David thank you everybody for coming out. This book,alk about the story itself. But i also want to make the point that this period is varied distant and its going , to sound like a time where society was very socialist and was very long ago. But in fact in 1983 the , university of chicago showed in a poll that 27 of americans believed they were in touch with the dead. And this was the National Voting research center, i believe. This wasnt about asking people if they felt they were having imaginary conversations with the dead. The question was do you , genuinely believe that you are in touch with spirits and you are hearing from them . As i mentioned, 27 of the people said that they were which would have translated to about 50 million americans who believe d that they were in touch with the dead. So that was in 1983. The time i am writing about is the 1920s. The other thing i will say about how close that era essentially is, is that when i was a kid i remember there was an ice cream parlor near me. And some of my friends from then are here and they probably remember that. And i was sitting there at the grand opening and there was this old man that was being introduced to all the patrons and he came to me and he shook and said, hi im jack , dempsey. Now jack dempsey was one of the 3 or four great icons and that it was sort of sad what he was doing at that point but im only illustrating this story to mention again that the two large lives can intersect in that way. So the time period im writing about in the 1920s was a time where without question the most recognizable, most famous american in the world is a magician. This was in between the death of Teddy Roosevelt in 1919 and that was before lindbergh had flown across the atlantic. And in those intervening years, Harry Houdinis fame sorry. That is ok. In those intervening years, his fame was at its apex. As i mentioned he was the most , famous american on the planet. The other thing i will say about this era is that there are times certainly in the summer of 1924 , where a medium was on the front page of National Newspapers like the New York Times, more so than the president of the united states. It was a time when this one particular medium had the following religious leader and in fact she was the avatar of , this movement called spiritualism. This was a religion that really they believed it , was possible to communicate with the dead and the seance. Well we will talk more about. About that. But essentially what it was, for the first time in 2000 years mediums were conducting rites , and religion so all these things are happening in 1920s but if you really want to , understand the 1920s, you have to go back a few years earlier. In the early part of the 20th century, there is this sense that science and technology were going to conquer every human health. Human ill. All of these terrible diseases like cholera and smallpox, typhoid. They developed vaccines for them , so all of these terrible epidemics and plagues were no longer as much of an issue. Tuberculosis had killed 25 of the people. They were even making strides to arrest tuberculosis. So the other thing that was shocking to me was there hadnt been a major war in europe since the francoprussian war which , was 50 years prior to 1914. There hadnt been a major war in america longer than that, since the civil war. So there is this sense that the world is moving into this new enlightenment. Where there was not going to be war anymore, at least not major and sickness was going to be conquered by science and technology. That thingssense were changing that the world was , progressing and that things were just improving and certainly in those areas for the better. And then, what happened . In 1914 you have the worst war anybody could imagine. It was this war where people were not prepared for the devastation, the new weapons in and the new technology. So you have battles where the british lost 20,000 men, 20,000 dead in the first day of battle. By the end of the war you had , about 20 million dead. The english had lost a generation. A generation,t germany had lost a generation. And just when it looked like it worse, they had an influenza epidemic which took , even more people than the war. It took about 100 million lives. And it took a disproportionate amount of young people, so you have this collective journey to try to understand if it was possible to communicate with these dead souls. The western world was be received bereaved. And with two men in particular. If you were an upperclass englishman and your son was fighting in the war your son was , dead. Thats basically all it was to it. The Life Expectancy for the field officer in World War Two was about six weeks. So can muster Arthur Conan Doyle doyle,sir arthur conan who you probably know as the creator of Sherlock Holmes thinking that the idea that you could reach the dead through communication with them through seance. So doyle had written a number of books. He wasnt writing about Sherlock Holmes anymore. He was writing books like the new revelation of the vital question. Doyle had not only lost a son but he had lost his brother by , the end of the war. He had lost his wifes brother as well. He lost his nephew. Essentially, every male from doyles family died during the war. But he claimed that he didnt grieve them because he believed he was in touch with them through the seance that he was able to communicate with them through that. So he was one of the most influential members, leaders of the spiritualist movement. The other was oliver lodge. He was probably one of the two or three most respected scientists in england. He was almost like theyre theyre Thomas Edison in a way, because he was also a great adventurer. He invented the spark ignition and was sending radio waves before marconi. He was a really important figure. His son raymond died during the war. Again he believed he was in , touch with his spirit. Called, a book