1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:26,410 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello everyone. The Cautionary Tales team is on a 2 00:00:26,570 --> 00:00:29,290 Speaker 1: Christmas break at the moment, but I have a special 3 00:00:29,490 --> 00:00:34,490 Speaker 1: cautionary tale for you from the archives. Do you believe 4 00:00:34,490 --> 00:00:39,730 Speaker 1: in magic? So Arthur Conan Doyle certainly does in this 5 00:00:39,970 --> 00:00:43,490 Speaker 1: cautionary tale about a lie that gets out of control. 6 00:00:44,090 --> 00:00:46,730 Speaker 1: I'll have another classic for you next week, one that 7 00:00:47,010 --> 00:00:50,770 Speaker 1: may help with your New Year's resolutions, and then we'll 8 00:00:50,810 --> 00:00:53,810 Speaker 1: be back in the new year with plenty of brand 9 00:00:53,930 --> 00:01:00,970 Speaker 1: new cautionary tales. Enjoy the episode. 10 00:01:01,890 --> 00:01:06,170 Speaker 2: In May nineteen twenty I heard that alleged photographs of 11 00:01:06,330 --> 00:01:08,010 Speaker 2: fairies had been taken. 12 00:01:09,730 --> 00:01:12,650 Speaker 1: These are the words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the 13 00:01:12,730 --> 00:01:17,010 Speaker 1: creator of Sherlock Holmes, in a book titled The Coming 14 00:01:17,330 --> 00:01:21,810 Speaker 1: of the Fairies. Unlike The Sign of Four or The 15 00:01:21,850 --> 00:01:25,890 Speaker 1: Hound of the Baskervilles, the Coming of the Fairies wasn't 16 00:01:25,930 --> 00:01:30,930 Speaker 1: a work of fiction. It was deadly serious. These photographs 17 00:01:30,970 --> 00:01:34,890 Speaker 1: were in the possession of Edward Gardner, an influential believer 18 00:01:35,010 --> 00:01:38,170 Speaker 1: in spiritualism. The idea that the spirits of the dead 19 00:01:38,370 --> 00:01:42,850 Speaker 1: can communicate with a living Spiritualism was all the rage 20 00:01:42,890 --> 00:01:46,250 Speaker 1: at the time, and if you believed in spirits, it 21 00:01:46,330 --> 00:01:48,930 Speaker 1: wasn't too much of a leap to believe in fairies too. 22 00:01:50,170 --> 00:01:54,530 Speaker 1: Where had these photographs come from? Edward Gardner's sister explained 23 00:01:54,570 --> 00:01:55,370 Speaker 1: to Conan Doyle. 24 00:01:56,170 --> 00:01:58,450 Speaker 3: Edward has got into touch with a family in Bradford, 25 00:01:58,490 --> 00:02:01,810 Speaker 3: where the little girl Elsie and her cousin Francis, constantly 26 00:02:01,850 --> 00:02:04,570 Speaker 3: go into the woods and play with the fairies. Some 27 00:02:04,730 --> 00:02:07,410 Speaker 3: time ago, Elsie said she wanted to photograph them and 28 00:02:07,450 --> 00:02:10,850 Speaker 3: begged her father to lend his camera. For long he refused, 29 00:02:11,210 --> 00:02:13,130 Speaker 3: but at last she managed to get the loan of it, 30 00:02:13,170 --> 00:02:16,010 Speaker 3: and one plate off, she and Francis went into the 31 00:02:16,050 --> 00:02:19,930 Speaker 3: woods near a waterfall. Francis ticed them, as they call it, 32 00:02:20,170 --> 00:02:23,450 Speaker 3: and Elsie stood ready with the camera. Soon the three 33 00:02:23,530 --> 00:02:28,210 Speaker 3: fairies appeared, and one pixie dancing in France's zorra. It 34 00:02:28,250 --> 00:02:30,730 Speaker 3: was a long time before the father would develop the photo, 35 00:02:31,050 --> 00:02:34,010 Speaker 3: but at least he did, and to his utter amazement, 36 00:02:34,050 --> 00:02:36,570 Speaker 3: the four sweet little figures came out beautifully. 37 00:02:37,610 --> 00:02:41,610 Speaker 1: The photographs are indeed beautiful. The first is a charming 38 00:02:41,650 --> 00:02:45,650 Speaker 1: depiction of nine year old Francis surrounded by small, bright, 39 00:02:45,890 --> 00:02:51,250 Speaker 1: dancing figures, crisp and elegant. Conan Doyle describes it like this. 40 00:02:52,010 --> 00:02:55,610 Speaker 2: The waterfall and rocks are about twenty feet behind Frances, 41 00:02:56,130 --> 00:02:59,490 Speaker 2: who standing against the bank of the beck. A fifth 42 00:02:59,530 --> 00:03:02,770 Speaker 2: fairy may be seen between and behind the two on 43 00:03:02,810 --> 00:03:06,650 Speaker 2: the right. The coloring of the fairies is described by 44 00:03:06,650 --> 00:03:10,850 Speaker 2: the girls as being of very pale pink, green, lavender, 45 00:03:10,930 --> 00:03:13,770 Speaker 2: and mauve, most marked in the wings, and fading to 46 00:03:13,850 --> 00:03:17,770 Speaker 2: almost pure white in the limbs and drapery. Each fairy 47 00:03:17,890 --> 00:03:20,210 Speaker 2: has its own special color. 48 00:03:21,410 --> 00:03:25,930 Speaker 1: Conan Doyle was aware that the existence of fairies was controversial, 49 00:03:26,650 --> 00:03:30,610 Speaker 1: so he affected the stance of a logical man, explaining 50 00:03:30,770 --> 00:03:33,250 Speaker 1: every clue like Sherlock Holmes himself. 51 00:03:34,050 --> 00:03:38,050 Speaker 2: The original negative is asserted by expert photographers to bear 52 00:03:38,130 --> 00:03:42,650 Speaker 2: not the slightest trace of combination work, retouching, or anything 53 00:03:42,730 --> 00:03:46,610 Speaker 2: whatever to market as other than a perfectly straight, single 54 00:03:46,690 --> 00:03:51,050 Speaker 2: exposure photograph taken in the open air under natural conditions. 55 00:03:51,490 --> 00:03:53,450 Speaker 1: His conclusion was inescapable. 56 00:03:54,290 --> 00:03:59,010 Speaker 2: I have convinced myself that there is overwhelming evidence for 57 00:03:59,090 --> 00:03:59,690 Speaker 2: the fairies. 58 00:04:01,210 --> 00:04:05,010 Speaker 1: Turning to the second photograph showing Elsie holding hands with 59 00:04:05,050 --> 00:04:08,690 Speaker 1: a little gnome, he muses on the contrast between the 60 00:04:08,690 --> 00:04:12,570 Speaker 1: gnomes and the little fairy elves. It's hard not to laugh. 61 00:04:13,410 --> 00:04:17,250 Speaker 2: Elves are a compound of the human and the butterfly. Well, 62 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:20,450 Speaker 2: the gnome has more of the moth. This may be 63 00:04:20,570 --> 00:04:23,570 Speaker 2: merely the result of under exposure of the negative and 64 00:04:23,690 --> 00:04:26,850 Speaker 2: the dulness of the weather. Perhaps the little gnome is 65 00:04:26,930 --> 00:04:30,090 Speaker 2: really of the same tribe, but represents an elderly male 66 00:04:30,450 --> 00:04:33,010 Speaker 2: while the elves are romping young women. 