Episode 3: History of the Ouija Board

Feb 6

Come learn about the power of Kennard Novelty's Wonderful Talking Board... if you dare!

Episode Transcript

As many of you have probably already surmised, I am a bit of a history nerd. I am of the opinion that past stories of the human species serve to help us better understand our society as a whole, for better or for worse.

And I’d be willing to bet that you share a similar interest in human history; after all, what are ghost stories if not dark glimpses into our own pasts?

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Take the story of the fox sisters, for example. It all began in march of 1848, when young Maggie and Kate Fox started hearing rapping sounds on the walls and furniture of their home. Fascinated by the knocking, they began asking it questions. And to their surprise, they received incredibly accurate responses.

Now convinced that the knocking was some form of intelligent communication from an otherworldly being, the fox sisters showed their family, friends, and neighbors. Before long, they were even selling out shows at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall and traveling with their older sister Leah to showcase the peculiar feat.

For those of you who are already familiar with the tale, you would know that Maggie and Kate’s mediumship was nothing more than a simple gimmick. That the rapping sounds they were interacting with were in reality just the girls cracking and popping various parts of their bodies to create the noise. But all the same, Maggie and Kate were making history in their own right.

Though they didn’t know it at the time, the fox sisters were laying the foundations for one of the world’s most popular religious movements to date—one that would be credited with inventing perhaps the most fascinating board game known to man.

I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…

Advertisements for “ouija, the wonderful talking board” started popping up in newspapers as early as February 1891. These ads described Ouija in spectacular ways—stating even that the board could answer questions “about the past, present and future with marvelous accuracy.” With the promise that it would act as a link “between the known and unknown, the material and immaterial.”

Given the illustrious nature of these advertisements, the Ouija board was in high demand when it was first released. Today, over 100 years later, talking boards are still widely used as a means of spirit communication.

The boards that were released in the late 19th century were similar in design and nature of use as the modern day ouija. They were detailed with the letters of the alphabet and were numbered 0-9. They also had the answers yes and no on either corner along with the word “goodbye” painted or embossed across the bottom.

In spite of these similarities, there are some notable variations between the board of the 1890s and those that are commonly used today. For starters, the original ouija board was a bit more lux in its materials, made almost entirely of wood instead of cardboard with a plastic planchette. But perhaps the key difference is the board’s modern day reputation.

You see, the original ouija board was released at the height of the spiritualism movement, which was ignited by the fox sisters all those years before. Simply put, spiritualism is a metaphysical school of thought and religious belief system based on the notion that spirits of the dead can interact with the realm of the living.

While it was a religious movement in its own right, spiritualism was heavily practiced during the mid to late 19th and early 20th centuries because of its compatibility with Christian dogma. In particular, the movement was especially popular among Christian women of the era.

At the height of its popularity, spiritualism coincided with the American Civil War, which is widely accepted as the Deadliest in American history. As a tragic result, many women living during time were left to suffer the loss of the men they loved. It was spiritualism that provided these women with a means to confer with these lost loved ones—and the first time, spirit communication was accepted by the Christian church.

So, upon its invention in 1890, the ouija board was regarded as a convenient tool for mediums to practice their art while also offering grieving families peace and closure—giving the board a rather positive reputation. However, as the years went by, the ouija board began to take on a more sinister name.

Before long, reports of dark and strange incidents associated with the board became more and more prevalent and it seemed as if no one was safe from the power of the wonderful talking board—not even its own creators.

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Before ouija was an infamed household name, it was merely an idea that faced the rigorous testing of the US patent office. Though the idea wasn’t exactly an original one.

Talking boards as a general concept have actually been used widely throughout history. Ancient Romans put talking boards to use as oracle tools while the Chinese used them for, you guessed it, spirit communication.

In the United States, even, the associated press published an article on the wonders of talking boards in 1886. The writers had revered talking boards as a quick method of communication, during a time when messages from the beyond were considered slow coming at best. Likewise, these talking boards could be used by anyone while other methods were seemingly reserved for gifted mediums.

It was this article that hurled talking boards into the mainstream, but despite their popularity, it wasn’t until February 10th 1891 when a patent was finally issued for a board of this manner.

