| Main Performers | Peter Bayliss,
Ronald Edwin Cockersell - speakers,
Edmundo Ros,
Nellie Sallis - vocal
Philip Archer,
Herbert Oliver - piano,
Aileen Bransden - organ |
| Set List | Organ Recital:
'Postlude', Henry Smart (Aileen Bransden),
'Trumpet Voluntary', Purcell (Aileen Bransden),
'Marcia Heroique', Stanford (Aileen Bransden),
'Maestoso', Macdowell (Aileen Bransden),
'Extracts from Mendelssohn's Organ Sonatas', Mendelssohn (Aileen Bransden),
Introduction (Ronald Cockersell),
Edmundo Ros,
'The Isle in The Grey North Sea', H Oliver (Nellie Sallis),
A Demonstration of Clairvoyance (Ronald Cockerill),
'Movement From Piano Concerto', Philip Archer (Philip Archer),
'Waltz in C Sharp Minor', Chopin (Philip Archer),
Outstanding Psychic Pictures of Mediums Past and Present (on 50ft screen),
Speech (Ronald Cockersell),
'There is No Death', Geoffrey O'Hara (Nellie Sallis),
Public Direct Voice Experiment |
| Performance Notes | The melody of 'The Isle in The Grey North Sea', was supposedly received psychically by Herbert Oliver.
According to Ronald Cockersell, who organised the event, nearly 2,000 people attended the event.
"The Albert Hall Cavalcade
A SERIES of psychic pictures, enlarged on a mammoth screen, direct voice and clairvoyant demonstrations, with a few musical solo items and an address by a band leader provided the Cavalcade of Psychic Phenomena presented at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday by the Society of the Ankh. One of the best messages of the evening came during the clairvoyance, when Cockersell asked if anyone had a dog named Trix. A man in the gallery admitted that knew two dogs with that name, one dead and one alive. Cockersell asked, Isnt there a photo of this dog taken in the garden, and wasnt it taken when you were in much happier circumstances than you are now?Yes, definitely.
BROTHERS TROUSERS
Who, connected with you, has got varicose veins? was the clairvoyants next question. After a considerable pause the man recalled this and also acknowledged that he knew something about healing. Well, retorted Cockersell. You and the healing and the varicose veins should get together. Reference to the recipients interest in psychic photography, automatic writing, printing and book-binding were all confirmed and then Cockersell rocked the Albert Hall with: Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? Did you ever wear your brothers cut-down trousers? The man admitted this. I thought so, added the clairvoyant, because I could see you in trousers which appeared to be bequeathed to you.
ENLARGED SNAP
This man also acknowledged that he had once lived near an orchard and had kept pigeons. Another message hovered momentarily between the gallery and arena. It was from a communicator named Ken and was finally clinched by a lady in the arena, who confirmed the evidence when Cockersell asked if she knew of a photograph of Ken which had been enlarged from a snap. She was not related to the communicator but knew his mother. The medium spoke of Kens endeavours to get through at table seances, which was admitted, then, he added, And there have been a lot of mistakes. Quite right, was the reply. Mrs. L. A. Calderwood, of 28 Cheriton Square, Balham, the recipient of the message, confirmed to a Psychic News representative that Ken had endeavoured often to get through at table sittings with his mother, but her enthusiasm diverted the message.
THE RUMBA KING
Edmundo Ros, the band leader, well-known for his Latin-American style of playing gave a short address in which he advocated a more practical approach to mediumship. He explained how he had been interested in the subject for some time and pointed to the growing interest of the ordinary man. A medium who can give practical advice is doing an encouraging job, he said. It is then that the ordinary man becomes convinced of this psychic factor in our midst. The display of psychic pictures of mediums, past and present showed the production of various phenomena materialisations, levitations and ectoplasmic rods.
DIRECT VOICE
Kenneth Saunders, the radio actor, who was to have commentated on these pictures, was unable to attend and Peter Bayliss deputised for him. Herbert Oliver the well-known composer, Nellie Sallis, the singer, and a 16-year-old pianist, Philip Archer, contributed the musical items. After the direct voice demonstration, which lasted about 20 minutes. Cockersellwho acted throughout as his own chairman made a speech in which he advocated a factual presentation of psychic evidence.
I HOPE none of the people attending the Albert Hall last Saturday regarded the cavalcade of psychic phenomena as a serious presentation of Spiritualism. It was a demonstration of clairvoyance and alleged direct voice by Ronald Cockersell who has proclaimed that he is not a Spiritualist. I say alleged because Cockersell declined to prove his direct-voice manifestations when challenged recently by a group of responsible Spiritualiststhe presidents of four of the leading organisations in the movement.
No Test: And the conditions under which this phenomenon was demonstrated at the Albert Hall could not be classed test conditions by any stretch of imagination. In fact, the microphone was inside the cabinet.
The demonstration would have been more impressive if the messages had been confined to people who were strangers to the medium.
Of the rest of the programme little need be said here, except to say that one of the star attractions¯Charles Shadwell, of the BBCwas unable to attend. I am told that the hall was not more than half filled. (Psychic News, 11 October 1947)
"I feel we gave them a good show. Edmundo Ros, the band leader, for whom I had previously given some excellent E.S.P., spoke of his experiences of the psychic. Pictures of phenomena of the seance room by Leon Isaacs (including several fraudulent efforts of my own) were shown on a 50-foot screen. My own clairvoyance and direct-voice demonstrations produced excellent results.
All this, however, was leading up to the production of "Dead Bob" who had twice returned from the "other side" to give evidence at spiritualist seances. Bob was a cousin of my wife who had been reported missing when Singapore was taken by the Japanese. One night Marjorie was at a seance at the Garrick Theatre when Mrs. Estelle Roberts came through with a message from her guide "Red Cloud". "Bob calling for Marjorie", she announced in her fruity voice. Marjorie acknowledged that she might have lost someone of this name and Estelle produced some excellent clairvoyance and description which obviously applied to Bob. Psychic News splashed this evidence from the dead. Later a trumpet medium also claimed to have contacted Bob on the other side.
As the great audience in the Albert Hall waited expectantly, I told this story. "Now I am going to prove to you that someone can return from the dead", I told them. I gave a sign and Bob walked on to the stage. For five minutes there was pandemonium. When it died down, I made my protest. I pointed out that the clairvoyance given at the original seance had been brilliant in all but one thing. Although the medium had perfectly described Bob, this excellent E.S.P. had been misinterpreted as a message from the dead, which it was not. Psychic phenomena and clairvoyance, I told the meeting, were a reality but that did not necessarily prove survival. Until they were shorn of their pseudo-religious significance, no attempt could be made to study them.
I actually lost money on the Albert Hall meeting after I had paid Geoffrey back, and an additional £100 on entertainment tax. I could have saved the latter if I had included all the spiritualistic paraphernalia of hymns and prayers. My protest, however, was dearer to me than the profit; for it was more than a protest, it was the outward evidence of my severance from spiritualism."
('Clock Without Hands', Ronald Cockersell, 1955, pp. 87-88)
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| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1947/237),
Setlist (RAHE/8/7/1947/11) |