Harry Houdini Wanted His Wife To Try And Communicate With Him Through The Veil
Wikimedia CommonsHarry Houdini as he was about to jump off the Harvard Bridge.
Harry Houdini was many things in life: an escape artist, a body builder, an author, a magazine publisher, a film star. But one thing he could not stand was a “spiritual medium.” In fact, he spent many years working to debunk mediums, even going so far as to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing in an attempt to outlaw seances and crystal gazing.
Some say that Houdini’s obsessive disdain of mediums started when one such individual claimed to have channeled the spirit of Houdini’s mother and passed a message to her son — in English.
The problem was that Houdini’s mother was from Hungary and spoke very little English. She certainly would not have used it to speak to her son.
Thus began a long campaign to prove that all spiritual mediums were nothing more than con artists preying on the bereaved.
So, when Houdini finally died after his appendix ruptured on Halloween, 1926, his wife Bess sought to honor an agreement they had made: Whichever of them lived on after the other had passed would attempt to communicate with them beyond the veil.
They agreed upon a secret code, which Bess later said translated into “Rosabelle, Believe.” And soon enough, a series of mediums appeared, all attempting to find the coded message.
One such medium, Arthur Ford, claimed to have been successful in this endeavor, but Bess said the whole thing was nonsense and that “Rosabelle, Believe” had been a red herring she and Houdini came up with to expose any fraudsters.
Ford, meanwhile, continued to claim that he had in fact contacted the late Harry Houdini.
Janis Joplin Requested Mourners Throw An All-Night Funeral Party
Wikimedia CommonsJanis Joplin is among the artists included in the “27 Club” due to her premature death.
Janis Joplin was known for her wild, partying lifestyle, and even in the throes of her battle with addiction, she wanted everyone to have a good time.
Apparently, her commitment to partying continued even after her untimely death in 1970. According to Far Out, just two days before her death, Joplin added a fund into her will and testament — a $2,500 party fund so that her friends could throw an all-night party at her wake.
Joplin reportedly wanted her friends to “get blasted” at her favorite bar after she died. The invitations to the wake read “Drinks are on Pearl” — Joplin’s nickname.
On Oct. 26, 1970, around 300 people showed up at the Lion’s Share in San Anselmo, California for the wake, where many of them enjoyed hash brownies and doses brought by the Grateful Dead. So it seems as though Joplin’s last wish for an all-night rager was fulfilled.
But the story also offers deep insight into Joplin’s mindset at the time. At just 27 years old, she had the foresight to make adjustments to her will, likely knowing that she was losing her battle with addiction and wasn’t long for the world. It’s a tragic story, but in the end, Janis Joplin simply wanted everyone else to have a good time.
