The Davenport Brothers
Today is the birthday of Ira Erastus Davenport (1839-1911). It was Ira who eventually confessed to Houdini (an acorn off of his own tree) that the Spiritualist demonstrations he’d put on with his brother William from 1854 to 1877 was fraudulent. Houdini, who had based his early act on the Davenport’s feat but was franker about [...]