Harry Houdini--Magician Among The Spirits

[scarygirl67]

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There are magicians today who take the knowledge they have learned in their tricks and expose claimed mediums and psychics. James Randi, of course is well known for his "Million Dollar Challenge" to a psychic who can prove their abilities (no one has come forward to claim it). Penn and Teller also have a show that is also geared toward exposing hoaxes. Even Harry Price started out exposing fakes before he was alleged to become one himself. However one name stands out among the many as a forerunner of magicians exposing the frauds. That name is Harry Houdini.

As with many performers, Houdini used a stage name. His name was actually Erik Weisz (the name was changed to Ehrich Weiss on the family's immigration papers). From 1907 on, he would state in interviews that he was born in the town his family emigrated to (Appleton Wisconsin), although he had actually been born in Budapest, Hungary as the son of a Jewish rabbi on March 24, 1874. It is largely thought that this claim was due to the anti-foreign sentiment of the times.

Houdini's partner in magic was also his partner in life..his wife Bess, full name Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner who he married in June of 1894. Until then he had been performing with his brother Theodore ("Dash") under the name "The Houdini Brothers". His big break occurred in 1899 when he began the vaudeville circuit, promoted by theater owner Martin Beck. From there, he went on to be the great Harry Houdini.

Harry had two deep loves in his life..his wife and his mother. Although film adaptions have made it appear that the two women did not get along, it was never as bad as dramatic license made it appear. Likely Harry's mother, being a very faithful Jewish woman, was taken aback by Bess being Catholic, but the bitterness between the women was largely blown out of proportion. When Harry's mother died in 1913, he was devastated.

It has been said that he tried many times to communicate with his mother through mediums and saw the faking, inspiring him to expose them all. This may be true, but in my opinion, his inspiration came from one thing and one thing only. Harry knew they were faking..because he had done so himself in the lean times during his career before his big break. He and Bess had often given fake seances, counting on the audience believing that what they did was real. Houdini saw that these mediums, who were very popular at the time, were doing the exact tricks that he and his wife had done. He not only saw it, he made it his mission to expose them.

During the last six years of his life, Harry exposed many of these frauds. It was said that he would arrive to many spiritualism shows in disguise with a police officer and a reporter in tow. One of the most famously exposed "mediums" was Mina Crandon, also known as Margery. He reproduced many of her tricks on the stage and wrote a paper describing how she achieved her results. His work was further validated by Dr. Joseph Rhine, who also observed her trickery. She was declared a fraud by a group of Harvard Scholars in 1925, and although she further went on to discredit herself...people still believed, much like today when hoaxes are exposed. Houdini also wrote a best selling book titled "A Magician Among The Spirits."

It was said that Harry exposed these frauds with the hopes that one..just one..would not be able to be debunked. The concepts of life after death were fascinating to him as they were many people at that time. For years, one of his dearest friends was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series and an ardent believer of Spiritualism. Their friendship was said to have ended because Harry would not reveal his tricks that seemed impossible to do. Doyle was said to declare to Houdini that he (Harry) was indeed a medium himself...a statement that was said to have put a rift between the two.

Harry Houdini died on Halloween of 1926 due to a ruptured appendix. Stories of him not being able to escape a water act (completely false) and being punched before preparing his stomach muscles by a student on a challenge (largely blown out of proprotion) did not answer the true cause of death. Quite simply, Harry was a performer. He had been suffering from appendicitis for some time and rather than get medical attention..he kept performing. The show must go on. The punching incident may have occurred as reported, but it was not what caused his death. Peritonitis had set in because of not getting earlier medical treatment and the appendix ruptured. The film adaption that had him dying shortly after a nearly failed escape from a water device is a complete fabrication. He died in a hospital, his last performance having been the week before.

But the story doesn't end there.

Harry purportedly told his wife that if he died before she did, and if it indeed was possible to communicate from the other side, he would leave her a message. It was a code from their old seance days that would mean the word "believe". Every Halloween for years after his death, Bess would hold a seance in the hopes of hearing from her dead husband. A reward of $10,000 was offered to anyone who could successfully communicate. One January day in 1929, she was approached by an associate of the medium Arthur Ford saying that Ford would like to have a reading with Bess. He believed he, or rather his spirit guide "Fletcher" would be able to crack the code. Bess had read with Ford before in a seance where he was said to have received a message from Harry's mother, including the word "forgive". Bess was said to have been impressed because she believed that would have been a word used by her mother-in-law from the other side.

