Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship

By Bernard M. L. Ernst and Hereward Carrington

THE CURIOUS NARRATIVE DESCRIBING THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE LEADING EXPONENT OF SPIRITUALISM AND HIS FOREMOST OPPONENT

HARRY HOUDINI spent the last years of his life in a crusade against fake spirit mediums. He wanted to believe in spiritualism, but he could not.

Conan Doyle devoted to the cause of spiritualism all the money and fame he got out of Sherlock Holmes; he cared more about spiritualism than about anything else in the world.

These men had diametrically opposite views on the subject which meant most to them; yet they were friends and mutual admirers, and they kept up for many months the correspondence on which this book is based. They wrote mostly about the subject nearest their hearts. Doyle arranged settings with mediums for Houdini; Houdini took Doyle to banquets of the Society of American Magicians; Doyle thought Houdini did his tricks by supernatural power; the magicians were puzzled by the movies of prehistoric monsters in Doyle’s Lost World.

Finally, Lady Doyle, Sir Arthur’s wife, got a “message” in “automatic writing” from Houdini’s mother. It was only when Houdini found himself unable to the believe in the reality of this message (though he had no doubt of Lady Doyle’s sincerity) that a break did come. Shortly after, Houdini died; Doyle followed soon. Perhaps they have become intimate again; who knows?

This story of their friendship is told by Bernard M. L. Ernst, Houdini’s attorney and close friend, past president of the Society of American Magicians, and Hereward Carrington, well-known as a leading psychic investigator, author of The Story of Psychic Science, and friend of both Doyle and Houdini.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Borodino Books
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789125184

Bernard M. L. Ernst

BERNARD M. L. ERNST (1879-1938) was an American lawyer, magician and associate of Harry Houdini. Born on March 17, 1879 in Uniontown, Alabama, he received his LL.B from Columbia University in 1905 and began working as a lawyer for a firm in Boston in 1909. He also worked on the legal counsel for the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway. In the 1930s he was a council member of the Metropolitan League of Jewish Community Associations in New York City. Ernst took an interest in magic and became the personal attorney for the magician Harry Houdini, managing his correspondence and private papers, and the legal representative of his estate. He lectured on Houdini and magic at Columbia University and in 1926 succeeded Houdini as President of the Society of American Magicians. Ernst passed away on November 28, 1938, aged 59. HEREWARD CARRINGTON (1880-1958) was a well-known British-born American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, and he wrote over 100 books on paranormal and psychical research, conjuring and stage magic, and alternative medicine. Born on October 17, 1880 in St. Helier, Jersey, Carrington emigrated to the U.S. in 1888, settling in New York City in 1904. He developed an interest in psychic abilities and, at age 19, joined the Society for Psychical Research and the American Society for Psychical Research in 1907. He gained his Ph.D. from Oskaloosa College, Iowa in 1918 and kept extensive records of his research and investigations. He corresponded with notable figures of the day, including Sylvan Muldoon, one of the earliest pioneers in the field of astral projection, with whom he co-authored three books. In 1921, Carrington founded the American Psychical Institute, which consisted of a laboratory that was one of the first to investigate psychical phenomena. He died on December 26, 1958, aged 78.

Book preview

This edition is published by BORODINO BOOKS – www.pp-publishing.com

To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – [e-mail]

Or on Facebook

Text originally published in 1932 under the same title.

© Borodino Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

HOUDINI AND CONAN DOYLE

THE STORY OF A STRANGE FRIENDSHIP

BY

BERNARD M. L. ERNST

AND

HEREWARD CARRINGTON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

FOREWORD 5

THE HOUDINI-DOYLE CORRESPONDENCE 9

CHAPTER ONE 10

CHAPTER TWO 27

CHAPTER THREE 38

CHAPTER FOUR 49

CHAPTER FIVE 59

CHAPTER SIX 71

CHAPTER SEVEN 83

CHAPTER EIGHT 99

CHAPTER NINE 110

CHAPTER TEN 122

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 132

FOREWORD

BY J. C. CANNELL

THEY were so much alike, and yet so different, these two men, Houdini and Conan Doyle.

To Houdini, Doyle was a good fellow who had often been fooled and would be fooled again. To Doyle, Houdini was a remarkable man concealing the light of great mediumistic gifts under the bushel of gold which he received for his performances as an illusionist.

Look to yourself and to your cause, said Houdini in effect, for you are a victim of the foolery of darkened rooms.

Be honest with yourself and the world, was Doyle’s reply. You are really one of the greatest mediums of all time. Come out and tell the truth about yourself. No one but a medium could escape from steel boxes and prison cells as you do.

