The Ghost Hunts of George Albert Smith: Mesmerist & Film Maker

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The life and times of George Albert Smith are not particularly well known. Despite working for several years as a stage hypnotist and psychic, the owner of a popular pleasure park and then eventually a pioneering inventor and filmmaker, there are few who could reel off a biography based on nothing more than a name. Perhaps even more obscure, however, was his time spent as a ghost hunter for the Society for Psychical Research, which, whilst a relatively short career in comparison, was no less groundbreaking, when he took tenancy of a haunted house for more than a whole year in order to investigate the reported phenomena. SOURCES Gray, Frank (2019) The Brighton School & The Birth of British Film. Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK. Gray, Frank (1998) Smith the showman: The early years of George Albert Smith. Film History, Vol. 10, No. 1, Cinema Pioneers (1998), pp. 8-20. John Libby & Co., Sydney, Australia. Hall, Trevor (1964) The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, London, UK. Blackburn, Douglas (1883) Thought Reading Extraordinary. Light, No 86, Vol II. London, UK. Smith, George Albert (1884) Report on a Haunted House at Norwich. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol I, 1884-5. London, UK. Podmore, Frank (1890) Phantasms of the Dead from Another Point of View. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol VI, 1889-90. London, UK. Gauld, Alan & Cornell, Tony (1979) Poltergeists. White Crow Books, London, UK. Sussex Advertiser (1879) Suicide By Hanging. Sussex Advertiser, Sat 5 April 1879, p2. Brighton, UK. ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month. ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The life and times of George Albert Smith are not particularly well known.
0:05.0	Despite working for several years as a stage hypnotist and psychic,
0:09.0	the owner of a popular pleasure park,
0:11.0	and then eventually a pioneering inventor and filmmaker
0:14.4	there are few who could reel off a biography based on nothing more than a name.
0:18.4	Perhaps even more obscure however was his time spent as a ghost hunter for the Society for Psychical
0:25.0	research, which, whilst a relatively short career in comparison, was no less groundbreaking,
0:31.6	when he took tenancy of a haunted house for more than a whole year in order
0:35.5	to investigate the reported phenomena.
0:38.9	This is Dark Histories where the facts are worse than fiction.
0:50.0	Hello and welcome to Dark History's season 8 episode 19. I'm Ben your host as always.
0:52.0	And this week I've got a really exciting episode or an episode that I'm Ben your host as always and this week I've got a really exciting episode or an episode that I'm really excited to
0:57.0	Well, I guess I've worked on and to bring to you guys because it's set in well for the most part it's set in, well, for the most part, it's set in my hometown of Brighton, which it instantly just makes the research
1:07.2	just that little bit more fun when you find little bits of pieces that you realize that,
1:11.6	oh actually I drunk in that pub or you know
1:13.8	know things like oh actually I drunk in that pub or you know things like that it's
1:14.8	really interesting so anyway yeah on that on that note I did make a little sort of
1:20.7	I guess supplemental video film type thing that I'll be uploading to
1:25.5	Patreon so if you're a member keep an eye out for that it is a little bit
1:28.9	whether to depend at the moment I've got a couple more places that I want to
1:31.9	film at but the weather has turned from the
1:35.1	last days of summer which were beautiful to storming.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -107 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Cutmore, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Cutmore and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.