However, at this time, Bess was not well. She had recently suffered a fall down the stairs and was fighting a bad case of the flu. She truly did not want to try it at this time, but as the insistence persisted, she gave in.

During the sitting, Ford was said to receive a message from his spirit guide "Fletcher". The message was "Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer, look, tell, answer, answer, tell." Ford then said to Bess that the message was a code for the word "believe". This shocked the poor woman, in the semi-conscious state of illness and grief, because this was indeed the code that she and Harry were said to be the only ones to know. However it later turned out that it was quite possible for Ford to have researched and found bits of the code in a book that had been published the previous year, as well as "Rosabelle" being the inscription inside Bess's wedding ring..a ring she had removed and handed to Ford before the seance. Bess did sign a statement that the seance had been a success, although she later retracted this saying that she had not been in the right state of mind when the seance was conducted.

It was shown later that he did indeed do his research on many other cases, such as one in 1967 where he claimed to communicate with the son of a former Episcopal bishop who had committed suicide. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl...21,00.html Upon his death in 1971, notes were found that showed he had done his research on the case beforehand to have knowledge of things that seemed impossible for him to know. Not everything..but enough to show that he was certainly capable of doing his research on potential clients. Due to many biographical issues and inconsistencies, it is very difficult to discern what, if any abilities he had, as both he and his biographer Allen Spraggett have been said to change their stories and accounts.

Bess herself was thought to have her own motives for later denying Ford's communication with her husband although at the time she signed documentation stating that the seance was successful. Many thought that she continued the seances to remain in the public eye and only retracted her initial endorsement of Ford to restore her own credibility as well as the financial reality of having to give away $10,000. It remains a controversy among believers and skeptics to this day.

Bess died in 1943. Whatever secrets she had of the truth about the seance with Ford, she took with her to her grave...a grave that is sadly not next to her husbands. It is thought that her Catholic family would not allow her burial in a Jewish cemetery.

The controversy of the seance and its alleged results aside, one fact remains. Harry Houdini, in his lifetime, paved the way for those who expose fakes and frauds. Those who expose these fakes are not enemies of the paranormal, but rather seekers of the truth and determined to weed out the ones who are only gifted at scamming people.

As the show says...the truth is out there. So are the lies. Thanks to one "magician among the spirits", the legacy to find the truth and expose the fraud continues with others. Their methods are argued as being rigged and geared toward the skeptic audience only, but they should be commended for never taking things at face value. Always seek the truth.

On a personal note, this blog is not to say that all information I have found in relation to this subject is the full story. With many egos and agendas to consider, it is likely that the full truth of that January night may never be fully known. But I have always admired Houdini's efforts to show how easily things can be faked and that just because something looks real doesn't mean that it is. Thanks for reading, and to quote Bess Houdini's words on the last seance she held in 1936..."Good night, Harry".


For further reading about the late, great Harry Houdini:

http://www.myhistorymuseum.org/houdini/spirits.asp

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"When you feel like a toad on the highway of life... and everyone seems like a steel-belted radial... when you're lyin' there squished in an assortment of bodily fluids... at least you left your mark." ~Arnie Dogan, "The Red Green Show"

[Fiona]

I remember you saying before you were interested in the life of Houdini. Well done, SG, it's a really interesting piece you've written there, I knew very little about him before. Thanks for sharing.

[scarygirl67]

I had seen the 1976 movie with Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers, which started my fascination with Houdini. Weeding out the truth from the dramatic license was the second part!! =) I've never understood why movies do that..stretch the truth and create things that didn't happen, especially with a character as colorful as Houdini was. He didn't need any license taken..just tell his story and many will be fascinated. But you know Hollywood!

There is also a conspiracy theory surrounding Houdini and how he died. It is not one that I believe because the real cause of death coincided with the facts. Appendicitis is deadly if left untreated, and that is exactly what he did...but there are those who believe he may have been intentionally poisoned by spiritualists or that the punch delivered by the university student was intended to cause harm. Harry did make a lot of enemies because he refused to sit back and let people say they were talking to the dead when they were in reality doing magic tricks that he recognized. However, my opinion is that he died because he wouldn't get himself to a doctor when he should have.

Now do I think Harry was a wonderful humanitarian that was a hero for the truth? Well...I think Harry was a performer. I think he saw that this was another route he could take in that performance, so of course some of his ego was involved, just as there is to a degree with everyone. The important thing to remember is that because of what he showed people, he may have saved many from giving money to people who were scam artists. And of course, he should always be remembered for his amazing shows and paving the way for magicians everywhere.