On the compass of human outlook and achievement the course of these interesting giants was set in the same direction. Both were deeply interested in the mystery of life and death.

Houdini laughed at psychic evidence; Conan Doyle frowned at his laughter; and then they smiled together at their mutual suspicions. But when Houdini walked through a brick wall, Doyle thought he was tramping with heavy feet through delicate spiritualistic truths. If Doyle found new evidence at a séance Houdini smiled and said he had been tricked again.

Both men were children of inspiration. Houdini was illiterate, but had the genius of character and imagination—a man whose mind was cunningly fashioned. Doyle, author and dreamer, had culture and perception.

I know that I know the truth of this thing, said Doyle. I know that you only think you know, retorted Houdini.

The shaded lamps of the séance room and the brighter lights of the stage mingled together to make the atmosphere in which these two big figures fought and thought. What was conclusive evidence to Doyle was to Houdini, expert escaper and illusionist, only a sham.

After a successful séance Doyle smiled, and Houdini, hearing of this, smiled too—the kind of smile that is behind a sneer. There was much patience with this smiling and sneering, until there was a snarl.

Houdini is only a publicity-seeker! shouted Doyle through the Press of the world.

Doyle is a poor boob! echoed Houdini through the same columns. The giants growled at each other.

In both men there was a certain streak of simplicity. Houdini was always anxious on a Friday, loved black cats, and hated the thirteenth of any month. More than once this cynic spoke aloud to the spirit of his dead mother at her grave. Doyle, without any knowledge of the technique behind illusions, was easily puzzled by an elementary conjuring trick.

In this book much light is shed upon two of the most fascinating men of our times.

I was pleasantly surprised on reading the proofs to discover that the correspondence between Houdini and Doyle had been preserved. In the form here presented it makes an arresting story. The letters and the episodes which connect them are always illuminating and often intriguing. From them the reader may gather the impression that Doyle was trying hard to convince Houdini of the truth of Spiritualism, or to make him admit that actually he was a medium, while often Houdini was endeavouring to show Doyle that he was being hoodwinked by the mediums.

The friendship between these two men lasted for many years and stood the strain of these little bickerings, eager claims, and counter-assertions; but it will interest the reader to know Doyle’s final attitude towards Houdini, and in this direction I think I can supplement the excellent work of the authors.

When I last saw Conan Doyle not long before his death, he talked much about Houdini, and I was left with the definite impression that he disliked and suspected him. Doyle was a man of the greatest sincerity and integrity, and I always had the utmost respect for him. Scorning subterfuge or a mean trick, Doyle was certainly more of a gentleman than Houdini, though the illusionist in his way was a fine fellow, if perhaps made of coarser fibre.

It must be said in fairness to Houdini that, had he chosen crookedness, he could have made a great fortune by pretending to possess supernormal powers. I know a certain clever fraudulent medium—a woman—who, being caught in trickery by Houdini, offered him a large sum of money to announce to the world that she had successfully passed all the tests applied by him. Houdini refused her tempting offer.

Up to the last Conan Doyle persisted in the absurd assertion that Houdini escaped from prison cells and iron boxes by dematerializing himself. In another work, I think I have blown that theory sky-high by exposing the precise methods used by Houdini, who was the prince of deceivers.

The more Houdini tried to convince Doyle that behind all his miracles was nothing but the technique of trickery, the stronger became Doyle’s belief that it was not so.

In the following story, now published for the first time, there is a delightful example of Houdini’s craftsmanship which Doyle mistook for mediumship. The illusionist called it The Mystery of the New Year Bells.

Houdini, as a professional magician, was, of course, always travelling about, and he would introduce this mystery of the bells at any town in which he happened to find himself on the last day of the year. By offering to pay £100 to the particular church which was to be chosen to figure in the mystery, Houdini would bring about a strange sort of meeting in the parlour of the local mayor just before midnight. Besides Houdini himself there would be the mayor, the chief of police, the local clergy, and all the bell-ringers of the churches in the town. The keys of all the belfry doors would be placed in a row on the table. Each bell-ringer would testify to the mayor that the door of his belfry had been carefully locked by him before he left the church a short time before. Now when this was done, Houdini, sitting at the end of the table opposite to the mayor, would request the chief of police to lock the door of the mayor’s parlour and to draw the blinds. Thus everyone in the room, including Houdini himself, would remain a prisoner during the vital moments of the mystery. All were seated in their places. Houdini’s next move was to have written down, each on a slip of paper, the names of all the local churches as they were called out by the mayor. Carefully folded, these slips would be placed in a hat or box by one of the clergy and thoroughly shuffled about. Now, Mr. Mayor, Houdini would say, would you kindly draw one of the names from the hat?

