NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO

Blind Alley: The Sad and 'Geeky' Life of

"Let me tell you something, kid. cestor of modern showmen like John magician could pay quite some reward In the carny you don't ask noth- Edward and . Carlisle just to learn the ingenious trick used by ing. And you'll get told no lies." learns from her all there is to know about Carlisle to move the arms of a precision and is awestruck by how balance placed under a glass case. (Don't W.L. Gresham, well the technique works with people: worry, I won't spoil the surprise. You'll "The world is mine! I've got 'em across find it in the book.) Gresham organizes the barrel and I can shake them loose each chapter along the twenty-two ne of the best (if not the best) from whatever I want. The geek has his minor arcana of the Tarot, a device used "skeptical" novels whisky. The rest of them by later authors such as Robert Anton Oever written has drink something else: they Wilson and Umberto Eco. to be William Lindsay NIGHTMARE drink promises. They drink When Nightmare Alley came out in Gresham's Nightmare Alley. ALLEY hope. And I've got it to 1946 it was an instant success. The fol- The story is classic noir, hand them." lowing year Edmund Goulding directed depicting the rise and fall And so he leaves the a film version of it, starring Tyrone of Stanton Carlisle, an all- carny in order to reach the Power in the role of the suave Carlisle. around faker who gets his big time, but his dreams are Though it turned out to be quite a WIUIAM start in a carny ten-in-one LIHOSM BKSIUU shattered by a careless per- creepy B-movie, the film is not up to the show. It opens with a formance in front of his first quality of the book. revolting description of a high-level audience and he However, though Nightmare Alley is a "geek," a word that Gre- sets out to get revenge. He book often mentioned in skeptical liter- sham claimed he had invented, referring turns himself into a phony pseudo- ature, it is unfortunately seldom read— to the lowest of the low: an alcoholic or religious spiritualist and starts preying on for years it was out of print and only drug addict who was out of his head all the rich and gullible matrons of society. recently reprinted in an omnibus edi- the time. He could be prodded, cajoled, His fatal step arrives when he tion (Polito 1997). and led into working for more drinks or attempts a big swindle in collaboration Because Gresham was also an ama- drugs. His job? To sit and crawl in his with a female psychiatrist who is even teur magician, student of the occult, and own excrement, as the Wild Man of more duplicitous. On the lam from the the author of other fine books (includ- Borneo, and occasionally bite the heads law, our anti-hero retreats into the bot- ing one of the earliest Houdini biogra- off chickens and snakes. tle and ultimately returns to the carny, phies and a mesmerizing book on the In the carnival, Stanton is the assistant where he is forced to take a job as a geek. history and workings of the sideshow), I to (and then the lover of) a phony It's a dark, sordid story, but beauti- was quite interested in learning more medium. Madam Zeena, a perfect an- fully told by Gresham's captivating sto- about him and his dealings with rytelling. And, apart from a great read, and the paranormal. Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the this book also presents a magnificent paranormal, author, lecturer, and co- expose of fake and mediums, From Depression to War founder and head of CICAP, the Italian with rarely found details on how the Gresham, allegedly the descendant of a skeptics group. cold reading business really works. A family that setded in Maryland in 1641,

1 4 July/August 2003 was born August 20, 1909, in From Communism to Religions ideas of writer C. S. Lewis, found religion , Maryland. He moved with After returning to the U.S. in January and joined the Presbyterian Church. his family to Fall River, Massachusetts, 1939, his marriage ended in divorce. He They announced their joint conversion and when his father needed to pursue a took to drink, spent time in a tuberculo- in articles published in a 1951 anthology. factory job they all moved to New York sis ward and, out of despair, attempted to These Found the Way: Thirteen Converts to City. He graduated from Erasmus Hall hang himself in a closet, but the hook Protestant . High School, in , the