SPIRIT SLEUTHS:
How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes

Click for SPIRIT SLEUTHS EDUCATOR GUIDE with discussion questions and curriculum connections in HISTORY, SCIENCE, and LITERATURE.

SPIRIT SLEUTHS contains Timeline, Glossary, Sources for More Information, Author’s Note, extensive Bibliography, and Index.

SPIRIT SLEUTHS begins with the earliest days of the spiritualist movement in the U.S. in the mid-1800s when mediums began holding séances to communicate with the dead. Magicians, detectives, and journalists have worked ever since to expose and publicize dishonest mediums, fortune-tellers, and psychics who take advantage of the vulnerable and gullible. The book follows their debunking efforts through the end of the 19th century and into the two post-World War periods of the 1920s and 1940s. The final chapter focuses on psychic scams today.

SPIRIT SLEUTHS includes several sections called “How Did They Do It?” Readers learn the techniques fraudulent mediums used at séances to convince customers that spirits were present––table tipping, mind reading, fortune-telling, ghostly appearances, spooky sounds, slate writing, and more. The tricks––like most magic–– use misdirection, physics, chemistry, and psychology to fool an audience. Readers are encouraged to think critically about what they see, hear, and read.

MORE TO EXPLORE

DEBUNKING THE SUPERNATURAL: Learn how modern-day magicians and investigators expose psychic fakes.

Nova, “Secrets of the Psychics”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3uHqtH8bg
In this Nova episode, magician and psychic investigator James Randi, “the Amazing Randi,” follows in Houdini’s footsteps as he debunks reports of supernatural phenomena, including faith healing, palm-reading, astrology, spoon-bending, and psychic readings.

“Why People Believe Weird Things”
ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_why_people_ believe_weird_things
In this TED Talk, Michael Shermer (publisher of Skeptic magazine and director of the Skeptic Society) explains why people are easily deceived. He reveals the truth behind several phenomena that have been called supernatural.

“Brain Magic”
ted.com/talks/keith_barry_brain_magic
During this TED Talk, magician Keith Barry performs surprising tricks that fool his audience. It’s easy to think that he has supernatural power, but he’s just a clever conjurer.

“Penn and Teller Reveal the Secret to Pulling Off a Mentalist Trick”
youtube.com/watch?v=gky1-Ji_ArQ
Some psychics and mediums claim to have the mystical power to read minds. Watch several magicians demonstrate how mentalists accomplish this by using tricks and skill. Find out how to do a few of their tricks.

“Mentalism, Mind Reading and the Art of Getting Inside Your Head”
ted.com/talks/derren_brown_mentalism_mind_reading_and_the_art_of_getting_inside_ your_head Performer Derren Brown demonstrates sealed envelope reading, which mediums say is a sign of their psychic power. He declares that it’s all a trick.

REVEALING HOUDINI: Find out about the escape artist, magician, and ghost hoax debunker.

American Experience, “Houdini: The Man Behind the Myth.”
pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/ houdini/
Read articles about Houdini’s life and career; his escape secrets; his friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and his exposure of the medium Margery. The transcript of the broadcast is also available.

Houdini documentary
pbs.org/video/wpt-documentaries-houdini/
Watch a documentary about Houdini’s life and career. Be amazed as magician Doug Henning performs Metamorphosis in Appleton, Wisconsin, Houdini’s boyhood home.

Blog about Houdini
wildabouthoudini.com
This blog by Houdini historian John Cox is a treasure trove of information about Houdini’s career and personal life.

Houdini history
intervalmagic.com/houdini
The website by magician and magic historian Tom Interval has links to online sources about Houdini. Included are New York Times articles about the magician and his exploits beginning in 1910.

SPOOKED!: HOW A RADIO BROADCAST AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS SPARKED THE 1938 INVASION OF AMERICA

 

Educator's Guide

Spooked! tells the story of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air creative team as they broadcast a radio play based on H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. It was an amazing program that still resonates eighty years later. Despite on-air announcements that the show was a theatrical presentation, the format and actors were so convincing that some listeners believed the events were actually happening. Terrified, they flooded police stations with phone calls and fled in cars to escape the Martians. A few people believed Germans, not Martians, had invaded. The next morning, national headlines described the hysterical reaction to the “Panic Broadcast.” Welles, his associates, and most of the public were shocked that people had been so easily fooled. The event raised questions about Americans’ susceptibility  to propaganda and about the increasing influence—and irresponsibility--of radio.

