In advance of the first hearing on February 26, Houdini sent his undercover investigator, Rose Mackenberg, to comb Washington’s underbelly for mediums. (Photo: Library of Congress/LC-DIG-npcc-27425) Houdini leaving the first day of Congressional hearings on H.R. Yet it was Houdini’s crusade that helped swing popular opinion on spiritualism, turning belief in psychic powers into a sign of gullibility or even madness that would spell doom for any political campaign.
Meanwhile, newspapers nationwide had a field day with headlines like “Hints of Seances at White House” and “Lawmakers Consult Mediums”. Order in the chamber disintegrated, police were repeatedly summoned, and the husband of a medium nearly punched Houdini in the face. The congressional hearings on the matter careened on for four raucous days. Indeed, spiritualism and the occult enjoyed renewed popularity after World War I. At the time, most people saw nothing harmful about seeking clairvoyant advice it seemed amusing and potentially useful. The famous illusionist claimed that America’s elected officials were in thrall to psychic mediums, and that this posed a danger to the nation. “That’s a guess,” Houdini scolded, “you are no clairvoyant.” “Oh yes, I am,” was Reid’s unexpected rejoinder, met with chuckles from the audience. None of them took the bait, but Representative Frank Reid of Illinois piped in with a phrase that turned out to be correct. If the mediums couldn’t read the telegram, Houdini argued, they belonged in jail for hawking fraudulent psychic powers.
The chamber was packed with spiritualist mediums, psychics, and astrologers who had turned out to fight against Houdini’s bill, House Resolution 8989, which would ban the practice of “fortune telling” in the District of Columbia.
Harry Houdini, testifying before a subcommittee of the United States Congress in 1926, brandished a sealed telegram and demanded that someone in the audience tell him the contents of the message inside. (Photo: Library of Congress/LC-DIG-npcc-27498) Capper was among the senators implicated as a client of astrologer Madame Maria. Harry Houdini with Senator Capper on 26 February 1926, during hearings on the fortune telling bill, with mediums seated in the background.
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