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| The Republican, Feb 12, 1925. |
J. Malcom Bird, the head of the committee who had been a Margery champion and partisan even before the investigation had begun, blamed Houdini for the failure.
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| Detroit Free Press, Feb 13, 1925. |
The verdict came down during a busy week for Houdini. He was playing two theaters in New York at the same time; the Hippodrome in Manhattan and The E.F. Albee in Brooklyn. A police escort sped him between the two vaudeville houses.
Houdini remained relatively quiet on the final verdict. But he had been making his case against Margery for over a year, first with his Margery pamphlet and later with two exposure lectures in Boston. For him, this was vindication.
This wasn't the end of investigations of Margery. In June 1925, a committee of Harvard scholars sat with the medium. After witnessing her retrieve objects from her lap to aid in her manifestations, they concluded she was fraudulent. The American Society for Psychical Research investigated her in 1926 and also concluded that the phenomena she produced was fraudulent.
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Great stuff here! Bird and Carrington, stuffing their faces with custard pie, wondering how they struck such easy graft at 10 Lime Street. The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher is essential reading on this story.
ReplyDeleteNo! Don’t eat the custard pie gentlemen! She could’ve poisoned it! Nooo! 🤣 okay no - Abby Martin
DeleteMargery would have never done anything to harm Bird nor Carrington. Those two were her champions who publicly touted and defended her supposedly mystical powers. She may even have dallied with Carrington under the bed sheets. Not sure about Bird. She wasn't attracted to him.
DeleteYeah. Fair. I probably shouldn’t joke around like that. Sorry.
DeleteWhat I meant to say was I only joking. I did not mean it like that. I got really flustered and embarrassed, but hey at least I learned something new.
DeleteI know you were joking. It's important to gave a sense of humor. If you decide to read Jaher's book, make sure you read about the Margery story from a Houdini biography. Then you willbe armed with enough preliminary information to do the deep dive into Jaher's book.
DeleteMe to Margery: *Nelson laugh* HAha! - Abby Martin
ReplyDeleteI’ve been a Houdini fan since I was 10 years old and while growing up in Buffalo, New York, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Houdini Hall of Fame every summer. I’m 63 now and in the ensuing years, I’ve remained a Houdini fan and have read everything I could about Houdini and, when traveling, would look for places that Houdini spent time either doing an escape or put on a performance. I’ve been a fan of this site for years but, other than possibly a brief conversation I had with Jame Randi about the seance held on the fiftieth anniversary of Houdini’s death, I never felt I had anything significant to contribute. After seeing the blog entry for February 12, I thought the readers of this blog may be interested in a quick anecdote.
ReplyDeleteI was in Boston a couple of years ago to run the Boston Marathon and did a shakedown run that took me to Lime Street on Beacon Hill. I had my phone with me and on it I had the well known photo that Houdini took of Margery in the doorway of number 11 Lime Street as well as other photos that were taken of Houdini and Margery as well as others near number 10 Lime street.
I stood in the doorway of number 11 and took a selfie in the same spot Margery stood for Houdini’s photo. Each brick in the perimeter of the doorway is unique and looking at the photo Houdini took of Margery I could see the exact same bricks before me. It turns out that I’m a bit taller than Margery was.
After taking the selfie, I snapped a few photos of the doorway and views of the street. Suddenly the door to number 11 swung open and the current owner strode out carrying some lumber. It was obvious that some renovations were taking place immediately inside the doorway. He saw me and we exchanged friendly hellos and I told him why I was taking photos. He indicated he was aware of something regarding the supernatural had taken place in the vicinity a long time ago, and didn’t seem to know too many details, but did say that if any place around there was haunted — it was his entry hallway! Apparently the hallway light would turn on and off randomly and electricians had not up to that point been able to trace the reason to a logical cause.
I wished him luck with his renovations and he enthusiastically wished me good luck in the marathon.
Dude. That’s awesome! 😊 - Abby Martin
DeleteGreat story, Tom. Thank you for sharing. I so want to get to Boston and visit Lime Street. I've always wondered why they took their pics in front of No. 11 instead of No. 10. Maybe it offered a better background. Or maybe it was to protect Margery's privacy and not reveal her exact address.
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