Missing Miss Cleo

Shade

I saw the sad news of her passing today and wanted to share my thoughts on why I will personally miss Miss Cleo.

I know that the company that operated the hotline that she was the mascot for settled out of court to the tune of $500 million because the free readings people were told they would receive were misrepresented. I know for many readers, Miss Cleo made them uncomfortable because people associated the practice of the tarot with a 900 number and charging people $3.99 a minute.

But I will miss her. I started reading Tarot in the 90s a little bit before her commercials started airing and it gave a lot of people a fun reference for Tarot. If you told someone you were a Tarot reader they usually smiled and shouted "Call me now for your freeeeeeee reeeeeeading" in their best fake accent.

I loved all her trappings, the leopard print dresses, the massive jewelry, and most of all the turbans. The tarot community does an amazing amount of good with our readings - but it's nice to not take ourselves too seriously.

Those commercials also introduced a lot of people to Tarot cards.

There is a lot of misinformation about her. People seem to make her the villain of the piece and she gets all the ire that should have been directed at the people who operated the reading hotline. She did not make millions, she was an actress in commercials. And... I think most people with any sense understood that she was putting on a show. It's hard to remember for sure since it's been so long.

Anyway, she had a memorable part to play even if she wasn't a reader herself and I'll miss her.

(edited slightly because a few things I read)
 

Redfaery

I'm inclined to agree with you, Shade, especially since she was only 53, and died of colon cancer that spread to her other organs. If it were any other fallen C lister, her death would be mourned and old newsreels dug out. But since it was "Miss Cleo" her death is being treated like a joke.
 

Shade

Redfaery said:
But since it was "Miss Cleo" her death is being treated like a joke.
Click to expand...

You're very right, I made the mistake of reading the comments on the TMZ article that announced her death. A large chorus of "I bet she didn't see that coming."
 

Redfaery

Shade said:
You're very right, I made the mistake of reading the comments on the TMZ article that announced her death. A large chorus of "I bet she didn't see that coming."
Click to expand...
My mom said that EXACT thing. To which I just responded with a dirty look and "well she had *cancer*...
 

mercurien

I lovvved Miss Cleo. She's the one who actually got me into Tarot, lol. I remember seeing her commercials as a child and thinking "Wow, I want to do what she does!".
 

Darkmage

Her infomercials were a staple of late 90's late night kitsch. I have her deck, I rather like it.

Yeah, she was a fraud, but at the end she died surrounded by family and friends. That's really all anyone can ask for.
 

prudence

Shade said:
You're very right, I made the mistake of reading the comments on the TMZ article that announced her death. A large chorus of "I bet she didn't see that coming."
Click to expand...

It was the same in any article I looked at. People can be so awful.
 

danieljuk

She never really made it to Europe and so I never saw her infomercials here but knew of her as a legend.

Here is a clip with her talking about working the phone lines from the documentary "Hotline", it's an official clip from it and you can find the documentary on many streaming sites:

https://vimeo.com/111588537

and her talking about her infamous infomercials:

https://vimeo.com/59265220

RIP Miss Cleo
 

Shade

I had not seen those before and that second clip is very moving. It's so frustrating that she became the "bad guy" when she was just the face of the operation.
 
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