The Great and only Dr. Walford Bodie

Samuel Murphy Bodie, better known as Doctor Walford Bodie, the Laird of Macduff, was one of Europe's most successful showmen. A magician with pointed waxed moustache and piercing eyes, Bodie entertained, insulted, mystified, and electrified his audiences in a variety of acts. He was an expert ventriloquist, hypnotist, electrician, as well as a medical quack who claimed to be able to produce cures by a system of bloodless surgery called “Bodieism.” By imbuing the “Bodie Force,” he appeared able to work miracles for the afflicted. Bodie would invite the lame and sick to the stage where they would, under hypnosis, receive Bodie medicaments. Audiences would respond with both applause and cheers upon seeing his patients(?) suddenly demonstrate a miraculous healing.

That Walford Bodie was never recognized as one of the “greats” of magic history is probably due to his clashes with the medical profession. Not only was his disfavor due to medical quackery but also because of the use of the letters “MD” after his name. It mattered little to medical authorities that Bodie claimed the initials to mean nothing more than “Merry Devil.” Confrontations between Bodie and the medics came to a peak during a show in 1909. The incident was documented as “The Bodie Riot.”

It all began when Bodie had been hissed and booed by some of the medical students who were seated in the gallery. The magician came down to the footlights and delivered an address which ended with a quotation from the poet Burns. “They gang in stirks and come out asses.” Freely translated from the Scottish accent, “The students enter their schooling as oxen and graduate as donkeys.” The barb infuriated the students. They responded by pelting Bodie and his stage assistants with eggs, decayed herring, etc., after which they stormed onto the stage. The academic mob was undeterred by the fact that the police had entered the fray.

Another incident in Bodie's career occurred when he was taken to court by Charles Irving, a student who paid the showman a substantial sum in exchange for lessons in the secrets of stage craftsmanship. Irving sued to recover damages for alleged misrepresentation (see “Faking High Voltage Sparks,” Volume 6, #1, page 15). Although the jury's decision favored Irving, the trial merely served as another theatrical opportunity for the famous magician. Bodie gave a performance that was never before, or ever again, seen in a London court. Regardless of the fact that he lost the case, the electrical wizard commissioned a striking full-color lithograph (top right) showing scenes from the trial.

Styling himself as “The British Edison,” Bodie presented an electrical act featuring a female assistant known as Madame Electra. The performances employed awesome devices which gave off whirring noises and long sparks that flew across the proscenium as the young girl stepped forward to assist him. Upon touching her hand, every hair of her head stood straight up. Those were the days of gaslights when audiences were still unfamiliar with the science of electricity. The huge sparks and crackling electrical discharges made a great impression. Bodie showed how thousands of volts of electricity could pass through the body without causing harm. Volunteers were invited to take part in the show. A man and woman, each holding a handle were told to kiss. As their lips approached, sparks flew thus preventing the consummation of the act. In one of his demonstrations, Bodie grasped two electrodes of an immense induction (Tesla?) coil and lit sixteen incandescent and two arc lamps that were connected to his body.

The first court-sentenced electrocution, that of convicted murderer William Kemmler at Sing-Sing prison in 1890, had instigated a public outrage of what was thought to be an inhumane death. Bodie was quick to capitalize on the controversial issue and introduced a mock electrocution in his act. It received a substantial amount of publicity. A volunteer(?) from the audience was brought on stage, hypnotized so that he would feel no pain, then placed in a replica of the chair used in Sing-Sing. Said the Aberdeen Journal, “The awfulness of execution was borne to the audience which remained spellbound.” Most of Bodie's electricity was, of course, currents of high frequency. In those days, many considered high frequency electricity and static electricity to be one and the same. The photo shown at the bottom right includes Bodie with some of his electrical equipment. Several devices can be identified as high frequency medical coils.

Bodie's success inspired many imitators. The most widely copied act was the electric chair performance. Just about every carnival and sideshow program had such an act. An expose' of this stage trickery was published by J.F. Burrows who went under the stage name of Karlyn (see cover and accompanying article). Bodie died a weary trooper and nearly forgotten on October 19, 1939. One book on the subject of magic included a chapter about him under the heading, “Genius or Charlatan?”

Suggested reading:

LEARNED PIGS AND FIREPROOF WOMEN BY RICKY JAY, VILLARD BOOKS, NY 1986 THE GREAT ILLUSIONISTS BY E.A. DAWES, DAVID AND CHARLES, LONDON, 1979