raymond that they say was more popular in england than the bible during world war i because everybody wanted to believe it was possible to communicate with these dead boys. And when this is respected this respected scientist tells you its possible and conan doyle who, conan doyle wasnt just a writer or an author. Conan doyle was the face of the british empire. He was there Teddy Roosevelt. Thier Teddy Roosevelt. He was athletic and loved around the world. He wrote about the war. He was a very respected columnist. The British Public just loved him. They revered him. He was without question the most famous englishman in the world. At least the most recognizable at this time. So you have these two famous figures who come out and they are telling the world that is communicatee to with the dead. Conan doyle believes that spiritualism is really going to take hold and you have to bring it to america. So he urges oliver lodge who has never been to america, to come to america. Oliver lodge comes to america and the first day on the job in january 1920, comes to america and he starts telling americans its possible to mitigate with to communicate with the dead. Americans have lost people through the epidemic of course and we lost people during the , war but america was not really , grieving. But lodge more than any single individual was the person who really inspired this a call to at thist renaissance time. This revival. He comes to america couple of months later and Norman Rockwell is painting this couple doing the ouija experiment on the front page of the evening post. Ouija became the rage and seances became the rage and it was all because oliver lodge went across the country and he sounded very convincing. And people thought that he presented convincing proof. Now what is happening right when , oliver lodge is speaking in america, the magician houdini had come to europe. Houdini was probably more famous when he first started out as a magician when he first achieved , any kind of recognition in was ingnition, it europe. He was loved there. He considered england his second home. And in january 1920, just as oliver lodge is making his case in america, houdini comes inland comes to england. A years is a little over after the war. Defeatednd was still a country, there is war rationing going on. And houdini was a vital figure. The very personification of american vitality at the time. Because america was considered a Young Country and still referred to as the new world. England was the old world. England was devastated. America hadnt really been depleted in that way. And so houdini shows up with all , this energy and Setting Box Office Records in england. It seems like he can personally energize and his magnetism and infusing england with this energy. But what people dont realize is that houdini was depressed. He was a really unhappy guy. His mother had died not long before the war in and houdini 1912. Was passionately in love with his mother. And e. L. Doctorow once referred to him as the last of the great mother lovers. [laughter] this was just before freud was becoming famous in america. He could write these love letters to his mother and no one really thought anything of it. [laughter] david so houdini, she was the light of his life, so she died and he never recovered from that loss. He starts going to see psychics and mediums to get in touch with her spirit. But houdini knows all the tricks of the mediums because when he , was young the first time he made any kind of an impact as an entertainer the first time he , started making any kind of significant money was at the false medium. He had a show in which he would give these false seances and use what he called spiritus forced made instruments flying around the room and he raised tables. So he knew of the secrets of the mediums but he had this very kind of lovehate relationship with them because he wanted to find one who was genuine. He has begun corresponding with conan doyle and he wants to see all these english psychics that conan doyle has been recommending and that he is advocating. Thishey both developed unusual friendship. And conan doyle was a very impressive, formidable figures, Scottish Irish knight. And houdini was very short and he was from the ghetto. So they formed is very unlikely friendship and houdini starts to attend seances that doyle arranges for him. And then houdini comes to america, comes back to america and he starts making a movie that really carries ic theme to it andc it seems many people bought into it. Houdini was a movie star and filmmaker by this time. So then conan doyle comes to america and oliver lodge plants a seed for the socalled revival in america. Conan doyle sets the country on fire. He sets Box Office Records everywhere. He is one of the great public speakers of his time. And he can present things in a scientific way the way lodge did but he spoke from the heart and , he seemed so sincere, again ofause he is so emblematic rationalism. Him sherlockalled holmes. He had a reputation for being able to solve these mysteries and clearing names of criminals who have been wrongly convicted, this kind of thing. Americans had always loved conan doyle anyway. He comes to america and now the those seances for and hes becoming this domestic pastime. The jazz age is also a time where contests were becoming very popular. And in 1922, i believe, was the first miss america pageant. It was also around the time that there was something called a nationwide Motion Picture idea contest that that cecil b. Demille started. This, cecil b. , said give me your best film idea and i will make it. Whoever comes up with the best idea will make the film you suggest. This happened a little bit earlier and there was this reference for science and einstein came to america. He was given a ticker tape parade down broadway. This was reserved for great explorers and heres this little jewish professor and they are bringing him down