For over a century, Ouija Boards have been a subject of controversy. Over time, this game, which claims to connect the living and the dead, has been featured in several films, such as The Chill Factor and Witchboard, significantly fueling its popularity. However, whether Ouija Boards remains a hot topic of debate online and offline. This post traces the dark history of Ouija Boards and how they became embedded into modern-day beliefs.
The Origin of Ouija Boards
Ouija Boards hit the mainstream media in the late 1800s. Newspapers ran adverts of a special device that would answer questions about the past, present, or future. These ads first ran in Pittsburgh and New York before finding their way to other parts of the United States. For context, the advertised mysterious Ouija board looked the same as the ones currently sold in modern stores. It was a flat wooden board with “yes” and “no” engraved in the corners and letters of the alphabet, plus the numbers 0 to 9. The board also featured a planchette that would be used to move around the board. All these features fueled the belief that people could use the board to communicate with the dead.
During the launch of the Ouija Board, Americans were experiencing a high level of spiritual awakening. Basically, most people were obsessed with communicating with the dead. Researchers believe the Maggie and Kate Incident in 1848 in upstate New York triggered this wave of spiritualism and obsession with the Ouija Board. The sisters claimed to have received messages from spirits portrayed on walls. Interestingly, spiritualism in America during the 1900s was accepted by society because it seemed to intertwine with Christianity.
The Relationship Between Ouija Boards and Spiritualism
Funny enough, the birth of the Ouija Board had nothing to do with spiritualism; it was more of a business endeavor. The first producer of the Ouija Board was a man named Charles Kennard, who founded the Kennard Novelty Company with four other investors. Kennard saw the rise of spiritualism as a means for him to make a buck. At the time, people had tried all means to communicate with the dead, with most attempts being unsuccessful.
The Ouija Board provided immediate results for those seeking a connection with the dead, so it sold like wildfire. Charles Kennard wasn’t the only one eyeing this opportunity. A Baltimore-based lawyer, Elijah Bond, was the first to patent this strange board.
Quick fact – the name Ouija was coined by Bond’s sister-in-law, who used the board to find out what they should call it.
How The Popularity of Ouija Boards Grew
Even though Charles Kennard often gets the most credit for the launch of the Ouija Board, history can’t forget the role E.C. Reiche played in this industry. Charles and Reiche shared a hallway while he was working in Chestertown. Reiche was a coffin maker, while Charles Kennard was in the fertilizer business. Both heard news stories about this mysterious board and collaborated to make their own Ouija Boards.
It is believed that when Bond requested a patent for his new toy in 1891, the Ouija Board correctly spelled the name of the Patent Officer. However, there are rumors that Bond, being a lawyer, was probably aware of the Patent Officer’s name. This remains a mystery to date.
Whichever the case, Ouija Boards in the late 1800s were a booming industry. The Kennard Novelty Company added 6 Ouija Board production factories in Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and London. In the early 1900s, the Ouija Board business continued to flourish under the management of William Fluid, who later died after falling from a factory that an Ouija Board had asked him to build.
After the devastations of World War I in the 1920s, a lot of people turned to Ouija Boards to communicate with the deceased. Interestingly, during this period, even police officers would turn to Ouija Boards to solve crimes. This spiritualism went past the Second World War. There are records of a New York store selling more than 50,000 Ouija Boards in 1944, a time when World War II was enraged.
The Change of Perspective Regarding Ouija Boards
Moving on to the second half of the 20th Century, Americans developed a different perception towards Ouija Boards. People started becoming more afraid of these boards than looking up to them as a mode of communication between the living and the dead.
This may have been fueled by the release of the infamous film “The Exorcist” in 1973. In this movie, a demon possesses a young boy after playing with an Ouija Board. Immediately after the success of The Exorcist, the Ouija Board became a devil’s toy.
Christians who once played around with it considered it unholy, and that’s when the Ouija Board business started crumbling. Religious groups launched campaigns claiming that Ouija Boards were Satanic and opened gateways to hell.
After the death of William Fluid, the family held on to the company for a while before selling it to the Parker Brothers, who re-introduced Ouija Boards with a different kick. People bought them for other intentions, with most buyers being paranormal hunters. The Parker Brothers moved the company’s headquarters to Salem, contributing to these unique boards’ mystery.
The Key Takeaway
The history of the Ouija Board is both dark and shady. The initial creators of the Ouija Board, who remain unknown, may have had the right intentions. However, the likes of Charles Kennard and E.C Reiche were snake oil salespeople who capitalized on spiritualism. As time went on, this pop culture phenomenon was incorporated into the film industry. From the 1960s to the early 2000s, almost every horror film incorporated a scene with an Ouija Board, and that’s what transformed this “toy” into one of the scariest objects on the planet.