67 00:04:33,810 --> 00:04:37,810 Speaker 1: A newspaper headline of the time put it bluntly. Has 68 00:04:37,930 --> 00:04:43,650 Speaker 1: Conan Doyle gone mad, I'm Tim Harford and you're listening 69 00:04:44,090 --> 00:05:12,490 Speaker 1: to cautionary tales. The story had begun five years earlier 70 00:05:12,730 --> 00:05:15,690 Speaker 1: at the bottom of a garden in Cottingly, a village 71 00:05:15,690 --> 00:05:20,050 Speaker 1: on the outskirts of Bradford in northern England. A beautiful stream, 72 00:05:20,250 --> 00:05:23,730 Speaker 1: or beck as the locals say, flowed past the trees 73 00:05:23,810 --> 00:05:27,330 Speaker 1: and moss covered banks. As the breeze toyed with the leaves, 74 00:05:27,690 --> 00:05:31,450 Speaker 1: and the sun dappling danced across the grass, Little Francis 75 00:05:31,530 --> 00:05:35,930 Speaker 1: Griffiths could imagine that she saw fairies at play. She 76 00:05:36,010 --> 00:05:39,530 Speaker 1: talked with her dear friend and cousin, Elsie Wright, about 77 00:05:39,570 --> 00:05:45,490 Speaker 1: what she saw. One day, Francis slipped on the rocks 78 00:05:45,490 --> 00:05:48,650 Speaker 1: in the beck and soaked her clothes. It would happen 79 00:05:48,730 --> 00:05:50,330 Speaker 1: a lot Elsie later. 80 00:05:50,130 --> 00:05:54,930 Speaker 4: Remembered, Francis, for some unaccountable reason, always fell down when 81 00:05:54,930 --> 00:05:55,890 Speaker 4: we went up the beck. 82 00:05:58,250 --> 00:06:01,210 Speaker 1: Elsie tried to help little Francis sneak into the house, 83 00:06:01,570 --> 00:06:06,330 Speaker 1: but Francis's mother saw her and scolded her. Francis protested 84 00:06:06,330 --> 00:06:08,610 Speaker 1: that she had fallen because she had been playing with 85 00:06:08,610 --> 00:06:12,210 Speaker 1: the Fairyes, that was the last straw. She was sent 86 00:06:12,250 --> 00:06:18,450 Speaker 1: to her room. Elsie, comforting her tearful cousin, suggested a plan. 87 00:06:19,210 --> 00:06:22,490 Speaker 1: The two of them would borrow Elsie's father's camera and 88 00:06:22,610 --> 00:06:25,410 Speaker 1: take photographs of the fairies at the bottom of the 89 00:06:25,450 --> 00:06:29,530 Speaker 1: garden to prove the adults wrong and little Francis right. 90 00:06:30,370 --> 00:06:35,090 Speaker 1: And they did, making the iconic picture of Francis surrounded 91 00:06:35,090 --> 00:06:40,530 Speaker 1: by dancing sprites. Elsie's father, Arthur Wright, developed the first 92 00:06:40,530 --> 00:06:46,810 Speaker 1: photograph in his dark room. He wasn't impressed. It was 93 00:06:46,850 --> 00:06:49,210 Speaker 1: a nice image of Francis, but what were all the 94 00:06:49,290 --> 00:06:54,570 Speaker 1: pieces of paper in the foreground fairies, said Elsie. Nonsense, 95 00:06:55,090 --> 00:06:58,690 Speaker 1: said her father. A few weeks later they took a 96 00:06:58,730 --> 00:07:02,610 Speaker 1: second photograph, this time of Elsie wearing a hat, sitting 97 00:07:02,690 --> 00:07:07,410 Speaker 1: on the grass and holding hands with a tiny prancing gnome. 98 00:07:07,930 --> 00:07:11,130 Speaker 1: A joke, said Arthur Wright. Why would they not admit it? 99 00:07:12,050 --> 00:07:17,090 Speaker 1: But they did not, and so the camera was confiscated. 100 00:07:18,290 --> 00:07:22,010 Speaker 1: The story might have ended then in nineteen seventeen, but 101 00:07:22,210 --> 00:07:26,250 Speaker 1: Elsie's mother, Polly Wright, was less of a skeptic than Arthur. 102 00:07:26,970 --> 00:07:29,450 Speaker 1: A couple of years later, poly Wright went to a 103 00:07:29,490 --> 00:07:34,890 Speaker 1: meeting of a spiritualist society on the subject of very life. 104 00:07:34,930 --> 00:07:39,370 Speaker 1: She mentioned the existence of the photographs. There was some excitement, 105 00:07:39,690 --> 00:07:42,730 Speaker 1: and before long the images had made their way to 106 00:07:42,810 --> 00:07:47,410 Speaker 1: the influential mystic Edward Gardner. Gardner wrote back to Polly Wright, 107 00:07:47,730 --> 00:07:51,650 Speaker 1: saying that the first picture was the best of its kind. 108 00:07:51,930 --> 00:07:57,130 Speaker 1: I should think anywhere. Edward Gardner took the photographs to 109 00:07:57,210 --> 00:08:02,530 Speaker 1: his friend Harold Snelling, an expert in photographic processing and retouching. 110 00:08:03,330 --> 00:08:07,450 Speaker 1: Snelling told Gardner that the pictures looked unprocessed to him, 111 00:08:07,570 --> 00:08:12,170 Speaker 1: single exposures taken out. Snelling's testimony was very important to 112 00:08:12,250 --> 00:08:17,290 Speaker 1: Conan Doyle. If Snelling said they were genuine, they were genuine. 113 00:08:17,410 --> 00:08:23,890 Speaker 1: But at this point the plot thickens. Gardner wanted large, sharp, 114 00:08:24,050 --> 00:08:27,370 Speaker 1: spectacular prints to frame and hang on his wall, to 115 00:08:27,450 --> 00:08:30,450 Speaker 1: show people when he gave public lectures, and to give 116 00:08:30,490 --> 00:08:34,970 Speaker 1: to the newspapers, so he paid Snelling to make these prints. 117 00:08:36,090 --> 00:08:40,330 Speaker 1: Snelling made new negatives by painting on the prints that 118 00:08:40,410 --> 00:08:45,290 Speaker 1: Elsie's mother had sent and then rephotographing them. He added 119 00:08:45,530 --> 00:08:49,970 Speaker 1: sparkle and sharpness, just as today a photoshop expert might 120 00:08:50,090 --> 00:08:54,250 Speaker 1: retouch a supermodel for a magazine cover. But that meant 121 00:08:54,290 --> 00:08:58,250 Speaker 1: that every subsequent expert was looking not at the original 122 00:08:58,290 --> 00:09:03,290 Speaker 1: prints but at Snelling's upgrades. No longer were these the 123 00:09:03,530 --> 00:09:10,850 Speaker 1: unprocessed single exposure photographs that he had vouched for. Snelling, 124 00:09:10,850 --> 00:09:13,850 Speaker 1: of course, had no idea quite how much attention would 125 00:09:13,930 --> 00:09:17,450 Speaker 1: later be devoted to the authenticity of these images, but 126 00:09:18,010 --> 00:09:22,370 Speaker 1: having been paid about a year's wages by Gardner, he 127 00:09:22,450 --> 00:09:26,410 Speaker 1: seems not to have uttered another word on the subject thereafter. 