http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/girlfairy.htm
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Belletrist0 — 19 years ago(April 28, 2006 07:45 PM)
I'll give a go at answering some of the questions:
If the images were cut outs of either paper or card how were they disposed of without anyone noticing?
After the girls were done photographing their fairies, they dropped the cutouts into the beck. They may have done the same with any scrap paper, or they may have burned any scraps, which was frequently done back in those times.
Wouldn't Elsie's father have searched high and low for any clues?
Both Elsie's father and mother searched their rooms, but never found anything. Although Mrs. Wright was a firm believer of the fairies and the supernatural in general, Mr. Wright always knew that it was a trick, and instructed Elsie never to accept monetary gifts, lest the day come that the girls would be exposed and accused of trying to scam in money.
Cut outs would leave mutilated magazines or remnants from paper drawings - why were none found?
See question one above. The fairies were all drawn by hand, and disposed of in the water after the girls were done with them. Any other evidence was probably burned, or hidden outside of the house until such time when it could be safely disposed of.
Surely it would be difficult for children to make sure all traces were disposed of without anyone noticing.
It depends. The girls had a little alcove all to themselves, and they spent all their time there, talking, drawing, and sleeping. None of the adults bothered them. Furthermore, when the original photos were taken, no one was expecting any fairies, and so searching for any evidence
after
the fact, was a bit of a moot idea.
Why didn't the hat pins show through paper or thin card?
The hat pins did show, especially on the gnome photographed. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle claimed it was the gnome's bellybutton, go figure. Decades later, an adult Frances would say that she would always look at those photographs and cringe when she would see the hat pins sticking through.
Is it believable that all the photos were taken without any hitches? It would be difficult to get rid of any "mistakes" with the type of plates and film used at that time.
Some of the photos did have hitches. The gnome photo has a slight slant, giving Elsie the appearance of abnormally long hands. The last photo of the fairies bathing was a double exposure, and the first photograph of Frances and the dancing fairies was so bright, that the fairies did not even show up, until the photograph was retouched.
Everyone dies but not everyone gets to live. -
Hecate-3 — 19 years ago(September 20, 2006 07:32 PM)
An English country estate would certainly have a working fireplace, but I seem to recall that Elsie said something about disposing of the drawings in the beck. But she probably burned the scraps from the cutouts.
BTW, Elsie was 15 or 16 years old when the pictures were taken. She was not a small child. At the time, she was considered a young woman. Indeed, she had a job outside the home and drew a salary. IIRC, she had been working as an assistant in a photographer's studio. -
stevie-quinn — 19 years ago(November 20, 2006 01:04 PM)
I read a great article on this - I cannot recall where - it was many years ago, but there are some more photos that were found in an old box many years later. These show the hoax really as they were photos that were under or over-exposed by Elsie who had full access to the darkroom.
They were left lying with all the original literature etc. These are publish photographs - or have been at least once and as I say I've seen them.
Still a warm story though. -
i_like_flapjacks — 19 years ago(April 28, 2006 09:51 AM)
Has anyone read the curious incident of the dog at nighttime by mark haddon? It said that Sir Arthut Conan Doyle (Author of Sherlock Holmes), wrote in an article how he believed it was true.
"Children - there's a time and place for ever thing, it's called college" - chef -
v_v_60 — 19 years ago(May 02, 2006 12:13 PM)
This was sooo interesting thankyou for for posting it. I can remember seeing one of the girls (very old lady}interviewed on Nationwide many many years ago when i was about thirteen always fascinated me, they asked her at the end of the interview if any of it was true and my mum turned it off quickly and said to my sister and me lets not find out some things are best left as a mystery!! I was miffed at the time but totally agree with her now.
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corimcd — 19 years ago(September 11, 2006 10:35 AM)
.Frances was born 1907 and following the fairy affair returned to South Africa. She always maintained that at least one of the photos was not fake. She died in 1986
Do you know , or does anyone know, which photo that would be??
