"In 1923, Denver newspapers were tipped off that a whale had been sighted on top of Pikes Peak, a 14,000-foot-high mountain in Colorado. The reporters raced up to the site to see the whale. Sure enough, just beyond the peak, occasional sprays of water shot into the air, while hundreds of spectators gathered below, shouting, 'Thar she blows!'

"The whale was actually [press agent Milton Crandall] hiding just behind the peak, shooting sprays of seltzer into the air. And the shouting people were all paid to stabd there in the cold for an hour. But it was worth it -- for Crandall anyway. he got just the publicity he was looking for to promote the 1922 movie, Down to the Sea in Ships."