Curtis Howe Springer

Curtis Howe Springer
Springer in an advertisement from September 1930.
Born	(1896-12-02)December 2, 1896 Birmingham, Alabama
Died	August 19, 1985(1985-08-19) (aged 88) Las Vegas, Nevada
Nationality	American
Occupation	Radio evangelist
Spouse(s)	Mary Louise Berkebile (divorced) Helen Springer (his death)
Children	Curtis Jr., Marilou

Curtis Howe Springer (December 2, 1896 – August 19, 1985) was an American radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and Methodist minister best known for founding the Zzyzx Mineral Springs resort located within Southern California's Mojave Desert. He was also the host of well-known evangelical syndicated radio programs that were broadcast throughout the United States for several decades.

Springer was in actuality neither a doctor nor a minister, and he described himself as the "last of the old-time medicine men." In 1969, the American Medical Association labeled him the "King of Quacks". In the early 1970s, the federal government discovered that Springer held no legal rights to the land where Zzyzx stood; consequently, he was evicted from the space and briefly imprisoned.

Curtis Howe Springer was born December 2, 1896, and hailed from Birmingham, Alabama. He was married to Mary Louise Berkebile. They separated at some point, and he married a woman named Helen. Springer had several children, including a daughter, Marilou, and a son, Curtis Jr., who later became a judge in Montgomery, Alabama.

He claimed to have been a private in the United States Army, where he taught boxing. In Springer's early life, he "drummed up crowds for William Jennings Bryan's tirades against demon rum" and was a sheet music vendor at Billy Sunday's evangelical services. Following World War I, Springer worked at a school in Florida. In the late 1920s, Springer moved to Chicago, where he became involved with an automotive technical school called Greer College. Springer was fired by 1930, and the school was forced into bankruptcy shortly afterward.