The vision of the Lily Dale Event Committee was to create a play that would present as accurate an account as possible of important historical persons connected to Lily Dale, Spiritualism and mediumship. When three members of the committee-turned-playwrights started choosing characters, a narrative developed. We chose Mae West who was a visitor, two mediums who had worked in Lily Dale and other renowned mediums who had visited Lily Dale. And because investigating mediumship had become a national endeavor and was reported in the newspapers during the 1920’s, we also chose Harry Houdini who was a dogged investigator of the time and who had visited Lily Dale. Nea Walker and Mrs. Leonard had been researching mediumship during some of the years that Houdini investigated mediums; and they both worked for the same organization, the Society for Psychical Research. We created a narrative that imagined all our characters interacting as they performed professionally in a Lily Dale setting, that narrative also presents historical snapshots on a historical timeline.
What is Fictional?
Five of our 15 characters were created to support the scenes. Those five were the three Chairpersons, Nan, the proxy sitter, and Dr. Britten. None of the characters in this play ever appeared on stage together in Lily Dale for Woman’s Day Events. In fact, the Woman’s Day Events in the play were created for the narrative. Ira Davenport died in 1910 so he would not have been alive in 1925 as our play depicts. Accordingly, May Bangs died in 1917 and Lizzie Bangs died in 1920 so their appearances in 1925 are fictional. Harry Houdini never appeared on stage in Lily Dale. We found no reports of Nea Walker nor Medium Mrs. Leonard ever having visited Lily Dale.
What is Historical?
Mae West visited Lily Dale several times to see Reverend John (Jack) Kelly who was a Lily Dale Medium. Mae attended the dedication of the Healing Temple with Jack Kelly in 1955. Medium Floy Cottrell did work out of the Fox Sister’s cottage in Lily Dale. Cora Richmond visited Lily Dale several times for Woman’s Day. Ira Davenport lived in Mayville, NY, which is 13 miles from Lily Dale. Lizzie and May, the Bangs Sisters, also visited Lily Dale. The information presented describing our characters who are mediums is based on research of primary sources. Information describing Houdini as an investigator and magician is based on primary resources. Much of the character dialog of Mae, Jack, Cora, Nea and Houdini is in their own words which provides windows to their personalities. Nonfictional characters in Act I, Dr. Britten and the Chairperson, are reporting the results of actual current research.
