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Quiz about Parlor Games
Quiz about Parlor Games

Parlor Games Trivia Quiz


During the spiritualist craze that swept the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries, spirit mediums were as well-known as pop and hip hop stars are today. How much do you know about the "parlor games" they played?

A multiple-choice quiz by gretas. Estimated time: 8 mins.
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Author
gretas
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
251,661
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
4 / 10
Plays
3259
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 67 (9/10), Guest 192 (5/10), wendy71 (8/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Teen-age sisters Kate and Maggie Fox of Rochester, New York set the spiritualist world on fire in 1848 when they claimed to be in communication with the spirit of a murdered peddler buried in their basement. Just how did the Fox sisters claim that they were able to talk with the spirit they dubbed "Mr. Splitfoot"? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. One of the most celebrated mediums of the 19th century was Daniel Home, who awed audiences with his apparent ability to levitate and elongate his body. One of Home's greatest fans was the equally celebrated British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. However, Mrs. Browning's husband, Robert wasn't quite so impressed. In fact, Browning was so disgusted by his wife's relationship with Home that he wrote a poem about the medium, entitled... what? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The 19th century spiritualist craze was responsible for a great deal of "skulduggery", perpetuated by fake mediums adept at bilking an eager, gullible public. Such a medium was English charmer Florence Cook, who was discovered in the act of impersonating a spirit on more than one occasion--but not before she enlisted the aide and support of noted British physicist Sir William Crookes. Which element did Crookes discover?

Answer: (eight letters, starts with T, ends with M)
Question 4 of 10
4. Well-known 20th century medium Jeanne Dixon reportedly warned President John F. Kennedy not to go to Dallas in 1963.


Question 5 of 10
5. Edgar Cayce, one of the most famous mediums of the mid-20th century, was known for his ability to give amazingly detailed and accurate medical diagnoses, even when the person he was "reading" was hundreds of miles away. But in order to give his readings, Cayce had to do something first. What did Cayce have to do in order to get in touch with the spirit plane? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. American First Ladies have had their share of special interests, but one 19th century presidential wife was so desperate to speak to her dead child that she held regular seances in the White House. Who was this spirit-seeking First Lady? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Many mediums have used tools to help them facilitate their alleged connection to the spirit world. A classic mediumistic tool is a non-musical version of a well-known instrument, through which spirits supposedly speak to the living. Can you name it?

Answer: (one word, a brass instrument)
Question 8 of 10
8. During the 19th century seance craze, many mediums claimed to be in touch with specific spirits whose names became well-known in spiritualist circles. One of the most commonly referenced "spirit celebrities" was the supposedly deceased daughter of a pirate who "appeared" at seances in America and Europe. Can you name her? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. The image of a medium conducting a seance has long been a staple in books and film. Which of the following titles does not belong to a book or movie featuring a medium or a seance scene? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Many Hollywood celebrities have consulted a medium before making an important career decision, but one classic female star was an avowed spiritualist who attended seances on a regular basis and was not ashamed to say so. Can you name this buxom, blonde, tough-talking bombshell from the Golden Age of Hollywood?

Answer: (Two Words, "Come up and see her sometime" and watch your spelling)

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Most Recent Scores
Mar 20 2024 : Guest 67: 9/10
Mar 07 2024 : Guest 192: 5/10
Feb 25 2024 : wendy71: 8/10

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Teen-age sisters Kate and Maggie Fox of Rochester, New York set the spiritualist world on fire in 1848 when they claimed to be in communication with the spirit of a murdered peddler buried in their basement. Just how did the Fox sisters claim that they were able to talk with the spirit they dubbed "Mr. Splitfoot"?

