This Mark Twain Ghost Story Might Be Bunk, But Does it Matter?

  • Share
  • Read Later

Last Wednesday marked the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death and while many quoted Tom Sawyer, attendees of his centennial death day party were hoping he’d come back to celebrate along with them.

The Mark Twain House & Museum played host to some 200 paranormal hopefuls (and a few skeptics), who came to celebrate the legendary author’s life (and death) with a Victorian-style seance led by illusionist Todd Robbins, who attempted to stir up the crowd by “stopping” his heartbeat to draw the room closer to the other side while readying the room for a spiritual connection. Robbins, whose show business prowess and performance charisma seem to do more for him than his reputation as the Coney Island Illusionist (and host of New York City’s longest-running magic show Monday Night Magic) later confessed that a spooky mood wasn’t an easy achievement in the stately visitor’s center. “The success of a seance depends so much on “wigging out” the participants – for lack of a better term – and getting them in the right mind set,” he said. But a little candlelight and a few magic tricks and – voila!– instant creepiness.

(More on Techland: Your First Look at Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter)

But the paranormal foreplay didn’t stop there. In 1902, eight years prior to his death, Twain wrote in to Harper’s Weekly to announce he planned on getting his affairs in order and therefore, he needed help writing his obituary. He decided to hold a contest: He’d offer up a prize to the author of the best obit, the one that expressed the most regret at his passing. One-hundred years later, this letter was read to Robbins’ audience by a gray-haired, white-suited Twain mimic, to deepen the mood.

“In order for [the spirits] to come closer to us, we must go closer to them,” said Robbins, who demonstrated this by having a woman from audience take his pulse while he “stopped my heart.” Trickery? Of course. “It’s a lovely illusion. I instructed everyone how to do this. I’ll be quite candid about it.”

(More on Techland: Is the Bible to Blame For This Real-Life Vampire Hunt?)

But enough tomfoolery. Robbins blew out his candle, and as he described it, “all hell broke lose.” There were spirits, a few screams and even a few apparitions. The lights came back up on scatterings of frozen rose petals and torn-out pages of Tom Sawyer, “gifts from other side.”

“It was a successful séance followed by cake,” Robbins said, and not just any cake. Shaped like the Twain House itself, the dessert was an elaborate creation by Charm City Cake’s Geof Manthorne of the Food Network’s Ace of Cakes fame. But tasty merits aside, what makes Mark Twain a good candidate for a ghostly connection, and more importantly, could it work?

The story goes that Mark Twain was something of a clairvoyant, or at least his mother thought so.

At three years old, the young Sam Clemens sleepwalked his way into his nine-year-old sister’s bedroom and “plucked at the coverlet” of her bed – a superstition of the time that marked a person for death. And so his sister did die, only a few days after. Employees and visitors have also reported strange happenings during their time inside the Mark Twain House, phenomena that was investigated by Syfy’s Ghost Hunters in the fall.

(More on Techland: The Posthumous Pleasures of Ghost Hunters International)

So what was it, a ghostly connection or a carefully planned ruse?

“Well, let me put it to you this way, he said. “A number of years ago, the Mark Twain House had a séance with a psychic or medium, and they all sat around a table and nothing happened. So I got a call because I’ve done these theatrical séances, a recreation of Victorian-era séances and he said, “We would like something to happen.” I said, “I can do that for you.”

It’s interesting that Robbins is a magician who will personally step up to slightly discredit his own tricks, but the way he explains it, whether it was or wasn’t real has little effect on an attendee’s experience. “What is the truth? Well, it’s a lot more fun to believe in the mysterious and other-worldly, and that’s really what this evening was all about.” Well said, but I wonder what Twain himself would have to say in regard to his own seance.

“Oh, he was very happy,” Robbins said. “He told me so. He enjoyed being in the limelight once again, even if it was in the dark.”

  1. Previous
  2. 1
  3. 2