Walford Bodie (born Samuel Murphy Bodie; 11 June 1869 – 19 October 1939), was a Scottish showman, hypnotist, ventriloquist and stage magician, famous for his "mock" electrocutions involving a replica of "The Electric Chair". He also performed an act of "Bloodless Surgery", claiming he could use electricity, hypnosis and manipulation to cure "all kinds of ailments and disabilities". His performances were enormously popular in the early 20th century, and inspired both Harry Houdini and Charlie Chaplin.
His touting of medical skill displeased the medical profession of the time, who labelled him a 'quack,' and took him to court over the use of the word 'doctor.' Yet Bodie was also a great showman and stage performer, and it was the combination of showmanship, as well as his apparent 'cures,' that provided the magnet for his huge success. Jay (1998) accredits Bodie with the origination of many of today's comic interludes in stage hypnotism. In other words, the originator of much of the 'humorous hypnosis' we see on stage to this very day, while Professor Edwin A. Dawes states that 'as a ventriloquist (in his later stage review, 'Fun on an Ocean Liner') he was superb.'
Family
The son of William Walford Bodie (1831-1888), and Margaret Bodie (1839-1913), née Murphy, Samuel Murphy Bodie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 11 June 1869.
Bodie was married twice: He married Jeannie Henry, the eldest of eight talented sisters, and the second eldest in a family of eleven, in Aberdeen, on 25 April 1888. They had three children: Albert Edward Walford Bodie (1889-1915), Jeannie Rubie Bodie, (1890-19090, and Samuel Murphy Walford Bodie (1896–1974), who became Samuel Murphy Walford Bodie, M.B., Ch.B., the (genuine) anaesthetist. He married an attractive 22-year-old showgirl, Florence Jean "La Tesla" Robertshaw (1910–1987) in London in March 1932.
Early life
At the age of 14, he became an apprentice at The National Telephone Company, something that would impact on his later career choice. Two years afterwards, he began performing live at places like Stonehaven Town Hall in Kincardineshire. During this time, he would build his reputation, performing acts that involved illusions, ventriloquism, hypnotism and other magic tricks.
'The Electrical Wizard'
Before long, the young Bodie began experimenting with electricity in his shows, and touring the British Music Hall circuit, building up his reputation as the 'Electrical Wizard' and the 'British Edison'; his performances often using an electric chair to shock members of the audience with static electrical charges which, despite the appearance that horrified audiences, posed no type of lethal threat.
At the climax of the act, Bodie would strap himself in, assisted by 'La Belle Electra', his assistant, and seemingly pass 30,000 volts through his body, lighting up sixteen light bulbs and even two lamps he held in his hands. In 1920, his friend Harry Houdini would gift him the real Electric chair, used in the first execution at Sing Sing Prison. Bodie and Houdini were firm friends for many years. Numerous letters were exchanged between the two. Charlie Chaplin imitated Bodie on stage in 1906, and continued to do so in Hollywood years later.