Answer: Rapping in code

Kate and Maggie Fox told family members and friends that they were able to communicate with the alleged peddler's spirit by asking it questions to which it would respond with either one rap for "yes" or two raps for "no." The combination of the Fox sisters' good looks and their apparent spiritual gifts made national and world headlines. True believers and newspaper reporters descended en masse on the Fox family's rented cottage on the outskirts of Rochester, New York, hoping for a personal glimpse of the girls at work. Local law officials even dug up the cellar, searching for a body, but all they found was a tin box and a bone of indeterminate origin. Years later, the Fox sisters were still claiming to be in touch with spirits, making their living by holding seances all over the country.

At one point, a down and out Kate told a reporter that she and Maggie had faked their infamous 1848 rappings by cracking their knuckle and toe joints, but she later recanted that "confession" on her death bed, claiming that the reporter had bribed her with alcohol.

Not surprisingly, she died of complications from alcoholism.
2. One of the most celebrated mediums of the 19th century was Daniel Home, who awed audiences with his apparent ability to levitate and elongate his body. One of Home's greatest fans was the equally celebrated British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. However, Mrs. Browning's husband, Robert wasn't quite so impressed. In fact, Browning was so disgusted by his wife's relationship with Home that he wrote a poem about the medium, entitled... what?

Answer: Mr. Sludge

Like many old school mediums, Home (he pronounced it "hume", like the philosopher) derived much of his income from the generosity of rich patrons. Home, a handsome, red-haired man who enjoyed the finer amenities of life, eventually struck the jackpot when he married a Russian noblewoman who kept him in grand style.

But along the way, he had a brief but intense friendship with Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was absolutely convinced of his authenticity. While there is no evidence of a physical liaison between the two, Browning's husband Robert despised Home and wrote "Mr. Sludge" as a condemnation of what he considered the medium's chicanery and opportunistic relationships with well-connected female patrons.
3. The 19th century spiritualist craze was responsible for a great deal of "skulduggery", perpetuated by fake mediums adept at bilking an eager, gullible public. Such a medium was English charmer Florence Cook, who was discovered in the act of impersonating a spirit on more than one occasion--but not before she enlisted the aide and support of noted British physicist Sir William Crookes. Which element did Crookes discover?

Answer: Thallium

Florence Cook ("Florrie" to friends and family) was a young woman from a working class family who eked out a living holding seances during the mid-to-late 1800s. Her specialty involved entering a wooden "spirit cabinet" and then reemerging in the guise of a spirit.

It's hard to believe that 19th century seance-goers could have been so easily fooled by a pretty girl traipsing through a darkened room in her underclothes, but many of them were. One exception was a man who jumped up in the middle of a seance and grabbed Florrie round the waist, at which point she cried, "Stop, you are killing my medium!" The incident nearly wrecked her chequered career, but then she met the esteemed and brilliant Dr. Robert Crookes, who had a professed interest in paranormal phenomena. Crookes, a married man and the father of several children, was captivated by Florrie's looks and (I guess) charm and soon began an affair with her, during which time he conducted a series of "private experiments" to test her mediumistic skills.

He wrote several articles proclaiming her a genuine medium before the ungrateful Florrie ditched him for a sailor and went off to hold more fake seances throughout England and Europe. She died in her early fifties in the 1890s, succumbing to pneumonia while working as a prostitute in Battersea. Crookes went on to become even more celebrated and lauded by his fellows, who apparently decided that his dalliance with Florence Cookes did not deter from his genius as a physicist. He died in 1919.
4. Well-known 20th century medium Jeanne Dixon reportedly warned President John F. Kennedy not to go to Dallas in 1963.

Answer: true

Jeanne Dixon was THE medium to consult during the 1960s and 70s, during which time she became a household name due to her well-publicized annual predictions in "The National Enquirer" and other periodicals. According to apocryphal accounts from biographers and journalists, Ms. Dixon warned JFK not to go to Dallas just before his fatal trip to that city in November of 1963. Around the same time, JFK reportedly told some close associates that he had a "funny feeling" about going to Dallas.

But of course he went anyway and we all know what happened when he did.
5. Edgar Cayce, one of the most famous mediums of the mid-20th century, was known for his ability to give amazingly detailed and accurate medical diagnoses, even when the person he was "reading" was hundreds of miles away. But in order to give his readings, Cayce had to do something first. What did Cayce have to do in order to get in touch with the spirit plane?

