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''Dinosaurs Cavort in Film for Doyle'' is an article published in [[The New-York Times]] on 3 june 1922.

At the annual meeting of the Society of American Magicians where he was invited by Houdini, [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] brought a movie projector and projected dinosaur scenes of [[The Lost World (movie 1925)|The Lost World]] (which was not yet released) letting the assembly think they were psychic.

He explained the trick the day after, see [[His Dinosaur Film a Hoax, says Doyle]].


== Dinosaur Cavort in Film for Doyle ==
[[File:the-new-york-times-1922-06-03-p1-dinosaur-cavort-in-film-for-doyle.jpg|thumb|160px|right|[[The New-York Times]] (3 june 1922, p. 1)]]
[[File:the-new-york-times-1922-06-03-p4-dinosaur-cavort-in-film-for-doyle.jpg|thumb|160px|right|[[The New-York Times]] (3 june 1922, p. 4)]]

'''Spiritist Mystifies World-Famed Magicians With Pictures of Prehistoric Beasts.'''

'''Keeps Origin A Secret.'''

'''Monsters of Other Ages Shown, Some Fighting, Some at Play, in Their Native Jungles.'''

Motion pictures of extinct monsters at play and in battle were shown by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle last night at the dinner of the Society of American Magicians at the Hotel McAlpin.

Monsters of several million years ago, mostly of the dinosaur species, made love and killed each other in Sir Arthur's pictures. Prehistoric brutes that resembled rhinoceroses magnified many times, equipped with enormous horns that pointed forward like those of the unicorn, drove dinosaurs away from feasts on one another. One monster, like a horned toad of monumental proportions, presented an impenetrable surface of armor plate to attacking reptiles and moved along in safety.

Whether these pictures were intended by the famous author and champion of spiritism as a joke on the magicians or as a genuine picture like his photographs of fairies was not revealed. Sir Arthur said they were "psychic" and also that they were "imaginative," and announced in a firm tone, before they were shown, that he would submit to no questions on the subject of their origin.

'''His "Lost World" Brought to Life.'''

His monsters of the ancient world or of the new world which he has discovered in the ether, were extraordinarily lifelike. If fakes, they were masterpieces. Hitherto, the famous visitor has not been inclined to play with his subject. Sir Arthur is the author of "[[The Lost World]]," a novel in which a British scientist discovers in South America a plateau which has survived through geologic time and is still stocked with monsters which roamed the earth millions of years before man developed from the lower forms or was created.

The motion pictures were presented without titles or comment of any kind, and the audience was left strictly to its own conclusions, whether the sober-faced Englishman was making merry with them or ass lifting the veil from mysteries penetrated only by those of his school who know the secret of filming elves and ectoplasm and other things unknown to most minds.

Sir Conan Doyle, who was introduced by Harry Houdini, President of the club, said in his speech preceding the exhibition of his ethereal monsters, that he had a friendly feeling for conjurers because they destroyed the great enemies of true spiritualists, those enemies being the fake mediums.

'''Feels Growth of His Belief.'''

"On the other hand," he said, "when a conjurer does occasionally attack spiritualism as a whole, he deals in a subject which he does not understand." Sir Arthur said that it had taken ten years and much laborious experiment to convince himself of the truth of spiritualism, so that he had no right to be indignant with persons who were skeptics. On the other hand, he said, no man showed good judgment in regarding as foolish or easily deceived such great men as the late Sir William Crookes, Lord Rayleigh and Alfred Russell Wallace, or men now living such as Sir Oliver Lodge.

Sir Arthur called the fake mediums "human hyenas" and deplored the fact that spiritualism was brought into disrepute by "a fringe of camp followers" who got into the newspapers.

The author then asked permission of Mr. Houdini to give his strange exhibition. He gave no idea in advance as to its character, but said nothing to discredit the suggestion that he considered the coming exhibition to be genuine.

"If I brought here in real existence what I show in these pictures, it would be a great catastrophe," he said.

"These pictures are not occult," he continued. "In the second place, this is psychic because everything that emanates from the human spirit or human brain is psychic. It is not supernatural. Nothing is. It is preternatural in the sense that it isn't known to our ordinary senses.

'''Calls It Living Presentment.'''

"It is the effect of the joining on the one hand of imagination and on the other hand of some power of materialization. The imagination, I may say, comes to me. The materializing power comes from elsewhere.

"There would be great danger if the originals were shown instead of the counterfeit, but what you will see is a living presentment."

After this mysterious utterance Sir Arthur said:

"I would like to add, to save myself from getting up again, that, if permission is granted for me to show this, they will speak for themselves. I will answer no questions regarding them either for the press or the others present."

Sir Arthur's exhibition came near the end of a series of productions of slight-of-hand juggling tricks and other "experiments" in magic, in which the unaided human skill of the performers was not entirely eclipsed by the "preternatural" exhibition of the British visitor.

Sir Arthur helped in this show, acting as one of the Committee on Verifying the Condition of the Trunk, in the famous trunk mystery of Houdini. He also loaned his coat for the use of Houdini and Mme. Houdini in this trick which they have shown all over the globe.

A long list of other great magicians showed their prowess to the full in mystifying an audience of brother conjurors. Goldin made knots, tied by the audience, come apart by talking to them, claiming that this was done with the aid of "psychic powers." Heller made playing cards jump invisibly from one sealed envelope to another.

Miss Dunn, a ninety-pound girl, stood upright and resisted the efforts of six men to move her. Placing hands on each other's shoulders, they formed in line in front of her, the foremost of them seizing her by the shoulders. In trying to budge her, they used such force that they broke and fell over the stage, while she stod unmoved.

Rullman, the juggler, performed prodigies with spinning plates and Arthur Lloyd produced his usual miracles.

Sir Arthur, who acted repeatedly as a committeeman, shook his head and appeared more mystified than the conjurers were by his films of the world that was or the world that may be somewhere else.

Kajiyama, the Japanese, grew scientific and drew a picture of the human mind, in a series of concentric circles, with lines radiating in all directions. He told of the Japanese Prince who had tried to do four things at once and had succeeded in listening to four persons at the same time and following their conversations intelligently.

Thel he wrote names backwards and upside down and worked up their letters in extraordinary combinations, while carrying on a conversation with the audience. The average man, at his utmost concentration, he said, used but one-fith of his mind. The magicians were still entertaining each other and laughing at Raymond Hitchcock, the master of ceremonies, at 2 o'clock this morning. 









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* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]