One of my favorite lines written by Bruce Springsteen. One sentence and you can imagine an entire story.
“Did you hear, the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do?” -4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
She was Madam Marie.
For three-quarters of a century, off and on, she held court on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, in a little bunker decorated with a giant eye — the Temple of Knowledge — telling fortunes, delighting rubes and famous alike, reading the tarot and gazing into a crystal ball.
She was there at the resort’s heyday and when it hit the skids.
One day, she told the fortune of a skinny kid with big dreams. His name was Bruce Springsteen. He put her in a song and Madam Marie became rock and roll legend.Marie Castello, of Oakhurst, who claimed to have told the fortunes of everyone from Judy Garland to Ray Charles to the Rolling Stones, has died. She was 93.
Star Ledger July 2, 2008
