The ‘Electric Wizard’ who sparked a student riot in Glasgow
Aberdeen’s Walford Bodie took the entertainment world by storm, packing out theatres amid claims he could administer a form of ‘bloodless surgery’
He claimed he could cure the sick and disabled with his high-voltage brand of magic, but Walford Bodie’s promises started a riot in Glasgow when 500 medical students mobbed the Coliseum Theatre to pelt the showman with bombs of piecemeal, flour and rotten eggs.
Bodie, known as the Electric Wizard of the North, took the entertainment world by storm with his famous electric chair routine at the turn of the 20th century.
He packed out theatres the length and breadth of the country amid claims he could administer a form of ‘bloodless surgery’ by sending a shock through the body of his subjects.
Confidently, he claimed he cured 900 ‘patients’ over his 30-year career. Some believed his claims, with Bodie awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1905 for his work ‘curing’ the sick.
But Bodie’s bragging led to a revolt by the medical profession and he was taken to court by the Medical Defence Union over the use of the letters MD following his name. Bodie claimed they stood for “Merry Devil”.
Four years later, a mob of medical students from Glasgow University staged the theatre attack with Bodie hiding in the wings as the stage was invaded. Food bombs were lobbed at the performer and La Belle Electra, his sister and assistant. They fled as saws and knives were used to cut gashes in the theatre curtain.
There were reports of injuries as police used truncheons to restore order with a number of students taken into custody.
“The attack was professionally organised. Notices were posted at the University calling upon the students to attend this evening’s performance at the Coliseum,” a newspaper report of the day said.
Disturbances broke out in other parts of the city, with Bodie later claiming the riots and the objections from the medical community were merely due to professional jealousy.
This year marks the 150th year of Bodie’s birth in Aberdeen. He later based himself in Macduff, but the magician also owned several properties in London, including a luxury river boat on the Thames and a “potion and pills” factory and dispensary. Here, items such as Dr Bodie’s Famous Electric Liniment, which claimed to ‘kill pain in man or beast and cure a whole range of illnesses from paralysis to coughs’, could be obtained.
For 30 years, he was considered one of the most spectacular acts on the British entertainment circuit and appeared on stage with a long line of invalids, whom he treated in front of his audience.
“Every week he received hundreds of letters from people he had cured, and often cheques for large amounts were sent in the envelopes,” a newspaper report said.
Bodie was involved in several court cases over his lifetime, including a successful damages claim by a Charles Irving who paid £1,000 to train with Bodie. He said Bodie had misrepresented claims he could teach hypnotism, bloodless surgery and medical electricity.
On summing up, the judge quoted Bodie’s own statement that the magician’s ‘force was like the Centaur’.
“The Centaur was purely an imaginary creature,” the judge said.
To mark the 150th anniversary of Bodie’s birth, Aberdeenshire Council will exhibit a number of relics related to the magician at an exhibition at Arbuthnott Museum in Peterhead this summer.
Magician Dean Spruce, of Macduff, who had long studied the life of Bodie, said: “I was a Bodie fan but the more I found out about him, the less I liked him. But he was a huge performer, he was rich, Edward VII was a huge fan and he knew the King. He really couldn’t get much bigger.”
Bodie died after collapsing on stage in Blackpool in 1940. He may not be remembered as much as his good friend Henry Houdini, but there is no doubt that the curious exploits of Walford Bodie are hard to forget.
Abracadabra will open at the Arbuthnott Museum in Peterhead on 28 June