128 00:09:27,530 --> 00:09:31,250 Speaker 1: Edward Gardner then took the photographs to experts at Kodak. 129 00:09:31,730 --> 00:09:36,210 Speaker 1: They were confused, partly because Snelling's post processing made the 130 00:09:36,290 --> 00:09:39,810 Speaker 1: lighting on the pictures look strange. The Kodak team believed 131 00:09:39,810 --> 00:09:42,610 Speaker 1: the pictures might have been taken in a studio, but 132 00:09:42,810 --> 00:09:46,450 Speaker 1: that wasn't true, and Gardner knew it. Whatever had been 133 00:09:46,490 --> 00:09:50,970 Speaker 1: done would have required considerable technical skill, which of course 134 00:09:51,490 --> 00:09:56,890 Speaker 1: Snelling had. In any case, they said, fairies don't exist, 135 00:09:57,170 --> 00:10:02,050 Speaker 1: so the pictures must be a fake. Gardner, who was 136 00:10:02,170 --> 00:10:06,130 Speaker 1: sure that fairies did exist, didn't find this very persuasive. 137 00:10:06,770 --> 00:10:10,610 Speaker 1: He didn't realize or didn't care, that Snelling's work had 138 00:10:10,650 --> 00:10:14,650 Speaker 1: confused everyone. As far as he was concerned, Snelling's work 139 00:10:14,730 --> 00:10:17,850 Speaker 1: was cosmetic, the fairies had been in the original photograph, 140 00:10:18,170 --> 00:10:22,050 Speaker 1: and the experts were mystified. What more proof did anyone want? 141 00:10:22,970 --> 00:10:26,090 Speaker 1: So he wrote to the most famous advocate of spiritualist 142 00:10:26,130 --> 00:10:34,330 Speaker 1: beliefs in the British Empire, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan 143 00:10:34,370 --> 00:10:38,570 Speaker 1: Doyle was intrigued. He wrote to Elsie and to her father, Arthur, 144 00:10:38,850 --> 00:10:41,490 Speaker 1: who was a huge fan of Conan Doyle, and both 145 00:10:41,610 --> 00:10:46,050 Speaker 1: delighted and amused by the interest. And Conan Doyle sent 146 00:10:46,210 --> 00:10:49,650 Speaker 1: Edward Gardner to Cottingly with a better camera in the 147 00:10:49,690 --> 00:10:53,770 Speaker 1: hope that he could produce more images of fairies. Foiled 148 00:10:53,810 --> 00:10:57,530 Speaker 1: by bad weather, he returned to London, leaving the camera 149 00:10:57,650 --> 00:11:03,370 Speaker 1: with Elsie and Francis, together with dozens of expensive photographic plates, 150 00:11:03,970 --> 00:11:09,770 Speaker 1: most of which tellingly did not survive. Still, soon enough, 151 00:11:10,210 --> 00:11:16,330 Speaker 1: Gardner received three stunning new fairy images, one of a 152 00:11:16,330 --> 00:11:19,930 Speaker 1: fairy in flight, one of a fairy presenting flowers to 153 00:11:19,970 --> 00:11:25,930 Speaker 1: Elsie and one strange and ethereal image of fairies sunbathing 154 00:11:26,010 --> 00:11:31,810 Speaker 1: in their little glade. Edward Gardner was completely convinced. He 155 00:11:31,930 --> 00:11:35,730 Speaker 1: argued that the fairies were visible manifestations of the girl's 156 00:11:35,890 --> 00:11:40,290 Speaker 1: psychic energy that would explain why, as several commentators noted, 157 00:11:40,490 --> 00:11:45,250 Speaker 1: they bore such a close resemblance to illustrations from picture books. 158 00:11:46,250 --> 00:11:50,130 Speaker 1: As for Conan Doyle, he began to write a spectacular 159 00:11:50,210 --> 00:11:54,530 Speaker 1: account of a case that was stranger than anything Sherlock 160 00:11:54,570 --> 00:12:03,930 Speaker 1: Holmes had ever tackled. Conan Doyle's account made a huge splash, 161 00:12:04,690 --> 00:12:08,450 Speaker 1: first in a sellout issue of Strand magazine, then in 162 00:12:08,530 --> 00:12:13,290 Speaker 1: his book. Many people found the whole thing laughable. Punch 163 00:12:13,370 --> 00:12:16,370 Speaker 1: Magazine published a cartoon showing him with his head in 164 00:12:16,410 --> 00:12:21,050 Speaker 1: the clouds, poor Sherlock Holmes sitting near by, mourning his 165 00:12:21,210 --> 00:12:27,090 Speaker 1: creator's foolishness. But many backed Conan Doyle. After all, how 166 00:12:27,130 --> 00:12:31,370 Speaker 1: could two simple rural girls possibly have faked such a thing? 167 00:12:32,010 --> 00:12:35,850 Speaker 1: One popular novelist urged people to gaze on the innocent 168 00:12:35,930 --> 00:12:39,610 Speaker 1: faces of the girls themselves in the photographs. There is 169 00:12:39,970 --> 00:12:46,890 Speaker 1: an extraordinary thing called truth, he wrote. It is God's currency, 170 00:12:47,490 --> 00:12:52,250 Speaker 1: and the cleverest coiner or forger can't imitate it. The 171 00:12:52,330 --> 00:12:56,170 Speaker 1: Yorkshire Weekly Post kept its feet on the ground, but agreed. 172 00:12:56,610 --> 00:12:59,410 Speaker 1: When one considers that these are the first photographs these 173 00:12:59,490 --> 00:13:02,330 Speaker 1: children ever took in their lives, it is impossible to 174 00:13:02,370 --> 00:13:06,130 Speaker 1: conceive that they are capable of technical manipulation, which would 175 00:13:06,130 --> 00:13:12,170 Speaker 1: deceive experts. Indeed hard to understand how two little girls, 176 00:13:12,570 --> 00:13:16,010 Speaker 1: on the first photograph they ever took could have faked 177 00:13:16,010 --> 00:13:20,530 Speaker 1: an image so compelling that expert photographers could not explain it. 178 00:13:21,290 --> 00:13:25,410 Speaker 1: But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own creation Sherlock Holmes, could 179 00:13:25,450 --> 00:13:29,130 Speaker 1: have explained that this puzzlement was hardly an argument for 180 00:13:29,170 --> 00:13:33,210 Speaker 1: the existence of fairies. To quote mister Holmes. 181 00:13:33,530 --> 00:13:38,890 Speaker 2: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, 182 00:13:39,850 --> 00:13:41,010 Speaker 2: must be the truth. 183 00:13:44,330 --> 00:13:48,890 Speaker 1: Indeed, for most observers, Sherlock Holmes's maxim was a good guide. 184 00:13:49,450 --> 00:13:53,090 Speaker 1: Fairies do not dwell at the bottom of gardens, and 185 00:13:53,170 --> 00:13:56,890 Speaker 1: so the photographs must be fake. One critic summed it up. 186 00:13:57,730 --> 00:14:02,330 Speaker 1: Knowing children, and knowing that Sir Arthur Conan Oil has legs, 187 00:14:02,570 --> 00:14:06,010 Speaker 1: I decide that the girls have pulled one of them. 188 00:14:06,770 --> 00:14:10,890 Speaker 1: Of course they had, if you remember our earlier cautionary 189 00:14:10,970 --> 00:14:14,850 Speaker 1: Tale of Abraham Bradius and the Fake vmir You'll also 190 00:14:14,930 --> 00:14:19,130 Speaker 1: remember that if a person wants to believe something passionately enough, 191 00:14:19,490 --> 00:14:23,930 Speaker 1: expertise is no defense. Doyle was not only a doctor 192 00:14:24,090 --> 00:14:28,770 Speaker 1: and a formidable intellect, he was also a skilled amateur photographer. 