The Final Harry Houdini Circle Séance
Harry Houdini’s mother was, by all accounts, a singular influence on his life. In his diary, Houdini wrote, “My mother was everything to me. Not until she lay dying did I realize how inexpressibly futile is a man’s intelligence.” When she died in 1913, Harry Houdini unmoored.
While the story is likely beset with a pinch of myth making, Houdini, adrift without his mother’s counsel and example, set out to explore the world of mediums and séances. By most accounts, Houdini approached séances with a skeptical but open mind, but instead of finding a direct line to his mother in the afterlife, Houdini found an endless line of charlatans and fools. Infuriated, he turned against these con artists, and Houdini, with his unparalleled skills and knowledge of stagecraft and deception, was uniquely suited to expose them. His crusade was well documented by the American press. Houdini attended hundreds of séances, often in disguise, aggressively debunking mediums and, more often than not, putting them out of work.
Harry Houdini died on Halloween, October 31, 1926. While visiting with fans in his dressing room at the Princess Theater in Montreal, a college student asked if it was true that Harry could withstand any blow to his abdomen. Houdini, reclining on a couch, casually replied that his stomach could endure a lot. The student punched Houdini in the stomach multiple times before Houdini had a chance to ready himself. The blows ruptured his appendix, a death sentence at the time.
Ever the showman, Harry Houdini managed to deliver spectacles from beyond the grave. Before his death, Houdini and his wife Beatrice swore to each other that, after the first of them entered the great beyond, the living spouse would attempt to contact their departed love for ten years. They agreed upon a secret message, Rosabelle believe, that only they were privy to. Each Halloween, for ten years after Houdini’s death, Beatrice, and a collection of Harry’s confidants, staged a highly-publicized séance, inviting mediums to try and invoke the spirit of Harry Houdini from the afterlife. The following is a selected transcript from the tenth and final Harry Houdini Circle Séance.
NARRATOR [GEORGE L. BOSTON]
Houdini, the greatest showman that ever walked this Earth, died October 31, 1926. Prior to his death, he was seeking out and exposing fraudulent spirit mediums. He boasted that there was nothing that a spirit medium could produce, by way of alleged psychic phenomena, that he could not reproduce by trickery. Despite this, he took no chances. He and his wife, the late Beatrice Houdini, resolved between them that, whichever one died before the other, that one would try to contact the survivor. They further agreed upon a secret code. This was decided upon to prevent fraudulent mediums or magicians from claiming that they were able to contact either one of the Houdinis. It was further agreed that the survivor would use every type of conceivable séance to contact the deceased. That, once each year, on the anniversary of the death, the survivor would hold a small gathering of friends, so that some message might possibly be heard. All attempts were to be discontinued after ten years.
Thus it went, ‘til October 31, 1936. This was the tenth anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death. After this date, Mrs. Houdini was to stop searching; the tenth séance was to be the final one. In charge of arrangements was the late Dr. Edward Saint, an old-time showman and Mrs. Houdini’s business advisor. Dr. Saint decided the affair should achieve epic proportions and proceeded accordingly.
The roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, California was rented for the occasion. Now, the Knickerbocker is just about one block from the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, the movie capital’s most fabulous street. A bleacher-like seating arrangement was built, which could accommodate about 300 people, and fully this many were invited by engraved invitation. Sound equipment and a special lighting system was installed. Seats for the inner circle were arranged directly in front of the bleachers. As early as 7 o’clock in the evening, the invited guests began to assemble. People from all walks of life, but chiefly magicians, spiritualists, newspapermen, and others who had special interest in the affair.
Up there on that roof it was uncommonly cold. The sky above was clear and bright, with the stars shining brilliantly. It was so cold that most of the invited guests were actually chilled. Making up the inner circle were: Mrs. Houdini and Dr. Edward Saint; the Honorable Charles Fricke, a judge of the California High Court; two newspapermen; a past president of the California Spiritualist Organization; a member of the American Institute of Psychic Research, Hereward Carrington; and two magicians. One of the magicians was Caryl Fleming, then president of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians, and the other was a publisher of a magazine devoted to the concerns of the conjurers, William W. Larsen Sr. […]
DR. EDWARD SAINT:
Ladies and Gentlemen, in this cathedral-like atmosphere tonight, I wish to remind you that this is a most solemn occasion for the close friends that have gathered here. That the zero hour of the tenth anniversary of our departed friend is fast nearing the end, and that the results of tonight are primarily of a personal and private nature only. No attempt is being made to sway the world, or to convince the skeptics one way or the other. This is a personal gathering aiding Mrs. Houdini in completing her ten-year vigil, and to aid Mrs. Houdini and ourselves to a final and logical conclusion. Nor is it expected or intended that others must necessarily agree. But, this last personal attempt to contact the spirit of Houdini has aroused interest throughout the world, and to that extent will the findings here tonight be publicly recorded. […]
Every facility has been provided tonight that might aid in opening a pathway to the spirit world. Here in the inner circle reposes a medium’s trumpet, a pair of slates with chalk, a writing tablet, and pencil, a small bell, and in the center reposes a huge pair of silver handcuffs, on a silk cushion. Facing the inner circle, stands the famous Houdini shrine, with its doors ajar. […]
During the last ten years, there have been times that Mrs. Houdini felt that surely, Houdini was coming through, that her hope of communication would be fulfilled. She was willing to believe, but the evidence did not stand up. […]
It’s a Houdini night, with the spotlight of the public on Houdini, with the whole world paused to see or hear Houdini step on this side of the curtain. Now, let us bow our heads in meditation and prayer.
