Advertisement from the 1944 Chattanooga city directory for Robert C. "Doc" Anderson. Click to enlarge.
“We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.”
- Criswell in “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1959)
"Indoor plumbing. It's gonna be big."
- Atropos, the third Fate, in “Hercules” (1997)
Knowing the future would help to prevent economic disasters. Farmers, perhaps the biggest gamblers of us all, would avoid planting before late spring freezes and floods. Business folks would keep from marketing new products that won’t sell. The big disappointment at the box office wouldn’t star an actor who had seen the coming attraction and its ticket sales.
With the goal of knowing what’s around the corner, many people seek experts in advising about the future. Robert Charles “Doc” Anderson was, for many years, the Chattanooga area’s seer of the not-yet-seen. Customers from near and far, and from all degrees of celebrity status, visited him for a session of prognostication.
Doc Anderson was born in 1908, the son of Nels and Mary Anderson. Early career pursuits, according to a November 8, 1979 Chattanooga Times article, included being a strongman in a circus, a prize fighter, and a bull fighter. The same article described him as planning a final ole’ in Mexico.
Mr. Anderson moved to Chattanooga in 1944 from Dalton, Georgia, and opened an office at 2110 McCallie Avenue. An advertisement in the city directory told of his past experience in locating buried treasure, finding missing persons, and predicting the future. He had told the cowboy comedian Will Rogers that he would be killed in an accident. Rogers, along with aviator Wiley Post, perished in a plane crash in 1935. He had also predicted that Franklin D. Roosevelt would die in office, a prediction fulfilled in 1945.
Customers were welcomed from 10am to 10pm in person, or were served by mail at a cost of $2.00 plus 10 cents postage. Each mailed-in request earned an additional three questions answered free. Doc Anderson proclaimed to be an astrologer, not a fortune teller, and referenced Nostradamus as using the same methods.
Local governments of Chattanooga and Rossville sometimes challenged Doc Anderson’s right to practice. The October 25, 1944 Chattanooga Times reported an early challenge. After his first year of operation in Chattanooga, the board of commissioners at first denied the renewal of his city license. A new ordinance limited the practices of fortune tellers, soothsayers (“sooth” is an old word for “truth”), astrologers, et al. to those who were Chattanooga residents. Doc Anderson had recently bought a home at Lakeview, Georgia.
However, Doc Anderson was able to prevail. The November 1, 1944 Chattanooga Times reported that Mayor E.D. Bass advised the commission that the new law’s intent was to keep transient advisors of the future from operating. Doc Anderson was permitted to do business, since he was local.
Soon, Doc Anderson was a local celebrity. He often appeared on local television shows including “The Morning Show” with Harry Thornton. For those too young or too brief a Chattanoogan to remember, Harry Thornton was the local forerunner to today’s news/talk show hosts.
Doc Anderson was included as a panelist on a WRCB-TV show concerning predictions for the year 1970. By this time, St. Elmo had become the home of Doc Anderson. Since I lived in St. Elmo, I knew of him as being a figure in the community. He had both his supporters and detractors.
Though his success rate was not 100%, Doc Anderson made enough accurate predications, and attracted attention from afar. Some of his clients were celebrities.
Eddie Albert, who starred in the movie “Oklahoma” and on television in “Green Acres,” frequently consulted with Mr. Anderson.
The March 19, 1972 Chattanooga News-Free Press told of the visit of actor Denver Pyle (Briscoe Darling on “Andy Griffith” and Uncle Jesse on “Dukes of Hazzard”) and Texas oil man John Shaw. Doc Anderson had correctly located sixteen of sixteen oil well sites. The two men were in town to announce a plan for a Doc Anderson statue in Rossville, Georgia (no record in the library’s clipping file on whether this was ever erected).
Sadly, Robert C. “Doc” Anderson did not get to do his final ole’ with the taurus in Mexico, as far as the record shows.
The Chattanooga area has historically had flooding during the month of March. The year 1980 was no exception. Doc Anderson lost his life after leaving his flooded vehicle, and trying to wade through the swift current. He was survived by his wife, Ruth, who often challenged local attempts to shut down his practice alongside her husband, and four daughters.
While some derisively said at the time (and still do) that Doc Anderson didn’t see his own death coming, some reports told that indeed, he had shared such premonitions.
If you have memories of Robert C. “Doc” Anderson, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.