Q: "crolette"

[Joel S. Berson]

Was ist "crolette"?  Nicht im OED.

In Shelley Stamp's _Movie-Struck Girls_, p. 124:

"In a particularly novel ploy, fans of the
_Mystery of Myra_, Pathé's 1916 occult serial,
were offered a cardboard 'crolette,' enabling
them to practice some of the serial's occultist
arts at home. Naturally, the device also
contained announcements reminding fans of which
theaters played the pictures each week, and in
which newspaper the novel was serialized."[N95]
Users were instructed to pose questions to the
spirit world, and then let the device 'guide'
itself to write responses. 'Under the influence
of certain people of particularly nervous
temperament, the Crolette will be found to work
to greater advantage,' the instructions claimed.
'The best results are to be obtained if two
persons, preferably of opposite sex, sit in a
quiet, dimly lighted room by themselves.' "

N95:  "Photographs of the 'crolette' are
reproduced in Lahue, _Bound and Gagged_, 102 and 104."

Lahue (1968) is in Google Books, snippet view,
and "crolette" "hits" pp. 102, 103, 104.

Sounds like a Ouija board?  Which too works to
greater advantage under the influence of people
of particularly nervous temperament ... and hands.

Joel

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