Oscar Teale

Last updated
Oscar Teale
Oscar Teale.png
BornSeptember 9, 1847
DiedApril 8, 1934
Occupation(s) Architect, magician

Oscar Schutte Teale (September 9, 1847 - April 8, 1934) was an American architect, magician and writer.

Contents

Biography

Teale was born in New York City. He worked as an architect by trade and was interested in magic. He was the fourth President of the Society of American Magicians. [1] He worked as a private secretary for magician Harry Houdini. [2] He wrote a series of articles on magic and debunking spiritualism in the Sphinx magazine in 1925. [3]

In July 1925 it was alleged that Houdini and Teale visited the offices of Houdina Radio Control and damaged most of the furniture by smashing them against the floor and walls. Houdini had accused the company of using his name unlawfully. [4] A summons for disorderly conduct was issued against Houdini but the charges were dropped because George Young the manager failed to appear in court. [5] [6]

Teale worked as an editor, illustrator and ghost writer for Houdini. He stated that Houdini contributed fragments to his books but the majority of the writing was done by hirelings. [7] When Houdini's book A Magician Among the Spirits (1924) was published, Teale stated that he had written "the damnable work". [8]

Teale designed the exedra monument for Houdini's family. In October, 1916 it was installed at Machpelah Cemetery. [9] [10] He was elected into the Society of American Magicians Hall of Fame. [11]

Architectural designs

Publications

Articles

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Houdini</span> Hungarian-American escapologist and stuntperson

Erik Weisz, known as Harry Houdini, was a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Séance</span> Attempt to communicate with spirits

A séance or seance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word séance comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma". In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits. In modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance.

Walter Brown Gibson was an American writer and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s. He authored several novels in the Biff Brewster juvenile series of the 1960s. He was married to Litzka R. Gibson, also a writer, and the couple lived in New York state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mina Crandon</span> American spiritualist (1888–1941)

Mina "Margery" Crandon was an American psychic medium who said that she channeled her dead brother, Walter Stinson. Investigators who studied Crandon concluded that she had no such paranormal ability, and others detected her in outright deception. She became known as her alleged paranormal skills were touted by Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and were disproved by magician Harry Houdini. Crandon was investigated by members of the American Society for Psychical Research and employees of the Scientific American.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Slade</span> American fraudulent medium (1835–1905)

Henry Slade (1835–1905) was a famous fraudulent medium who lived and practiced in both Europe and North America. Slade was best known for his "slate writing" method, where he would purportedly produce message written by spirits on slates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society of American Magicians</span> Fraternal magicians organization

The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and to maintain and improve ethical standards in the field of magic." To promote these endeavors the S.A.M. presents awards and fellowships in recognition of outstanding achievement in the Art of Magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Abbott (magician)</span> American magician and writer

David Phelps Abbott was an American magician, author and inventor known for creating effects such as the floating ball, as well as for his publications exposing mediums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Ford (psychic)</span> American psychic and medium

Arthur Ford was an American psychic, spiritualist medium, clairaudient, and founder of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (1955). He gained national attention when he claimed to have contacted the dead son of Bishop James Pike in 1967 on network TV. In 1928 Ford claimed to have contacted the deceased spirits of Houdini's mother and later in 1929 Harry Houdini himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Dunninger</span> American mentalist and magician (1892–1975)

Joseph Dunninger, known as "The Amazing Dunninger", was one of the most famous and proficient mentalists of all time. He was one of the pioneer performers of magic on radio and television. A debunker of fraudulent mediums, Dunninger claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Dietrich</span> American stage magician and escapologist (born 1969)

Dorothy Dietrich is an American stage magician and escapologist, best known for performing the bullet catch in her mouth and the first woman to perform a straitjacket escape while suspended hundreds of feet in the air from a burning rope. She was the first woman to gain prominence as an escape artist since the days of Houdini, breaking the glass ceiling for women in the field of escapes and magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Hertz</span> American stage magician, 1859–1924

Carl Hertz was an American magician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Goldston</span> English stage magician (1878–1948)

Will Goldston (1878–1948) was an English stage magician in the first half of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hereward Carrington</span> American psychic investigator and writer

Hereward Carrington was an American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, and he wrote over 100 books on subjects including the paranormal and psychical research, conjuring and stage magic, and alternative medicine. Carrington promoted fruitarianism and held pseudoscientific views about dieting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook is a historic church at 409 Mountain Avenue in Bound Brook, Somerset County, New Jersey. The congregation was founded in the 18th century and is one of the oldest in New Jersey. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 2007 for its significance in ecclesiastical architecture from 1896 to 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mulholland (magician)</span> American stage magician (1898–1970)

John Mulholland was an American magician, author, publisher and intelligence agent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry R. Evans</span> American magician and journalist

Henry Ridgely Evans (1861–1949) was an American amateur magician and magic historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph F. Rinn</span> American magician and skeptic of paranormal phenomena

Joseph Francis Rinn (1868–1952) was an American magician and skeptic of paranormal phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Mackenberg</span> American investigator

Rose Mackenberg was an American investigator specializing in fraudulent psychic mediums, known for her association with Harry Houdini. She was chief of a team of undercover investigators who investigated mediums for Houdini in the 1920s. After Houdini's death, she continued to investigate spiritualist fraud for over 20 years and was known as an expert on the subject. She testified in court cases and before Congress and was interviewed in national magazines and on television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert H. Gysel</span> American magician and skeptic (1880–1938)

Robert Henry Gysel, also known as Bob Gysel, was an American escape artist, magician and skeptic.

The Houdini Museum of New York is a museum exhibiting memorabilia related to the escape artist, Harry Houdini. It is located at Fantasma Magic, a retail magic manufacturer.

References

  1. "Mysteries of the Houdini Grave". The Magic Detective.
  2. Kalush, William; Sloman, Larry. (2006). The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero. Atria Books. p. 467. ISBN   978-0-7432-7207-0
  3. Willis, Martin. (2016 edition). Vision, Science and Literature, 1870-1920: Ocular Horizons. Routledge. p. 221. ISBN   978-1-84893-234-0
  4. Shimeld, Thomas J. (2003). Walter B. Gibson and The Shadow. McFarland. p. 54. ISBN   0-7864-2361-7
  5. "Houdini Discharged in Court". The New York Times. August, 1925.
  6. "Houdini Smashed Office of First DriverLess Car's Inventor" Archived 2017-08-10 at the Wayback Machine . TechBias.
  7. Silverman, Kenneth. (1996). Houdini!: The Career of Ehrich Weiss. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 228
  8. Cox, Clinton. (2002). Houdini: Master of Illusion. Scholastic. p. 157
  9. "The Society of American Magicians North Atlantic Region Newsletter". S. A. M. North Atlantic Region. Spring, 2014.
  10. "The Houdini-Weiss exedra turns 100". Wild About Harry.
  11. "The Hall". Society of American Magicians Hall of Fame and Magic Museum, Inc.
  12. Spies, Stacy E. (September 2008). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: All Souls Church". National Park Service.
  13. Parsekian, Ann; Bertland, Dennis; Armstrong, Janice (January 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook". National Park Service.
  14. Goodman, Rochelle; Knaap, Simone; DeFabritis, Elizabeth (February 10, 1997). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Centenary Collegiate Institute". National Park Service.
  15. Gresham, William Gresham. (1959). Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls. Henry Holt and Company. p. 303