About 20 years ago I met Jordan Ramin, who worked in Hollywood as a sound engineer for the producer Michael Todd. Mr. Ramin was a close friend of both Michael Todd and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor. He received the Regency radio in the book inscribed with his name as did about 60 members of the cast and crew who worked on “Around the World in Eighty Days”.
Mike Todd was killed in an airplane crash in 1958. Mr. Ramin went over to their apartment where Liz Taylor was in a rage “…throwing things around.” He asked if he could have Mr. Todd’s radio, Ms Taylor threw it at him, it hit a wall near his head. She screamed ” Take it you’re a schmuck!” Mr. Ramin picked up the radio and ran out. Taking his three million dollar savings and tapping his Hollywood connections, he invested in the movie concept “Smell-O-Vision”. An idea whereupon different smells would be released via small tubes under the seats in the theater, to accompany appropriate scenes and enhance your enjoyment of the film. Mr. Ramin said this was an enormous failure at the premiere. All the various smells were released at the same time filling the theater with something he described as “…a giant, awful fart.” People exited screaming and holding their noses. He seemed quite broke when I bought these from him at his apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan'
