President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Dunninger to the White House on a number of occasions to demonstrate his mentalist skills.

[2][5][6] According to Dunninger "through all these long years, I have sought good honest ghosts, phantoms, spirits, astral beings, banshees, fays, wee folk, apparitions, fetches—the whole pack and passel of the unsubstantial world—and I have always been able to prove them frauds.

"[2] He was a good friend to many notables in the magic community including Harry Houdini, Francis Martinka and Tony Slydini.

[7] He maintained a lifelong friendship with author of The Shadow, Walter B. Gibson, who guest wrote or cowrote a number of books for Dunninger on magic, psychic phenomena and spiritualism.

[9] He acted as technical adviser as just "Dunninger" in the 1953 biopic film Houdini starring Tony Curtis in the title role.

Recorded via kinescope and replayed on WNBQ-TV in Chicago, Illinois, the 8:30–9 pm Central Time show on Thursdays was the station's first mid-week program.