year came loose and he fell to the ground. To As money started to dry up, how- Houdini died, 1926. Unsure of his career path, he worked at odd jobs and as a folk singer in Greenwich Village cafes. Those were Gresham finally met success when Nightmare Alley the years of the Great Depression and as America suffered its economic woes, was published in 1946 and Hollywood Franklin Delano Roosevelt extolled the later turned it into a movie. virtues of hard work. It was in his acceptance of the Democratic nomina- tion for president in July 1932 that FDR began his conservation move- straighten up his life he went to a psycho- ever, tensions developed between the ment, proposing putting city men to analyst and worked as a salesman, magi- couple, and Gresham started to drink work restoring the country to its "for- cian, and editor for True Crime magazine. heavily. The alcohol occasionally mer beauty." The Civilian Conservation In 1942 he married again, to writer and turned him violent, and when it was Corps, or CCC, a massive salvage oper- poet Helen , and the cou- apparent that he had a relationship ation destined to become the most pop- ple had two sons, David and Douglas. with another woman the threat of ular experiment of the New divorce materialized again. Deal, was born. Gresham Religion could not help promptly joined the CCC. Gresham anymore, so he His time there lasted a few turned to Zen, the Tarot, years and, when he met a Yoga, I Ching and Dianetics, wealthy woman and married but nothing seemed to work. her, he left the CCC. After a While Joy was away on a brief stint as a reviewer for the vacation in England, on the New York Evening Post, he advice of her doctor, Gresham worked as an advertising copy started a relationship with Joy's writer and in his spare time first cousin, Renee Rodriguez. contributed stories to pulp When Joy returned, divorce magazines. became the only possible solu- In November 1936, like tion. They were forced to sell many idealistic young men in William Lindsay Gresham the house to pay off the those days, he joined the Internal Revenue Service, and Communist Party, taking as a name He finally met success when Joy moved to England with the boys. In William Rafferry. The following year, Nightmare Alley was published in 1946 1956 she married C.S. Lewis; their story after a close friend died at Brunete, he and Hollywood later turned it into a was told in the 1993 film Shadowlands, left for Spain where he fought and movie. With the money, the Gresham with Anthony Hopkins and Debra served for fifteen months as a medic family moved out of Queens and up to Winger. Joy died on July 14, 1960. with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, on a large estate in Staatsburg, north of Gresham, meanwhile, had married the side of the Republicans in the . Renee in 1954, moved to Florida, and Spanish Civil War. It was during his His second novel. Limbo Tower, a joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He had days at the camp hospital that he met a story that takes place on the ninth floor also published his first nonfiction book. medic who liked to reminisce about his of a hospital about a group of people Monster Midway: An Uninhibited Look times in a carnival. His name was brought together during their stay in the at the Glittering World of the Carny, a fas- Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, a for- hospital, was published in 1949 but did cinating treatise on carnivals, and mer seaman and male nurse. It was not match the success of the first book. seemed to find some peace of mind. He from him that Gresham learned all Meanwhile, after leaving both Com- was living in New Rochelle, New York, about the carny culture, habits, mental- munism and psychoanalysis behind, when he started work on his biography ity, and language. Gresham and Joy, deeply influenced by on Houdini.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER July/Augus! 