BOOK NEWS!

Escaping Obscurity: The Travel Diary of Harry Houdini 1897-1899, will be released by Mike Caveney's Magic Words in late summer. (more)

Monday, October 1, 2012

Memoirs of Harry Houdin

Our friend Tom Interval of the terrific website Houdini in the New York Times has made a very interesing discovery that he is sharing as a FREE eBook. I'll let Tom explain in his own words:

"There was a magician and singer/dancer named "Harry Houdin" who toured Australia and New Zealand in the 1860s. He claimed to be Robert-Houdin's nephew, which is unlikely, IMHO. I just finished writing a short e-booklet about Houdin and published it on Smashwords last night (link below).

I came across Houdin's name by accident when searching to see if anyone else was named Harry Houdini before 1874. I thought it was a typo at first until I found an archived newspaper ad touting "HARRY HOUDIN: The Great Polynational Mimic." Of course, the next thought that went through my head was, "I wonder if Houdini knew about this guy!""

Download Harry Houdin: The Great Polynational Mimic by Tom Interval at Smashwords.

1 comment:

  1. Amazing. I'm not sure Harry Houdin's name would have been well-known to a couple of New York City teenagers in the 1890s. Probably a coincidence.

    I wonder if it was common for 19th-century performers to trade on the name Houdin, the way they used to adopt the name Herrmann (in various spellings).



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