# Mad Scientists **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052 "2006-03-04T17:15:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/21 "2006-03-05T19:40:53Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Can you give names to any of these purported films? > > Or, cite? Not my post, [but if it helps](http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/Tesla-Article.htm): > [@](#): > > Perhaps because of Tesla’s personal eccentricity and the dramatic nature of his demonstrations, conspiracy theories about applications of his work persist. The common Hollywood stereotype of the “mad scientist” mirrors Tesla’s real-life persona, or at least a caricature of it—which may be no accident considering that many of the earliest such movies (including the first movie version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) were produced by Tesla’s old rival, Thomas Edison. There are at least two films describing Tesla’s life. In the first, arranged for TV, Tesla was portrayed by Serb actor Rade Šerbedžija. In 1980, Orson Welles produced a Yugoslavian film named Tajna Nikole Tesle (The Secret of Nikola Tesla). You’ll find it repeated here: [http://www.magnetricity.com/Tesla/Tesla\_Biography.php](http://www.magnetricity.com/Tesla/Tesla_Biography.php) Jim ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/22 "2006-03-05T19:47:07Z")
I find no proof that Edison really did have anything to do with this, but the story is widespread. Edison did not to my knowledge fund the 1931 Frankenstein. He did make [Electrocuting an Elephant (1903)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0231523/) to discredit Tesla, Westinghouse and AC power. Edison was kind of a jerk. The Bill Gates of his day. Only worse but with much better press. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/23 "2006-03-05T19:48:28Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > It’s pronounced _eye-gor_ I’m probably being whooshed here, but no, it’s not. It’s Eeee-gor. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/24 "2006-03-05T19:51:12Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I’m probably being whooshed here, but no, it’s not. It’s Eeee-gor. That was a line/joke from “Young Frankenstein” Jim ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/25 "2006-03-05T19:56:08Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > That was a line/joke from “Young Frankenstein” > > Jim :smack: I knew it. Sorry 'bout that, folks. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/26 "2006-03-05T21:00:15Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I’ll see your Rotwang and raise you a Dr. Caligari! Dr Caligari is not in the mould of the classic Mad Scientist, though - no giant Van De Graaff generators, no killer robots, just one pathetic hypnotized minion. Props for the cool setting, though, but clearly not in Rotwang’s league. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/27 "2006-03-05T21:34:37Z")
Ever year at Tampa’s local SF con, Necronomicon (), there’s an “Igor-Ygor” party, where everybody wears a badge spelled one way or the other, and at random intervals half the room shouts “Eegor!” and the other half shouts “Aigor!” Then, somebody sometimes starts in with “Tastes great!” “Less filling!” ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/28 "2006-03-05T22:57:14Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > I find no proof that Edison really did have anything to do with this, but the story is widespread. > Edison did not to my knowledge fund the 1931 Frankenstein. In fairness to anybody who’s made such a claim in the past, they’ve presumably had the [1910 version](http://www.filmbuffonline.com/Features/EdisonsFrankenstein1.htm) in mind - a film whose survival has been the subject of much gossip amongst silent film buffs over the years and is so relatively well known for a film of that period. However, it’s far from obvious that even it was intended as any sort of anti-Tesla propaganda. Granted the secondary literature on AC versus DC is astonishingly vast and it wouldn’t surprise me if _someone_ had tried to develop this argument at some time. But, for instance, Mark Essig argues in his recent _Edison and the Electric Chair_ (Walker, 2003) that Edison conceded defeat in the debate by the end of 1890. It then rumbled on at a local level - and DC systems persisted in places - but Westinghouse was essentially sweeping all before themselves through the 1890s. I’ve never seen the point made explicitly, but I suspect that even _Electrocuting an Elephant_ was a stunt designed more to promote Edison’s investments in cinema than to discredit AC. That it was in the tradition of his earlier electrocution stunts may have been, by this stage, just because that was the sort of spectacle they expected from him, albeit now via a flashy new medium. (There’s also the angle that the circumstances seem to have been largely opportunistic: someone wanted rid of an unfortunate elderly elephant.) By 1910 the original debate was decisively over and Tesla was mired in stuff that Westinghouse was coming to have reservations about. There was no longer any great need by then for Edison to go out of his way to continue to actively attack his reputation. As for the specific question in the OP, while I haven’t read it, Christopher Frayling’s recent book on the subject _[Mad, Bad and Dangerous](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1861892551/qid=1141598906/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-0335112-8751948?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)_ apparently argues that although Frankenstein in the novel and on stage is an obvious precursor, it’s Rotwang that crystallises the stereotype. That’s then an influence on the 1931 _Frankenstein_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/29 "2006-03-05T23:05:54Z")