193 00:14:29,450 --> 00:14:32,490 Speaker 1: He knew very well that photographs could be faked, but 194 00:14:32,690 --> 00:14:36,690 Speaker 1: he also knew that such fakes took skill. He couldn't 195 00:14:36,730 --> 00:14:40,250 Speaker 1: quite imagine how two little girls could have done it, 196 00:14:40,890 --> 00:14:44,690 Speaker 1: and more to the point, he didn't want to imagine. 197 00:14:45,810 --> 00:14:50,810 Speaker 1: But how had the fakery been achieved? That question wasn't 198 00:14:50,850 --> 00:14:56,850 Speaker 1: conclusively answered until nineteen eighty two, sixty five years after 199 00:14:56,890 --> 00:15:02,090 Speaker 1: the first two fairy photographs were taken. We'll find out 200 00:15:02,090 --> 00:15:13,290 Speaker 1: the answer after the break. After the flurry of interest 201 00:15:13,370 --> 00:15:17,490 Speaker 1: following the publication of Conan Doyle's book, the Cottingly Fairies 202 00:15:17,770 --> 00:15:21,890 Speaker 1: were largely forgotten for half a century. Then in the 203 00:15:21,970 --> 00:15:26,290 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies there was a revival of interest by newspapers 204 00:15:26,290 --> 00:15:30,130 Speaker 1: and TV shows. But the man who would crack the 205 00:15:30,170 --> 00:15:34,410 Speaker 1: case wide open was Jeffrey Crawley, the editor of the 206 00:15:34,410 --> 00:15:39,690 Speaker 1: British Journal of Photography. Crawley deployed the forensic logic one 207 00:15:39,770 --> 00:15:43,810 Speaker 1: might expect from Sherlock Holmes himself in a remarkable series 208 00:15:43,890 --> 00:15:49,530 Speaker 1: of ten articles titled That Astonishing Affair of the Cottingly Fairies. 209 00:15:50,530 --> 00:15:55,290 Speaker 1: Crawley was sure the photographs were fakes, but his methods 210 00:15:55,330 --> 00:16:00,050 Speaker 1: of observation and deduction revealed a great deal. First, he 211 00:16:00,090 --> 00:16:03,810 Speaker 1: obtained the original camera that Francis and Elsie had used 212 00:16:03,810 --> 00:16:07,730 Speaker 1: to produce the first photograph, serviced it to bring it 213 00:16:07,770 --> 00:16:12,090 Speaker 1: to full working order, and took his own prints. He 214 00:16:12,210 --> 00:16:15,970 Speaker 1: concluded right away that the original photograph of Francis and 215 00:16:16,010 --> 00:16:19,050 Speaker 1: the fairies cannot possibly have been what it claimed to 216 00:16:19,050 --> 00:16:23,450 Speaker 1: be in those lighting conditions. The primitive camera wasn't capable 217 00:16:23,450 --> 00:16:27,410 Speaker 1: of taking photographs that sharp. Elsie had said that the 218 00:16:27,450 --> 00:16:31,290 Speaker 1: shutter speed was one fiftieth of a second, but Crawley 219 00:16:31,330 --> 00:16:33,970 Speaker 1: believed that in reality, the shutter would have had to 220 00:16:34,010 --> 00:16:37,810 Speaker 1: have been open for a second or more. That meant 221 00:16:37,890 --> 00:16:41,970 Speaker 1: that anything which moved would be blurred. As indeed, the 222 00:16:42,010 --> 00:16:47,290 Speaker 1: waterfall in the background of the photograph is The fairy wings, however, 223 00:16:47,810 --> 00:16:54,290 Speaker 1: are pin sharp. Crawley kept sifting the evidence and obtained 224 00:16:54,330 --> 00:16:57,970 Speaker 1: a copy of the first photograph. This copy had never 225 00:16:58,050 --> 00:17:02,770 Speaker 1: been near the retouching specialist Harold Snelling. When Crawley saw it, 226 00:17:03,490 --> 00:17:08,050 Speaker 1: he was stunned. It was strikingly different from the endlessly 227 00:17:08,170 --> 00:17:12,130 Speaker 1: reproduced photographs of Francis and the dancing troop of fairies. 228 00:17:12,930 --> 00:17:18,050 Speaker 1: It was overexposed and blurred. Francis's face lacked detail, and 229 00:17:18,170 --> 00:17:21,010 Speaker 1: the fairies were hard to make out. They were little 230 00:17:21,010 --> 00:17:25,130 Speaker 1: more than vague, pale shapes. For the first time since 231 00:17:25,210 --> 00:17:30,930 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, a photographic expert saw not Snelling's processed copy 232 00:17:31,690 --> 00:17:35,650 Speaker 1: but the original and realized quite how significant and how 233 00:17:35,690 --> 00:17:42,010 Speaker 1: confusing Snelling's post processing had been. Crawley realized that the 234 00:17:42,050 --> 00:17:46,250 Speaker 1: confusion had deepened because the photographs used different techniques to 235 00:17:46,330 --> 00:17:50,610 Speaker 1: achieve the effect of fairies. The third photograph, for example, 236 00:17:50,810 --> 00:17:54,330 Speaker 1: taken three years after the first two, is probably a 237 00:17:54,410 --> 00:17:58,930 Speaker 1: double exposure, a fairy in one shot superimposed over an 238 00:17:58,970 --> 00:18:03,530 Speaker 1: image of Francis in another. The fourth features a dramatic 239 00:18:03,770 --> 00:18:08,410 Speaker 1: new composition, with Elsie three years older, looking less like 240 00:18:08,450 --> 00:18:12,130 Speaker 1: a child an awkward hat, and more like a fashion model. 241 00:18:13,090 --> 00:18:17,330 Speaker 1: The fairy is simply a paper cutout. The fifth photograph, 242 00:18:17,770 --> 00:18:21,810 Speaker 1: a strange and blown out image of a fairy sun bath, 243 00:18:22,370 --> 00:18:26,410 Speaker 1: is also a double exposure, but one which creates a trippy, 244 00:18:26,650 --> 00:18:31,170 Speaker 1: psychedelic effect rather than a crisp picture of a flying fairy. 245 00:18:32,050 --> 00:18:35,690 Speaker 1: Both Elsie and Francis claimed to have taken that photograph. 246 00:18:36,210 --> 00:18:40,970 Speaker 1: Crawley's conclusion is that they both did unknowingly photographing the 247 00:18:41,010 --> 00:18:47,770 Speaker 1: same scene twice on a single photographic plate. Any stage 248 00:18:47,850 --> 00:18:51,770 Speaker 1: magician could explain why the combined effect is so bewildering. 