Publicity stunts undertaken by press agent Jim Moran, 1938-1959:

• Sold a refrigerator to an Eskimo in Alaska
• Threw eggs at an electric fan
• Changed horses in midstream in a Nevada river
• Sought a needle in a haystack (for 10 days)
• Walked a bull through a New York china shop
• Hatched an ostrich egg (by sitting on it for 19 days)
• Opened a Washington embassy for a mythical country

By the 1950s the era of the flamboyant stunt was ending, and authorities put a stop to Moran’s more ambitious schemes. He said, “It’s a sad day for American capitalism when a man can’t fly a midget on a kite over Central Park.”