| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1341.1 | I heard this when I was real young! | FREMNT::PFLUM | RustyWallaceHarleys&NASCAR! | Wed Aug 15 1990 17:24 | 9 |
|
My grandmother told me the story about Houdini and his death, and that
his wife was to leave a light burning in the window or something like
that for him to find his way back to her. I'm not really sure, she told
me the story years ago, I'd be interested in hearing the real story
though!
L_M_L (Linda)
|
| 1341.2 | see also note 233.0 | LESCOM::KALLIS | Pumpkins -- Nature's greatest gift. | Wed Aug 15 1990 17:35 | 20 |
| Harry Houdini (real name Erich Weiss) had spent a portion of his
adult lifetime looking for genuine mediums, but finding none whose
activities he couldn't duplicate using variants of stage magic.
Where he found phonies, he exposed them; in fact, he had stage shows
in which he duplicated "mediumistic" feats, but so his audience
could see how it was done. However, although a master debunker,
he had an open mind about the possibility that there were people
who could genuinely speak with the spirits of the departed.
He made a pact with his wife: should he die first, he'd utter a
word or phrase known only to the two of them if he could be "called
back," as proof that it was really him.
He died of a ruptured appendix brought on by an unintended sucker-punch
to his stomach.
Every year, a seance was held to see whether contact could be made.
Nothing conclusive ever came of it.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
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| 1341.3 | A little more info.... | DELREY::MILLS_MA | | Wed Aug 15 1990 18:02 | 12 |
| I remember a few years ago there was a show hosted by William Shatner
where a list of celebrities and other 'mediumistic' types held a seance
to see if they could contact Houdini's spirit. William Shatner held a
sealed envelope which supposedly held the word or phrase that Houdini
had told his wife he would say. Needless to say nothing occurred.
This was one of those 'Al Capone's Cellar' and 'The Contents of the
Titanic's Safe' shows. I'm reluctant to say I watched it, but in the
interest of sharing.......
Marilyn
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| 1341.4 | There was a medium.... | FSDEV4::LWAINE | Linda | Tue Aug 21 1990 21:24 | 8 |
|
There was a medium that did bring forth the message... His name was
Ford. Initially Mrs. Houdini acknowledged that Ford did bring forth
the correct message from Harry, but in later years denied this due to
family and social pressures....
Linda
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| 1341.5 | not just "social pressures" | LESCOM::KALLIS | Pumpkins -- Nature's greatest gift. | Wed Aug 22 1990 08:55 | 13 |
| Re .4 (Linda):
> ... Ford. Initially Mrs. Houdini acknowledged that Ford did bring forth
>the correct message from Harry, but in later years denied this due to
>family and social pressures....
What I read of the case was that there was ample evidence that the
message had been comopromised, so that there was a strong possibility
that the medium knew what it was before the seance was held. I
believe it was so mentioned in the Milbourne Christopher biography
of Houdini.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
|
| 1341.6 | Evidence of lack vs lack of evidence. | CADSYS::COOPER | Topher Cooper | Wed Aug 22 1990 12:34 | 22 |
| RE: .5 (Steve K.)
> What I read of the case was that there was ample evidence that the
> message had been comopromised, so that there was a strong possibility
> that the medium knew what it was before the seance was held.
This is a bit of an overstatement as I remember the situation. A
possible way that the message could have been compromised was found.
It was something to the effect that a relative of Ford's was a friend
(or maybe it was that a friend of Ford's was a relative) of a nurse
who might have been in the room when Houdini gave his wife the message.
There was, if I remember, no evidence that she actually *was* in the
room, nor that Houdini was in such extreme distress as to allow her to
overhear the critical message if she were. Keep in mind that everyone
in the US is within 4 or 5 "hops" through relatives or acquaintances of
everyone else in the US.
The result is that one cannot take Ford's message as evidence of
contact from Houdini, but the only real basis for *denying* that the
contact occured is an a priori belief that it could not.
Topher
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| 1341.7 | HOUDINI | POBOX::REGISTRAR | | Tue Oct 30 1990 17:44 | 2 |
| ALL I REMENBER IS THAT HARRY'S MESSAGE TO HIS WIFE WAS "ROSABELLE
BELIEVE"....AND SOMEONE (FORD I BELIEVE) DID DELIVER THAT MESSAGE.
|
| 1341.8 | A story I read | TUNER::GIBSON | | Fri Nov 15 1991 10:48 | 18 |
| I read a story that said Houdini gave his wife a list of several
words or phrases known only to them. He wrote them on paper he
gave to her and she keeps locked up. Every year on Halloween she
held a seance with a medium and a small group of people (who knew him).
After 10 years of no real results..well, one time Houdini was
asked to move the hand of someone at the table. One man's hand
moved a little, but afterward the man said he didn't know how his
hand moved yet he didn't think Houdini did it. That was it.
His wife is quoted as saying, "10 years is long enough to wait
for any man".
FWIW
Alice
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