2 for $5.00 That was cheap !

jeff of pa · Mar 22, 2026

jeff of pa · Mar 22, 2026

Red-Coat · Mar 22, 2026

One born every minute, as they say.

The publicist Harry Reichenbach (1882-1931) claimed to have invented the concept. In his autobiography ‘Phantom Fame’ he wrote:

“… I saved a declining lunchroom for an old ex-circus woman by a curious little device. She had to attract a crowd but couldn't afford to spend any money. I told her to place a large, transparent bowl filled with water in the window of her store. Beside the bowl I set up a cardboard sign reading, ‘The only living Brazilian invisible fish’. People soon gathered to behold this wonder and some swore they could detect the invisible fish making the water move. This suggested an improvement on the idea. I placed a little electric fan in one corner shielded from the onlookers and this blew ripples on the water. After that the crowds couldn't be controlled. ‘You see it? There it goes! There! No, there!’ People vied with each other to point out the fish, and the restaurant that featured such an oddity soon got trade as well. But the prosperity didn't last, because the old ex-circus woman eventually tried to serve the invisible fish as a course.”

He borrowed the idea from an old sideshow barker stunt and it has been attributed to others, including Broadway showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1867-1932). It was also used by a New York restaurant on 44th Street, three years before Reichenbach published his autobiography. In the 1930s, it became a popular stunt to draw carnival crowds and as a promotional tool in store windows. In 1940 the comedian Don McNeill set up an empty aquarium in the lobby of Chicago's Merchandise Mart with a sign in front reading: “Invisible Peruvian Fish" as an April Fool joke.

Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the mail-order marketeer Harold von Braunhut made thousands of dollars selling ‘Invisible Goldfish’:

As well as being a notorious racist white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan member (he sold weapons to the Klan as well), he was best known for his “Sea-Monkeys” (remember those?) which were his biggest money-spinner. Advertised in kid’s comics and sold by mail order, you got some sea salt, some nutrients, and the dried eggs of brine shrimps which would hatch after adding water:

russau · Mar 22, 2026

jeff of pa said:
View attachment 2248272

I wonder if they would except invisible money or invisiable gold

djackson7348 · Mar 22, 2026

Red-Coat said:
One born every minute, as they say.

The publicist Harry Reichenbach (1882-1931) claimed to have invented the concept. In his autobiography ‘Phantom Fame’ he wrote:

“… I saved a declining lunchroom for an old ex-circus woman by a curious little device. She had to attract a crowd but couldn't afford to spend any money. I told her to place a large, transparent bowl filled with water in the window of her store. Beside the bowl I set up a cardboard sign reading, ‘The only living Brazilian invisible fish’. People soon gathered to behold this wonder and some swore they could detect the invisible fish making the water move. This suggested an improvement on the idea. I placed a little electric fan in one corner shielded from the onlookers and this blew ripples on the water. After that the crowds couldn't be controlled. ‘You see it? There it goes! There! No, there!’ People vied with each other to point out the fish, and the restaurant that featured such an oddity soon got trade as well. But the prosperity didn't last, because the old ex-circus woman eventually tried to serve the invisible fish as a course.”

He borrowed the idea from an old sideshow barker stunt and it has been attributed to others, including Broadway showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1867-1932). It was also used by a New York restaurant on 44th Street, three years before Reichenbach published his autobiography. In the 1930s, it became a popular stunt to draw carnival crowds and as a promotional tool in store windows. In 1940 the comedian Don McNeill set up an empty aquarium in the lobby of Chicago's Merchandise Mart with a sign in front reading: “Invisible Peruvian Fish" as an April Fool joke.

Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the mail-order marketeer Harold von Braunhut made thousands of dollars selling ‘Invisible Goldfish’:

View attachment 2248298

As well as being a notorious racist white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan member (he sold weapons to the Klan as well), he was best known for his “Sea-Monkeys” (remember those?) which were his biggest money-spinner. Advertised in kid’s comics and sold by mail order, you got some sea salt, some nutrients, and the dried eggs of brine shrimps which would hatch after adding water:

View attachment 2248299

Wait! Are you trying to tell me those weren't real "Sea Monkeys"? You have ruined my childhood memories...