O, thou Mastermind of the Universe, please let the spirit of understanding descend upon us that are gathered here in the Inner Circle tonight. We are each in his own way seekers after truth, please let thy spirit of understanding guide us and bring the light of truth to the many friends that have earnestly formed psychic circles and gatherings throughout the entire world. Aid us, guide us on this most important question of mankind: spirit communication from across the grave. We ask this universal understanding in all humbleness, and we offer our grateful thanks to thee. Guide us please, Amen.
O, thou disembodied spirits, those of you that have grown old in the mysterious laws of spirit land, we greet thee. We have gathered here at the appointed time; we have complied with all of the requirements to enable all of you to make your presence known. Members of the spirit world have long known of the intention of this important gathering tonight. All is in readiness. Please now, the time is at hand. Make yourself known to us, any of you please. Manifest yourself in any way possible. Please let your united strength and knowledge aid Houdini in coming through. It is the spirit of Houdini we wish to contact.
Houdini, are you here? Are you here, Houdini? Please manifest yourself in any way possible! Take from this earnest gathering any strength that may be necessary for you to use. Take any vital thing from us as you may need to enable you to carry out your promise of years ago. We have waited, Houdini, oh so long. Never have you been able to present the evidence you promised. And now, this is a night of nights. The world is listening. Harry, your world, your audience. And Bessie is here, your Bessie, who was part of you for thirty-three years -- she is here, Harry, pleading in her heart for a prearranged sign from you. It means so much to her, to all of us, to the world. Harry, we are all seekers after truth. Please manifest yourself by speaking through the trumpet. Lift it, lift it! Speak through it, speak! Speak, Harry! We are watching and waiting, Harry. Levitate the table. Move it. Lift the table, move it, rap on it! Spell out a code, Harry, please! Ring the bell. Let its tinkle be heard around the world. Do it, Harry! Please! Please, Houdini, we are waiting, Bessie is waiting!
O, thou spirit, your religion is based on love, and by that very token, a love of 33 years that has even entered into eternity, by that love I ask that you come through with the evidence. By the love of the little silver-haired widow, by the love and esteem of the countless friends -- the evidence, Harry! […]
We are crying to high heaven, to the powers that be, we are crying in one mighty magnetic voice from every corner of the Earth, and the hearts and minds of them who choose are centered here tonight. We want the evidence, the truth! In the name of humanity and love, if there is communication from the great beyond, come through with the evidence!
NARRATOR:
Then followed calm and silent meditation. And again, a tense and dramatic soul pleading, in which Mrs. Houdini joined Dr. Saint. But no sign from Houdini. At last Dr. Saint, in a voice that broke, and filled with emotion, asked:
DR. EDWARD SAINT:
Mrs. Houdini, the zero hour has passed. The ten years are up. Have you reached a decision?
MRS. HOUDINI:
Yes. Houdini did not come through. My last hope is gone. I do not believe that Houdini can come back to me, or to anyone. After faithfully following through the ten-year Houdini compact, using every type medium and séance, it is now my personal and positive belief, that spirit communication in any form is impossible. I do not believe that ghosts or spirits exist. The Houdini shrine has burned for ten years. I now, reverently, turn out the light. It is finished. Good night, Harry.
NARRATOR:
Beatrice Houdini turned, and with Dr. Saint left the roof, and stepped inside, while the others waited respectfully at a distance. And suddenly, a long low distant rumble of thunder was heard. It began to rain. Now remember, those skies had been clear but a few moments before. It rained just long enough to wet everyone on the roof of the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. And then it stopped and didn’t rain again all evening. To people who do not live in California, this may not seem strange. But California does not have showers as do the East and Midwest. The country out here is rainless for months. And when rain comes it rains for days. A brief heavy rain is an unheard-of phenomenon. Was that a sign? I recall a very dear friend of mine, a magician who was with me on the roof at the time of that séance, stating as he left the roof: “Houdini wasn’t that sort of man; Houdini was too big of a man, to come back and shake insignificant little bells, to write his name on a piece of slate, or to toot horns. Harry Houdini was a dynamic personality. Harry Houdini was a man of great ego. Harry Houdini was a man of great force. Harry Houdini, if he could return, would not have returned as a horn-tooter, but perhaps as something dynamic, as something great, as something forceful. Perhaps...as a drop of Heaven’s rain."
[The recording concludes with the sound of thunder.]