The mayor would do so, and, opening the paper, announce that the name of the church he had drawn was (shall we say?) St. John’s. At that very moment the bells of St. John’s would ring out to welcome the New Year, while the bells of all the other churches remained silent. There was no doubt whatever that the bells of St. John’s were rung, because they could be heard not only in the distance from the mayor’s parlour, but all over the town.

Electricity was not and could not be used by Houdini in this mystery. He never left his chair, and it was also quite impossible for him to have confederates or assistants in the room. The chief part of the secret lay in the fact that Houdini was able in a clever manner to force the choice on the mayor, although he was sitting quite a distance away when the draw was made, and there was no doubt, too, that the slips of paper were properly shuffled by the clergyman. There were two or three methods of forcing the mayor’s choice available to the illusionist, but the one he generally used was perhaps the simplest and most effective. After he had sat down at the table he would ask for some slips of paper.

Now, Mr. Mayor, he would say, as you know, I am a stranger in your town. Would you please tell me, one by one, the names of your local churches, and I shall write them down.

Yes, the mayor would say. We have St. George’s, St. Mary’s, St. James’s, St. John’s, St. Matthew’s, and St. Thomas’s.

As the mayor called out the names, Houdini, while pretending to be writing on each slip of paper the name called out, actually wrote the same name—St. John’s—on each slip, which he folded and handed to the clergyman, or threw in the hat himself. The result was that it did not matter how much the slips were shuffled. Whichever slip the Mayor selected was bound to have the name St. John’s upon it.

In these few minutes before midnight Houdini’s man was already in the belfry of St. John’s, having opened the belfry door with a skeleton key given to him by his master. He knew how to ring church bells, and his instructions from Houdini were to ring the bells precisely at twelve o’clock, and after a few short peals to get out again as quickly as possible, locking the door after him. The man was, of course, equipped with a watch set to the local standard time. In the mayor’s parlour Houdini so timed the proceedings that the draw would be made by the mayor a few seconds before twelve o’clock, so that the announcement of the name would be followed immediately by the sound of the bells. He was well practised in such arrangements, and, should the proceedings have been slightly ahead of time, he could easily adjust that, because it was he who gave the signal to the mayor to carry out the draw. This was in order, as the right time for the bells to ring in the New Year was midnight.

In actual practice Houdini’s trick in writing the slips never aroused suspicion, because it must be remembered that if anyone in the mayor’s parlour were expecting a trick he would not be looking for it at that stage, but later, when the name had been drawn. Houdini acted so innocently that everyone was off his guard during these vital moments of writing. They did not even know exactly what was going to happen, which is always a disadvantage to those watching a trick for the first time. As a rule they expected Houdini to attempt to give a secret signal to someone outside after the mayor had drawn the name, and they watched closely at that time.

The astonishment of those in the mayor’s parlour was naturally very great when they heard the bells ring, and there was usually a buzz of excitement, during which Houdini would smile, shake hands with the mayor and others, and find a chance either of removing the slips from the hat or of replacing them with another set, all genuine. Another method which Houdini sometimes used was that of producing slips of paper with the names of the churches already typed upon them, and by sleight-of-hand so arrange it that a false set went into the hat. In selecting beforehand the church or belfry for his trick, Houdini naturally preferred a belfry the door of which stood away from the road, perhaps partially overshadowed by trees, so that his man would be able to enter and leave the belfry without being seen. The making of the skeleton key for the belfry door was the simplest of Houdini’s tasks. The officials of St. John’s Church were, of course, delighted to be deceived, because they were richer by the £100 which the magician offered, and he received an excellent advertisement for his money.

This was the kind of achievement to which Doyle was always pointing as the latest manifestation of Houdini’s psychic gifts. Had he but possessed some knowledge of conjuring he would not have fallen into such a curious error.

The episode of the bells will perhaps enable the reader the better to appreciate the attitude which existed between these two astonishing men.

Houdini, as I saw him, was a strange mixture of vanity, generosity, arrogance, and kindliness. I never have been able to resist a feeling that his crusade against Spiritualism was inspired by a commercial desire for publicity and gain. No one who knew Arthur Conan Doyle could doubt his consistent uprightness.

Press Club, London.

