(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast 44, released on September 1, 2026.)

On Thursday, August 17, 1961, the readers of the various Los Angeles newspapers learned the story of Inez Miller, a 36-year-old Pasadena receptionist, who had been named the winner of the prestigious $20,000 (~$223,000 today) Victor Hugo Award by the French Academy of Arts. The award was given to honor her decade of remarkable service, art, and philanthropy.

Inez was a living saint, one who humbly worked the previous ten years as a receptionist – first for the Southern Pacific Railroad, then the Alhambra School District, and finally for the Pasadena Recreation Department.

But her true passion was her art. She was a gifted painter whose works had been exhibited both in the United States and abroad.

Inez’s art was not for her own enrichment, however. She sold everything that she painted to raise money to help others. For example, at a personal cost of $12,000 (nearly $138,000 today), she paid for 30 European orphans to visit the United States in 1959. In addition, over the previous decade, she used the profits from her painting sales to help 38 children, including financing the studies of eight young women at the French Academy of Arts in Paris.

Inez’s generosity, she explained, stemmed from her own childhood. She had been adopted when she was two months old by an aunt, Mrs. N. S. Gross of South Pasadena, who had eventually sent her to study at the University of Mexico and the French Academy.

She told the Los Angeles Times, “I was so fortunate myself that I felt I should do something for others.”

The $20,000 prize couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I haven’t had time to do much painting. I have only one unsold painting, and finances are running low.”

That lone unsold painting was a seascape that, she said, was on display at the Cleveland Art Museum.

She added, “I was afraid I might have to bring home the four girls studying at the Academy. Now they can stay on.”

Unfortunately, Inez claimed that she was too ill to travel to Paris to accept the award herself. Instead, 17-year-old Karen Lee Given, a student at the Academy, would accept it on her behalf.

But the fairy tale lasted only a few hours.

After the story appeared in the newspapers, someone at the Pasadena Recreation Department took a closer look at Inez’s employment records and noticed a problem. The records showed that she had been working in the United States in 1955, which meant that she couldn’t have been studying in Paris at the same time.

Before long, Inez was forced to admit the truth: the entire story was a hoax. She had invented the prestigious award and the elaborate tale surrounding it.

When a reporter questioned her, Inez broke down in tears.

“I don’t know – I don’t know why I did it.”

And that still left plenty of questions. Inez refused to say whether any other part of her story was true.

Had she really been adopted? Had she actually spent a year studying at the French Academy? Had she ever financed the education of a single child? Was she even a painter?

Inez had only one response:

“You can believe what you want to believe.”