Showing posts with label Seance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seance. Show all posts

Monday, October 29, 2018

The Original Houdini Seance Coming


If you want a cool experience and you are in NYC Oct 31st, then you'll want to attend The Original Houdini Seance. This one will be in the afternoon, and at the site of Houdini's childhood home. Here is a link for more information. https://form.jotform.com/toddspr/-houdini-seance-event-registration

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

A Cool Houdini Connection and The Official Houdini Seance 2015


Imagine going through life and hearing from relatives that you're related to Houdini or someone close to Houdini. That was the situation Robert Strong was in. He had heard from relatives that there was some family connection to Houdini, but no one was quite sure what the connection was. Robert thought he might be related to Jacob Hyman and Joe Hayman. So the search was on earlier this year to discover that branch of his family tree.

He was surprised to find out that it was not the Haymans but rather Sidney Radner who he was related
to! The man who owned the bulk of Houdini props for so many years having purchased and/or acquired them from Houdini's brother Hardeen. Too bad Robert didn't know this before Sid auctioned everything off.

I should mention that Robert Strong is a very busy full time professional magician from Maryland. He currently lives in San Francisco, but travels all over the country presenting his unique brand of comedy magic.

Once Robert found out he was related to the Radners he contacted Sidney's son and a new door opened. Robert is helping out with the Official Houdini Seance this year. Plans are in place for the event to take place in San Francisco at the Brava Theater. There are new websites set up for this event, one of them being a Kickstarter Campaign, though that page is not yet live.

You'll want to be sure to LIKE the Facebook page by going here https://www.facebook.com/houdiniseance

Check out the official webpage for the event here http://www.houdini-seance.com/   (The site is still under construction, so you'll want to check it out from time to time to see the progress)

Finally, the Kickstarter page is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radicalphysics/236293987?token=744b6390

AND to learn more about Robert Strong, http://strongentertainment.com/

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Houdini's Mysterious Girl Detective


HOUDINI's Mysterious Girl Detective
"Exposing the Weird Secrets of Mediums and Spirits"; so read the headline for a series of newspaper articles by Rose Mackenberg. Back when Houdini was busy making spiritualists all over the globe very unhappy people, he discovered he couldn't do all the work alone. So he had his own agents and one of them was Rose Mackenberg. If the accompanying photos are any indication she was a master of disguise!
Rose would dress up as some character to attend seances, attend spiritualist meetings, and generally investigate and typically detect and reveal fraud. Though he job was to find the fakers, she still kept an open mind about communication with the dead. She said she never experienced it herself but if it was possible she hoped she would get to see it first hand.

She often used the alias Florence B. Rush and was also known as the infamous Rev. Frances Raud (fraud).

When Houdini was before Congress testifying about a proposed anti fortune telling bill "to ban people from pretending to tell fortunes for reward or compensation or pretending to unite the separated" as the The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush puts it. Rose was there also with Houdini to testify about a number of mediums she had visited in Washington D.C.. And Rose had a bombshell to deliver. I doubt anyone was expecting it. She revealed that Congressman and Senators regularly attended seances and one congressman's wife was a medium. Not only that, she revealed that seances had been held at the White House! Her testimony rocked Washington to it's core. The White House was not the least bit happy and issued an immediate denial of the accusation. In the end, it didn't matter, as the bill never got off the floor.

She continued working as Houdini's chief Detective right up until the time of Houdini's death. In fact, Rose Mackenberg was in Montreal participating in the lectures that Houdini gave at McGill University. So she was with him right till the end. Rose was not the only person on the team, Julia Sawyer who was an assistant in the show, also worked as one of the debunking agents. Jane Chapman was another, who Sidney Radner had interviewed about her debunking exploits. The filmed footage of the interview appeared on the Houdini Documentary put out by Unapix Productions. There were possibly a dozen people that Houdini employed in his team to defeat the spiritualist fakers.

After Houdini passed away, Rose retired from her Spirit detective work, but she continued exposing mediums through lectures she gave on the subject. "Exposing the Weird Secrets of Mediums and Spirits" was the title of a ten part syndicated newspaper article she wrote in 1929 that appeared in newspapers across the U.S.. In it she gives her thoughts on the Arthur Ford Seance and spends a great deal of time exposing the fraudulent methods of fake mediums. The photos here are from that article.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Houdini Seance Manifestations

Harry Houdini died on Halloween, October 31, 1926. Ever since his death people have been trying to make contact with him. He apparently made a pact with several people, including his wife Bess and illusionist Charles Carter, that if he returned he would reveal a code to let them know it was him.

According to some of those attending Houdini Seances over the past 85 years, the original King of Magic has returned. Though he only revealed a code, once apparently. Here are some of the highlights of past seances.

  • In 1928, Reverend Arthur Ford came forth with a message for Bess Houdini, from Cecelia Weiss, one word, 'FORGIVE'.
  • January 8,1929 Reverend Ford produced, exactly, the secret code that Bess and Houdini had agreed upon. "Rosabelle, Answer, Tell, Pray, Answer, look, Tell, Answer, Answer, Tell" Houdini then speaks through Ford's spirit guide Fletcher and says "Tell the world Sweetheart that Harry Houdini Lives and will prove it a thousand times!"**
  • In Chicago, in the 1930s, during a seance, Houdini walked boldly into a room*
  • In Kansas City, Houdini is said to have written a long letter to Mrs. Houdini*
  • In Long Beach, Houdini apparently hypnotized the medium and then delivered a message through her*
  • In New Zealand, the spirit Houdini drank a cup of tea*
  • In Santa Monica, the spirit Houdini escaped from several pair of handcuffs by dematerializing his hands*
  • Following the Final Houdini Seance in 1936,  there was a sudden thunderstorm which drenched everyone on the roof of the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel where the seance took place. The storm shower only hit the hotel and no where else. Some believe the thunderstorm was a Houdini manifestation.
  • At a later seance in Houdini's home on 278, W 113th St in New York, Dr. Morris Young said he saw a mouse suddenly burst across the floor during a seance and wondered, 'was that Houdini'?
  • Who can forget Charlotte Pendragon's costume coming apart on LIVE TV during The Search for Houdini TV Special. Could that have been Houdini just having some fun????!!!!
  • At one of the Official Houdini Seances produced by Sid Radner, in Niagra Falls Canada, a planter and a book written by Walter Gibson fell off the shelf. The book was opened to a page which had a picture of Houdini's poster 'Do Spirits Return' (see below). Walter Gibson was present at that seance too.
  • In 1994, in NYC, medium Paula Roberts said she could hear 'a laugh, almost a gutteral laugh' coming from Houdini in the spirit world.
  • 2011 The spirit of Houdini apparently enters the body of medium Kandisa “K.C.” Calhoun

    If you have a 'Houdini Ghost Story or Seance Story' please share it!!!


    *According to Edward Saint during the Final Houdini Seance
    **Bess later recanted. It was discovered the code had been written in a book the year previous and that is how Ford got the code. But Ford, till his dieing day always said it was legitimate.