Illusions have always run deep in Hollywood. During the early decades of the twentieth century séance parlors popped up like popcorn stands at movie theaters, the golden age of spiritualism bringing hope no science could deliver. Dr. Edward Saint—magician, investigator, skeptic, and confidant to Harry Houdini—stood at the uneasy intersection of belief and exposure, a man determined not to destroy wonder, but to protect the living from deception masquerading as hope.
By Allan R. Ellenberger
Saint was born Charles David Myers in Salem, Illinois on February 7, 1890. Raised in the Midwest, Saint was intelligent and quick-witted with performance ability. Later in life, he took on the name Edward Saint because it sounded forceful enough for the classroom or lecture hall and fun enough for the theater. By the time Saint reached Los Angeles, he had dabbled in magic, psychology and detection. He was known more for exactitude than flashy showmanship. He watched quietly and analyzed. He listened intently and spoke only when necessary.
Saint's career blossomed at a time when spiritualism was popular and lucrative. Mediums would levitate the dead in dark rooms for hundreds of dollars a session. Desperate people who wanted to speak to lost loved ones paid top dollar for another chance to say goodbye. When others peddled mystery, Saint offered logic. Locally, then nationally, he was known as a "ghost chaser," traveling to cities big and small to debunk haunted houses, séances and psychic hot spots. There was almost always a rational explanation: trickery, sleight of hand or a staged stunt. He did not ridicule believers, but neither would he tolerate charlatans.
That dedication eventually led him to Harry Houdini, spiritualism's greatest enemy and the world's most famous escape artist. Houdini, who after his mother's death had immersed himself in the crusade against mediums only to become enraged by fraudulent ones, found a man who thought as he did. They worked side by side, sharing methods, files on cases, and tricks of the exposé trade. Saint became one of Houdini's many deputies in his battle against spiritualist fraud.
Following Houdini's death in 1926, Saint remained close friends with Houdini's widow Bess. For ten years he helped Bess keep a private agreement made with her husband before he died - to try and contact him from the other side. On Halloween night 1936, on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, Bess Houdini conducted what would become the most well-known séance in American history - the last public attempt to contact Houdini. Edward Saint conducted the proceedings - ever present to protect and/or validate the proceedings. When there was no response, it was Saint who verified what Houdini had always maintained: that there was nothing. The séance concluded. The watch ended.
Little is known about Saint's private life outside magic. Evidence indicates that Saint owned his own businesses and was a performer in addition to being a magician. During his Hollywood career, he was described as dignified, never being flashy. Saint was involved in fraternal organizations throughout his life, acting as president of the Los Magicos of Los Angeles and being a member of over thirty magical fraternal organizations. He invented and improved tricks throughout his career, but his legacy was less mechanical innovations and more ideals. Saint felt magic should encourage wonder, not take advantage of sorrow.
In October 1942, as the nation was deep into World War II, Saint fell ill. He was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, where he died of pneumonia on October 22 at the age of fifty-two. The response from his peers was anything but cold. His funeral was held at Hollywood Memorial Park, attended by more than 250 magicians from across the country. In a ritual reserved for the fraternity’s most respected members, his wand was broken—a symbolic end to a life devoted to truth behind illusion.
Bess Houdini and Edward Saint (right) on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel attempting to contact magician Harry Houdini on Halloween night, 1936.
Saint's will directed cremation of his body, with his ashes to be scattered. He resisted monuments and mythmaking all his life, and this final gesture fit that legacy. However, executor Bess Houdini would not allow this last request. “He left an ironically humorous will,” Bess said. “He told me not to waste any money on his cremation. He said one could pay $50 for a cremation, but to get it for $35 if I could. Mr. Saint didn’t believe in anything but was a good man—a very good man! He never smiled and never laughed—had the perfect poker face—but he had a marvelous sense of humor. Mr. Saint was the greatest ghost chaser of them all. He took up where Harry left off, chasing down ghosts and haunted houses, and always finding a reasonable explanation. He wrote many magazine articles and broadcasts about his experiences.”
The indent at the base of the photo marks where Edward Saint’s ashes were buried.
Bess quietly placed his ashes at Hollywood Cemetery, where his parents are buried. He rests in an urn garden in the Secret Garden, Section 19, Lot 81. However, the location remains unmarked. No stone announces his name. No inscription invites belief. It is a resting place as discreet as the man himself.
Edward Saint is survived by a simple creed. Where others flashed spectacle, he favored restraint. Where others built a city on fantasy, he insisted on telling the truth. Where others got drunk on magic in a golden age of spirits, he put his faith in proof. And where others stepped into the long shadow of Houdini, Edward Saint helped ensure that magic’s most sacred trust lives on—in Hollywood’s haunted hallways to this day: The dead do not talk…but the living will not be deceived by those who claim they do.
Somewhere, the big show finally went on. Wherever that spotlight shines, Saint walked in with eyes wide open, fearless, and unwilling to be fooled.
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