Uncover the secret of the Indian Rope Trick & Gef the talking mongoose at our next #StagingMagic event about Harry Price (1881-1948); conjurer, ghost hunter, psychic investigator & debunker. Magician and psychologist, Professor Richard Wiseman will lead the event with musical performances from the Creative Martyrs, to give you an evening of ghostly magic and music.
About Harry Price
It was on a cold, late 19th century morning in Salisbury that a young boy with toothache watched a travelling magic/ faith healing show. The Great Sequah ‘extracted’ the boy’s tooth and presented a series of magical wonders, such as producing doves from an empty hat. The boy demanded an explanation from his parents of how an empty hat could contain two doves, and eventually receive a copy of Professor Hoffmann’s Modern Magic (1874). The boy was Harry Price, and Modern Magic was the beginning of his Magical Library and a life-long pursuit of books on magic, psychical phenomena and the occult.
Price would become best known for his infamous investigations of mediums, hauntings and other supernatural phenomena. He exposed the fakery in spirit photographs and tested psychic mediums, including the Schneider Brothers, Helen Duncan and many others, under his own laboratory conditions. He also documented cases of fire-walking and the Indian rope trick, investigated Gef, the talking mongoose, and claimed to have found the most haunted house in England, Borley Rectory.
The collection of books, manuscripts, prints and ephemera Price amassed came to the University of London in 1936 and was bequeathed in 1948. It was a great source of pride for him and is one of his greatest legacies. In the 1930s he mounted several exhibitions of his ‘rare, old and curious works on magic, witchcraft, legerdemain, charlatanism, and the occult sciences’ and published several articles on the rarities of his collection. Price intended his collection to be used for research. He was described by Will Goldston as a talented magician, but his passion was psychical research, and books on magic served as resources for the investigation of alleged phenomena.
The Magical Mysteries of Harry Price - magic, music & the paranormal
Performed by Professor Richard Wiseman & the Creative Martyrs
Weds 27 March 2019, 18:30 - 20:00
(Doors: 18:30, Performance: 19:00)
MacMillan Hall, Ground Floor, Senate House
£5
*Complimentary free drink on admission*