RIP Frank Sumption

Photo via drinkwinemortuary.com

Frank Sumption, known for creating “Frank’s Box,” aka “ghost box” or “spirit box” — essentially a modified AM/FM radio said to allow communication by spirits from the Other Side by sweeping over different radio signals and forming messages from the various audio fragments — passed away earlier this month.

He lived modestly with his family in Littleton, CO and there is a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for Sumption’s funeral expenses.

Whether or not the voices are “real”  is irrelevant to me.  If the idea of Frank’s box makes you roll your eyes or you’re caught up in “debunking” it you’re missing the point and need to check your ego at the door and try again.  As I say in my show, life is full of magic and meaning if you’ll only open your eyes — all 3 of them.

A descendant of Frank’s box, the mass-produced P-SB7, has proven a trusty tool for me in my autobiographical black comedy theatrical performance Boneyards, which concludes with a real, audience-led seance combining the spirit box and an antique ouija board in an earnest attempt to contact the dead, and which I wrote about last Halloween in the Washington Post as well as numerous times right here at Jefe’s House.

Thank you, Frank, wherever you are, for your terrific tool/prop/broken radio/supernatural device, depending on your beliefs.  Despite the naysayers I will continue using my spirit box with pride, fascination, and curiosity both on and off the stage.

“My Father Did This.”  See Frank in action demonstrating his box at the haunted Stanley Hotel in Colorado:

7/27/14 Boneyards Transcript

Dear Sunday Audience,

I’m stunned that yet again the voices have spoken backwards. I’d heard of this happening but only experienced it the first time during my 7/16/14 recording. I never imagined it happening to me again, yet here it is less than 2 weeks later.  Are my “synagogue saints” trying to scare me away and be done with us? You’ll have to decide.

Do the names Jane and Patrick Foote or Jason mean anything to any of you?  If so, feel free to post a comment here or email me privately.  The voices recorded during your session say these names emphatically as you’ll hear, either identifying themselves or calling for these people.  Perhaps I’m mishearing the names, see what you think.  I tried doing a web search but didn’t turn up much. I did find a pair of siblings named Jane and Patrick Foote, born to a mother with maiden name Durbin, the same as actress Maud Durbin whose name comes up in the show.  I haven’t checked further to see if they’re related but perhaps a junior genealogist among you will want to take up the mantle and report back. Video here– Continue reading “7/27/14 Boneyards Transcript”

7/26/14 Boneyards Seance Transcript

Plane crashes are all the rage right now so I wasn’t surprised when the two audience volunteers using the Ouija board got the word PLANE right out of the chute and then the planchette kept pointing to the sun and moon icons on the board’s lower corners (sky symbols). Can you say, subconscious ideomotor impulse?

However, the board then proceeded to spell out apparent gibberish. I stress apparent. Bear with me. A selection of the numbers and phrases it kept spelling out over and over:

DON’T MISS THE NYC PREMIERE OF JEFFREY STANLEY’S BONEYARDS AT BROOKLYN’S MORBID ANATOMY MUSEUM ON 2/27/15! DETAILS HERE.

*

Cubana Flight 9646. This Ilyushin 62M CU-T1281 crashed on 9/3/89 and killed all 126 passengers and 45 on the ground.

Did a Cubana Flight 9646 victim speak to my audience through a Ouija board this past Saturday night?

Plane crashes are all the rage right now so I wasn’t surprised when the two audience volunteers using the Ouija board got the word PLANE right out of the chute and then the planchette kept pointing to the sun and moon icons on the board’s lower corners (sky symbols).  Can you say,  subconscious ideomotor impulse?

However, the board then proceeded to spell out apparent gibberish after the word PLANE.  I stress apparent. Bear with me. A selection of the numbers and phrases it kept spelling out over and over:

  1281  

6 TO M (“Could this mean 6 2 M?” an audience member asked.)

1989  

3 1989

MUHA.

I quickly shut down this seeming dud of a seance to wrap up the show and get my audience outta that crypt-like coal cellar and into some fresh air.  The next day I received an email from my die-hard (see how I did that?) fan Joe about Cubana flight 9646:  “I made a small leap in assuming, at least, that ‘6TOM’ might  also be ’62M,’ so  I did a web search and found Continue reading “7/26/14 Boneyards Seance Transcript”