The Postcard
A carte postale that was published by Éditions Gany of 29, Boulevard St. Martin, Paris.
The card was posted in the Rue de Provence, Paris on Monday the 30th. April 1951. It was sent to:
Miss Yvonne Shinn,
'Millview',
10, Clarendon Road,
Cliftonville,
Margate,
Kent,
Angleterre.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Paris is looking lovely. This
evening we went for a drive
in the Bois and the chestnut
trees are all out - it was
delightful.
It seems to be warmer here
than at home.
I was not seasick!
Hope to go to the opera and
a nightclub. Most important,
that!!
Went to Notre Dame today -
there was a service on & the
singing was beautiful.
The police and motorists are
still mad!!
Hope you are having a lovely
time. I have given Paris your
love.
Tomorrow we are going to
Fontainebleau.
Love Percy."
The Paris Opera House
Opéra, also known as Palais Garnier, is a Parisian opera house designed by Charles Garnier. The building, considered one of the masterpieces of the Second Empire style, was begun in 1861.
It opened with an orchestral concert on the 5th. January 1875. The first opera performed there was Fromental Halévy’s work La Juive on the 8th. January 1875.
Carlos Mirabelli
So what else happened on the day that Percy posted the card?
Well, the 30th. April 1951 was not a good day for Carmine Carlos Mirabelli, because he died on that day at the age of 52.
Carlos was a Brazilian medium and Spiritualist.
-- Carlos Mirabelli - The Early Years
Mirabelli was born in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, of Italian parents on the 2nd. January 1899. He studied Spiritism at an early age, and was introduced to the writings of Allan Kardec.
As a teenager he worked in a shoe shop, and claimed to have experienced poltergeist activity where shoe boxes would literally fly off the shelves.
Carlos was placed in a lunatic asylum for observation. Psychologists said that there was something wrong with him, but that he was not physically sick.
-- Carlos Mirabelli - The Later Years
Mirabelli later became a medium, and it was alleged that he could produce automatic handwriting, materializations of objects and people (ectoplasm), levitations and movement of objects.
In the 1920's, Mirabelli was tested by the Academia de Estudos Psychicos Cesare Lombroso in São Paulo, and a report published in 1926 wrote that in more than 300 sittings, genuine materializations had been observed.
When the report was published in English, it was challenged by various psychical researchers.
In 1928, the German scientist Hans Driesch investigated Mirabelli and found that some objects had been moved in the séance room, but that there was no evidence for his supposed abilities of materialization or apportation.
Mirabelli later began giving public mediumship demonstrations which were described as theatrical displays.
Throughout his life Mirabelli had been involved in 15 lawsuits for the illegal practice of witchcraft.
He was suspected of utilizing tricks. It was alleged that Mirabelli could move bottles of magnetized water on a table without contact with them.
This was disputed by Antônio da Silva Mello, who noted that:
"Such a trick could have been performed
by means of a thread led to the table, or
by several other means, principally by the
help of a partner who in this particular case
was suspected by several persons present
to be the medium's wife."
-- The Society for Psychical Research Investigation
In 1934 Theodore Besterman, a research officer for the Society for Psychical Research, visited Brazil to investigate Mirabelli.
He discovered that some of the witness reports from the Academia de Estudos Psychicos Cesare Lombroso were unreliable. Furthermore he determined that the Academia was not an independent organization, but one that was associated with Mirabelli and his personal friends.
Whilst investigating the séances, Besterman claimed to have detected trickery.
-- The Levitation Trick
In 1990, Dr. Gordon Stein found a levitation photograph of Mirabelli in the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) collection at the Cambridge University Library. It was inscribed by Mirabelli to Besterman from his visit in 1934.
The levitation in the photograph was discovered to be a trick, as there were signs of chemical retouching under Mirabelli's feet.
The retouching showed that Mirabelli was not levitating, but was standing on a ladder which was erased from the photograph.
According to Stein:
"The fact that the fraudulent photo has
been inscribed by Mirabelli to Besterman
means that Mirabelli, then at the very peak
of his powers was at least in part, a fraud.
He knowingly passed off a fraudulent photo
of himself as authentic.
It should make us cautious about accepting
hearsay statements of Mirabelli's followers
about the many wonders he had performed.
More importantly, it should make us very
cautious about accepting at face value other
photographs of Mirabelli's marvels."
