[Houdini] Margery (Mina Crandon). Margery Bell Box. Circa 1924. Rough wooden box with spring-activated lever at its top which, when depressed, completes an internal circuit ringing an internal bell. Modeled on the box used to test the Boston medium Margery (Mina Crandon) to disprove her abilities in the s?ance room as legitimate. Formerly owned by Harry Houdini, who exposed Margery?s manifestations as fraudulent and famously feuded with the ?witch of Lime Street? as Margery was sometimes called. Length 14". With a hand-lettered card from the Circus Museum of Sarasota and accompanied by a letter from Houdini collector and biographer Dr. Morris N. Young, stating that the box was acquired from the Houdini estate by Young?s colleague and fellow donor to the Library of Congress, John McManus. The box was most likely used by Houdini in demonstrations of fraudulent spiritualistic phenomena. With the inventory number of the Circus World Museum of Sarasota collection, CMS 234, lettered in white paint on the top of the box.