeling display.

The exhibit concerned life in the El Parallel district from the 1890s through the 1930s. This fortune telling machine was used during that period by inserting a coin and then waiting for the paper prediction to appear in one of the doors that open at the bottom.
 

A very pretty but eerie-feeling fortune telling machine from the early 1900s in Barcelona, Spain.


 
A similar fortune telling head was a pivotal element of the 1988 movie “Big” with Tom Hanks. The scary-looking male fortune telling doll in that movie granted the boy in the story a wish and he was able to become a grown man overnight.

She has a lovely face — I certainly acknowledge that — but she also gives off an odd energy and although I was completely alone as I took my photos, the entire very empty room was full of that edgy energy. I waited for Mark to come into the room to see what his reaction was and I asked him if he knew what it was. “Yep!” was the very short reply as he exited the room hastily. Hmmmmm!!!

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