Houdini spent much of 1924 making his case against the practices of fraudulent spirit mediums as an author, scholar, and lecturer. But at the start of 1925, he came out swinging as a skeptic, crusader, and showman. He went from puffing a pipe to breathing fire! It started with an exposure of "Margery" at Symphony Hall in Boston on January 2nd and 3rd. Houdini told his audience, "This is not only a lecture, but a very important night in my life."
Below are some clippings related to Houdini's important night.
Symphony Hall in Boston still stands today and doesn't look all that different from how it looked when Houdini took the stage one hundred years ago.
Want more? You can read a detailed account of Houdini's Symphony Hall exposure as a "Scholar" member of my
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"But at the start of 1925, he came out swinging as a skeptic, crusader, and showman. He went from puffing a pipe to breathing fire!"
ReplyDeleteWhy? What do you think changed? Was it all related to Margery?
I can cite a few things. 1. He was becoming more and more convinced that the vast majority of mediums were deliberate frauds. 2. His friendship with Doyle was at an end, so no need to sugarcoat his feelings there. 3. He had to present as more scholarly on the prestigious Lyceum lecture tour. This was his first non-circuit lecture. 4. He was pissed at the Scientific American for dragging their feet in deciding the Margery case and more than a little concerned that they were being swayed by Margery partisans. 5. The old Handcuff King was coming back to life!
DeleteWho can speculate? The BOSS did what he wanted, rhyme and reasoning perhaps we will never know. Was it his religious upbringing, common sense, moral crusade against intentional fakes.
ReplyDeleteIt still divides us to this day.
Randi clarified to me once that Houdini wasn't saying "All mediums are fakes" He was in search of a legitimate psychic phenomenon. Something without scientific or mechanical explanations.
His show exposed fraudulent mediums, those using treachery and deliberate magician's tricks.
Mediums that swindle people's life savings or convinced someone to commit suicide (even unintentionally) by using theatrical tricks were morally and criminally wrong, in my opinion.
Watch either version of Nightmare Alley and you get an idea of what I'm talking about.
I was pals with an old magician born in the the early 30s, he told me people were going to mediums a lot in those days (WW2)...he believed Television cut down on folks going to Seances and mediums.
In my youth I spent untold hours chasing ghosts. Historian Richard Crowe gave Ghost tours fun stuff in my opinion. Ouija Boards have never given me any test result that matched my seal envelopes.
I detest these modern people claiming they are empathy, mediums, in touch with a spirit world. Penn n Teller's BS is the modern equivalent to Houdini's anti-Fraud exposures.
Sorry I ramble, Was possessed by Anton LaVey again?
One thing I've come to realize is Houdini's relationship was spiritualism was a life-long evolution. This lecture signals the start of his final evolution, in which he really did conclude that: "All mediums are fakes." What he still held onto was the possibility of spirit communication. But if that was real, it shouldn't require a medium and a seance table.
DeleteAnton LaVey: "The goal is to be convincing to those who believe, and entertaining to those who do not."
ReplyDelete(Diego Domingo)