The relationship between Houdini and Doyle has been talked about over and over and over. It is generally talked about from Houdini's side. Doyle appears as a character in Houdini's life story. But now there is a documentary that is about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and this time Houdini is the character in Doyle's life. And there is a bonus. This documentary has film footage that most believed to have been lost.
We learn about this from our friend John Cox, from his blog WildAboutHoudini.com The documentary called, "Lucy Worsley's Holmes vs Doyle" on PBS, has footage from the 1922 SAM Banquet in NYC in which Doyle was Houdini's invited guest. Much has been written about this particular moment in their lives, but here is the first time you get to view the actual film footage. https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2025/01/houdini-doyle-sam-banquet-footage.html
I also want to address a bit more about the documentary. I really enjoyed it, though I wasn't thrilled with the magician they chose to be the 'authority'. No offense, but I don't think he had anything more than a passing knowledge of Houdini and Doyle's relationship. The question that Lucy puts to the guest magician is why Doyle wanted to convert Houdini to his belief system. The question is never properly answered. But the truth was, Doyle believed that Houdini himself had mediumistic powers. He saw Houdini's feats of escape to be supernatural in nature and despite all of Houdini's claims otherwise, Doyle believed Houdini had these powers. Of course their relationship sours after the Atlantic City Seance, and they exchange negative words in the press. But I think Doyle had real affection for Houdini, despite their differences. HOWEVER, I could be wrong about his affection for Houdini. In his book, The History of Spiritualism, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he mentions Houdini only twice and both times refers to him as "Houdini the conjurer." No mention of their friendship. In fact, he rather insults Houdini when he is speaking of Margery, and how He (Doyle) was instrumental in getting her before the Scientific American, but also inadvertently putting them in the firing line of Houdini's "preposterous and ignorant theories of fraud".
Ironically, it would be Bess who would have the last word and heal the wounds of this relationship. After, Houdini's passing, Doyle wrote to Bess to share his condolences for her loss. She in turn, sent Doyle a package. It was a portfolio of artwork by Doyle's own father, that Houdini had purchased at an auction.
One more thing I want to point out and that is the documentary, Holmes vs Doyle, does feature one excellent guest and that is Daniel Stashower. Mr. Stashower is an award winning author, and he has written a number of fictional books about Houdini. These include: The Houdini Specter, The Dime Museum Murders, The Adventures of The Ectoplasmic Man. It also appears that Mr. Stashower has written a couple non-fiction books about Doyle including: Teller of Tales, and A Life In Letters.
And finally, though this has nothing to do with Doyle, I just learned that Daniel Stashower wrote a book called AMERICAN DEMON. This is about Eliot Ness and his case involving the Cleveland Torso Killer. I mention this because Episode 88 of my podcast dealt with this very topic and one of the people who was considered a possible suspect, and this guy was also a magician. https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/ep-88-tales-from-the-dark-side-of-magic/ I need to get Daniel's book to read his account!
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