One of the Tarot MajorArcana. BenSiegel may be its Avatar. This becomes all the more likely now that he's spent time on the FerrisWheel.

LegalTenderCoxey recently confirmed that he took on the Hanged Man Avatar as well, by hanging himself during TheWizardOfOz -- although that was one of Ben's hallucinations, so it's unconfirmed.

Links

• http://www.aeclectic.net/basics/hangedman.html
  
• http://www.tarotpassages.com/old_moonstruck/oneill/12.htm
• a Hanged Man / TheWizardOfOz connection that I haven't figured out how to work into the plot yet: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s49hang3.html

Maybe Grandpa Dan had to do this Hanged Man thing as well. The timing would have been about right. What better place to do it than on film to be seen by millions, and this film especially? Actually, thinking that through, it was more likely a Silverites thing rather than DanSiegel and the Goldbugs. Being something film/silver screen based, plus the fact that the movie removes the mention of the SilverShoes (trying to cover it up? Why, and who profits?) [Chris]

Hey, I like that. The timing is almost exactly right: the movie came out in 1939, so presumably it was being filmed in 1937 or 1938, right before or around the time Legal killed the real Dan Siegel and switched sides from his father's League to the Goldbugs. Hmm. Must ponder. [Rob]