THE HOUDINI-DOYLE CORRESPONDENCE

BOTH Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini were household names throughout the world—the one primarily for his tales of Sherlock Holmes, the other for his remarkable escapes from gaols and restraints of every variety.

Both men were outstanding characters of pronounced strength and individuality. Both men became, during the latter years of their lives, profoundly interested in Spiritualism and the subject of spirit-return. Yet from what different standpoints! Houdini, in his varied experiences, seemed to have encountered nothing but fraud and trickery. Doyle asserted, on the contrary, "I KNOW spirit-return to be a fact"

The direct issue! Reading their correspondence, one cannot but be struck by the earnestness of both men, so opposed in thought. Their letters show this. They also show the admiration each man had for the other—surely one of the most curious friendships in history!

These Titans met in battle. Each man had a silent army behind him, urging him on; those who believe in a spiritual world, and those who do not: those who are personally and profoundly convinced, and those who believe not at all.

The world owes both these men a debt of gratitude. Hundreds of thousands have read Conan Doyle’s stories, and have been thrilled, amused and entertained by them. He created, in Sherlock Holmes, an immortal character in English fiction.

Hundreds of thousands, again, have been stirred, puzzled and entertained by Houdini’s extraordinary feats—his dexterity, ingenuity and skill, and by the man himself. For he himself is an immortal character in the lives of many.

Their letters constitute a unique document.

CHAPTER ONE

Houdini: life and character—His performance at the Palace, Blackburn—His collections—His training—Conan Doyle’s estimate of his character—Doyle: his beliefs, his attitude toward fraudulent mediums—Sketch of his life—Sketch of Houdini’s career—The question of the Davenport Brothers—Doyle’s belief that Houdini had supernatural powers.

THIS is the story of one of the strangest friendships in history.

It is that between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—physician, author, creator of the world-famous Sherlock Holmes—and Harry Houdini, master magician, escape artist, gaol-breaker, mystifier extraordinary.

Both men, during the latter years of their lives, became profoundly interested in the subject of Spiritualism and spirit-return. Yet their views differed from each other’s as widely as the views of any two men well could. Houdini the sceptic, the exposer of fraudulent mediums, the Doubting Thomas; Doyle the believer, the champion of Spiritualism not only as a fact but as a religion.

They disagreed absolutely on almost every conceivable point connected with the subject. In the Press and on the public platform they launched vigorous campaigns against each other. Each man tried to convert the other to his views through propaganda and correspondence. Their minds remained as divergent as the poles.

Nevertheless each man had profound respect, admiration, almost affection for the other. They met, they discussed these topics, they disagreed more fundamentally than ever. Yet Houdini is constantly reiterating his friendship and his esteem for Conan Doyle; and Doyle wrote, in one of his letters to Mrs. Houdini: He was a great master of his profession and, in some ways, the most remarkable man I have ever known.

Houdini visited Sir Arthur in his home in England. Doyle visited Houdini in his home in New York. They spent several weekends together, during which they spent long hours discussing psychic phenomena. Houdini attended Doyle’s lectures, while Doyle witnessed Houdini’s exhibitions upon the public stage. Doyle attended a meeting of the Society of American Magicians. Houdini obtained sittings with scores of mediums, both in this country and abroad. Lady Doyle gave a private sitting to Houdini, in an endeavour to convert him to the belief in spirit-return. Houdini gave private demonstrations to Conan Doyle, performing well-nigh miraculous feats, in an endeavour to convince him that baffling and incredible mysteries could be evoked by pure sleight-of-hand.

And all this time their personal regard and esteem for each other remained unaffected!

It was only after several years that the rift between them began to widen—that their letters became briefer and fewer—until they finally ceased altogether, some two years before Houdini’s death.

Less than four years later, Sir Arthur himself passed into the Great Beyond, in the reality of which he so firmly believed. He awaited the end tranquilly and peacefully, writing and battling for the Cause to the last, and anticipating the renewal of his controversy with Houdini as soon as he had crossed the Border. In a letter to Mr. Ernst, written shortly before, he had said:

...I write this in bed, as I have broken down badly, and have developed Angina Pectoris. So there is just a chance that I may talk it all over with Houdini himself before very long. I view the prospect with perfect equanimity. That is one thing that psychic knowledge does. It removes all fear of the future.…

Manly words from a fine, brave soul.

Typically, Houdini died fighting to the end. The facts connected with his death are well known, and need not be reiterated—how a powerful blow on the abdomen ruptured his appendix, how he concealed his injury from everyone and insisted upon giving his last performances while bathed in sweat, writhing in agony and so weak he could not lift his foot from the stage. He felt