This rare and chilling piece of Americana is a promotional letter from The Tangley Calliaphone Co., likely included as an insert in a 1929 issue of TNT Magazine.
 
Though ostensibly an advertisement for the company’s steam-powered musical machines—popular fixtures at fairs, circuses, and traveling shows—the true intrigue lies in its association with the name scrawled at the bottom: Norman Baker.
 
While the letter bears his name, it was almost certainly printed rather than personally signed. Nevertheless, it anchors this artifact to one of the most infamous con men in early 20th-century America.
 
Who Was Norman Baker?
Norman G. Baker was a flamboyant radio broadcaster, inventor, and self-styled medical crusader who founded the Tangley Calliaphone Company in Muscatine, Iowa. A born showman, he parlayed his fame from manufacturing calliaphones—a type of air-powered street organ—into a media empire through KTNT (Know The Naked Truth) Radio. But his career took a sinister turn when he entered the world of “alternative medicine.”
 
Without any medical training, Baker began promoting—and selling—a so-called cure for cancer. His aggressive attacks on organized medicine and public health institutions earned him both attention and legal trouble. Eventually, he relocated his operation to the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, converting it into a sham hospital where patients received no real treatment. He was convicted of mail fraud in 1940 and sentenced to federal prison.
 
If you want to learn more about Norman Baker and his various crimes, head over to our Lantern Light blog post here.
 
A Piece of Dark Promotional History
This printed letter captures Baker at the height of his early entrepreneurial endeavors, before his descent into medical quackery and federal indictment. It’s a striking artifact from the intersection of American invention, showbiz, and pseudoscience—a tangible whisper from a carnival-era past where charm and deception often danced hand in hand.
 
This would look fantastic in a frame!
 
Condition:
The paper is in fantastic shape for being almost 100 years old. There is some discoloration. It looks like the letter was likely stored in an envelope for many years. Please see all photos closely.