Saturday, January 28, 2017

LINK: "The 3 most famous names in history are Jesus Christ, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Houdini"

Garson O’Toole's clever blog Quote Investigator today tackles a quote by George Bernard Shaw who identified the three most famous names in history as "Jesus Christ, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Houdini." But did Shaw really say it? Did someone else? Did anyone say it? Click the headline and have a read.


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8 comments:

  1. A while back I researched this and found nothing
    Houdini Museum Scranton Pa
    The Only Building in the World Dedicated to Houdini

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  2. The author didn't use it, but Bill Mullins, I believe, brought up the possibility that it was John Bennett Shaw who actually said this.

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  3. I think you replace Holmes with Elvis and you got it.

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  4. Escapologist Murray performed for George Bernard Shaw. If this was his response, it's no wonder that Murray didn't like Houdini!
    Paul Zenon

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  5. I don't know whether Bill Mullins ever attributed the quote to John Bennett Shaw, but I did. It's been my pet theory about the matter for years. See, for example, the first comment (August 18, 2011 @ 5:28pm) at http://freakonomics.com/2011/08/18/there-are-opinions-and-then-there-are-facts/

    It makes good sense, given that his name is Shaw, he was known to reverse Holmes, and as an Irregular undoubtedly knew of the Houdini/Doyle nexus.

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  6. To *revere* Holmes. God bless autocorrect.

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  7. Ah, yes, maybe that was you then, via your comment, that brought that idea into the investigation. I think you're onto something.

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