249 00:18:52,410 --> 00:18:57,290 Speaker 1: Magicians make a useful distinction. The method is the technique 250 00:18:57,450 --> 00:19:00,970 Speaker 1: used to produce the illusion, for example, palming a coin 251 00:19:01,290 --> 00:19:03,170 Speaker 1: so that it seems to be in the left hand, 252 00:19:03,450 --> 00:19:06,970 Speaker 1: when in fact it's in the right hand. The effect 253 00:19:07,410 --> 00:19:11,410 Speaker 1: is the illusion itself. The coin has vanished, the coin 254 00:19:11,610 --> 00:19:15,290 Speaker 1: reappears from behind your ear. And while it's often said 255 00:19:15,290 --> 00:19:18,170 Speaker 1: that a magician should never perform the same trick twice, 256 00:19:18,690 --> 00:19:22,970 Speaker 1: some do exactly that. They repeat the same effect over 257 00:19:23,090 --> 00:19:27,170 Speaker 1: and over again, but they change the method each time. 258 00:19:28,130 --> 00:19:32,730 Speaker 1: The cumulative impact is bewildering, and often the more expert 259 00:19:32,810 --> 00:19:36,410 Speaker 1: the spectator, the more bewildering it is. Every time the 260 00:19:36,450 --> 00:19:40,130 Speaker 1: spectator produces a theory about how the trick is done, 261 00:19:40,250 --> 00:19:46,450 Speaker 1: the method changes and the theory is disproved by a 262 00:19:46,490 --> 00:19:50,570 Speaker 1: combination of luck and fate. The sequence of Cottingly Fairy 263 00:19:50,610 --> 00:19:55,690 Speaker 1: photographs use the same bewildering strategy. The first is created 264 00:19:55,730 --> 00:20:00,930 Speaker 1: by Harold Snelling's liberal retouching, then later effects use cutouts, 265 00:20:01,170 --> 00:20:04,570 Speaker 1: double exposures and even a fluke. If you look at 266 00:20:04,610 --> 00:20:07,330 Speaker 1: them and try to find a single trick behind them all, 267 00:20:08,090 --> 00:20:12,290 Speaker 1: you can't. Jeffrey Crawley of the British Journal of Photography 268 00:20:12,610 --> 00:20:17,170 Speaker 1: concluded that the five pictures had used four different methods 269 00:20:17,330 --> 00:20:21,570 Speaker 1: to achieve the illusion. Crawley then turned to the question 270 00:20:21,650 --> 00:20:25,570 Speaker 1: of the characters involved. The Yorkshire Weekly Post had found 271 00:20:25,570 --> 00:20:30,250 Speaker 1: it impossible to conceive that these two innocent looking girls 272 00:20:30,370 --> 00:20:35,250 Speaker 1: could have mastered the techniques of image manipulation. But perhaps 273 00:20:35,250 --> 00:20:40,930 Speaker 1: the girls weren't quite as innocent as everyone assumed. Francis, 274 00:20:40,970 --> 00:20:44,850 Speaker 1: of course, was aged just nine when the first photograph 275 00:20:44,890 --> 00:20:48,250 Speaker 1: was taken. She is literally the poster child for the 276 00:20:48,290 --> 00:20:54,450 Speaker 1: Cottingly Fairies. But Elsie Wright, her cousin Elsie, is another matter. 277 00:20:55,330 --> 00:20:59,410 Speaker 1: Elsie was hardly a child. She turned sixteen the summer 278 00:20:59,450 --> 00:21:03,370 Speaker 1: that the first photographs were taken. Elsie had struggled at 279 00:21:03,410 --> 00:21:06,610 Speaker 1: school and left at the age of thirteen to study 280 00:21:06,690 --> 00:21:10,210 Speaker 1: near by at the Bradford College of Arts. One of 281 00:21:10,250 --> 00:21:13,850 Speaker 1: her teachers later recalled she was very clever at art, 282 00:21:14,090 --> 00:21:19,450 Speaker 1: and particularly with drawing fairies and cutting them out. That 283 00:21:19,650 --> 00:21:22,930 Speaker 1: recollection may be tinged with hindsight, but once you know 284 00:21:22,970 --> 00:21:25,730 Speaker 1: that Elsie wasn't a nine year old girl but a 285 00:21:25,770 --> 00:21:29,170 Speaker 1: student at an art college, it puts those photographs of 286 00:21:29,210 --> 00:21:33,530 Speaker 1: fairies into another light. And there's another thing that didn't 287 00:21:33,570 --> 00:21:36,170 Speaker 1: seem to have registered with the people who thought the 288 00:21:36,210 --> 00:21:42,570 Speaker 1: girls were naive little children. Elsie had a job, not 289 00:21:42,690 --> 00:21:47,130 Speaker 1: just any job either. She worked at the photography studio 290 00:21:47,410 --> 00:21:52,290 Speaker 1: of a greetings card factory, doing post processing work. Early on, 291 00:21:52,410 --> 00:21:56,690 Speaker 1: she'd done spotting, or touching up flowed photos using paint. 292 00:21:57,330 --> 00:22:02,610 Speaker 1: Later she colorized black and white work and created composite photographs, 293 00:22:03,010 --> 00:22:06,730 Speaker 1: combining the images of soldiers who died during the war 294 00:22:07,490 --> 00:22:11,650 Speaker 1: with portraits of the family they'd left behind. It was 295 00:22:11,930 --> 00:22:15,970 Speaker 1: skilled work. Is it really so impossible to imagine that 296 00:22:16,130 --> 00:22:20,810 Speaker 1: Elsie Wright could have created a manipulated photograph? Writing in 297 00:22:20,810 --> 00:22:27,290 Speaker 1: the British Journal of Photography, Jeffrey Crawley didn't think so, 298 00:22:27,330 --> 00:22:30,330 Speaker 1: And that's when there was another twist in the story. 299 00:22:31,090 --> 00:22:34,090 Speaker 1: Crawley received a letter from an eighty two year old 300 00:22:34,210 --> 00:22:40,090 Speaker 1: lady called Elsie Hill the married name of Elsie Wright, 301 00:22:41,690 --> 00:22:46,730 Speaker 1: and Elsie Wright had a confession to make. After sixty 302 00:22:46,810 --> 00:22:51,490 Speaker 1: six years of lying, she had finally decided to tell 303 00:22:51,530 --> 00:22:57,010 Speaker 1: the truth. Elsie had hatched the plan to comfort Francis 304 00:22:57,330 --> 00:23:01,210 Speaker 1: after a stern scolding from her mother. First Francis had 305 00:23:01,250 --> 00:23:04,210 Speaker 1: soaked her clothes and the beck. Then she had compounded 306 00:23:04,210 --> 00:23:07,210 Speaker 1: the sin by blaming it on the fairies, making up 307 00:23:07,250 --> 00:23:09,890 Speaker 1: stories about fairies with an other to get her sent 308 00:23:09,970 --> 00:23:14,570 Speaker 1: to her room. Elsie was indignant. Grown ups lie all 309 00:23:14,610 --> 00:23:18,370 Speaker 1: the time. She said, they're always making up fantastical stories. 