Before he died, Houdini and his wife Bess agreed on a secret coded message, so that if he ever spoke from the dead she would know it was really him. In January 1929 a medium, Arthur Ford, gave her the message, and the next day a New York tabloid, the Graphic, called the séance a hoax.
The story as it is told
Harry and Bess Houdini had a secret. Before he died they agreed on a word, a message known only to the two of them, and Houdini promised that if there was anything on the other side, he would send it back.
Every medium in America tried to guess it, and every one failed. In the romantic version the word is simply "Rosabelle, believe," the code was never cracked, and Bess waited faithfully for ten years for a husband who never answered. In another telling, one medium did deliver it, and people have argued ever since over whether Houdini really came through.
What we can confirm
Both versions are interpretations of the record. The facts keep the love story but add a tabloid fight.
Harry and Bess Houdini had worked a mind-reading act for years, and it ran on a code. Ten ordinary words stood for letters: "Pray, answer, say, now, tell, please, speak, quickly, look, quick" meant A through J, and pairs of words made the higher letters. Before he died, the couple agreed that whoever went first would try to send a message back in that code.
On Tuesday, January 8, 1929, Bess said the message had arrived. United Press reported that Arthur Ford, minister of the First Spiritualist church at Carnegie Hall, had gone into a trance at her home and delivered it through his spirit "control," a figure called Fletcher. A sitter's notes from Ford's earlier trance on Saturday night, January 5, were quoted word for word: "Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer, look, tell, answer, answer, tell." Decoded, the code words after "Rosabelle" spell BELIEVE.
Bess, who UP noted had been raised Roman Catholic, told reporters, "My friends will call me mad, I know." She said a sealed envelope with the real message sat in a safety deposit box at a Manufacturers Trust branch on Fifth Avenue.
The next day the story turned. The New York Graphic, a tabloid, called it a "big hoax" in a copyrighted article and said Ford and Bess had staged the séance as publicity for a lecture tour. A Graphic reporter, Rea Jaure, said Ford had admitted to her that it was rehearsed. Ford called the article "an attempt at blackmail." The magician Joseph Dunninger said the code had already appeared in a book Bess had backed in June 1928, and Bess agreed: "The words of the code were published in that book." Scientific American's people named the book as Harold Kellock's Houdini biography and kept their prize money on the table. By January 10, a wire story said Bess was "reported today to have grown skeptical."
What the record supports: on January 8, 1929, Bess said the message Ford delivered was the code she and Houdini had agreed on; within two days she, the magician Dunninger and Scientific American officials all said the code words had already been printed in a 1928 biography, and Bess kept holding Halloween séances for Houdini until 1936 (see The Final Séance: Hollywood, Halloween 1936).
The facts
- Séance Tuesday (Jan 8, 1929) at Bess's home; Ford "minister of the First Spiritualistic church, Carnegie Hall"; control "Fletcher"; Jan 5, 10:45 p.m. trance notes by Francis R. Fast; code words; key "Pray, answer, say, now, tell, please, speak, quickly, look, quick"; "My friends will call me mad, I know"; Manufacturers Trust safety deposit box; Feb 8, 1928 "Forgive" message from his mother. Indianapolis Times, Jan 9, 1929, p. 11 (United Press), loc.gov
- Graphic "big hoax" and "publicity stunt" claim; reporter Rea Jaure; Ford: "an attempt at blackmail"; Bess's counter-challenge (two more coded messages, to Conan Doyle and to Remegius Weiss of Philadelphia); Dunninger: code published in a book Bess sponsored in June 1928; Bess: "The words of the code were published in that book." Indianapolis Times, Jan 10, 1929, p. 1 (UP), loc.gov
- Scientific American officials: code published in Kellock's "Houdini, His Life Story"; $21,000 offer still open; Bess "reported today to have grown skeptical." Washington Times, Jan 10, 1929, p. 24 (INS), loc.gov (author's name spelling confirmed as Harold Kellock by TCM's credits for the 1953 film, tcm.com)
Sources
- Séance Tuesday (Jan 8, 1929) at Bess's home; Ford "minister of the First Spiritualistic church, Carnegie Hall"; control "Fletcher"; Jan 5, 10:45 p.m. trance notes by Francis R. Fast; code words; key "Pray, answer, say, now, tell, please, speak, quickly, look, quick"; "My friends will call me mad, I know"; Manufacturers Trust safety deposit box; Feb 8, 1928 "Forgive" message from his mother. Indianapolis Times, Jan 9, 1929, p. 11 (United Press), loc.gov
- Graphic "big hoax" and "publicity stunt" claim; reporter Rea Jaure; Ford: "an attempt at blackmail"; Bess's counter-challenge (two more coded messages, to Conan Doyle and to Remegius Weiss of Philadelphia); Dunninger: code published in a book Bess sponsored in June 1928; Bess: "The words of the code were published in that book." Indianapolis Times, Jan 10, 1929, p. 1 (UP), loc.gov
- Scientific American officials: code published in Kellock's "Houdini, His Life Story"; $21,000 offer still open; Bess "reported today to have grown skeptical." Washington Times, Jan 10, 1929, p. 24 (INS), loc.gov (author's name spelling confirmed as Harold Kellock by TCM's credits for the 1953 film, tcm.com)