Answer: Go into trance

Known to the world as "The Sleeping Prophet", Edgar Cayce's astoundingly accurate medical readings are on record in the Edgar Cayce Library in Virginia Beach, Virginia. When awake, Cayce was a simple, self-educated man who subscribed to the tenets of mainstream Christianity and reread the Bible every year. Cayce predicted many world changes that he said would take place in the latter part of the 20th century, such as weather alterations, major earthquakes, and the discovery of Atlantis.

Many websites are devoted to listing his predictions and chronicling which ones have "come true" thus far.
6. American First Ladies have had their share of special interests, but one 19th century presidential wife was so desperate to speak to her dead child that she held regular seances in the White House. Who was this spirit-seeking First Lady?

Answer: Mary Todd Lincoln

Following the death of her young son Willie, Mary Todd Lincoln began holding regular seances in the White House, an activity that dismayed many of her husband's close political associates. They were even more dismayed when President Lincoln consented to take part in some of the seances as a concession to his wife's desperate attempts to communicate with her dead child. Mrs. Lincoln had always possessed a superstitious streak and was known for her often morbid interpretations of dreams and other events surrounding her husband's presidency.

She reportedly predicted that he would not complete his second term in office after he told her that he had dreamed of seeing a double reflection of himself in the mirror, with the second reflection markedly fainter than the first.
7. Many mediums have used tools to help them facilitate their alleged connection to the spirit world. A classic mediumistic tool is a non-musical version of a well-known instrument, through which spirits supposedly speak to the living. Can you name it?

Answer: Trumpet

The infamous spirit trumpet is still being used in many modern seances. A medium or her client simply asks a question of the spirit world and then places the trumpet against one ear and waits for a response. In more dramatic instances, the trumpet will reportedly fly around the room as the spirit speaks, supposedly under the power of the spirit itself.
8. During the 19th century seance craze, many mediums claimed to be in touch with specific spirits whose names became well-known in spiritualist circles. One of the most commonly referenced "spirit celebrities" was the supposedly deceased daughter of a pirate who "appeared" at seances in America and Europe. Can you name her?

Answer: Katie King

Medium-impersonated versions of "Katie King" showed up at countless seances in the 19th century, in England, the United States, and even in Mexico. Florrie Cook, the infamous medium who had an affair with scientist Robert Crookes, was especially known for impersonating the popular Katie at seances. Perhaps some of Katie King's appeal came from the fact that she was supposed to be the long-dead daughter of a long-dead pirate who only wanted to bring help and comfort to the living. If you do some "Googling", you may be able to find the famous 1870s photograph of Florrie Cook in her "Katie King" costume.

When the photo was taken, many spiritualist still believed that Katie King was real.
9. The image of a medium conducting a seance has long been a staple in books and film. Which of the following titles does not belong to a book or movie featuring a medium or a seance scene?

Answer: The Woman In White

"The Woman In White" by Wilkie Collins may be about a supposed ghost, but none of the characters ever bother to consult a medium in order to find out for sure. Wilkie Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens, who, of course, wrote one of the most well-known "ghost stories" of all time. "A Christmas Carol."
10. Many Hollywood celebrities have consulted a medium before making an important career decision, but one classic female star was an avowed spiritualist who attended seances on a regular basis and was not ashamed to say so. Can you name this buxom, blonde, tough-talking bombshell from the Golden Age of Hollywood?

Answer: Mae West

Mae West, the prototype for the blonde bombshell movie stars who came after her, was smart, talented, and totally committed to her belief in spiritualism. Although she cultivated an on-screen persona that celebrated sex, bawdiness and materialistic pursuits, she was a deeply spiritual person who belonged to a Spiritualist church and attended seances on a regular basis.
Source: Author gretas

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LeoDaVinci before going online.
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