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Houdini and Conan Doyle: the story of a strange friendship
Skeptical Inquirer, March-April, 1998 by Massimo Polidoro
The fascinating tale of the Magician and the Knight. They were both profoundly attracted by spiritualism, and yet their opinions were completely opposed.
With the release last October of the film Fairy Tale: True Story, devoted to the famous case of the Cottingley Fairies (see Sheaffer 1977; Randi 1982; Summer 1998), a new generation of cinema-goers has had a glimpse (though only in a fictional way) of the strange relationship that linked, more than seventy years ago, two most singular characters. They were Harry Houdini master magician, escape artist, and mystifier extraordinaire - and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.
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Houdini and Doyle were both profoundly interested in spiritualism; however, their views differed completely. Houdini was the skeptic, the exposer of psychic frauds; Doyle, the believer, the St. Paul of spiritualism. How these two persons became affectionate friends and then bitter enemies is a fascinating tale.
A Common Interest
It all began in early 1920, when Houdini, touring the British Isles, sent Sir Arthur one of his books, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin. In it, he made reference to the Davenport Brothers, two American medium-magicians who became very famous in various parts of the world, during the middle of the last century. Their specialty was the presentation of the "spirit cabinet," a wooden cabinet in which they sat and were tied securely by means of meters of rope. As soon as the cabinet doors were closed, rappings would be heard, a bell and a tambourine would play, and hands would appear at the openings of the doors. Examination of the mediums at the conclusion of the seance, or at any time during its progress, revealed the mediums tied as before.
The question was: were they genuine mediums, or clever magicians who somehow managed to free themselves from the bonds and produce the manifestations themselves? Houdini had had a chance, in 1910, to speak at length with Ira Davenport, the only surviving brother, and felt privileged to learn directly from him the clever secret of their act. They were forerunners of the escape act that later made Houdini famous, and Ira admitted to him that they had always used trickery; however, for publicity reasons, they let their audiences decide for themselves as to the true source of their sensational demonstrations.
In thanking Houdini for the book, Sir Arthur wrote that he didn't put much faith in this kind of revelation: "As to Spiritualist 'confessions,' they are all nonsense. Every famous medium is said to have 'confessed,' and it is an old trick of the opposition." He also showed that he believed in one of the oldest ruses used by fake mediums and psychics to convince onlookers of the reality of their powers, namely, that failure is proof of genuine paranormal powers (see Wiseman 1997; Polidoro, forthcoming). He wrote, in fact: "I can only learn, so far as 'exposures' goes, that there were occasions when they could not undo the knots, but as there are intermittent periods in all real mediumship, that is not against them. It is the man who could always guarantee spirit action whom I should suspect most."(1)
In various subsequent letters, Sir Arthur refers to the Davenports repeatedly, writing: "I've been reading the Davenport book you gave me. How people could imagine those men were conjurers is beyond me." And, after Houdini sent him a picture of himself with Ira, Sir Arthur wrote: ". . . you said that Ira Davenport did his phenomena by normal means. But if he did (which I really don't believe) then he is manifestly not only a liar but a blasphemer, as he went round with Mr. Ferguson, a clergyman, and mixed it all up with religion. And yet you are photographed as a friend with one whom under those circumstances, one would not touch with a muck-rake. Now, how can one reconcile that? It interests me as a problem."
Houdini, anxious to cultivate a friendship with Doyle, replied somewhat ambiguously: "I can make the positive assertion that the Davenport Brothers never were exposed," meaning that no one ever discovered their tricks. Doyle, however, preferred to interpret this as a confirmation of his beliefs, that they were never exposed because there was nothing to expose: "Unless I hear to the contrary I will take it that I may use your authoritative statement as the occasion serves."
In a further letter, Doyle went straight to the point: "I had meant to ask you, in my last, and I will do so now, whether you, with your unique experience, consider that the Davenport phenomena were clever physical tricks, or whether their claim to occult power was a true one." Houdini, again, was noncommittal: "Regarding the Davenport Brothers, I am afraid that I cannot say that all their work was accomplished by the spirits." Doyle found the reply satisfying and so their friendship started.
Skeptic and Believer Meet
It was about this time that Houdini's most profound interest in the world of spirits developed. However, he presented himself to Doyle as a long-time student of spiritualism: "I have gone out of my way for years to unearth mediums, so that I could really find a truthful representative - and regret to say that, so far, I have never witnessed a seance which had the ring of sincerity." And, in another letter: "During my tour in Australia, I met a man who was supposed to have laid low Mrs. Piper; I was in Berlin, Germany, at the trial of Miss Rothe, the flower medium; I know of the methods of the Bangs Sisters, the famous Chicago mediums; I was in court when Anna O'Delia Diss De Bar, who was mixed up with the lawyer Luther Marsh, was sentenced. . . ."
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