310 00:23:18,650 --> 00:23:21,490 Speaker 1: Why should Francis be in such trouble for doing the same. 311 00:23:22,250 --> 00:23:25,890 Speaker 1: And so Elsie comforted Francis with the promise that they 312 00:23:25,930 --> 00:23:31,170 Speaker 1: would prove the adults wrong by producing a picture of 313 00:23:31,210 --> 00:23:38,530 Speaker 1: the fairies. Elsie was quite right. Adults do tell a 314 00:23:38,570 --> 00:23:41,770 Speaker 1: lot of lies. Some of them are every bit as 315 00:23:41,810 --> 00:23:45,410 Speaker 1: delightful and absurd as fairies at the bottom of the garden. 316 00:23:46,090 --> 00:23:50,170 Speaker 1: Think about Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. We grown ups 317 00:23:50,210 --> 00:23:54,130 Speaker 1: tell children that Rudolph pulls Santa's slay, and that his 318 00:23:54,330 --> 00:23:57,450 Speaker 1: shiny red nose lights the way for Santa. When Christmas 319 00:23:57,450 --> 00:24:02,490 Speaker 1: Eve is foggy, it's a touching story, but also absurd. 320 00:24:03,290 --> 00:24:06,970 Speaker 1: Santa's magic is so powerful that in a single night 321 00:24:07,210 --> 00:24:11,490 Speaker 1: he can fill every stocking with Christmas gifts. Why on 322 00:24:11,650 --> 00:24:15,050 Speaker 1: earth would he need a silly, shiny nose to navigate? 323 00:24:15,930 --> 00:24:20,090 Speaker 1: And yet we tell our children such tales. As they 324 00:24:20,090 --> 00:24:23,290 Speaker 1: grow up, they realize that there is such a thing 325 00:24:24,090 --> 00:24:29,370 Speaker 1: as a magical lie, and lies are often necessary, whether 326 00:24:29,370 --> 00:24:34,050 Speaker 1: they're magical or not. In nineteen seventy five, the sociologist 327 00:24:34,130 --> 00:24:38,690 Speaker 1: Harvey Sachs gave a lecture titled Everyone Has to Lie, 328 00:24:39,330 --> 00:24:42,610 Speaker 1: in which he pointed out that society is lubricated by 329 00:24:42,650 --> 00:24:48,250 Speaker 1: a continual trickle of falsehoods. More recently, the psychologist Robert 330 00:24:48,290 --> 00:24:53,690 Speaker 1: Feldman filmed first time conversations between two strangers talking together. 331 00:24:54,290 --> 00:25:00,050 Speaker 1: He concluded that people lied every three or four minutes. 332 00:25:01,290 --> 00:25:05,170 Speaker 1: Of course they did. When the restaurant's server asks how 333 00:25:05,250 --> 00:25:08,170 Speaker 1: are you, we're not supposed to give a truthful answer. 334 00:25:09,250 --> 00:25:12,330 Speaker 1: Say I'm nervous, this is my first date since my 335 00:25:12,410 --> 00:25:15,250 Speaker 1: psycho X had an affair with my best friend, emptied 336 00:25:15,290 --> 00:25:18,890 Speaker 1: my bank account and then left me. Or my hemorrhoids 337 00:25:18,890 --> 00:25:22,570 Speaker 1: are killing me. But otherwise not bad. We say thanks, 338 00:25:22,730 --> 00:25:25,810 Speaker 1: I'm great. At the end of a dinner party. We 339 00:25:25,890 --> 00:25:29,490 Speaker 1: don't say the food was mediocre and the conversation was awkward, 340 00:25:29,530 --> 00:25:31,890 Speaker 1: but at least it's not far to get home. We 341 00:25:31,970 --> 00:25:35,370 Speaker 1: say that we had a wonderful time. And when our 342 00:25:35,450 --> 00:25:38,610 Speaker 1: children ask us about Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, we 343 00:25:38,690 --> 00:25:41,210 Speaker 1: don't tell them, oh him. He was made up in 344 00:25:41,290 --> 00:25:45,130 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine by an advertising copywriter at Montgomery Ward. 345 00:25:45,530 --> 00:25:48,050 Speaker 1: It's a story. To make awkward kids with no friends 346 00:25:48,050 --> 00:25:52,210 Speaker 1: feel better about themselves. We tell them the magical lie 347 00:25:52,530 --> 00:25:58,530 Speaker 1: that without Rudolph, Santa would be lost. We lie out 348 00:25:58,570 --> 00:26:02,850 Speaker 1: of politeness, we lie to make ourselves look good, and 349 00:26:02,890 --> 00:26:08,210 Speaker 1: we lie because the truth would be cruel. More on that. 350 00:26:09,370 --> 00:26:25,090 Speaker 1: After the break, sixty six years after she created the 351 00:26:25,130 --> 00:26:31,810 Speaker 1: first fairy photographs, Elsie Wright was confessing. One of the 352 00:26:31,890 --> 00:26:34,570 Speaker 1: letters that she wrote to Jeffrey Crawley at the British 353 00:26:34,610 --> 00:26:37,770 Speaker 1: Journal of Photography hinted at why it had taken her 354 00:26:37,810 --> 00:26:38,290 Speaker 1: so long. 355 00:26:39,210 --> 00:26:42,210 Speaker 4: Dear mister Crawley, thank you for your letter revealing so 356 00:26:42,330 --> 00:26:44,890 Speaker 4: much depth and understanding of the pickle Francis and I 357 00:26:44,930 --> 00:26:47,850 Speaker 4: got ourselves into on that day when our practical joke 358 00:26:47,890 --> 00:26:50,290 Speaker 4: fell flat on its face, when no one would believe 359 00:26:50,330 --> 00:26:53,770 Speaker 4: we'd got pictures of real fairies. Just imagine if they had, 360 00:26:54,050 --> 00:26:56,050 Speaker 4: the joke would have ended there. And then when we 361 00:26:56,090 --> 00:26:59,010 Speaker 4: would have told all instead, the laugh was on us. 362 00:26:59,810 --> 00:27:03,610 Speaker 1: Elsie imagined that when their parents saw the fairy photographs, 363 00:27:03,730 --> 00:27:08,410 Speaker 1: they'd be astonished. They would apologize for scolding Francis, and 364 00:27:08,450 --> 00:27:11,850 Speaker 1: then Elsie would reveal the trick and that all have 365 00:27:11,930 --> 00:27:16,810 Speaker 1: a good laugh together. Except that Arthur Wright never believed 366 00:27:16,850 --> 00:27:21,210 Speaker 1: in fairies for a second. He was scornful and angry 367 00:27:21,250 --> 00:27:23,570 Speaker 1: when the children would not explain how they'd done it. 368 00:27:24,210 --> 00:27:27,810 Speaker 1: Elsie's pride was wounded. She believed in her talent as 369 00:27:27,810 --> 00:27:32,650 Speaker 1: an illustrator and a photographer with hindsight, Arthur Wright could 370 00:27:32,690 --> 00:27:35,770 Speaker 1: have got to the truth if his initial reaction had 371 00:27:35,810 --> 00:27:41,890 Speaker 1: been gentler. He missed the only chance because once Elsie 372 00:27:41,970 --> 00:27:45,010 Speaker 1: had let the lie linger, when was the moment for 373 00:27:45,050 --> 00:27:49,730 Speaker 1: the truth. When Polly Wright, Elsie's mother, returned from a 374 00:27:49,770 --> 00:27:53,570 Speaker 1: spiritualist meeting in nineteen nineteen, having told others of the 375 00:27:53,610 --> 00:27:59,370 Speaker 1: photographs that would humiliate her mother. When Edward Gardner, a 376 00:27:59,450 --> 00:28:05,610 Speaker 1: fine gentleman, requested copies, even worse, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 377 00:28:05,690 --> 00:28:08,370 Speaker 1: one of the most famous men in the country, wrote 378 00:28:08,490 --> 00:28:15,090 Speaker 1: separately both Elsie and her father calamitous. Conan Doyle's involvement 379 00:28:15,370 --> 00:28:18,130 Speaker 1: raised the stakes far beyond what any of them could 380 00:28:18,170 --> 00:28:21,930 Speaker 1: have imagined. Arthur Wright was a true fan of Conan 381 00:28:21,970 --> 00:28:25,650 Speaker 1: Doyle's and he couldn't quite believe that r Elsie, at 382 00:28:25,690 --> 00:28:29,290 Speaker 1: the bottom of the class, had the great man fooled. 