I also wonder how they did the leaping fairy photo ? -
corimcd — 19 years ago(December 31, 2006 12:20 PM)
Sorry it took me so long to get back here.
thank you for answering my question nieko-ner.
That photo does look somewhat different compared to others.
I wonder why she said that one was real ?
This story really interests me. I hope to find some books
on the subject.
thanks again -
SnowMoonFalling — 19 years ago(January 13, 2007 07:03 AM)
Although I'm fond of faeriesand like to believe in themI never thought the photos were real. The posted pictures, above, are very clear and I have to wonder how grown people would judge them as Real, even if a little unbalanced by grief. They are so obviously faked. You can't blame the girlsit would seem to me to have been a private thing that the adults ran away with. I always thought it made Conan-Doyle rather an a**.
Nevertheless I think this is a cute movie and one of the better ones for children.
"Blame is for God and small children."Louis Degas
Papillon -
Horseman123 — 19 years ago(November 05, 2006 08:15 AM)
The photos are so obviously fake. I mean look at them. Why is it that all the faries are flat? They aren't three dimensional like the girls are. Even when you look at the faries closer you see a black dot from where the pin sticking out is. Why is it that none of these photos have faries behind her? Around her? Why are they always infront? You can tell this is a posing photograph. Just like when you pose for a picture everyone is in front. This was clearly set up. Why is it there is never more than one photo for each section? For example the one where there are fairies dancing infront of her. Why is there only one picture for that? It seems they only took one picture in a different area, planning it out. If these fairies were indeed moving and dancing around her there would be no problem taking numerous pictures. They clearly took time setting up things so they couldn't take as many pictures.
I mean for petes sake people look at the freaking paper cutouts. They are just horrible. The legs don't equal eachother. The arms are disproportionate to the body. In some of these pictures one foot is bigger than the other and when you look at the legs and wings they are rigid and not smooth.
And gosh their faces. I mean c'mon people, their faces are litterally dots. Some people may so oh it's because they are smaller so you can't really see. But if these were indeed people we would see alot more detail. I mean look at their faces! It's just black dots for shadow! And in one of the pictures the lady doesn't even have a mouth! -
ForeverMagicle — 19 years ago(March 17, 2007 12:11 PM)
I think it's very possible that they really did see fairies.
Maybe some of the photos were fakes because they just needed some sort of proof so that people would believe them. (It's also possible there not fakes)
And when one of the girls confessed that it was a hoax she could have just been pretending it was a hoax so that people would leave her alone.
And one of those photos looks very real to me.
I don't know about all of you, but that's what I think. -
baileypinkrose — 19 years ago(March 18, 2007 04:41 AM)
I think what we had here were incredible young artists with great imaginations. I saw a painting that one of the girls did and it was full of detail, it was colorful and just amazing.
Not to say that fairies aren't real, though. I do have to say the one with the sunbath, the fairies do look 3 dementional. And that is the one the girl maintained was the only real picture. I guess you would only really know if you saw one yourself.
"If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide."-Gandhi -
heather_blus — 19 years ago(March 18, 2007 02:43 PM)
"I think it's very possible that they really did see fairies.
Maybe some of the photos were fakes because they just needed some sort of proof so that people would believe them. (It's also possible there not fakes)
And when one of the girls confessed that it was a hoax she could have just been pretending it was a hoax so that people would leave her alone.
And one of those photos looks very real to me.
I don't know about all of you, but that's what I think. "
I think you need psychiatric help if you believe in fairies. -
heather_blus — 18 years ago(May 01, 2007 04:40 PM)
"I wasn't asking your opinion.
I'm not judging you by what you think, so don't judge me."
I have a right to my opinion, and I think anyone who believes in fairies is not playing with a full deck. By the way, Elsie never claimed to see fairies. Do you still believe now that she did even though she admits she didn't? If so, then that's saaaaaaaaaad.