s_fungus@kk4fs.UUCP (Slender Fungus) (02/27/91)
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