In 1937, George Gershwin bought himself a Crosley XᐧERᐧVAC, the latest mechanized innovation in hair-growth technology. Indeed, he had always been interested in trying out “new principles.” This appetite for the cutting-edge may have gotten him a name as a modern and uniquely American composer, but it had little effect on his receding hair line.

By Ellen Sauer

On April 20th, 1937, George Gershwin mentioned a strange device in a letter to his dear friend Mabel Schirmer:

“I am lying comfortable on a chaise lounge with a new gadget, which I have just bought, on my head. You would probably scream with laughter if you could see me. The machine is a new invention put out by the Crosley Radio Company and has been recommended by several people out here as a positive grower of hair. It’s an entirely new principle and you know me for new principles.”

Indeed, George was not above trendy new cures to his perceived physical imperfections. In a letter to his mother five years earlier, he wrote that the two of them should try out a new diet cure. He told her to buy “that diet book ‘Health via Food’ by Dr. Hay. I read it and believe that if you follow it, you will never be ill again. In fact when you get back I will go with you to his health farm & together we will take his cure. I am sure it will be beneficial to us both.” William Howard Hay’s food-combining “cure” was one of the more effective and lasting scientific innovations coming to the fore early in the twentieth century. Gershwin’s newfangled hair-grower, however, was not.

George was clearly beginning to thin up top. The photo on the left is from 1928. In the photo on the right, taken just three years later, the composer is pictured with considerably less hair.

The XᐧERᐧVAC was a Crosley-made machine available for personal and commercial use beginning in 1937. The device, which looked a bit like a beauty salon hair dryer, was intended to stimulate hair growth by drawing out blood vessels to nourish hair follicles without leaving the scalp red and inflamed, as hair growth treatments of the prior decade had. The user wore a fitted cap and helmet connected to the machine, which then alternated between brief intervals of vacuum suction and pressurized air.

An artist’s rendering of George with his commercial model XᐧERᐧVAC.

The first ad for the XᐧERᐧVAC in Life Magazine can be found in the April 19, 1937 issue, just one day before George wrote to Mabel about his new device. Found on page 5 of that issue, the quarter-page advert screams “Baldness Unnecessary,” and shows simple before-and-after sketches of a fictitious man who has seemingly regained his thick hair after using the XᐧERᐧVAC. Although George purchased the bulkier, professional model, intended for commercial use, the Crosley Radio Company later developed a slightly more compact and streamlined version of the XᐧERᐧVAC available for rental by in-home users.

The Crosley brand had a good track record for inventing new technologies that helped to revolutionize modern life, including car engines, home radios, and electric refrigerators. Powel Crosley Jr., the owner of the company, used the XᐧERᐧVAC himself, believing in the medical research of Dr. Andre Cueto that inspired the development of this machine. On a basic level, it worked exactly as intended—scalp circulation was improved without additional inflammation—but, unfortunately, that is no cure for baldness. While Crosley, Cueto, and their customers believed in the XᐧERᐧVAC and the research behind it, today it can be found in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s medical quackery exhibit.

Further Reading:

“Curing Baldness in the 1930s.” Media Heritage: History of Broadcasting Blog. June 21, 2013. http://www.mediaheritage.com/curing-baldness-in-the-1930s/.

Simon, Stephanie. “The Nation; DISPATCH FROM MINNEAPOLIS; A Gaggle of Quackery Going Mainstream; Gadgetry: Questionable Devices Museum Closes, Sending its Immortality Ring, Xervac Hair-Growth Pump and Other Oddities to ‘Serious’ Science Venue.” Los Angeles Times, Feb 04, 2002.

“XERVAC TREATMENTS.” Life Magazine, April 19, 1937, 5. https://books.google.com/books?id=kksEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Wyatt, Robert, and John Andrew Johnson, eds. Readers on American Musicians: The George Gershwin Reader. Cary: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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