houdini

[kk4fs!s_fungus@crdgw1.ge.com (Slender Fungus)]

                                        THE
                                      HOUDINI
                                  SPIRIT MESSAGE

                                        by
                                      Teller


                                       I

          Bess opened a tearoom after Houdini died.  She needed company.
          She had been married thirty-two years.  People knew her only as
          the widow of her husband.
          She sat with customers, all down-and-out showbiz cronies, and
          reminisced about the old days.

               Weeping in her tea, she'd show her friend how Harry had
          inscribed inside her ring the words of "Rosabelle," the song she
          sang when they first shared a bill on Coney Island, where they
          fell in love:

               Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle,
               I love you more than I can tell.
               Over me you cast a spell.
               I love you my sweet Rosabelle.


               Her friend would smile and ask her for a loan.  The tearoom
          failed.

               Bess became an author, wrote a screenplay based on Harry's
          life.  It never sold.  She tried becoming what she'd lost -- "The
          Greatest Lady Wizard" -- failed and sold her documents and
          recollections for publication in _Houdini, His Life Story_.  The
          book, made from her notes, included table of the code that she
          and Harry used in vaudeville mind reading.
               To the press, Houdini was still news, which meant that Bess
          now answered questions for him.  "Did Houdini think there was a
          life beyond the grave?"
               "He hoped there was, but would not let himself believe until
          he heard his mother's voice speak through a spirit medium the
          word 'forgive' -- that was her dying word, you know.  He never
          heard.
               "He was afraid that if he died before me, crooked mediums
          would come and take advantage of my grief, deceive me with their
          tricks and make me say things that would discredit Harry's work
          exposing fraud and superstition.  So he made a plan that whoever
          died first would try to reach the other in a code, a system we
          both knew so well by heart that even death would not make us
          forget.  The medium who brings ten words from Harry will win ten
          thousand dollars as reward."
               Bess made this statement to the _Brooklyn Eagle_, March 27,
          1927.


                                        II

          In February 1928, the pastor of the First Spiritualist Church of
          New York, the Reverend Arthur Ford, became entranced by his
          celestial guide.
               He said Cecilia Weiss, Houdini's mother, was present,
          saying, "All this later life my Harry sought to hear from me a
          certain word I spoke before I died, 'forgive' -- that was the
          word -- his wife Bess knew it, no one else.  Contact her.  See if
          what I say is true."
               They sent the message on to Bess.  She was impressed.  "This
          is the first time," Bess wrote in reply, "that any spirit message
          had appearance of the truth.  Had Houdini heard that word, it
          would have changed, I think, the whole course of his life.
          Strange in the message that she called him Harry, not Ehrich as
          she called him all his life.  But, of course, she has that heavy
          German accent.  It really is a trivial mistake."


                                        III

          In December 1928, Bess came down with influenza, badly.  On New
          Year's Day she tumbled down a flight of stairs and hurt her back.
          Delirious, she cried "Harry, dear, who don't you come back to me
          from the other side?"  She reached her arms out, as though
          grasping him, and said, "I knew you would come back to me, my
          dear!"  Then she blackened out.
               As she lay ill on her couch, two members of Ford's
          congregation came, bearing a message which they said had come one
          word at a time through Reverend Ford.  It took, they said, ten
          seances and several months before the ten-word message was
          complete:  "Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer, look, tell,
          answer, answer, tell."
               They saw a look of shock, asked if the words made sense to
          her.
          They did.  The two advised her to arrange for Reverend Ford to
          come and hold a seance in her home.
               Two days later, Bess was lying on the sofa, a bandage on her
          head, as Arthur Ford, sitting blindfolded with a handkerchief,
          went into a trance.  As witnesses looked on he spoke the words
          he'd written in the note, "Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer,
          look, tell, answer, answer, tell," in a strange voice which he
          said was Houdini's.
               He asked her whether what he said made sense to her.  She
          said it did.  Then he went on:  "Thank you, sweetheart.  Now take
          off your ring and tell the witnesses what 'Rosabelle' means."
          Then softly Bess began to sing,

               Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle,
               I love you more than I can tell.
               Over me you cast a spell.
               I love you my sweet Rosabelle.

          The Houdini voice explained what this song meant to Bess and
          Harry, then went on:  The strange words of the message were the
          cues from the Houdinis' vaudeville mind reading.  Each word or
          pair of words stood for a letter of the alphabet.  They spelled
          "believe."
               Almost gloating now, the voice explained:  "Rosabelle, sweet
          Rosabelle, BELIEVE!  Spare no time or money to undo the attitude
          of doubt I had on earth.  Teach the truth to those who've lost
          the faith, my sweetheart.  Tell the world there is no death."
               And that is what Bess did.  Next day the headline -- "Widow,
          Ill, Communes with Houdini" -- showed up all aorund the world.
          And on that January 9, Bess made a statement to the _New York
          World_.  She said "I did not know what words Harry would use.  Of
          course I knew that is would be in code, but, when he said
          'believe,' I was surprised."


                                        IV

          What could have made Bess act the way she did?  How could she be
          surprised to hear from Ford things she had told the press in
          interviews or give to be published in a book?  What made her
          thing the word "believe" was more than something Reverend Ford
          had just made up to make a point and publicize himself?
               Was she unbalanced?  After three decade in Houdini's shadow,
          was the light too much?  Her health was always "fragile."  What
          did "fragile" mean?  They say she loved champagne.  And in the
          latter years, when "health" prevented her from working in the
          show with Harry, they say she often say backstage and sipped.
               There was a darker possibility.  When the insurance money
          started to run low, and she had sold Houdini's props, had Ford
          offered Bess publicity and profits from a lecture tour they'd
          make to "spread the good word" of life after death?
               That's what the press though, not suprisingly.  Almost
          overnight the headlines changed:  "Houdini Message a Big Hoax!"
          they said.  Investigative journalists obtained a copy of the
          letter Ford had sent two days before the seance, in which he
          claimed to have received the "code words" from his "guide."
          This, they said, was evidence that Bess and Ford had hatched the
          plot together.  Ford was accused of fraud and brought to trial by
          his own congregation.  He was not convicted, but the cloud of
          doubt remained.
               Bess never spoke to Reverend Ford again.  She disavowed the
          message:  "I was ill, both physically and mentally.  Such was my
          eagerness that mediums were able to prey upon my mind, make me
          believe, and say things that would bring my husband shame."


                                        V

          Bess kept a candle burning for ten years in her apartment by a
          picture of Houdini.  And each year on Halloween she took that
          candle to a seance, hopeful.
               In October 1936, high on the famous Knickerbocker Hotel roof
          in Hollywood, she tried on final time.  No handcuffs opened, and
          no trumpet spoke.  No message wrote itself upon the slate.  No
          table rose.  No tambourine stood up and danced.
               Bess made a little speech:  "I do not think that Harry will
          come back to me or anyone.  I think the dead don't speak.  I now
          regretfully turn out the light.  This is the end, Harry," she
          said.  "Good night!" And she blew the candle out.


          This story was from the groovey book, "Cruel Tricks for Dear
          Friends" by Penn Jillette and Teller (the latter actually wrote
          this particular story).

          Now why did I post this story here?  Well, it helped me pick up some
          points in the song "Houdini" that I was unsure of...
          For example, the tambourine was a kind of "sign" during the seance.
          And this story explained the "code" mentioned in the song...
          Also, this story gave background information that kinda set the
          scene for the song...

          Hope you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry it's a bit lengthy...

          Slender Fungus