Rajah Rabo
From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers
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Rajah Rabo was an African American numerologist, dream interpreter, psychic reader, rootworker, and spiritual supply shop keeper in New York City. Very little is known about his personal life, beyond the fact that he was born Carl Z. Talbot, on July 30, 1890 in Springfield, Massachusetts. By 1932 he had published his first lucky number dream book and in 1937 his storefront in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City was photographed for a "March of Time" newsreel. In the Federal Census of 1940 he was noted as having completed one year of high school and was listed as a "writer and publisher." He died in May 1974, at the age of 83.
Talbot wrote all of his books under the pseudonym Rajah Rabo, and originally published them in Mount Vernon, New York, a close suburb of Manhattan that happens to be the most northerly stop on the New York City subway lines. He is best known for having written "Rajah Rabo's 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book" in 1932, with a "New Improved" revised edition released in 1941, and for the "Pick'Em Dream Book" in 1953. He also was the author of "Rabo's Rundown and Workout Book," a system of betting numbers based on earlier winning numbers, published in the mid-1930s. His last book, "Rajah Rabo's H-Bomb," was published in April, 1973, when he was 82 years old.
Talbot started out as numerologist by working up numerical suggestions for dreams. In this he was influenced by dozens of previous anonymous authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The use of dreams to produce lucky numbers for betting was already popular in Europe, but when the gambling game of policy took urban African-American communities by storm between the Emancipation and World War One, dream books were found everywhere. The trouble with them was that even if the publisher put a Black woman on the cover, as happened with "Old Aunt Dinah's Policy Dream Book" and "Aunt Sally's Policy Player's Dream Book," the interior text was still filled with antiquated European dream images of ladies carrying fans or parasols, and there were no mentions of contemporary dream sights such as railroads or airplanes. Talbot was not only a brilliant numerologist who updated his dream images to reflect the 20th century Black experience, he actually invented his own unique and logical system of picking lucky numbers from dreams, the Pick'Em system, which brought him lasting fame.
Like many Black numerologists of his era, Talbot also took bets on policy games. To select policy winners, some bookies spun a large wheel, but in order to avoid rigged wheels, a new form of selection gained favour with gamblers -- reading the number in a daily newspaper where its randomness was presumably assured. The number could be generated from daily stock exchange reports, the daily inter-bank report of the New York Clearing House, the Federal Reserve daily credit balance, the amount of cotton bales sold at the Chicago Board of Trade, the number of ships admitted into a port, or through daily mutuel totals at racetracks. Talbot used racetrack attendance numbers to determine his payouts. In addition to running a policy bank, he also sold a full line of "Indian Herbs" -- that is hoodoo roots and herbs for medical and magical benefits, and he carried magical incenses as well. It is likely that his herbs were supplied by Dr. E. P. Read, whose "Indian Herb Company" sold wholesale and retail nationwide.
"Rajah Rabo's New Improved 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book" contains 46 pages of dream keywords. There are no interpretations for the dreams and the focus is on numerology. Because this book is specifically geared toward Mutuel race track betting, there are lucky numbers given for the names of many famous jockeys of times gone by -- Jack Westrope (his career spanned 1933 to 1958), Ray Workman (a winning jockey from 1929 - 1936), "C. Kursing" (a typo for C. Kursinger, who won the Kentucky Derby n 1931 and 1937), and three founding members of the Jockeys Guild in the late 1930s -- Eddie Acaro, Lester Balaski, and John Pollard. Also named and numbered are two riders associated with the famous racehorse Seabiscuit: trainer Keith Stucki and jockey George Woolf. Horses whose lucky numbers are given in the book likewise date from the 1920s and early 1930s, and include Tutticurio, who ran in the Kentucky Derby in 1935.
Talbot dealt unabashedly with topics that many celebrated mediums, Spiritualists, and dream book authors have traditionally avoided. He listed DOPE FIEND among the people one could meet in a dream, as well as lucky betting numbers for those who have a dream about a DUNG HEAP, ROAD HOUSE, REEFERS, ODD FEET, HAIRY WOMAN, STOOL-PIGEON, or VICE RAID. His individualistic choices of dream imagery paint a vivid picture of life in Harlem in the 1930s. He gave number picks for dreams about popular dances like the BUCK DANCE, CHARLESTON, and the BLACK BOTTOM; for hoodoo magic practices like CANDLE BURNING and INCENSE BURNING; and he included Judaism as a religion, mentioning both a SYNAGOGUE and a COLORED JEW.
The "Pick'Em Dream Book" of 1953 introduced Talbot's famous Pick'Em system. This consists of 104 pages of lists of dream image keywords. There are 9 consecutively-numbered selections for variations on each image. The 10th number in the set, deemed a "Special," is picked to play only on designated days of the week. There is also a "Forecast" or divination for what the dream predicts will befall the one who dreams it.
In keeping with the time period, we find that in the "Pick'Em," there are entries for "TELEVISION," "ATOMIC," and "HYDROGEN BOMB." Also, in the entry for "WAR," both "World no. 2" and "World no. 1" are given separate number picks. As can be seen from the "DOPE FIEND" example given above, Talbot gave a vivid account of life as he saw and lived it. Under "CRAP GAME" he listed both "Crooked" and "Raided," under "FATHER" he listed "In jail," under "VOMIT" he listed "in subway," under "LYNCH" he listed "Down South," and under "BIBLE" he listed "Jewish."
Under "PROSTITUTE" he listed "to be robbed by," under "WALKING" he listed both "to police court" and "with the dead," and under "RESTAURANT" he listed "Jim Crow." For "THEATRE" he listed "Apollo" (a Black venue in New York City), and under "NEWSPAPER" he listed both "Amsterdam News" (a black-owned paper in Harlem) and "P.M." (a short-lived left-wing radical paper in Manhattan mostly staffed by Jews). He even worked out a ten-digit entry for "FAGGETT" -- a misspelling of "Faggot," a common term then for a homosexual man, now regarded as a slur. Among the types of gay men Talbot thought one might dream of, there were separate numbers for "Colored," "White," "Walking," "Talking," "Good-looking," "Ugly," "Drunk," "Sick," and "Talking to," as well as an unexpectedly positive "Forecast," given the anti-gay prejudices of the time: "Don't throw away a valuable friendship because of those who love the life they live, and live the life they love."
From these dream images, an interesting picture of Carl Talbot can be drawn -- he clearly saw a lot of life on the streets of New York and he had definite opinions about social justice in the Jim Crow South. He stood ready to help his clients make money through gambling, and as a fortune teller he helped them interpret their dreams, and carried a full line of spiritual supplies to support their psychic development, back their gambling plays, and assist their journeys through life.
The Books of Rajah Rabo
- "Rajah Rabo's 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book." 1932. Carl Z. Talbot, New York.
- "Rabo's Rundown and Workout Book." circa 1935. Carl Z. Talbot, New York.
- "Rajah Rabo's New Improved 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book." 1941. L. Hartmann, New York.
- "Pick'Em Dream Book." 1953. Mount Vernon Book Sales, Mount Vernon, New York.
- "Rajah Rabo's H-Bomb." 1973. Carl Z. Talbot, New York.
Credits
This page is brought to you by the AIRR Tech Team:
- Author: Catherine Yronwode
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