He also performed an act of "Bloodless Surgery", claiming he could use electricity, hypnosis and manipulation to cure "all kinds of ailments and disabilities".

Yet Bodie was also a great showman and stage performer, and it was the combination of showmanship, as well as his apparent 'cures,' that provided the magnet for his huge success.

During this time, he would build his reputation, performing acts that involved illusions, ventriloquism, hypnotism and other magic tricks.

In the 1906 'Leeds Court Case,' Justice Grantham summed up in his favour, as follows (in part): In 1909, he was sued by a former 'principal assistant,' Charles Irving, for alleged misrepresentation.

A week after the 'Great Bodie Trial', at the instigation of the medical profession, and under the leadership of Philip Figdor,[14] his reputation was forever tarnished when 1000 students rioted at his performance in the Glasgow Coliseum.

[15] Three days later, a mob of angry students attacked Bodie's London premises, after burning his effigy in the street, and assaulting police to gain entry.

He made a recovery of sorts in 1912, when he outdrew the great Harry Lauder in Aberdeen, and held his own until the 1920s, when his now variety-based 'Bodie Show' began to take root again.

He and his second wife were said to entertain lavishly, and the guest list was said to include the future king, Edward VIII, and his fiancée, Wallis Simpson.

He collapsed on stage in 1939, and died on 19 October 1939, at the age of 70, after the end of a season at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach.