Signed drawing of Joseph Dunninger by Manuel Rosenberg 1926Signed caricature by Joseph Dunninger for Manuel Rosenberg for the Cincinnati Post 1926
Joseph Dunninger (April 28, 1892 – March 9, 1975), known as "The Amazing Dunninger", was one of the most famous and proficient mentalists of all time. He was one of the pioneer performers of magiconradio and television.[1] A debunker of fraudulent mediums,[2] Dunninger claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena.[3]
Dunninger was born in New York City. He headlined throughout the Keith-Orpheum Circuit, and was much in demand for private entertainment. At the age of seventeen he was invited to perform at the home of Theodore RooseveltinOyster Bay and at the home of the inventor Thomas Edison, both of whom were avid admirers of Dunninger. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Dunninger to the White House on a number of occasions to demonstrate his mentalist skills.[2]
Dunninger was a debunker of fraudulent mediums.[2] He claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena.[3] He wrote the book Inside the Medium's Cabinet (1935) which exposed the tricks of mediumship. He also exposed how the indian rope trick could be performed by camera trickery.[4] In 1935, Dunninger attended a séance of the fraudulent medium Emerson Gilbert. His testimony was used in court against the medium.[2]
Dunninger had a standing offer of $10,000 to anyone who could prove that he used confederates or "stooges."[2] Through Scientific American magazine and his own organization the Universal Council for Psychic Research he also made an offer to any medium who could produce by psychicorsupernatural means any physical phenomena that he could not duplicate or explain by natural means. No medium ever won the reward.[2][5][6] According to Dunninger "through all these long years, I have sought good honest ghosts, phantoms, spirits, astral beings, banshees, fays, wee folk, apparitions, fetches—the whole pack and passel of the unsubstantial world—and I have always been able to prove them frauds."[2]
He was a good friend to many notables in the magic community including Harry Houdini, Francis Martinka and Tony Slydini.[7] He maintained a lifelong friendship with author of The Shadow, Walter B. Gibson, who guest wrote or cowrote a number of books for Dunninger on magic, psychic phenomena and spiritualism.[8] In 1937, Max Holden considered "Dunninger the foremost magician and showman of the present day".[9] He acted as technical adviser as just "Dunninger" in the 1953 biopic film Houdini starring Tony Curtis in the title role.
Dunninger appeared on radio starting in the 1920s, and had his own weekly show in 1943. In 1948, Dunninger and Paul Winchell were featured on Floor ShowonNBC TV. Recorded via kinescope and replayed on WNBQ-TV in Chicago, Illinois, the 8:30–9 pm Central Time show on Thursdays was the station's first mid-week program.[10] He was featured on television frequently in the 1950s and 1960s. During the ‘50s and ‘60s his name was used as the basis for two recurring comedic characters, "The Amazing Dillinger" played by Johnny CarsononThe Johnny Carson Show in 1955; and "Gunninger the Mentalist" on a television show hosted by the comedianSoupy Sales. On the I Love Lucy episode "Ricky's European Booking" (Season 5, episode 10) after Fred Mertz accurately predicts Lucy's excited reaction to Ricky's new booking, he gets a big laugh when he brags to Ricky "Just call me Dunninger." In the Columbo episode, "Now You See Him", a stage magician (Jack Cassidy) refers to one of his illusions with, "It's an old stand by. Dunninger used it in his act."
^DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 Through 1960. McFarland. p. 84. ISBN978-0786428342
^ abcdefgSamuel, Lawrence R. (2011). Supernatural America: A Cultural History. ABC-CLIO. pp. 48–51. ISBN978-0313398995
^ abDrury, Nevill. (2004). The Dictionary of the Esoteric: Over 3000 Entries on the Mystical and Occult. Watkins Publishing. p. 81. ISBN978-1842931080
^Staff. "Milestones, Mar. 24, 1975", Time (magazine), March 24, 1975, accessed March 22, 2011. "Died. Joseph Dunninger, 82, magician and mentalist; of Parkinson's disease; in Cliffside Park, N.J."