The  book places the broadcast in the context of the Depression, Hitler’s rise in Europe, and pre-war anxiety. It discusses the role of radio as a source of entertainment and information. Topics covered include: 20th-century American and world history, radio, literature, performance arts, journalism, communications, psychology, the creative process. The focus on fake news and audience gullibility makes Spooked! relevant today as rumors and hoaxes spread unchecked through the Internet.

Primary sources include hundreds of listener letters written after the broadcast to the Federal Trade Commission, Welles, and CBS radio. Also described are the creators' recollections of the program and its aftermath. The book contains archival photographs and drawings; quotations from the original novel and the broadcast;  a history of famous hoaxes; glossary; timeline; source notes; bibliography; author’s note; and further resources.

 

MORE TO EXPLORE

Online:

“‘War of the Worlds’ 1938 Radio Broadcast.” YouTube. youtube.com/watch?v=OzC3Fg_rRJM

“Orson Welles—Mercury Theater-1938 recordings.”  Internet Archive.  archive.org/details/OrsonWelles-MercuryTheater-1938Recordings

“American Experience: War of the Worlds” (website).  PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation.  pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/worlds/

“War of the Worlds Radio Documentary from October 30, 1988, Parts 1 and 2.” YouTube.  youtube.com/watch?v=ol3NRuMOEGk AND  youtube.com/watch?v=s7811lx10y4

The Museum of Hoaxes. Hoaxes.org

"The Smell Test: Educators can counter fake news with information literacy. Here's how," by Linda Jacobson. School Library Journal, January 1, 2017. (This article contains Media Literacy resources for teachers and librarians)   slj.com/?detailStory=the-smell-test-educators-can-counter-fake-news-with-information-literacy-heres-how

 

Books:

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. New York: Harper, 1898   available online: catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012293655

 A Colorful History of Popular Delusions by Robert E. Bartholomew and Peter Hassall. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2015.

Media Hoaxes by Fred Fedler. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989.

Real or Fake?: Far-Out Fibs, Fishy Facts, and Phony Photos to Test for the Truth by Emily Krieger. Washington, DC: National Geographic Kids, 2016.

The Tripods series by John Christopher. New York: Aladdin, 1967–1988.

 

THE AMAZING HARRY KELLAR, GREAT AMERICAN MAGICIAN

ACTIVITIES

This book is a biography of the magician Harry Kellar (1849-1922). Topics discussed include magic performances; the history of magic; Spiritualism; and entertainment and transportation in the U.S. and throughout the world during Kellar’s lifetime. The book contains a timeline, notes, bibliography, and a list of recommended books, places to visit, and websites.

The Amazing Harry Kellar can be used to meet the Common Core and State Standards through activities that encourage critical reading of informational material, opinion and explanatory writing, speaking, listening, and research. It has curriculum connections to language arts, social studies/history, science, math, and art. The suggested activities and questions below can be adjusted for grade level.

LANGUAGE ARTS

  • Make a list of personal traits that helped Harry Kellar become America’s favorite magician. Beside each trait, briefly explain how it helped him succeed.

  • What were Kellar’s faults that led to career setbacks? Make a list of these and identify how his career was affected by each.

  • Should Kellar have been criticized for using tricks and illusions that had been invented by other magicians? Or did he deserve praise for improving on the inventions of others? Pick a view and write an argument that supports it.

  • You have just watched an amazing magic trick. Would you prefer to know the secret behind it, or would you rather never learn how it was done? Write an essay arguing for your preference.

  • Today, most people enjoy watching a magician perform. But several hundred years ago, people were afraid of magic and thought that it was the work of witches and evil spirits. Write an essay or create a presentation that explains either 1) why magic is fun to watch OR 2) why magic frightens people.

  • Magicians use “patter” to enhance their tricks or illusions and to distract the audience from the secret. Learn to do a magic trick. Write your own patter to use with the trick. Perform it for an audience.

  • Pretend that Kellar is alive today and has hired you to create advertising to attract audiences to his shows. Choose one of these, or something else that would reach his fans: Write and record a radio spot. Make a video for TV or YouTube. Design Kellar’s Facebook page or Web site.

