For decades, a mysterious figure dressed in black, his features cloaked by a wide-brimmed hat and scarf, crept into a churchyard to lay three roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. Today, a 92-year-old man who led the fight to preserve the historic site says the visitor was his creation.
“We did it, myself and my tour guides,” said Sam Porpora. “It was a promotional idea. We made it up, never dreaming it would go worldwide.”
Porpora is an energetic, dapper fellow in a newsboy cap and a checked suit with a bolo tie. He’s got a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile, and he tells his tale in the rhythms of a natural-born storyteller. No one has ever claimed ownership of the legend. So why is Porpora coming forward now?
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“I don’t know what to say,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House in Baltimore, who has nurtured for years the legend of the so-called Poe Toaster. Confronted with Porpora’s assertion that the whole thing is a hoax, Jerome reacted like a man who’s been punched in the stomach by his beloved grandfather. He’s sad. He feels betrayed. But he’s reluctant to punch back.
“He’s like a mentor to me,” Jerome said of Porpora. “And I can tell you that if it weren’t for him, Westminster Hall may not be there. But to say the toaster is a promotional hoax, well, all I can say is that’s just not so.”
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Comments 2
I heard about the Poe Toaster about a year ago, ironically.
I doubt very much if he was 60 in the 1960s he started it and kept it going every year until the early 90s (when the toaster changed to a noticeably younger person who’s a bit of a prick and leaves political statements on little cards with the roses and cognac).
Still, I like the tradition. Poe himself would love it, I think.
Posted 21 Aug 2007 at 10:41 am ¶Interesting…
Posted 26 Aug 2007 at 10:35 am ¶Post a Comment