2003 15 Magicians Through Walls this book is dedicated with the sincere A Red Light Levitation The book tided Houdini: The Man Who admiration of the author" and, on die last After the world of sideshow and magic, Walked Through Walls is today often crit- page of die book, there is still one more it was quite logical that Gresham's atten- icized by Houdini experts for its inaccu- reference to "the invaluable correspon- tion turned toward . He was racies and faults. It is certainly not com- dence on die subject of Houdini and fascinated by characters such as medi- parable to Silverman's 1996 almost per- escapery in general with The Amazing ums and fect Houdini!!! The Career ofEhrich Weiss. Randi." Margery, and started work on two dif- However, you have to consider that "I met Bill for the first time when I ferent books devoted to them. Gresham's book was only the second returned to New York after my European Randi remembers: "The book on Margery, Bill told me, was going to be titled The Blonde Witch of Boston. He was quite impressed by the fact that reports of Gresham felt that he needed advice from someone seances were so full of astounding, knowledgeable about Houdini though implausible, details. And so, in order to understand what really took Gresham's publisher suggested that the right place in the mind of stance sitters, and to person could be James The Amazing' Randi. show how easy it is to fool people on such occasions, we decided to organize a little experiment. Bill had been a good friend of deceased writer and historian Fletcher complete biography on the great magi- Pratt and, with the aid of his wife, Inga I cian, after Kellock's 1928 authorized think, we organized a seance at her house Houdini: His Life Story. And Gresham in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. succeeded in recreating not only Eleven 'sitters,' varied ages and profes- Houdini's life but also his rough begin- HOUDINI sions, were invited. I was going to per- nings and the atmosphere of his times. form the role of the medium, though With his profound knowledge of they knew I was actually a magician. We sideshows, Gresham was able to produce sat around a table, lights were lowered a book much more enjoyable, from a lit- and only a dark red light remained on. I erary point of view, than Kellock's pol- remember I did an Al Baker self-cutting- ished portrait and other later biographies. deck trick, a floating and ringing bell, When the manuscript of the book and many other wonders. My final coup was ready, however, Gresham felt that he de teatre had everyone gasping: they needed advice from someone knowl- could see my figure in the dim red light edgeable about Houdini. But who could sitting at the table, and a moment later I that be? There were not many magicians started to levitate, widi chair and every- who performed escapology and were HOUDINI thing, until I reached almost two meters also literate enough to give good advice THE M A N WHO W A L K E D T H R O U G H W A L L S in height. After this, the sitters were told on how to improve a manuscript. to retire to their rooms and write out Gresham's publisher suggested that what had occurred, so their accounts the right person could be James "The could be compared. You can't believe how Amazing" Randi. Randi was at the time many inaccuracies of recall were present touring Europe widi his magic show. "1 tour" says Randi, and diey soon became in their reports. . . ." was told that Gresham, or Bill as I knew friends. Gresham saw Randi perform Randi also told me how he accom- him," Randi tells me, "needed the book many times and was also a witness to one plished his levitation. "Well, Alan, a quickly checked, and required info on of Randi's great televised stunts. "1 have weightlifter friend of mine, was all handcuffs. He sent the manuscript to seen The Amazing Randi," Gresham dressed in black and he crept inside the me in France, I looked it over, made wrote in a 1960 article, "walk, apparendy, room when the seance started. With red some suggestions, and Bill was so happy through die solid brick wall of a building light on he was virtually invisible and, at widi what I did that he promised me from outside on die sidewalk. I was privy die moment 1 needed to levitate, he put that my name would be the first and die to his secret, and marveled at his ingenu- die chair I was sitting in on his shoul- last mentioned in die book." ity and nerve. But at die moment of die ders and lifted me!" And, true to his promise, diis is what apparent dematerialization I must confess happened. The dedication reads: "To die diat I got a most satisfying 'cauld grue' of Home's Mouth Organ greatest living escape artist 'The Amaz- wonder as if in die presence of a genuine As for D.D. Home, Gresham stated that ing Randi' (Mr. James Randall Zwinge) super-mundane event" (Gresham 1960). he had spent "a good many years ...

