Houdini And Conan Doyle
For aficionados of crime fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the doyen of writers, the creator of the world’s most instantly recognizable sleuth, Sherlock Holmes and his faithful, if rather dim, companion Dr Watson. He was also an ardent supporter of Spiritualism, known as “the St Paul of Spiritualism”, spending the last ten years of his life proselytizing for the cause, probably as a reaction to the grief engendered by the death of his son and other close relatives in the First World War. In a remarkable parallel with Houdini, he wanted to be remembered for his work with Spiritualism rather than his triumphs as a writer.
Like Houdini too, there was a final great gesture after his death. In July 1930, 6,000 people crowded into the Royal Albert Hall in London to hear a lecture delivered by Conan Doyle, who had died five days earlier. On stage there was just one empty chair, marked with the author’s name. A medium rose, claiming to see the author dressed in evening dress sitting in the chair, and she whispered a message from the great man into the ear of Lady Doyle nearby. The reaction of the crowd was a mix of reverence, incredulity, and ridicule, some regarding it as the proof positive of spiritualism while others saw it as the last act of “a sad and deluded old man who had squandered his greatness”.
Perhaps inevitably, Conan Doyle and Houdini met, in 1920, the latter biting his tongue and expressing feigned interest as the writer banged on about Spiritualism. He even participated in a séance in which Conan Doyle’s wife, Jean, a medium who specialized in automatic writing, produced a message, five-pages long, supposedly from Houdini’s beloved mother. Later, Houdini denounced Jean as a fraud, as his mother, a Jew, would never have put a cross at the top of each page.
Relationships between Conan Doyle and Houdini soured over the subject of spiritualism, the pair waging war in the press, on lecture tours, with Houdini even calling Doyle “one of the greatest dupes” in a testimony to Congress in 1926. At the behest of Conan Doyle, in 1924 Scientific American offered a prize of $2,500 to any medium who could produce physical manifestations of spirit communications under stringent test conditions. A judging panel was formed of eminent American scientists and a place was found for Houdini “as a guarantee to the public that none of the tricks of his trade have been practiced upon the committee.”
After dismissing several mediums, Margery Crandon from Boston, the wife of a Harvard-trained doctor came before the judges. While slumped in a trance, her hands controlled by others, Crandon channeled a spirit that reportedly whispered in the ears of séance sitters, pinched them, poked them, pulled their hair, floated roses under their noses, and even moved objects and furniture about the room. A very attractive woman, Crandon used her sexuality to distract and disarm her male audience.
Curiously, Houdini was not invited to her early séances, something that put his back up, leading him to criticise the contest’s chief organiser for having too cosy a relationship with her. Houdini was able to spot her tricks, after devising a number or rigorous tests, but she gave him a run for his money. Fearing that the Scientific American would award her the prize, he launched a pre-emptive strike by issuing a 40-page pamphlet entitled Houdini Exposes The Tricks Used By Boston Medium “Margery”. He won his argument.
