100 years ago in Port Townsend: Movie brings back man’s memory

From our archives, 100 years ago

A motion picture show, of all things, restored the mind and memory of Max Rockower, 26, according to reports out of Port Townsend, Washington.

Rockower had been a deckhand on the steamer Rapid Transit when he got into some kind of dispute in Seattle. He received a blow on the head and lost all of his memory. His skull was trepanned, but he failed to recover and “displayed the simplicity of a child.” He was sent to the U.S. Marine Hospital at Port Townsend. He did not recognize his mother, who arrived from Calgary, Alberta, to see her son.

She took him to a movie show, which happened to depict a man being struck on the head with a hammer. He immediately placed his hand on his head and exclaimed, “Somebody hit me!”

He then turned to his mother and asked her where they were and how she happened to be with him.

On returning to the hospital, he failed to recognize his nurse, but he remembered everything before the accident. He was “showing every indication that the cloud which had obscured his mind had vanished.”

From the political beat: The Rev. J. Quincy Biggs of the Dean Avenue Christian Church, had some timeless advice from the pulpit about political candidates.

“Beware of the man who makes too many flattering promises; he is apt to deceive you when in office,” Biggs said. “Beware of the man who refuses to make a promise; he is wanting play safe and do as he pleases when in office.”