Last week, I shared parts of Mondays, October 2, 1950 Detroit News Town Talk Column, where Dr. Kennedy writing to Mr. Stark shares the history of his famous patient. This week is a continuation, where I present parts of Tuesdays October 3, 1950 Town Talk Column, where Dr. Kennedy writing to Mr. Stark considers the case of Houdini, the Man:

“I was with Houdini almost constantly in his last illness and we had many interesting discussions about his work, about spiritualism and many other philosophical fields.

One evening he said to me, ‘Doctor, you know I always wanted to be surgeon, but I never could. I have always regretted it.’

I answered him, ‘Why, Mr. Houdini, that is one of the most amazing statements I have ever heard. Here you are, the greatest magician and the greatest entertainer of your age. You make countless thousands of people happy. You have an unlimited income and you are admired and respected by everybody, while I am just an ordinary dub of a surgeon trying to struggle through life.’

He looked up and smiled. ‘Perhaps those things are true, doctor, but the difference between me and you is that you actually DO things for people and I, in almost every respect, am a fake.’

The Mediums Approach

I have never forgotten that conversation. You know, of course, that Houdini’s real name was Weiss and he was the son of a Jewish rabbi who lived in Milwaukee and that of the 23 members of his amazing troupe, 21 were relatives.

You probably knew too that his wife was the little page who followed him around on the stage and was constantly taking care the perfection of his art should be in no way marred.

But you do NOT know that he said to me just before going into the operating room, ‘Please keep that woman’ pointing to his wife, ‘out of my room all of the time, because she is the most peculiar woman I have ever known in my life.’

So you can see that when it was claimed in California that for 10 years a group of good folks was trying to get in touch with him through an approved spiritualistic medium, I took little interest in the prospect of such an accomplishment. I was quite sure that if he really intended to communicate with anybody, it would not be is apparent soul mate.

The Huge Insurance

As a final interesting touch, to me at least, you might like to know that after his death, it was found that Houdini carried upwards of a million dollars in insurance and that he carried two polices with tow of the largest companies in the country totaling approximately $200,000, which paid double indemnity in case of accidental death.

The insurance companies sent various representatives to me and tried to convince me that injury had nothing to do with Mr. Houdini’s death. But inasmuch as I knew that he had been struck on the left side of the abdomen, that his symptoms had started immediately following the blow, that he had no symptoms prior to that injury and that from the beginning of the injury, event progressed steadily to his death, there was nothing for me to say to the insurance representatives except that I believed this was a case of traumatic appendicitis.

The Best God Gave Us

It is the only case of traumatic appendicitis, I have ever seen in my lifetime, but the logic of the thing seemed to me to indicate that Mr. Houdini died of appendicitis, the direct result of the injury.

Morris Ernst, now a lawyer of national reputation, was Houdini’s attorney and eventually the insurance companies paid the double indemnity on the policies involved, because I had told Mr. Ernst the facts as they were and gave my professional opinion that the injury had been the inciting cause of death.

It is too bad that we did not have in those days the antibiotics which are now available. It might well have been that life of a magnificent entertainer and a fine character could have been prolonged for some years.

Who knows? In any event, we did the best we could as God gave us the light to see and a fine gentleman went to his premature reward.”

To kick-off October, thought you might like to hear from the surgeon who took care of Houdini.

In Mondays, October 2, 1950 Detroit News Town Talk Column, George W. Stark shares correspondence he received from his friend, Dr. Charles S. Kennedy, who had recently read the Sept 15 1950 Town Talk piece on Houdini:

The Nature of the Fatal Illness

“Perhaps you do not know it, but I was the surgeon who took care of Houdini.

He had been struck in the left lower abdomen by a medical student from McGill University in the wings of one of the theatres in Montreal, 24 to 36 hours before he arrived in Detroit.

I saw him first in the Hotel Statler about 3 o’clock in the morning, got the history of the blow to his abdomen and thought that he had either a ruptured intestine from the blow or had clotting of the large blood vessels (because of the blow) supplying a portion of his intestine.