383 00:28:30,610 --> 00:28:34,610 Speaker 1: Three years after her father's painfully dismissive reaction to the 384 00:28:34,650 --> 00:28:38,610 Speaker 1: original photographs, this must have been a real temptation for 385 00:28:38,690 --> 00:28:43,290 Speaker 1: Elsie to stretch her creative wings and prove her talents 386 00:28:43,530 --> 00:28:48,290 Speaker 1: on the biggest stage imaginable. She must have been exhilarated 387 00:28:48,450 --> 00:28:53,570 Speaker 1: and terrified all at once, and her father, Arthur Wright, 388 00:28:53,890 --> 00:28:58,330 Speaker 1: couldn't abide the suggestion of fraud the risk of social disgrace. 389 00:28:58,730 --> 00:29:02,530 Speaker 1: So was now the moment to confess. You could hardly 390 00:29:02,610 --> 00:29:07,490 Speaker 1: fault Elsie for biting her tongue. At first, Elsie Wright 391 00:29:07,690 --> 00:29:11,010 Speaker 1: had been trying to comfort Forcis. Then she had been 392 00:29:11,050 --> 00:29:14,010 Speaker 1: showing off her talents as an artist and a photographer. 393 00:29:15,010 --> 00:29:19,290 Speaker 1: But as the deception continued, she began lying because it 394 00:29:19,290 --> 00:29:23,890 Speaker 1: would have been heartless to tell the truth. Edward Gardner 395 00:29:23,930 --> 00:29:27,370 Speaker 1: and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had so publicly put their 396 00:29:27,410 --> 00:29:31,250 Speaker 1: trust in Elsie and Francis and their photographs, and been 397 00:29:31,290 --> 00:29:33,650 Speaker 1: so mocked for it, that for the young women to 398 00:29:33,730 --> 00:29:39,970 Speaker 1: confess would be to humiliate both men utterly. Not for 399 00:29:40,050 --> 00:29:44,050 Speaker 1: the first time in human history, young women decided to 400 00:29:44,170 --> 00:29:50,690 Speaker 1: keep quiet to spare the fragile egos of men. Conan 401 00:29:50,730 --> 00:29:54,450 Speaker 1: Doyle had a long standing curiosity about the unseen and 402 00:29:54,530 --> 00:29:58,890 Speaker 1: the paranormal. Shortly before he heard about the fairy photographs, 403 00:29:59,290 --> 00:30:03,810 Speaker 1: this had firmed into a passionate belief in spiritualism, triggered 404 00:30:03,970 --> 00:30:09,570 Speaker 1: by a series of bereavements. First, his wife Louisa, died 405 00:30:09,730 --> 00:30:13,650 Speaker 1: at the age of fifty. Then Conan Doyle lost both 406 00:30:13,690 --> 00:30:17,690 Speaker 1: his brother and his oldest son in the great flu 407 00:30:17,730 --> 00:30:21,650 Speaker 1: epidemic that followed the First World War. As Conan Oyle 408 00:30:21,770 --> 00:30:26,010 Speaker 1: was writing an essay about fairies, his mother, to whom 409 00:30:26,130 --> 00:30:31,250 Speaker 1: he had always been very close, also died. Edward Gardner was 410 00:30:31,250 --> 00:30:36,610 Speaker 1: in mourning too for his late wife. Both men, it seems, 411 00:30:37,250 --> 00:30:40,450 Speaker 1: were desperate to believe there was something on the other 412 00:30:40,570 --> 00:30:45,210 Speaker 1: side of death after a devastating war and a deadly 413 00:30:45,290 --> 00:30:51,210 Speaker 1: flu pandemic. They were not alone in that desperation. Remember 414 00:30:51,370 --> 00:30:55,490 Speaker 1: how popular spiritualism was how many people were attempting to 415 00:30:55,570 --> 00:31:00,930 Speaker 1: contact their lost loved ones through seances. Elsie Wright understood 416 00:31:00,930 --> 00:31:03,970 Speaker 1: this very well. Remember that she had been working in 417 00:31:04,010 --> 00:31:07,490 Speaker 1: a photography studio, adding color to the black and white 418 00:31:07,570 --> 00:31:12,170 Speaker 1: portraits of dead souls, or creating composite images of them 419 00:31:12,210 --> 00:31:19,450 Speaker 1: and their families. The living pictured alongside the dead. Elsie recalled, there. 420 00:31:19,330 --> 00:31:22,250 Speaker 4: Were stacks and stacks of work, and it was all 421 00:31:22,330 --> 00:31:24,890 Speaker 4: rather sad, as most all the tickets set on top 422 00:31:25,330 --> 00:31:26,050 Speaker 4: killed in action. 423 00:31:30,170 --> 00:31:33,650 Speaker 1: Few young women could have understood better what Conan Doyle 424 00:31:33,730 --> 00:31:38,410 Speaker 1: and Gardner might be going through. Elsie felt sorry for them. 425 00:31:38,810 --> 00:31:41,650 Speaker 1: She agreed with Francis that they would simply wait until 426 00:31:41,650 --> 00:31:46,210 Speaker 1: the old men passed away. In nineteen thirty, Sir Arthur 427 00:31:46,290 --> 00:31:49,930 Speaker 1: did Elsie and Francis were both in their twenties when 428 00:31:49,970 --> 00:31:54,010 Speaker 1: it happened. The New York Times headline noted that Conan 429 00:31:54,050 --> 00:31:57,730 Speaker 1: Doyle's family were waiting for a message from his spirit. 430 00:31:59,890 --> 00:32:02,490 Speaker 1: All Francis and Elsie had to do was to wait 431 00:32:02,530 --> 00:32:05,810 Speaker 1: for Edward Gardner to pass away and they could finally 432 00:32:05,850 --> 00:32:10,650 Speaker 1: reveal the truth. But that moment never seemed to arrive. 