broadway and became so reticent. No one in america understood anything about exactly what einstein had done. Whatever he did was great and is its just a testament to how caught up people were when reference was given to science. So the Scientific American, which was a really big deal, they were sort of like a combination of the New York Times and 60 minutes, because they were an Investigative Agency at a time when technology was becoming so pervasive and there were all these new inventions. People looked to americans and told them what was a legitimate invention and what was the next Great Development around the curve and what was just flimflam. There was a famous dr. At the time named Albert Abrams who said he could cure anybody, sounded kind of silly and it takes too long to explain , but he claims to be able to cure and care anyone anyone through this sketchy apparatus machine and people believed this. Scientific america investigated him and they said theres as much legitimacy to this as the ouija board. They discredit him and thats just the kind of thing they did. They were going after people that i thought were, the public. Nobody understands what einstein is saying. Lets give a lot of money to the person who can best explain to the American Public what he is doing. That made it sound like such an interesting concept that caught on, and we get front page coverage in the newspapers they have all these contests that are becoming part of the social fabric of the united states. And when conan doyle arrived and everyone is interested he has another idea. Well what if we can conduct a Scientific Study to show that is possible to communicate with the dead . Lets try to see if we can establish whether that can be scientifically proven. But lets do it in the guise of a contest. Is taken, basically a psychic contest. What they do is they set up a judging division of some of the top scientists in america. Willie mcdougall who was the chairman of psychology at harvard was one of the judges. , mcdougall was the president of american psychic research. It just shows you the interest in spiritualism. A book about experiments he was conducting on his wife Albert Einstein wrote the introduction to it. [laughter] were Nobel Prize Winning scientists at this time that left their fields and were devoting themselves to trying to establish, and trying to prove the existence of ghosts and psychic phenomena. So mcdougall represents the crossover between hard science and psychic phenomena because , hes president of the American Society for psychic research. And also harvard psychology. Figure, another comstock who was chosen to judge ,. Mcdougall represents this crossover between science and ghost hunting, then comstock represented the crossover between science and entertainment. Comstock was also the person who founded and developed that polarization process. And had just become popular. And he was also known as the ghost hunter. And the other judge was carrington, who was a man after my own heart. Wrote these books about veganism and juice fasting. If you think about today, this was the 1920s and people thought he was out of his mind. But he was also known as a very shrewd psychic detective. In new to the committee york and disguised himself as an old man andy wrote an expose on the front page of the New York Times. So he is considered a very skilled psychic investigator. He was one of the judges. Walter prince who had 3 three degrees from yale and solved what was called the antigonus poltergeist case in canada. Poltergeist had supposedly caused all these incredible things to happen. Its just such an out of theway place, but again it became so famous in america that they had to send to scientists to canada to study it. Was alter prince said it hoax. It was the young daughter of the family doing it. So he was the most famous psychic investigator in america. The final judge was houdini expert becausee of the time he had spent as a false medium. By this time he and conan doyle were not getting along as well thoughte conan Doyle Houdini was a psychic. He believed a lot of people, and houdini had actual powers. People could explain those things that houdini could do but conan doyle, by this time they had a falling out. And houdini was basically discrediting some of the psychics. But conan doyle had sent him to. They werent getting along anymore but scientific america knew that no psychic was going to without conan doyle. So he goes to england and he talks to conan doyle. He talks him into not becoming a judge in the contest, but becoming somebody who would advocate it and give it a stamp of approval. So they are ready to start the contest. They have the judges and they have, basically the Scientific American, which was located in a building Downtown Committee had converted their offices into seance rooms. The only problem is, they do not have a viable candidate. This contest goes on for a year and a half and they test various mediums but they are clearly not , genuine. They cant find anybody that they can even test seriously for a long period of time. This young,point, attractive boston woman named nina kramden had supposedly discovered that she was psychic. And the difference between nina kramden and other psychics in america, nina kramden was married to a very prestigious physician in boston. At this time it was considered a little bit disreputable to be a medium. Nina kramden never took a penny for her work and didnt need the prize money that scientific america was offering. She was just going to donate it to Scientific Research if she would win. And she reportedly has some incredible abilities. She goes to europe and she completely dazzles all the scientists in europe. She sits with conan doyle and he is amazed. People have asked me, some people have asked me if he could restage that contest, the psychic contest, if you could do it today i do not think it is possible. And what nina kramden was doing,