E. Virgil Neal

Ewing Virgil Neal (September 25, 1868 – June 30, 1949) was an American stage hypnotist (as Xenophon LaMotte Sage), author, fraudster, and a wealthy manufacturer of patent medicines and cosmetics.

[11] Together with a few colleagues, he went to a hypnotism show by Sylvain A. Lee, and saw "a blindfold drive, a window sleeper, and a cataleptic burial.

[13] He then went into business with physician Herbert Arthur Parkyn and fellow hypnotist Elmer Sidney Prather, "running a complex network of fraudulent mail-order schemes".

[12] He also sold wrinkle eradicators, weight reducers, bust developers, hair restorers, and "Nuxated Iron".

[13] Neal eventually moved into mainstream beauty products, and manufactured "Tokalon" powders and creams at factories in Paris and London, and sold them in 100 countries.

[22] In 1933, Neal sent his "magnificent" Maybach Zeppelin limousine back to France, along with his "buxom young wife, his buxom young French secretary, his 9-year-old son Xen LaMotte Neal (named after the father's stage name), maids, valet, 30 trunks, 40 other pieces of luggage.

"[13] His prize possession was a green leather booklet signed by Benito Mussolini, which he called his "Fascist Membership Card".

A 1932 Maybach Zeppelin , similar to that owned by Neal
927 Fifth Avenue , Neal's residence in New York City
Château d'Azay-le-Rideau , after which his Château d'Azur was modelled