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Page 10 ALL AROUND PENNSAUKEN
April 2013
The Hypnotic Professor Whiz
continued from page 6
memory and concentration to self-control,
weight loss or weight gain, overcoming
bad habits, curing certain diseases,
and developing latent talents, such as
salesmanship.
By 1919, Fitzgibbon was running ads
for his courses of self-improvement in
Popular Mechanics magazine, where he
was dubbed the “Miracle Man,” for his
*
transformation from a “commonplace
youngster” to a champion athlete and
psychologist, author and lecturer.
In this same period, like many other
forward-thinking people living in and near
the heady atmosphere of New York City
around the time of the First World War,
Fitzgibbon also came to embrace radical
social ideas. He is mentioned as a socialist
organizer, addressing strike rallies and
from 1919 to 1922 served as a staff member
of The New York Call, a socialist
newspaper of the day. He is particularly
noted as a gifted speaker, capable of entertaining
or rousing his audience at will.
It seems as though radicalism took
second place to his passion for hypnotism,
however. Perhaps, as for many
American socialists of the period, the
cruel realities presented by the Russian
Revolution resulted in disillusionment.
Whatever the reason, Fitzgibbon’s career
in hypnosis became paramount and took
decidedly un-socialistic pathways.
In 1927, Gerald M. P. Fitzgibbon performed
a feat that came to be his most
famous achievement in hypnosis, to be
repeated again and again over the rest of
his career. On March 9, from a hotel in
Springfield, Massachusetts, Fitzgibbon
performed simultaneous hypnosis of
four people in three cities by radio
broadcast. The subjects were in Springfield,
Boston and New York City.
In 1935, Fitzgibbon relocated himself
and his Fitzgibbon Institute to Camden,
NJ. He began offering his courses to locals
from places like the Camden Lodge
of the Elks. He also toured with his program
to promote hypnosis, offering both
science and entertainment.
By 1937, Fitzgibbon was performing
his signature feat of hypnosis by radio
broadcast from Neil’s Grill in Camden
and with subjects at the Old Mill Inn in
Pennsauken, near Pennsauken Creek
where Route 130 crosses today. Broadcasts
of his hypnosis by radio programs
were carried over WCAM.
In 1941, Gerald M. P. Fitzgibbon
moved his family to Pennsauken, and
settled in a home on Myrtle Avenue.
His many appearances before business
and trade groups attracted the attention
of a major local business, the R.M.
Hollingshead Company in Camden,
makers of a variety of products for the
home and automobile. Many of these
products were marketed under the brand
“Whiz” and among them was “Rhythm”
motor oil. Gerald M. P. Fitzgibbon became
a traveling promoter for the
Hollingshead Company, performing his
astounding programs in front of meetings
and conventions of potential buyers and
retailers of Whiz products. During this
time he was given the stage names of
“Professor Rythm,” and “Professor
Whiz,” as he traveled across the nation.
Fitzgibbon had retired multiple times,
but still performed locally at the time of
his death at age 72 in 1955. He had even
planned a new stunt whereby he would
go further still by hypnotizing people in
different towns along a route as he flew
overhead in an airplane!
Bloom Court, 1300 Route 73, Suite 106 • Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054
T: 856.778.0300 • F: 856.866.8924
www.bloomorganization.com • marketing@bloomorganization.com
Gerald M. P. Fitzgibbon, Professor
Whiz, the Miracle Man: call him what you
will, he made a life straddling the fence between
science and entertainment, between
crusader and showman, and evolved from
socialist organizer to corporate promotions.
When he died, his passing was announced
in Billboard magazine, and he
made his last home in Pennsauken.
Sources for this column include contemporary
newspaper and periodical accounts, especially
from the Courier Post, New York Call, and Billboard
Magazine.
Pennsauken aPril
Public Meetings
township committee:
5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 3, 17 and 24
Zoning board of adjustment
7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 3 and 17
Planning board:
6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 2 and 23
Meetings are open to the public
and are held at the
Pennsauken Municipal Building
5605 Crescent Blvd.
(At the corner of Route 130
and Merchantville Avenue)
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