16 July/August 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER digging into the life and times, triumphs becoming a charlatan. His attitude diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and despairs, of a man who is generally toward the medium is quite sympathetic: he decided he had had enough. On conceded to be one of the greatest enig- "We never know what burdens another September 14, 1962, he registered into mas of history" (Gresham 1960). While person bears. Nor do we read the weather the rundown Dixie Hotel room as "Asa in England to see his sons, who had map of the soul and the storms that Kimball, of Baltimore" and took his life remained in the care of C. S. Lewis after sweep across it. In short, we cannot hon- with an overdose of sleeping pills. Joy's death, he visited the Society for estly condemn anyone for anything." "1 thought his suicide was justified" Psychical Research in London to research Home. Upon returning to America, he immediately told Randi that he had dis- Gresham told a fellow veteran from Spain: covered a small harmonica among Home's effects held at the SPR. Since 'I sometimes think that if I have any real talent it such an harmonica can be played when is not literary but is a sheer talent for survival." put inside one's mouth, without the use of the hands, Gresham's hypothesis was that Home could have used it to simu- late the famous sound of the accordion comments Randi. "He was terminal, being played by the spirits in the dark. did the only sensible thing. Living "He was very excited about the dis- on another year or so would have covery," says Randi, "as well as over the been under drugs, and would have discovery of a number of white gloves in broken his family financially. One rea- the SPR/Home collection. His idea was son he gave me for his suicide was that thai Home wore white gloves and as he didn't want to be a weak figure rep- part of his routine used a fake forearm resenting Alcoholics Anonymous." that also wore a glove. As I remember, Sadly, the only tribute paid to him in he told me that he had found more than the New York Times came from the one of the one-octave mouth organs and bridge columnist. had discussed the implications with someone at the SPR at the time." Note

However, after a recent search of the I would be very grateful IO any reader who Home collection at the SPR, neither could provide me with a copy of any article (or ref- gloves nor mouth organs could be found erence of it), on any subject, written by W.L Gresham. (Gauld and West 1997). "Is it possible that these were References removed from the collection?" Randi wonders. "Of course, 1 only have Bill's Duncan. P. 2000. Noir Fiction: Dark Highways. Harpenden. U.K.: Pocket Essentials. account to go by, but I recall that he was Gauld. A., and D. west. 1997. later. Journal of the very excited, and was looking into Society for Psychical Research. Vol 62: 848. 96. accounts of what tunes had been heard at Gresham, W.L. 1946. Nightmare Alley. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc. (Reprinted in: the seances, to see if they could be played Polito. R. 1997. Crime Novels: American Noir in one octave. Bill also had many other End of the Alley of the 1930s and 40s. New York: Literary observations on possible scenarios for Reflecting on his life, Gresham told a Classics of the United States, Inc.) . 1949. Limbo Tower. New York: Rinehart Home's tricks. He pointed out that the fellow veteran from Spain: "I sometimes & Company. Inc. 'full light' of a Victorian living room was think that if I have any real talent it is . 1953. Monster Midway: An Uninhibited a few gas-lights, not at all what we would not literary but is a sheer talent for sur- Look at the Glittering World of the Carny. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc. consider 'bright' by modern standards." vival. I have survived three busted mar- . 1959. Houdini: The Man Who Walked Unfortunately for us, nothing of riages, losing my boys, war, tuberculosis, Through Walls. New York: Rinehart & Gresham's work on either Margery or Marxism, alcoholism, neurosis, and Company, Inc. . 1960. The Deeper Riddle of D.D. Home. Home remains. "I tried to find and get the years of freelance writing. Just too mean Exploring the Unknown. October 1960, 76-85. material he'd prepared," said Randi, "but and ornery to kill, I guess" (quoted in . 1962. The Book of Strength: Body Duncan 2000). Building the Safe. Corrrct Way. London: Kave. Renee moved away almost immediately, Polito. R. 1997. Crime Novels: American Noir of and I could never find her again. Pity." In 1962 his last book was published: the 1930s and 40s. New York: Literary Classics I was only able to track down one arti- The Book of Strength: Body Building the of die United States. Inc. Soper, D.W. 1951. These Found the Way: Thirteen cle he wrote for a psi magazine on what Safe, Correct Way. He was becoming Converts to Protestant Christianity. Phila- he considered to be Home's reasons for blind, however, and when he was delphia: Westminster Press.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER July/August 2003 17