Professor Charles Morritt - or Moriarty – was a magician and stage hypnotist.
He was born in Saxton, Yorkshire, the son of farmer William Morritt and a young gypsy girl whom William had married when he was aged 51.
Charles worked as a packer in a Leeds woollen warehouse. In his spare time, he taught himself hypnotism and card tricks. In 1877, he gave a 2-hour magic show at Selby.
He went on to appear at the Leeds City Varieties Music Hall. He appeared around Britain in a mind-reading act with his girl-friend Ada as Charles & Lillian Morritt. The pair took their thought-transference act to America.
He created several illusions which are part of the magic repertoire: Flyto, The Convict's Escape, The Flying Lady, Goodbye Winter, and The Disappearing Donkey. He taught Harry Houdini a version of this last illusion – how to make an elephant disappear using mirror effects.
Ada left the act and moved to Blackpool where she became an artist. Morritt found a new partner, Bessie – Sarah Elizabeth McIntyre – who was 20 years younger than he. Bessie appeared in a part of the show as Madame Beulah, the lightning calculator. By the 1920s, Morritt had begun to drink heavily and the act suffered. He was reduced to begging money from friends.
In 1928, he claimed to put a Halifax man, William Ingham, into a trance during a show at the Victoria Hall. He announced that Ingham would be kept in a casket beneath the stage and on public view for a week. About 2,000 people gathered to see Ingham released four days later, and Morritt collected money from the crowd. The locals had a rhyme
The trances were revealed to be a fraud. At a later demonstration in Pudsey, Halifax Police tickled the feet of a man supposed to be in a trance and he rose and got out of the casket.Billy Fish was in a trance, tickled his feet and made him dance
Ingham revealed that he was only in the trance for 35 seconds – and not all week – and that he had only pretended to be hypnotised when anyone came to visit. He was allowed to smoke and eat food which Morritt smuggled to him.
Morritt was charged with obtaining money by false pretences. Ingham and 3 others, were charged with aiding and abetting Morritt. During the trial, the charges were reduced until only one, that of obtaining 6d falsely, remained and the case was withdrawn by the prosecution.
Morritt maintained that he was falsely accused by the assistant hall-keeper, who was an ex-policeman and had fabricated the story after he had asked for a larger share of the proceedings from the demonstration. He fell ill during the trial, and had to have surgery on his bowel. His health suffered badly and he never worked again
Page Ref: MMM167
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