Queue the Kennard Novelty Company, the first official manufacturer of the ouija talking board. The company was founded by Charles Kennard in association with Harry Rusk, William Maupin, Col Washington Bowie, John Green, and perhaps most notably Elijah Bond.

Each of these founders played an integral role in the creation of the official ouija board. But it was Bond who was granted US patent number 446,054 for the “toy or game” soon to be known as ouija.

Now I should be clear, it is no easy feat to procure a U.S. patent and this was especially true for Bond and his associates.

First, there was the matter of naming the product. Of course, they could have stuck with the kennard talking board as they so humbly called it up until that point. But I think we can all agree that this temporary name lacked the X factor that would have board flying off the shelves.

Today the term ouija is widely misinterpreted. Far and wide the general consensus was that the name is derived from the French and German words for yes. Clever, I know but the true origin of the name is a bit more inconspicuous.

As it turns out, ouija is a name the board coined for itself, but not without a pair of helping hands. As it so happened, Elijah bond had a sister-in-law who he described as a gifted medium. So in the weeks leading up to the appointment at the patent office, Helen Peters sat down with the board. She placed her fingers on the planchette and asked it meekly “what would you like to be called?” The planchette started to move beneath her touch and before long it spelt out the name O-U-I-J-A.

“What does that mean?” They asked the board, now perplexed by the seemingly random answer. The planchette once again began to move, this time spelling out a more direct answer. “Good luck” the board warned.

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So they had a name, albeit a rather ominous one. But they still did not have a patent to show for it. And to add insult to injury, the patent office warned kennard novelty that a patent could not and would not be granted unless they could prove that their product functioned as advertised.

Now it should be noted that bond, kennard, and the rest weren’t exactly interested in spiritualism for its religious ideologies. Instead, they were rather interested in the marketability of the movement itself. So needless to say, they weren’t exactly confident that the board would meet patent offices expectations when it came to functionality. To put it bluntly, they weren’t entirely sure how or if the board worked at all. So they once again enlisted the help of Helen Peters.

On that cold February morning, helen accompanied her brother-in-law to the appointment in Washington. And it was she who held the seance that ultimately proved the boards worth to the patent office.

Upon their arrival, the pair met with the chief patent officer—whose name was supposedly unknown to both Bond and Peters, and there would be no introductions. Instead the patent officer asked the ouija board to spell out his name on its own accord. Only in the event that it could accurately do so, the officer informed them, would he allow their patent to proceed.

So peters, bond, and the unnamed patent officer sat down, and for lack of better phrasing, simply let the board do its magic. All three placed their fingers on the planchette then Helen called out to the spirits to spell out the man’s name. And one letter at a time, the ouija board did so with ease.

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Over the years, the legitimacy of the ouija boards patent story has been widely debated. There are some who believe that the board was genuinely capable of identifying the name of a complete and utter stranger. However, there are many who argue that Bond, a patent attorney himself, likely knew the identity of the chief patent officer—even if they had yet to be formally introduced.

Regardless of the circumstances, Bond was eventually award with the patent. And before long, the kennard novelty company was manufacturing their wonderful talking boards at rapid rates.

In the first few years, the original investors made a fortune off of the Ouija Board. But as time went on, tensions rose between the once close friends. Some had even felt that the money changed things between them. So eventually, ownership of the company changed hands and the patent was ultimately sold to William Fuld—a long time employee of the Kennard Novelty Company and a partial investor in the product.

Now as I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, the Ouija Board has been connected to some rather grim incidents throughout its history. And as bad luck would have it, William Fuld was one of the first to experience the dark power that the board seemed to wield.

After taking over the company in 1892, Fuld got to work ramping up the production of the ouija board. He built factory after factory to aid in this venture, apparently all while consulting board for guidance on when and where to build.

It was another cold February day in 1927 when William Fuld climbed to the roof of one of these newly constructed factories. He leaned against a guard rail and watched as a construction team worked to install a flag pole. Seemingly without warning, the rail gave way, sending Fuld on a three story fall to the ground below.

