Alphabet File page 139
In New York she is press representative for Walter Armitage, English actor and director who also was formerly connected with the Little theater and who is now operator of the County theater at Suffern, N.Y.
During the winter, Mrs. Fourton has been busy in preparation for the coming summer, she said when the Suffern group begins its ninth season. Mrs. Fourton said that the Broadway plays she has had an opportunity to see were "about 50/50 but that Broadway this year has seen a definite pickup from other seasons.
Mrs. Fourton remarked that she was "amazed" to learn the cost of producing a play at present. From $30,000 to $150,000 for each production is necessary, she said, with little or no guaranty that the play will be a success.
She and Armitage also are working with Associated Directors, Players an Writers, Inc., which will provide talent for the summer theater in addition to New York stars. The group's opening production, toward the end of June, will be "River Gambler," a play written by Armitage with a Southern locale. Leonore Ulric and Rex Ingram will be featured in the cast. Other original plays will be produced, according to present plans, to give coming writers a chance to see their work and correct its defects before presenting the plays on Broadway.
Martha Wright, a former New Orleans girl, will be one of the regular stock members, Mrs. Fourton said, as well as her own sister, Sidney Shields, a star on Broadway in her own right. (TP/5/14/1940 - VF Shields)
Fourton, Bessie Shields - WRITER DESCRIBES HER MEETINGS WITH GHOST
(Editor's note: The following is the account of metaphysical phenomena experienced by the author of this article)
I have seen a ghost I have conversed with "spirit voices," I have felt unseen hands in an empty room, hands which were plastic and warm like human hands and whose nimble fingers removed hairpins from my hair, unfastened my shoes. At least they were purported to be ghost and spirit voices and spirit hands.
Everyone at some time in his life has had some strange or startling experience, strange because he could not explain it or understand it. I am a member of the American Society for Physical Research. I have met many internationally famous mediums and researchers. During the years that I have been an observer in the metaphysical laboratory, I have seen many strange things, things that I would not attempt to explain.
Much that happens in "The Mystery of Broadwalka Asylum," the unusual play written by Dr. Cecil E. Reynolds, which the Federal theater Players are producing at the Playhouse, February 1st to 6th, strikes me as being no more improbable than that which I have myself witnessed and experienced. Dr. Reynolds has written his play about what he considers the greatest metaphysical experiment of the age. He is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in England and the Medical association in America. He is a noted neurologist and psychiatrist who has devoted many years to research work along these lines. In a letter to me he stated, " The play in question is based upon absolute upon absolute and undisputed fact--whatever the explanation." He is at present engaged in metaphysical research which is confined to elucidating the meaning of the achievements of Pat Marquis, the 14-year old boy "with the X-ray eyes."
This boy can when entranced, see perfectly without the use of his eyes. He was brought before the Los Angeles Medical association and other reputable medical societies and Dr. Reynolds is gratified in having established the facts in having established the facts both to scientific societies and to commercial magicians.
In other parts of the world are other cases being investigated, placed under the dissecting scientific eye cases which, because they cannot now be explained by any of the known laws of science, are considered phenomenal. As a student in the metaphysical field, I was an observer of many physic demonstrations held under stringent test conditions to avoid fraudulent devices. Perhaps the most amazing of these was the seance of Mary M., the famous medium studied by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton of Winnipeg, which was held in the laboratory of the American Society for Phychical Research at 15 Lexington avenue, New York city.
It was a large room, dimly lighted bare except for the fifty large chairs arranged in a semi-circle upon which sat members of the society. In a far corner was a cabinet made of cross-beams of wood draped with black cotton curtains. In this cabinet sat Mary M. There was sufficient light to distinguish the faces of all those present. About fifteen minutes after the meeting started Mary m. went into a trance, detected by deep breathing and finally loud snores, which gradually subsided.
In a little while, before the eyes of everyone, appeared a wavering column of what looked like a massed cloud or fog. It did not come from the cabinet but began to form about six feet away from it, about fifteen feet from where I sat. Soon it took a human shape, through lacking the solidity of a body. A face appeared but the form retained its mist-like draperies and it continued to waver back and forth within a circumference of about three feet.
So this was a "ghost!"
My flesh tingled with excitement and I am quite sure that my hair was standing up in the proverbial manner. Dr. Hamilton under whose supervision the demonstration was being held, stated that this was a materialized form made from ectoplasm, exuded from the body of Mary M while in trance.
A voice came from this figure calling a name. The name was that of a member of the society, who got up immediately from his chair and came forward, claiming he recognized the voice and face as that of a dead relative. About two minutes of conversation took place, then voice said "goodbye," and the form faded into its former fog-like column and finally disappeared entirely.
About five of these "ghost" appeared during the course of the evening. Each formed in the same way as the first. At no time did the ghost go into the cabinet nor did Mary M. come out.
When Mary M. began to show signs of waking up, Dr. Hamilton announced that the psychic power was expended and we would have no further demonstrations.
Had we really seen "ghost" from the spirit world? Had we been hypnotized unconsciously and only imagined we saw these things? Had we been duped by clever exploiters? I cannot answer these questions. Science in time may perhaps answer them. I only know that I saw these things and that similar materializations taken in apparent good faith and under avowed similar test conditions.
Have you ever talked with the dead? Have you ever sat behind bolted doors and heard "spirit voices" in animated conversations? Voices that told you about things that you know no one but yourself knew about? Was it ventriloquism on the mediums part cleverly disguised, or was it really voices carried on ether waves in some inexplicable manner from out the cosmic reservoir of the unknown? But that I have heard these voices is undoubted -- five and six talking at the same time, in different languages, at the same time as the medium who sat quietly conversing with me of the trials of a psychic who has as much of a struggle to live as any other ordinary mortal.
Some years ago, I visited the home of the famous "Margery," who in private life is the very cultured wife of Dr. C.R.G. Grandon of Boston. Controversy has existed for a long time over the mediumship of Margery. The "Scientific American" once sent a committee among whom were Hereward Carrington, the well-known writer and researcher, and Houdini, the famous magician, to investigate the purported phenomena.
No verdict was ever reached. The battle of believers and non-believers still goes on. I saw the wax molds over which a battle royal was held by finger print experts in shington. I heard the voice of "Walter," the spirit control of Margery. But most amazing was the scale experiment which was demonstrated in a lighted room. I took the scales apart and fitted them together again. I placed the weights on the balanced scale. I saw the weighted side go down, remain down a few moments, then as I held them, I saw it go up again, in seeming defiance of the law of gravitation. How was this done? Was it a trick. or some unseen agency manifesting-or again, was I hypnotized and thought I saw these things happen? Mr. Carrington often told me that he has never been able to detect fraud in the Margery mediumship and that he was firmly convinced of the actually of the phenomena of Eusapia Pallidino, whom he studied for years in Europe.