Appendicitis was considered, but was not very seriously kept in mind because of the location of the injury.

Houdini, bear in mind, had gone through his whole strenuous performance, I believe at the Garrick Theatre, the night before I first saw him and collapsed at the end of the show.

The Ideal Patient

I sent him to Grace Hospital and there he was put in a double room, because there was no other place at the time. Considerate chap that he was and that I always found him to be during his terminal illness, he said, “Well, if there is nothing but a double room, that will do for me.”

At operation early the same day, we found that his appendix was a great long affair which started in the right lower pelvis where it normally should, extended across the midline and lay in his pelvis, exactly where the blow had been struck.

Reconsidering the history afterwards, we concluded that his appendix had ruptured some place near St. Thomas, Ont, and the Garrick Theater with a ruptured appendix and spreading peritonitis. The peritonitis was caused by a bug known as streptococcus, which, up to recent years in my experience is peritonitis has been fatal,

The Game Fight

Houdini put up a tremendous fight, living somewhat more than a week after the operation, and for the first few days, it seemed almost as though his tremendous recuperative powers would result in recovery. During the entire time of his terminal illness, he was an ideal patient.

Nobody did anything for him, including such small services as to mop his brow or give him a sip of water, that he not look up into the face of the attendant or the nurse, smiling and saying, “Thank You.”

I repeat, he was the ideal patient!

Next week, I will present Tuesdays October 3, 1950 Town Talk Column, where Dr. Kennedy writing to Mr. Stark considers the case of Houdini, the Man.

• The Doctor Evaluates Nature of His Patient

Houdini arrived in Montreal with a fractured ankle, suffered from a mishap with the Water Torture Cell on October 11^th.

We previously shared comments from Dr. Nelles and Dr. William D. Tait WRT to Houdini’s health:

Dr. Nelles, who interviewed Houdini on October 18^th, thought “He looked not very well, pretty white and his wife Beatrice was worried about him.”

At the lecture, Houdini had a nurse with him who had nursed his wife a short time previously.

Dr William D. Tait Professor of Psychology at McGill, commented that “Houdini was in poor health when he arrived in Montreal” And that “When Houdini concluded his address, he sat down immediately as he was suffering great pain from his fractured ankle. His nurse came up to the platform and insisted upon Houdini leaving, so gangway was made for him.”

What has not been shared previously are the comments from a writer, Genevieve Lipsett-Skinner, who was sitting on a chair in the center aisle in the front row on the day of Houdini’s appearance at McGill Union:

LOOKED DEATHLY

To the writer had fallen the assignment of covering Houdini at McGill on October 19. During the dinner that evening Houdini was the subject of conversation. “I want my 11-year old daughter to see Houdini while he is in Montreal,” remarked one of the gentlemen present. “You had better send her as soon as you can. Houdini is not long for this world,” the writer advised. “How do you know?” the astonished company asked in chorus. “The stamp of death is on his countenance. I saw death approaching once before and there can be no mistake. Houdini’s days are numbered,” was the reply which was received with a volley of arguments about the magicians wonderful physique and powers of endurance, coupled with a reminder that he was only 48 [52] years of age.”

Source:

• Montreal Daily Star Nov 1st 1926

Related:

• Houdini’s Death Officially Laid to Boy’s Blow?
• “How Houdini Died” and “Was Houdini Killed?”

On page 30 to 31, Bell shared part of the lecture (compiled from newspaper sources) in his excellent book, The Man Who Killed Houdini. Today, I thought I would share as much of the lecture as possible, by piecing all the parts together from the various newspaper sources. The parts in bold did not appear in the Bell Book:

According to Dr William D. Tait Professor of Psychology at McGill, “Houdini was in poor health when he arrived in Montreal. He had a nurse with him who had nursed his wife a short time previously”

“I met Houdini on his arrival at the Union on the afternoon of October 19, and escorted him to the platform from which he delivered his interesting lecture on fake mediums,”

All McGill paid homage to Houdini yesterday afternoon in the Union Ballroom. Everybody was present, from the professor of moral philosophy to the most verdant freshman. The theologs’, meds, and infant psychologists were unanimous in agreeing that if had Houdini had not chosen to be a master magician of the age, he might have rivaled Mark Twain as a humorist. Although Houdini was dealing with a serious subject—his exposure of fraudulent spiritualistic mediums was exceptionally funny.

Every inch of standing room in the hall was taken up, many having to stand halfway down the stairs or on ladders to hear the lecturer. Professor W. D. Tait was chairman of the meeting and introduced the speaker.

“Thirty-five years of experience in psychic phenomena has taught me the frauds of spiritualism” stated Houdini. “But mind, I am not attacking the spiritualist religion which is entirely different from the fakes who extort money from poor and troubled people who seek aid from these mediums.”

“I am willing to forfeit $10,000 if I cannot expose any medium.” Challenged Houdini. “As a matter of fact, there are $825,000 of lawsuits directed against me at the present time.”

 “The fraudulent medium—and I have never met a genuine medium—is the most despicable creature on earth, “Houdini declared. “He or she takes advantage of people torn by the sorrow of losing a loved one, and for a dollar, more or less pretends to get a message from the dear departed.

“Folks who hear voices and see forms ought to consult their family physician immediately,” said Houdini. He proceeded to divide mediums into three classes—those who are honestly deluded, those who have psychosis, and criminals.

The speaker then went on to recount the history of the famous Margery case and the controversy between himself and Malcolm J. Bird, managing editor of the Scientific American. He told how Margery (who in private life is Mrs. Crandon the wife of a prominent Boston physician) had outwitted four Harvard professors amongst whom was Dr. MacDougall and how these expert psychologists believed that Margery was a genuine medium.

“Marjorie” is the “slickest” medium that ever lived.”

“She changes her routine every evening,” he said. “When I stated that she was a fake, the Harvard professors said I was wrong. J. M. Bird, the former editor of the Scientific American, took me to Boston to see her. One night her husband, Dr. Crandon, accidentally turned up the light and I caught Mr. Bird manipulating for “Marjorie”. He had his hand outstretched “doing the works”. He tried to swear me before I exposed Mrs. Crandon and told me to go where Sulphur is given away for nothing.

Mr. Houdini explained that his reason for telling the audience this was because almost every newspaper in the world said he was wrong in believing Mrs. Crandon to be a fake.

“Marjorie handed out applesauce to the investigators,” he continued, ‘I know this because I have walked through apple orchards myself. I have examined more mediums than anyone else in the world and I have never been converted. When asked if I could do anything religious, I said the only think I could do was take up the collection.

I hold letters of apology from the four Harvard professors connected to the affair.

With reference to the means to which mediums resort when visiting a strange city, the speaker told an amazing anecdote concerning a visit to Kansas.

I am a pupil of the famous Ira Davenport and have been a professional medium in Kansas traveling with a quack doctor. I am therefore well versed in the tricks of the trade. I conducted religious spiritualist meeting and brought back spirits of the dead. I told the people of the town more about themselves than they ever suspected themselves.

The trick is simple. That morning I visited the country churchyard accompanied by the sexton and the oldest inhabitant. I learned more from that morning than if I had lived there my whole life. The next day 2 prominent businessmen of the town came and offered me $25 dollars to leave town before I told anymore.

“They all do it. They exchange information like Bradstreet or Dun. When a medium comes to Montreal, she goes to one of your fraudulent mediums and gets all the ‘dope”.

“There is nothing smart in knowing your business. If you know your profession it is the easiest thing in the world. You may look at a thing in a séance room and not see it. I do not use my eyes at all, I just close them and think things out.”

The trick is all in the knowledge and to know your trade is the first essential of success, “admonished the speaker. “Spiritualism does not appeal to simpletons alone. Many people honestly believe in it but are deluded such one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver Lodge.”

Houdini then went on to speak of his friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lady Doyle. He told of attending séance given specially for his benefit by Lady Doyle. Lady Doyle was an automatic writer” said the speaker.

“I am the only person in the world to whom she has ever given a séance”, he explained. “She produced for me twenty-three pages of classical English in a message from my mother. Born on the Continent, my mother, could not speak a word of English. Moreover, it was her birthday and she would have mentioned something about the flowers I have always sent her on that day. Don’t you ever believe that any medium can take a message for your mother when she has passed to external rest.”

He spoke at some length of the methods of spotting them and of the people he employed to do his work. He introduced two of his assistants whom had preceded him to Montreal and made investigations here. One was Miss Sawyer and the other was Miss Mackenberg.

Either I am crazy or they are, and I don’t see spirits asserted the lecturer. I am here to prove that they are the meanest grafters on earth, because they rob the poor and troubled.

He told the methods of ordaining ministers to the spiritualists faith and of the frauds connected with that.

“I can take anyone in the world who can simply sign his name and make him a minister of the spiritualistic religion,” he declared. “All of you have to do is to the lie and say that you see spirits and you are eligible. I am not allowed to attend many of these meetings because they say ‘Ha, ha here comes a disturbing element’”.

You have no idea how easy it is to fool anyone under the guise of a spiritualistic meeting. If I should die tonight, the spiritualistic mediums would hold a national holiday.

Houdini concluded his lecture by inviting a forum. A medical student asked him to explain how the Hindu fakirs stick needles and knives in themselves. “There’s nothing to those tricks,” the handcuff king replied.  “Somebody lend me a needle and I’ll put it though my cheek.” A boy near the back of the room obliged. “Dean Martin, will you please come up to the platform and watch me put the needle through my flesh?” Houdini asked. The Dean shook his head in the negative. “I don’t approve of what you are going to do,” the head of the Medical Faculty explained. Houdini apparently put the needle through the flesh, both ends visible to the audience, and went on talking. He did not bleed at all.

At the handcuff king’s request to remove a needle from his cheek. The student took firm hold of the flesh and without a false move extracted the sewing needle which Houdini had just stuck through his cheek to prove that there was nothing to the swallowing of swords and filling the body full of needles and pins.

When Houdini concluded his address, he sat down immediately as he was suffering great pain from his fractured ankle. Certain members of the faculty and students [including the Vim and Vigour fraternity brothers with Smiley’s drawing of Houdini] came up and shook hands with Houdini as he sat there. His nurse came up to the platform and insisted upon Houdini leaving, so gangway was made for him. He got out of the hall quickly and was hurried away in his waiting taxi. [Bell p43-44, 58]

According to Bell on page 31, “some of the stories that were published after his death said that he had been challenged—and punched — during or after the lecture at the McGill Union. Bell suggests there is the possibility of one “hit”, the Pickleman Punch that may have taken place after Houdini left the Ballroom and conferred with some students downstairs in the billiards room on his way out. But McGill professor of psychology, Dr. William D. Tait, who organized and chaired the meeting vigorously denied all reports of any punch-ups taking place at the McGill Union.”

What Bell does not mention in his book is the possibility of the Pickleman Punch taking place before the lecture; But Dr. Tait also claims he met Houdini on his arrival at the Union on the afternoon of October 19, and escorted him to the platform. Then there is the interview with J.G. Nelles that suggests Houdini got punched on October 18^th, which is certainly before the lecture.

Sources:

• The Man Who Killed Houdini, by Don Bell
• McGill Daily Oct 20^th 1926
• Montreal Gazette Oct 20^th 1926
• Montreal Daily Star Oct 20^th 1926; Nov 1^st 1926

Next week:

• Houdini “Looked Deathly” at Lecture

Related:

• Interview by J.G. Nelles appears Day of Lecture
• Happy 2019 from HHCE and the McGill Union Ballroom

On page one of the McGill Daily student newspaper for Tuesday, October 19, the day after Houdini opened in Montreal, is a story based on an interview with Houdini in his Princess Theatre dressing room by an enterprising reporter, twenty-two year-old Gordon Nelles. That day Houdini was scheduled to lecture about fraudulent mediums to students at the McGill Union Ballroom on Sherbrooke Street, across from campus. The article no doubt contributed to the frenzy and assured that there would be a rush to attend the lecture. [Don Bell p26-27]

Bell shared part of the article, entitled “Houdini is Sworn Enemy of All Mediums” in his excellent book, The Man Who Killed Houdini.  Today, I thought I would share the full article, which I think you will find very interesting; I know I did.  The parts in bold did not appear in the Bell Book.

HOUDINI IS SWORN ENEMY OF ALL MEDIUMS

Magician Desires To Expose All Spiritualists

DEFIES LOCKSMITHS

Believes in God and a Life Hereafter

By J. G. Nelles

“Now if you would just say a few words—” I asked and paused, to fix myself more comfortably in the chair beside the couch on which Harry Houdini reclined in his dressing room at the Princess Theatre. Before I could finish the sentence however, this master wizard and terror of fake mediums has recited with a twinkle in his eye, the whole alphabet from “A” to “Z” and was winding up with a series of words something like dog, rat, cat, hat and fat.

“There”, he finally said with a smile as I gulped for breath, “those are a few words, is that what you wanted?”

“Well not exactly,” I feebly protested, “give me something on spiritualism in Montreal.”

“Ah yes,” the magician cut in, right here in Montreal you have them, mediums, I mean. I’ve already tested some of them. I sent two of my agents to a well known one in the city with a picture of myself. They said it was a photograph of their son whom they had lost and wanted to find.

Spiritualist claimed he could return the “son”, that he was at present on the ocean and that by the working of his spirits at night, he could get them to come back, provided that –$25 was paid on the spot and $35 in subsequent installments.

“I can’t see how the law permits such people to go on fooling the public”, Houdini commented.

Lightly contemptuous at first, Houdini’s tone grew more serious as he proceeded to denounce the practices of all spiritualists. His keen eyes narrowed slightly with the right lid giving the slightest suspicion of a droop. He spoke earnestly and it became obvious that this was the subject nearest his heart. His genius as a man whom no lock ever made by human brain could permanently shackle was but a means to the end. To spend his life in the relentless pursuit of these “Spiritual” criminals was his supreme desire. His whole attitude suggested this. A soul lit by one idea had kept him constantly on the track; writing in magazines, giving addresses to the public and lecturing to the staffs of civic police and detective agencies. The exposure of fraud is, with him, an obsession and his marvelous ability to reproduce by natural means any phenomena created by a materialistic fakir has made him a subject of the most intense fear and hatred by the criminal class.

But how does he do it?

Do you extricate yourself from situations by brute strength? he was asked.

“Yes partly”, he replied. “By strength, skill, and—he tapped his head, knowledge”

 Suddenly surmised the knowledge that lay behind those clear, piercing eyes, which gleamed so ominous at the mention of fraud. What would one give for the knowledge that engaged this man to leap into San Francisco Bay, handcuffed with hands behind his back, and pounds of ball and chain locked to his body, and return free to the surface a moment later? Or the knowledge that show him the way to escape without a trace, from a hot water boiler inside which he had been riveted by the employees of the Marine Water Works of Toledo Ohio?

The secrets of his genius will probably die with him. He spoke guardedly at times, almost evasively, of his accomplishments.

To what religion do you belong? he was asked,

“I come from a long line of college _______ and rabbis”, he said, “what would you suggest?”

“That you are a follower of Judaism”

“Probably yes”, he admitted                          

“Do you believe then, in God and a life after death?

“I certainly believe in a supreme being and a life in the hereafter,” he said

But you do not believe in the ______ separation of body and mind ______ and the existence of ectoplasm?

“No absolutely not?

“Nor mental telepathy”

“No”

“How do you explain the phenomena of a medium repeating aloud what another is thinking?”

“It is only coincidence. If you refer to premonition. A mother may say to her child who has met with an accident playing in the street, that she knew of its occurrence before she heard of it. That is because she had in mind while the child was out the feat that he would be hurt.

Thus Houdini explained all the pretentions of spiritualist as mere coincidence not the result of any supernatural power.

But speaking to him leaves one convinced of the frauds of those who call themselves mediums and yet at the same time a suspicion that Houdini himself has some wonderful power, the depths of which no other human has ever plumbed. Personal contact naturally gives no clue to his ability to extricate himself from the strongest criminal bonds of Washington and Scotland Yard. He still remains as baffling as ever and as mysterious as always. But how does he do it?

In 1986, sixty years after the interview with Houdini, Gordon Nelles insisted curiously that Houdini had already received the blows when he interviewed him Monday afternoon, October 18. The Whitehead punching incident took place four days later [and the Pickleman punch was thought to have been the day of the lecture on October 19^th, not the 18 ^th?]. [Interestingly] Nelles recalled that Houdini had a heat lamp beamed on his stomach as he reposed on a cot in the dressing room. “He looked not very well, pretty white and his wife Beatrice was worried about him.” [Bell p28]

Also, on page one of the McGill Daily student newspaper for Tuesday, October 19:

Houdini to Lecture at Five Today

Houdini master magician of our time will deliver a lecture before McGill students in the Union Ball room this afternoon at five. Houdini is probably the world’s most famous magician, famous not alone for his spectacular feats of magic but also for his recent activities in showing up fake mediums and fortune tellers, and it is on this particular phase of his work that he will speak this afternoon.

After his lecture the great magician will answer any questions that are put to him, “I wish that you could make all the students understand that I would like a regular barrage of questions,” he said to a Daily reporter yesterday.

Since a very large attendance is expected at this lecture no outsiders will be admitted until immediately before the lecture commences, thus giving all students ample time and opportunity to hear the lecture. In order to be sure of admittance it is advisable to bring handbooks as admission will be by showing of athletic tickets.

Next week, will take a look at his lecture in more detail:

• Houdini’s McGill Union Lecture on Fraudulent Mediums

Related:

• Houdini’s Last Interview

Per Dick Brookz of the Houdini Museum in Scranton PA:

Just finished up doing our upcoming appearance again on The Travel Channel’s Mysteries At The Museum. It will feature Dorothy Dietrich discussing about how Houdini died that will feature various props at the museum like the Chinese Water Torture Tank. We [Dorothy and Dick] seem to do one every year or two in the last decade. Dorothy did this one since I did the last.  As part of it we shot a whole day at the museum and then another day in a studio in New Jersey just outside of NYC in Hoboken. Hard to tell what the result will be as they shot a total of about 6 hours to be boiled down to 12-15 mins. Things we touched on New York Times Gertrude Hills story, food poisoning, cyanide, appendix problem, the punches, the secret serum administered before he died. No autopsy, Bernard Ernst making his version of the death the “official” one, payoffs to the two boys, double indemnity, etc.  I think someone on the show may have seen “The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini” a lot of which was based on our research and our conspiracy theories.  A lot of which was on The Magic Cafe with Pat Culliton, and on Wild about Houdini and other blogs [e.g. HHCE].

Related from HHCE:

• Houdini’s Death Officially Laid to Boy’s Blow?
• “How Houdini Died” and “Was Houdini Killed?”
• Houdini is struck in the stomach by Smiley.  What?

TPR October 31st 1926 – Joe M. Notaro Collection

October 30th, Houdini is still very ill but is slightly better after second operation and may yet dodge grim reaper as described in The Philadelphia Record Newspaper:

Joe M. Notaro Collection

On October 29th, Harry Houdini suffers relapse and crisis expected within 12 to 38 hours say doctors as described in The Pittsburg Sun Newspaper:

Joe M. Notaro Collection

TPR October 27 1926 – Joe M. Notaro Collection

On October 26th, physicians despair over condition of Houdini and summon a Fifth physician from Montreal as described in The Philadelphia Record Newspaper:

Joe M. Notaro Collection

TPR October 26 1926 – Joe M. Notaro Collection

On October 25th, Houdini was operated on as described in The Philadelphia Record Newspaper:

Joe M. Notaro Collection