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James Randi exposes James Hydick

Wildtime

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http://youtu.be/QlfMsZwr8rc

I was just introduced to this clip, and would like to know a little more about it. When did this take place? What happened to James Hydick? And was there any fall out during the time of the original airing?
 
1981, the show was called "That's my line."
According to wiki, Hydrick is in jail because of molesting boys.
By the way, it took about one minute of web search to find that out :).
 
Late 70s... 78, I think.

Eventually, he claimed he was, indeed, a fraud.

Then he was caught *********** kids, and is currently serving time for it. If only he were Catholic.
 
Georg said:
1981, the show was called "That's my line."
According to wiki, Hydrick is in jail because of molesting boys.
Click to expand...

Hmm. He got a 17 year sentence in 1989 - looks like he's out now, but seems to be in violation of sex offender terms.
 
That's My Line? may have been the first time I'd ever seen James Randi and his prize (I think it was the summer of '81). I had probably seen him on other paranormal shows as a talking head, but as usual he would have been given short shrift and been dismissed very quickly. This is the first time I saw a paranormal test given this much time on national TV.

It's important to note that James Hydrick was something of a phenomenon at the time. During the previous year, he had appeared on That's Incredible on ABC. He was shown with a fairly uncritical eye, except that John Davidson seems very skeptical. Apparently, this was not an act. I've met a couple of people who worked behind the scenes on that show and they report that Davidson was furious that Hydrick was on the show and that they were presenting him as having real telekinetic powers. You can see clips of the show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sblPQWKHOY

Anyway, his appearance on That's Incredible made him a well-known character in the USA. Meanwhile over on CBS, Mark Goodson who had produced the successful panel show What's My Line? for decades decided he needed to get on board the then new "reality show" craze that had hit television with the show Real People on NBC in 1979. So he changed one letter in What's My Line? and came up with That's My Line all about people who would talk about and demonstrate their unusual jobs or "lines" of work.

The show seemed like a pretty cheap rip-off of That's Incredible which, in turn, was a rip-off of Real People. It appears to have been shot on the sets of the daytime gameshow The Price Is Right and used most of the same talent.

I think the show ran a few episodes in late 1980 and then disappeared, but then returned as a summer replacement show in 1981 and I think that's when the Randi smackdown of Hydrick occurred. Hydrick seemed to completely disappear from the national scene after that appearance.

Seeing this play out on TV showed me that skeptical activism was possible and, more importantly, fun.

Ward

ETA: It looks like Hydrick is back in the slammer (and there's a nice photo of him): http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/cgi/pro...chBy=namelist&docountycitylist=2&lang=ENGLISH
 
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The only thing that could have made this better is if Randi had challenged the parapsychologist who "believed psychic phenomena exist" to test it under controlled conditions.
 
wardenclyffe said:
That's My Line? may have been the first time I'd ever seen James Randi and his prize (I think it was the summer of '81). I had probably seen him on other paranormal shows as a talking head, but as usual he would have been given short shrift and been dismissed very quickly. This is the first time I saw a paranormal test given this much time on national TV.

It's important to note that James Hydrick was something of a phenomenon at the time. During the previous year, he had appeared on That's Incredible on ABC. He was shown with a fairly uncritical eye, except that John Davidson seems very skeptical. Apparently, this was not an act. I've met a couple of people who worked behind the scenes on that show and they report that Davidson was furious that Hydrick was on the show and that they were presenting him as having real telekinetic powers. You can see clips of the show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sblPQWKHOY

Anyway, his appearance on That's Incredible made him a well-known character in the USA. Meanwhile over on CBS, Mark Goodson who had produced the successful panel show What's My Line? for decades decided he needed to get on board the then new "reality show" craze that had hit television with the show Real People on NBC in 1979. So he changed one letter in What's My Line? and came up with That's My Line all about people who would talk about and demonstrate their unusual jobs or "lines" of work.

The show seemed like a pretty cheap rip-off of That's Incredible which, in turn, was a rip-off of Real People. It appears to have been shot on the sets of the daytime gameshow The Price Is Right and used most of the same talent.

I think the show ran a few episodes in late 1980 and then disappeared, but then returned as a summer replacement show in 1981 and I think that's when the Randi smackdown of Hydrick occurred. Hydrick seemed to completely disappear from the national scene after that appearance.

Seeing this play out on TV showed me that skeptical activism was possible and, more importantly, fun.

Ward

ETA: It looks like Hydrick is back in the slammer (and there's a nice photo of him): http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/cgi/pro...chBy=namelist&docountycitylist=2&lang=ENGLISH
Click to expand...

Thanks wardenclyffe, for the info. In the age of Oprah “science“, it`s refreshing to see there was once skepticism on television.
 
Anyone wanna guess what happened when this guy went to jail? He started doing religious services and used the same routine to move pages in the bible and convince the prisoners he had special powers. As mooncalf says, at some point he admitted he was conning people. and IIRC there is an interview with him on youtube where he talks about it.
 
A pretty interesting 3-minute video showing Danny Koren exposing some other of Hydrick's tricks.
 
The 'kinetic energy being enhanced by lights, and therefore interfering with my brain' excuse seems plausible to me.
 
No doubt his "blowing" trick has made many a fellow convict stand up and take notice.;)
 
This is one trick you should know just in case you ever get in jail. It may not be a 'get out of jail' card, but it is a 'respect me' card.
 
rjh01 said:
This is one trick you should know just in case you ever get in jail. It may not be a 'get out of jail' card, but it is a 'respect me' card.
Click to expand...

I think it is more of a "Hey chester the molester! Come over here and blow me!" card.
 
That Danny Korem video does not seem complete and I've never been able to find a longer version (and this is not the first time I've looked).

I did, however, just find a portion of a lecture by Korem that he did at a Christian college (Korem's a Christian). He talks a little bit about Hydrick at the beginning, but the rest of the lecture is interesting as well. He also talks about Hydrick again a little about 2/3 of the way through (not much substance, though).

Korem's an interesting character. He's a magician who's written a number of books, but he does not seem to have any online presence.

Here's the link to the lecture:
http://www2.masters.edu/pulpit/files/1988/Spring-'88/19880321-DannyKorem-mp3

Also, there's this exchange on a different board from 2004 that discusses Hydrick in relation to Randi and Korem. I can't vouch for the accuracy of what's discussed, but there is a long quote from an article from Skeptical Inquirer from '81 about the subject.
Here's the link: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-235636.html

Ward
 
A couple more links.

First a discussion of the Hydrick affair from someone claiming to be a producer on That's My Line. It's in the Magic Cafe Forum and the discussion devolves into nonsense comparitively quickly, but starts out informatively.

Here's the link: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=92941&forum=15

And, if you enjoyed the link to the Korem lecture from my previous post, here's another one: http://www2.masters.edu/pulpit/files/1990/Spring-'90/19900328-DannyKorem-mp3

Ward
 
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