Tracking down an unserious—and uncertain—Fortean. And his stalwart Fortean brother.
Six times between 1947 and 1952 the name MFS Hall appeared in Doubt. Here, then, was another Fortean attracted to the cause in the second half of the 1940s, but whose interest did not last much into the following decade. There’s definitely a pattern. But what to make of the name? Hall is an incredibly common surname. By all rights, he should have ended up in the long list of Fortean members I did not have enough information about to track down; just another name that I tagged “red” for unknown. Except, there were clues . . .
The most important of these came in a letter he wrote to Thayer that ran in Doubt 28, April 1950. In the course of it, he noted he had a brother named Charles Landes, and another with a doctorate in metallurgy. Their father was a civil engineer. They had lived in Nebraska and Portland, but at least some of the family was now moving about California. This was enough to identify the family.
Six times between 1947 and 1952 the name MFS Hall appeared in Doubt. Here, then, was another Fortean attracted to the cause in the second half of the 1940s, but whose interest did not last much into the following decade. There’s definitely a pattern. But what to make of the name? Hall is an incredibly common surname. By all rights, he should have ended up in the long list of Fortean members I did not have enough information about to track down; just another name that I tagged “red” for unknown. Except, there were clues . . .
The most important of these came in a letter he wrote to Thayer that ran in Doubt 28, April 1950. In the course of it, he noted he had a brother named Charles Landes, and another with a doctorate in metallurgy. Their father was a civil engineer. They had lived in Nebraska and Portland, but at least some of the family was now moving about California. This was enough to identify the family.