Show Fairy Tales True Stories or Not By Cassie Douglas Business Manager i Was actually real How about the Tooth Fairy Yes According to the movie Fairy TaleA Tale- Tale A True Story which was based on the thereal thereal thereal real life events of two cousins living in England who claimed they saw and photographed fairies living in their garden This event set in motion a achain achain achain chain of events neither they nor the great minds of their time could stop These two girls shared these pictures with the people around them par Mayfair society Fleet Street journalists photographic experts and which spiritualists forever changed their world This movie is drawn from the case written by Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle The author of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Novels It all began when the two young girls sneaked into a garden with a camera and came up with pictures so real that they thought that this would prove to the world once and for all that fairies do exist The girls girl's photographs received national attention which caused the world to debate just what was happening happening happening hap hap- pening in the garden Even today years eighty-years later the photos are still a mystery This story also brings to life the battle between the minds of two of the the smartest and most fascinating men of those times Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini The photographs photographs photographs pho pho- were brought to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who later wrote a book on the experience and published the photographs The True Story The real events began in 1917 but did not come to international attention until four years later The real Elsie and Frances took the original fairy photographs in 1917 but their mother did not bring the photos to the attention of EL Gardner who lead Theosophical meetings in turn took them to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1920 Doyles Doyle's Strand Magazine article was published in the Christmas issue of the same ye year r. r Even though Elsie and Frances the two cousins were not named in the article their identities were quickly discovered by the press and they were constantly hounded by reporters In the following years Gardner began an extensive lecture tour and the two cousins were often taken along to take part in these meetings meet meet- ings In 1922 Conan Doyle published The Coming of the Fairies in which he brought together the photographs photograph's photographs photograph's photographs photograph's photo photo- graphs graph's story with a series of observations observations observations on psychic phenomena Many people were in disbelief but the review of this book in South Africa's Cape Town Argus in November 1 W 14 rh U h M d t fr frh h 1 4 Jk n A. A i r 7 vB 1 J w n Ri r f. f t- t v vt X M. M ji 1 H. H i wA f x r d it- it x if p t b n s 1 ro y r A 1 R r rN v f i 4 ev By Eisie Wright Florence Hoath is visited by fairy Queen Mab 1922 caused a strange development that supported Conan Doyles Doyle's claims that the pictures were real In 1918 Frances had written a letter to a friend who lived in Cape Town in which she told her friend that she and Elsie had become friendly with the fairies that lived in the garden and they saw them quite frequently Along with the letter was a copy of the photograph known as Grances and the Fairies This letter predated the article by Conan Doyle by two years was believed by some to support support support sup sup- port the theory that the photographs were genuine me Eventually public attention became too intense and in 1923 Elsie emigrated to America She had not anticipated that her story would follow follow follow fol fol- fol- fol low her to the new world But shortly shortly shortly short short- ly after her arrival she met and married married married mar mar- ried her husband Frances also had a reasonably successful life despite the continued controversy that persisted It wasn't until the early that Elsie and Frances started showing showing showing show show- ing indications that the photographs were faked although they disagreed on many different points It is generally generally generally gener gener- ally accepted that four of the five photographs were faked using card card- board cutouts stuck to hat pins The fifth photograph known as The Fairy Bower in which neither of the girls appear is still in dispute disputer Frances stated stated stated stat stat- ed until her death that she had taken the picture and that it shows real fairies disappearing Although Else disputed this insisting that she had taken the last photograph they both maintained all through their lives that there were fairies in the garden and that they were able to communicate with them This movie like all fairy tales gives us just enough to give us hope but not enough to destroy the magic |