Thursday, March 20, 2014

LINK: Close to Houdini

The David De-Val Tribute Site has reproduced a fascinating article written by De-Val in a 1985 issue of Escapism in which he reports on a visit with Kathleen Owen, the assistant to Houdini's English agent, Harry Day.


Mrs. Owen knew Houdini and relates some truly unique and personal information, including that Houdini carried with him at all times a small polished wooden box containing mementos of his mother ("he would worry if it was out of his sight"), that he "swore occasionally, but not a lot," and that Harry Day did not like Bess.

Click on over and have a read, and also have a browse of some of the other De-Val articles on this excellent tribute site.

Thanks to Andy Robertson.

3 comments:

  1. Numero One-O: the late David Duval was a monumental figure in the worlds of lockpicking, jailbreaking, and Houdini research. I am grateful to this day to Bill Liles for introducing me to him. David and the late Frank Koval discovered a key element in Houdini's ability to escape from jail cells.
    Manny Weltman spoke to Kathleen Owen, whom distinctly remembered seeing Houdini and Harry Day enjoy a brandy and a cigar after dinner.
    Ms. Owen didn't start to work for seven years after the Mirror Cuff. I have suspected that the man we see cuffing Houdini--the Mirror representative--was Harry Day. He looks like Day, he is wearing a toupee, and Day was bald. Perhaps not, somebody should have spotted that.

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    1. On the site HERE is a letter to Paul Daniels in which De-Val mentions having discovered that secret to Houdini's cell escapes, but it doesn't reveal the secret. Is it in The Key, Patrick?

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