Zzyzx (continued)

Room rates at the hotel were reasonable. No one was being ripped off. That’s not what Zzyzx was about. Spiritual health and physical vitality were the watchwords at Zzyzx.


Guests were, of course, encouraged to make free-will “donations” to the Springer Foundation. The encouragement came dressed up in the rousing sermons Dr. Springer preached twice a day over a state-of-the-art booming PA system. After a few days of such encouragement, it seemed silly not to make a generous donation, especially when the guests felt so healthy, so changed, so liberated. So cured.

Miracles like this didn’t come free, they told each other. God’s work would continue only with their help. So they gave.

But that wasn’t all. Dr. Springer had his own publishing company and his own radio station at Zzyzx. Flyers, pamphlets and booklets churned off the printing presses. And the radio station blazoned Dr. Springer’s Christian messages to the faithful and to those still seeking for light in a dark world. Dr. Springer delivered his messages in a good-old-boy, folksy manner. They were easy to understand and very non-threatening. There was not a hint of hell, fire and damnation. Only a heavy dose of the healing power of Jesus, which could be found by one and all in the Antediluvian Tea, the ‘Hollywood Pep Cocktail,’ which was nothing more than the juices of carrots, celery, turnips, parsley and brown sugar. 'Manna' was the real name of the Pep Cocktail.