By some miracle, Fuld survived the initial fall. And though the paramedics believed he would make a full recovery, they loaded him into an ambulance to be transported to a nearby hospital where he could be treated for his injuries. But while en route, Fulds misfortune continued. Though he appeared to be stabled, Fuld actually had a severely cracked rib and during transport one of the fractured pieces pierced his heart.

In the days that followed, William Fuld’s obituary was published in the New York Times, where he was credited as the original inventor of the Ouija board. And although that isn’t exactly true, it’s hard to not to find the circumstances to be more than a little eerie, especially given the fact that the board had advised Fuld to build that factory in the first place. If you believe such things that is.

Now William Fuld is not the only investor that the board came back haunt.

Allow me to reintroduce, Helen peters—the gifted medium, who helped her brother-in-law at the patent office years before. At the time of its creation, Helen raved about the Ouija board, going as far as to invest some of her own money into the product. And being a gifted medium herself, she even consulted her own personal board on the regular occasion.

Now as an aside, it is worth nothing that Helen was brought up during the American civil and as an unfortunate result many of the male members of her family served and lost their lives during the conflict. As a keepsake of these lost loved ones, Helen and her family had save pieces of their uniforms. As Helen got older, the collection was proudly displayed in her home. Until one day when the collection disappeared.

As you may have guessed, Helen took it upon herself to ask the ouija board what happened the beloved collection. As she placed her fingers down, the planchette began to spell out the word S-T-O-L-E-N.

I can only imagine that Helen was bewilder by the fact that anyone would want to steal such a sentimental, yet simple collection. So she inquired again. This time, the board produced a name. One belonging to another family member who, the board assured her, took the collection for themselves.

The accusation eventually caused a rift in the peters family. About half believed Helen and the board, while the other half felt that this claim made by a simple parlor game was too preposterous to be true.

The tension between both sides the family soon became too much for poor Helen to bare and she started to resent the board for ever coming into her life. Eventually, Helen disavowed the board, sold her share in the company and swore to never to touch it again.

She spent the rest of her life warning others of the dangers of the board, swearing to anyone who would listen that it was evil and if you let it ouija would ruin you life.

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If it wasn’t the misfortunes of William Fuld and Helen Peters, then the ouija board’s presence in pop culture is likely the reason for its off-putting reputation.

In fact a quick google search of the term ouija will pull dozens of horror films that showcase the board in all its infamy. Perhaps the most notable of these films is William Blatty’s 1973 cult classic, the exorcist, which featured the ouija board being used to summon a demon from the depths of hell.

The film was an instant hit—even snagging the title of Highest Grossing Horror Film to date. All while simultaneously painting a rather terrifying picture of the ouija board in the eyes of its viewing audience.

In the decades that followed, ouija boards have been referenced in countless horror films, books, and TV shows—more often than not being the cause of the story’s unruly haunting. A board was even used in an episode of I Love Lucy, and despite the comedic relief of Lucille ball, the board was still depicted as a dangerous occult item.

No you don’t have to look very far to find first hand accounts of rather bizarre experiences with the Ouija board. Especially in Hollywood.

Take American actress Goldie hawns ouija board story for example. As Goldie revealed on an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show in the 1980s she stumbled upon an old Ouija board and decided to take it for a spin. She asked the board who is there with them and replied simply with new Russell baby. no as a bit of background, at the time she had been in a long-term relationship with the actor, Kurt Russell, so needless to say she was taken aback by the boards answer. come to find out a few months later, Goldie found out she was pregnant with her son Wyatt.

Along with their ever presence in pop culture, the ouija board is also a common house hold game. In fact, in the year 1967 after the parker brothers purchased the rights to its manufacturing the Ouija board sold over 2million units—beating out the success of a little game called monopoly that year. Not to mention, I would be willing to bet that many of you even own a board yourself.

So while some of the stories sensationalizing the its reputation may be fictional, the boards apparent connection to the other side may be all too real. So the next time you get the urge to dust off the old Kenned novelty game box, or stumble onto a talking board in your favorite antique shop, it may be wise of you to look the other way.

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Credits