433 00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:17,170 Speaker 1: Gardner lived until nineteen sixty nine, just shy of his 434 00:32:17,250 --> 00:32:21,090 Speaker 1: one hundredth birthday, and by then his son was also 435 00:32:21,130 --> 00:32:25,450 Speaker 1: an evangelist for the fairies. Elsie and Francis, both in 436 00:32:25,530 --> 00:32:30,050 Speaker 1: their sixties, were still trapped by their joke. From nineteen 437 00:32:30,170 --> 00:32:38,530 Speaker 1: seventeen Throughout the nineteen seventies, Elsie dropped hints, telling journalists 438 00:32:38,570 --> 00:32:39,930 Speaker 1: that the photographs were. 439 00:32:40,170 --> 00:32:42,330 Speaker 4: Pictures of figments of our imagination. 440 00:32:43,250 --> 00:32:46,890 Speaker 1: Edward Gardner had always said that the fairies were manifestations 441 00:32:46,930 --> 00:32:50,970 Speaker 1: of the psychic energy of the girls, that Elsie's phrasing 442 00:32:51,410 --> 00:32:55,890 Speaker 1: was distinctly ambiguous. It was only in nineteen eighty one 443 00:32:56,330 --> 00:33:01,170 Speaker 1: that Gardner's son died. Francis was working on a tell 444 00:33:01,410 --> 00:33:05,690 Speaker 1: all memoir. Neither woman wanted to be left dangling if 445 00:33:05,730 --> 00:33:10,610 Speaker 1: the other one confessed. Tabloid journalists, academics, and the British 446 00:33:10,690 --> 00:33:15,330 Speaker 1: Journal of Photography were all sniffing around the story. Finally, 447 00:33:15,970 --> 00:33:21,210 Speaker 1: the truth came out, Just as Conan Doyle didn't know 448 00:33:21,250 --> 00:33:25,650 Speaker 1: the full truth about Elsie Wright, Elsie Wright can't have 449 00:33:25,770 --> 00:33:30,010 Speaker 1: known the full truth about Conan Doyle. She would have 450 00:33:30,010 --> 00:33:33,850 Speaker 1: had no idea, for example, that Conan Doyle's father, Charles, 451 00:33:34,250 --> 00:33:38,890 Speaker 1: was afflicted first by depression, then by epilepsy and finally 452 00:33:39,010 --> 00:33:43,930 Speaker 1: by alcoholism. She wouldn't have known that Charles Altamont Doyle 453 00:33:44,370 --> 00:33:49,410 Speaker 1: lived his final years at the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum. 454 00:33:49,730 --> 00:33:52,330 Speaker 1: She wouldn't have known that in those final years in 455 00:33:52,370 --> 00:33:58,850 Speaker 1: the asylum he sketched elegant pictures of fairies, one with 456 00:33:58,930 --> 00:34:04,050 Speaker 1: a scrawled note I have known such a creature. But 457 00:34:04,170 --> 00:34:07,850 Speaker 1: she did know that Conan Doyle was a man in mourning. 458 00:34:09,130 --> 00:34:12,490 Speaker 1: Didn't want to add to his pain, and so a 459 00:34:12,610 --> 00:34:15,410 Speaker 1: joke that was supposed to last for a couple of 460 00:34:15,490 --> 00:34:21,370 Speaker 1: hours ended up lasting sixty five years. The editor of 461 00:34:21,410 --> 00:34:25,650 Speaker 1: the British Journal of Photography, Geoffrey Crawley, mused. 462 00:34:25,770 --> 00:34:29,770 Speaker 5: If you take as the criterion of success coverage in 463 00:34:29,850 --> 00:34:33,410 Speaker 5: the national media in column inch's and television time, quite 464 00:34:33,410 --> 00:34:36,930 Speaker 5: apart from articles, books and having a street name to 465 00:34:37,010 --> 00:34:42,010 Speaker 5: commemorate your efforts, then Elsie's by far the most successful 466 00:34:42,010 --> 00:34:45,290 Speaker 5: photographer in the graph's history. If it is remembered that 467 00:34:45,290 --> 00:34:48,730 Speaker 5: that success has been based on the first photograph she 468 00:34:48,770 --> 00:34:52,250 Speaker 5: ever took, then whether or not you believe in fairies, 469 00:34:52,730 --> 00:34:55,410 Speaker 5: it has to be admitted that her record will probably 470 00:34:55,490 --> 00:34:56,730 Speaker 5: remain unsurpassed. 471 00:34:58,810 --> 00:35:02,610 Speaker 1: Elsie and Francis both died within a few years of 472 00:35:02,650 --> 00:35:08,290 Speaker 1: Elsie's confession. Francis herself always maintained that even though the 473 00:35:08,330 --> 00:35:14,450 Speaker 1: photographs were faked, she really had seen fairies. Fairies are 474 00:35:14,610 --> 00:35:19,450 Speaker 1: famous for casting mischievous spells, and I can't help thinking 475 00:35:19,490 --> 00:35:24,690 Speaker 1: about Elsie and Francis heading down to cottingly Beck that 476 00:35:24,930 --> 00:35:29,970 Speaker 1: summer over a century ago, where the water danced and 477 00:35:30,010 --> 00:35:35,050 Speaker 1: the leaves provided shelter from the blazing sun and from 478 00:35:35,090 --> 00:35:40,170 Speaker 1: the skeptical eyes of the grown ups. Elsie was cradling 479 00:35:40,210 --> 00:35:45,210 Speaker 1: the fragile camera. Francis had Elsie's beautiful drawings and a 480 00:35:45,250 --> 00:35:50,370 Speaker 1: pocket full of hatpins to prop them up. Together, they 481 00:35:50,610 --> 00:36:24,010 Speaker 1: cast a spell that lasted a lifetime. For a full 482 00:36:24,050 --> 00:36:26,770 Speaker 1: list of our sources, please see the show notes at 483 00:36:26,890 --> 00:36:40,130 Speaker 1: Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim 484 00:36:40,210 --> 00:36:44,370 Speaker 1: Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Ryan Dilly with 485 00:36:44,490 --> 00:36:48,370 Speaker 1: support from Courtney Gerino and Emily Vaughan. The sound design 486 00:36:48,490 --> 00:36:52,490 Speaker 1: and original music is the work of Pascal Wise. Julia 487 00:36:52,530 --> 00:36:56,290 Speaker 1: Barton edited the scripts. It features the voice talents of 488 00:36:56,370 --> 00:37:02,210 Speaker 1: Ben Crowe, Melanie Gutteridge, Stella Harford and Rufus Wright. The 489 00:37:02,290 --> 00:37:05,050 Speaker 1: show also wouldn't have been possible without the work of 490 00:37:05,130 --> 00:37:10,730 Speaker 1: Mere LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fane john S, Carli Migliori, 491 00:37:11,250 --> 00:37:17,410 Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Royston Berserv, Maggie Taylor, Nicolmarano, Daniela Lakhan, and 492 00:37:17,570 --> 00:37:22,130 Speaker 1: Maya Kanig. Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. 493 00:37:22,530 --> 00:37:25,250 Speaker 1: If you like the show, please remember to share, rate 494 00:37:25,490 --> 00:37:27,890 Speaker 1: and review, and if you want to hear the show, 495 00:37:28,010 --> 00:37:32,250 Speaker 1: add free and listen to four exclusive Cautionary Tale shorts. 496 00:37:32,650 --> 00:37:35,450 Speaker 1: Then sign up for Pushkin Plus on the show page 497 00:37:35,530 --> 00:37:48,050 Speaker 1: in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus