Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for March 28, 2023

Houdini actually invested a lot of effort in exposing phony psychics and occultists. One trick he would often do is to thoroughly disguise himself and visit someone who claims to be able to contact the deceased. He would tell them a fake story about a made-up dead relative, and after the alleged psychic would pretend to be communicating with the nonexistent spirit, he would reveal himself.

Funnily enough, Harry’s close acquaintance, Arthur Conan Doyle, was a strong believer in the supernatural, despite his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, adhering much more closely to Houdini’s rationalist views.

But Houdini eventually made a bad misjudgement himself, allowing someone to punch him too hard in the stomach. Houdini died on Halloween in 1926.

There were lots of fraudulent ghost or spirit photographers back in the late 1800s around the time Houdini was born.

What’s a “fraudulent artist” among magicians? The one that makes a coin appear from your ear that wasn’t there? Or maybe he exposed “fraudulent artists” in general. I saw a guy once pretending to be King Lear :D

I would like to know why people continue to disparage some people by calling them hairy. It is so demeaning to be rude to our hirsuit friends in this world, and I get so upset when… oh, you mean the name Harry. Never mind. ~ Emily Litella

Take care, may aspiring slight of hand practitioner Armand “The Magnificent One Who Will Dazzle The Eyes And Minds Of All Who Carry Pez Dispensers” Toughcrowdord be with you, and gesundheit.

Uh, “artists”? I’m pretty sure that’s not the right word.

Con artists, yeah.

Could have used “medium” or “spiritualists” or “psychics”, instead.

And then left out the word “fraudulent”, because it would have been redundant.

read Houdini’s biography when i was a around 12 because it was written by William Gibson who under penname Maxwell Grant wrote over 300 novels starring The Shadow, but Houdini very cool guy and worth 5 minutes of your time to check out on wiki

Houdini told his wife a phrase he would say if contacting her from the beyond. That way she would know how to spot fakes. Also, didn’t Helena’s mother tell her not to play with sticks?!

My favorite ‘magician’ died recently. His stage name was ‘The Amazing Jonathan’ and he was kinda inept as a magician, but was so funny.

Conan Doyle was such a believer in the woo fraudsters that it really bothered Houdini. How could the creator of the highly logical Holmes be so gullible? He once accompanied Doyle to several meetings with mediums and listened patiently while his friend argued that what they saw was proof of their supernatural powers. Then Houdini demonstrated that he could duplicate every mysterious phenomenon that they had witnessed but insisted that he did it by simple trickery. The result was that Doyle began to believe… and tell others… that Houdini was secretly a REAL magician and that he faked being a fake.

Just goes to show you that movie was fake. A real magician wouldn’t have to solve a wand into someone’s ear just to break the eardrum!

The scene where Bellatrix tortures Hermione was so intense it has to be trimmed down to avoid an R rating. After shooting, Carter asked Emma Watson if they were still on good terms. (They were.)

BION: There was a politician from Indiana named, “Harry Baals.”

but did Helena pull the trigger…?

The Amazing Randi exposed a fraudulent magician by the name of Uri Geller.

Story I read once—-

Houdini had a trick where he’d swallow a dozen individual needles,then a length of thread;move his mouth around,and bring up all the needles expertly threaded.

He’d ask an audience volunteer to look in his mouth for hidden gimmicks.

One day Houdini said “What do you see in my mouth” and the volunteer said “Pyoreah!”(gum disease).

It was Groucho Marx,who looked l ike any other guy withoutthe paint on mustache

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an excellent writer who wrote many fine stories without the character Sherlock Holmes. One about man who wanted a ghost for his castle, told realistically how he was scammed.