HYPNOTIZZY The reach of the ‘Bridey Murphy’ craze

1956 film “The Search for Bridey Murphy” starred Teresa Wright, Louis Hayward and Nancy Gates.

Come-as-you-were parties became a trend, where attendees dressed as their previous incarnations.

FILM

A wave of debunking articles were published after LIFE refutes the claims, in a follow-up article in their June 25 issue. The articles appear in the Chicago American, San Francisco Examiner and New York Journal American, which were all owned by Randolph Hearst.

Cartoonists published comic strips based on the trend.

The grandfather in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1986 film “Peggy Sue Got Married” mentions reading a book about a Colorado woman who lived in Ireland 150 years earlier.

LIFE magazine publishes “Bridey Murphy puts nation in a hypnotizzy” by Herbert Brean in March 19, 1956.

Culture

Reincarnation cocktail. See recipe on page 10.

“The Ballad of Bridey Murphy” by Fran Allison.

Media

Music

“The Love of Bridey Murphy” by Billy Devroe’s Devilaires.

“Do You Believe (In Reincarnation)” by Lalo Guerrero.

A 1974 pop group, which briefly included Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was called Bridey Murphy.

Several books cited by Bernstein during his research on hypnotism were rushed into reprint.

Lalo Guerrero in 1950. Courtesy of Mark Guerrero.

Research