Word: dunworth
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Dunworth opened his program, which he calls "Spiritism, an Instructive and Educational Expose," with a series of clever card tricks which he accompanied with the customary rapid fire conversation for the "mis-direction of the attention," so essential to observers of magic. All of the tricks were explained and the superiority of the hand over the eye was again demonstrated...
Following this demonstration Mr. Dunworth read one of Dr. Frank Crane's short talks on the evils of commercial spiritualism, and then gave a short history of spiritualism in America...
From this first known case of spiritualistic trickery, down until the famous expose of "Margery" by Harry Houdini at Symphony Hall last winter, mediums, mind readers, and fortune tellers have invariably been discovered as false. Mr. Dunworth cited the interesting case of Mrs. Thompson, a well known medium who professed to be capable of producing a mysterious substance from the spirit world which she called Ectoplasm. At one of her seances she unfortunately wrapped the Ectoplasm around the neck of an extreme skeptic. The suspicious gentleman promptly bit into the substance to discover its nature, whereupon Mrs. Thompson screamed...
...Dunworth attacked both of the noted English spiritists, Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and accused the latter of making a great deal of money through his lectures "in which he knowingly perpetrates fraudulent spirit-photography, and at the same time makes the statement that 'Spiritualism is the only hope of world salvation...
...state of New York is attempting to curb fake spiritualism by prohibiting the advertising of fortune tellers, clairvoyants, and mediums," continued Mr. Dunworth. "Now they hang out a shingle with the inscription 'Church of Truth', or 'Lotus Temple' and make twice as much money...