U.S. HISTORY
Period from post-Civil War through 1920s

  • Make a list of the different ways that Harry Kellar traveled throughout the U.S. and the world from his childhood years in the 1850s to his death in 1922. Find or draw pictures of these different modes of transportation.

  • How did the expansion of the railroad system after the Civil War help to change the way Americans were entertained?

  • If you had lived in Kellar’s time, what would have been the choices of entertainment in your town or city? Search old newspapers online to read news stories and advertisements about magicians and other traveling entertainers in your state or region.

  • As a child, Harry Kellar worked as a newsboy in New York City. Learn more about the “newsies” and how they lived. Find photographs of these children at the Library of Congress site (http://www.loc.gov/pictures [search “newsies” or “newsboys”]).

  • Why do you think so many people believed in ghosts, séances, and mediums during Kellar’s lifetime? How did Kellar and Harry Houdini debunk the claims of the Spiritualists?

WORLD HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY

  • Using a world map, trace the path of Harry Kellar’s travels as an international performer from 1873-1884. Mark the map where he was shipwrecked; the city where he collected many of his illusions; where he caught yellow fever; and where he met his wife.

  • On a world map, show the area that formed the British Empire during Kellar’s lifetime. How did Kellar’s travels match the places controlled by the British? Why did he choose to perform within the British Empire?

SCIENCE and MATH

The secrets of magic -- including Harry Kellar’s tricks and illusions--involve science, mathematics, and psychology.

  • Learn how to do a magic trick. Perform it for classmates. Teach a friend how to do it, too, by writing a step-by-step explanation or by creating a video of yourself demonstrating the secret of the trick.

  • Learn how to do a mind-reading or prediction trick that depends on arithmetic and number patterns. Amaze your family and friends!

  • Using resources listed on this site or in the book, research how Harry Kellar performed some of his tricks and illusions.

ART

  • Find out how Kellar’s colorful advertising posters were created using stone lithography.

  • View the Library of Congress’s collection of Magic Posters from 1879 to 1936 (at loc.gov/pictures [search “magic posters”]). What were the characteristics of these posters that convinced people to attend magic performances?

  • Compare today’s full-page magazine advertisements, movie posters, and billboards to the advertising posters of the 19th- and early 20th-centuries.

  • Create your own Kellar poster.

MORE TO EXPLORE

YouTube

  • Search among the many videos of magicians performing.
     

  • Watch Kellar and Harry Houdini together in two short film clips: The famous rope trick and in a car.

HOW TO DO MAGIC TRICKS

Some of Kellar’s posters hinted
at a connection between magical
power and the supernatural.
In reality, his magic performances
were the result of hard work,
detailed preparation, and skill.

  • Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions Including Trick Photography, Edited by Albert A. Hopkins.
    archive.org/details/magicstageillusi00hopk
    Read this book -- first published in 1897-- to find out how Kellar and other magicians of his day pulled off some of their tricks and illusions. One chapter explains how automatons work.

  • “Learn Magic” by Wayne Kawamoto. Magic & Illusion, About.com.
    magic.about.com/od/beginningmagic/u/learnmagic.htm
    Learn to do easy magic tricks by following simple instructions illustrated with photographs.

MAGICIAN ORGANIZATIONS

DVDS

  • Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic, Parts One and Two. Produced and directed by Wilson Coneybeare and Mitchell T. Ness. Paragon Productions, 1998.
    Find out about the history of magic and great magicians, including Harry Kellar, Alexander Herrmann, John Nevil Maskelyne, and Harry Houdini. The documentary includes interviews and footage of magic performances.
     

  • The Illusionist. Written and directed by Neil Burger. Bull’s Eye Entertainment, 2006. Rated PG-13.
    Watch an award-winning film about a fictional magician in Vienna, Austria, in the early 1900s. The film depicts theaters and stage magic from Kellar’s era and shows the popularity of spiritualism. It features sleight-of-hand tricks and stage illusions, many of which Kellar performed. Professional magicians assisted with the production.

MAGIC POSTERS

  • Kellar and other magicians advertised their shows with colorful posters like the ones shown here.
    See more at the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs site. www.loc.gov/pictures (Search “Magic Posters”)