The eponymous villain in Jules Verne’s _The Master Of The World_, perhaps. He’s a brilliant engineer who uses his creations to blackmail the governments of the world in a quest for personal power. He even has a secret base concealed inside a volcano. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/30 "2006-03-05T23:37:45Z")
You mean **Robur-le-Conquerant**. First appeared in 1886’s _The Clipper of the Clouds_. I always thought the _Albatross_ was much cooler than the _Terror_. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/31 "2006-03-06T00:16:53Z")
Let’s not forget Dr Moreau.- ‘They mocked me!’ ‘The cause of science must be advanced!’ Has his own island. Others- Paracelsus- Loved to ruin anybody who disagreed with his theories. Claimed to have the secret of the philosophers stone. Lavoisier- All kinds of fun experiments. Last experiment was a plan to see if severed heads were conscious. Lavoisier saw no reason why his death by guillotine couldn’t help science. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/32 "2006-03-06T01:24:34Z")
Let’s not forget the great Doctor Richard Sledwort! [http://www.secretgovernment.org/article.php?index=12](http://www.secretgovernment.org/article.php?index=12) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/33 "2006-03-06T05:14:21Z")
**What Exit** , as soon as Tesla and conspiracy come up in conversation I tiptoe slowly toward the door, trying not to make any conspicuous moves that might spook those with brains balanced like a freshly sharpened pencil on its point. Thanks (and to **bonzer** ) for the background: I was sure this couldn’t be true but the history is far more interesting than the conspiracies. Doesn’t seem from the limited comments I can find on the Dr. Frankenstein part that he played it especially mad either. Someone who posts at IMDb should add the 1910 Frankenstein to Edison’s page, which oddly omits it from his producing credits. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/34 "2006-03-06T15:33:11Z")
Semi-hijack. Try the online _Girl Genius_ comic. By Phil Foglio. Much Mad Science fun. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/35 "2006-03-06T16:10:57Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > **What Exit** , as soon as Tesla and conspiracy come up in conversation I tiptoe slowly toward the door, trying not to make any conspicuous moves that might spook those with brains balanced like a freshly sharpened pencil on its point. IMO The reality of Tesla is a match for the legend. No, he wasn’t a superbeing from Venus\*. No, he didn’t invent wireless power transmission, free energy, death rays, earthquake machines, or psychotronics.\*\* But, he was a mad genius (phobic aversion to earings, compulsion to calculate cubic volume of food before eating, compulsion to polish silverware with over a dozen napkins before eating), and Edison did run a smear campaign against him. Then, Nikola Tesla became obsessed with pigeons and died poor. What more can you ask of a mad scientist? - As claimed in a biography printed in green ink. \*\*As claimed by conspiracy websites, catalogs, books, and magazines everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/36 "2006-03-06T16:12:17Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Someone who posts at IMDb should add the 1910 Frankenstein to Edison’s page, which oddly omits it from his producing credits. Did Edison himself “produce” the film, or just his company? The IMDb does have an entry for the 1910 _Frankenstein_ – [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001223/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001223/). It lists no producer, not even on the “Full Cast and Crew” page; but the “Company Credits” page lists Edison Manufacturing Company as the “Production Company.” ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/37 "2006-03-06T17:29:02Z")
> [@Revedge](#): > > “Hump? What hump?” Fraü Brücher! \ ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/38 "2006-03-06T21:14:13Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I’m probably being whooshed here, but no, it’s not. It’s Eeee-gor. I bet you pronounce it FRANK-n-stine, rather than the more accepted frahnk-n-STEEN, too. I think Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus may predate Prospero by a couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/39 "2006-03-06T21:29:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Fraü Brücher! \ Neeiigghh! ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052/40 "2006-03-06T21:36:52Z")
Well, there were [these guys](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1930900104/qid=1141680920/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8639135-5589421?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) but I don’t know if they were first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/347052.md?page=3)