AUSTRIA Bottled Genie
In the Arabian Nights, a genie made the mistake of climbing back into his bottle and a fisherman clamped a cork on him. Vienna's police department feels that climbing into a bottle is likely to create grave "danger to personal and public health." Rudolph Schmidt, a carnival stunt man from Bad Hall, holds quite an opposite view. A self-made genie who calls himself the Hindu Fakir Rayo, Rudolph insists that a year spent inside a bottle can provide science with some valuable lessons in controlled diet. It will also, he hopes, attract a sizable crowd of sightseers at 15¢ a look.
Last week, after weeks of fruitless argument during which the Vienna police remained adamant, Rudolph moved on to Linz and climbed into his bottle. It was a huge, steel-framed affair, seven feet tall. Taking with him an air mattress, a camp stool and two Syrian snakes "for company," Rudolph entered one side of the bottle. Then arc welders sealed him in, leaving only an 8-in. bottleneck open at the top. For the next year, Rudolph plans to live in bottled luxury on vitamin pills and write his memoirs. And if no one comes to see him? Well, he can always go back to the old grind—nailing his tongue to a board.