I'm back in the saddle after a sensational time at the 43rd Magic Collectors Weekend in Chicago. Those who were following my tweets know that the event was jam-packed with Houdini goodness, including my own lecture and the playing of the full Houdini voice tapes.
But there were also fascinating lectures on other great figures in magic such as Jarrow, Herrmann, Max Malini and much more.
I'm working away on my full report and hope to have it up this week. In the meantime, enjoy the program cover (right), which was one of two different Houdini-themed covers. I'll show you the other in my report.
The voice of Harry Houdini boomed out over the assembled guests at The Magic Collectors Weekend in Chicago tonight. But this was not the 1:20 clip we are all familiar with.
Mega collector Arthur Moses has miraculously unearthed the two complete 3:30+ minute recordings of Houdini doing his Water Torture Cell patter, and played them in their entirety, along with on-screen text transcriptions, for the stunned convention attendees. In essence, what we heard tonight was good five and half minutes of Houdini's voice that has NEVER been heard or broadcast publicly.
I almost fainted.
What's revelatory, and what makes this a true "game changer," is that Arthur was able to demonstrate how the familiar 1:20 minute speech is actually an edited and highly abbreviated amalgamation of both these recordings. So it is not Houdini's authentic USD patter. In the authentic recording heard tonight Houdini describes the USD "apparatus" in detail, including the inner cage and the steel bands that encircle the cell, and very craftily teases out the danger of the effect. We also hear his invitation for a committee of "10 to 15 gentleman" to join him on stage. In one of the recordings he signs off by saying: "This record spoken by Harry Houdini."
I'll have more on this and the entire Magic Collector Weekend when I return. Keep following me on Twitter @HoudiniWild for the latest.
Arthur and his crew study the Houdini voice recordings transcriptions.
Tomorrow I'm off to the 43rd Magic Collectors Weekend in Chicago hosted by the Magic Collectors Association. I'm very excited! This is my first MCW and word is this is going to be a particularly good one for those of us afflicted with Houdini madness.
First off, I will be giving a short presentation on Friday morning called Guests and Ghosts of 278. This is part of a celebration of the "Three Hs" -- Herrmann, Hoffman, and Houdini. I'll post more about my talk, and the amazing collectible the MCA has invited me to unveil, on my return.
I'm also especially excited about Friday night's special line-up of Houdini presentations. The night will feature a rare short film starring Teller as Houdini; a talk by Houdini lecturer extraordinaire William Pack; and then the presentation of a MAJOR "game changer" discovery by mega collector, Arthur Moses. I know what this is and, trust me, it's going to rock the Houdini and magic world!
I'm not sure I will have time to update this blog, but I will be tweeting my adventures @HoudiniWild, including the first word of the big Friday night revelation. So follow me on Twitter or watch my tweets above (I've temporarily moved my Twitter feed up to the top of the blog).
This new 76-page Italian Houdini book has just landed on my doorstep. Houdini Il Mago DellaFuga was released in March 2012. It's written by Pierfrancesco Poggi with illustrations by Umberto Mischi.
The book is in Italian so I can't really give it a review, but it appears to tell a parallel story about a young modern day escape artist, Roy, and the story of Houdini himself. The illustrations are terrific and the story takes us all the way up to the Houdini Art and Magic exhibition of 2010-12. There also appears to be a Harry Potter link at the end.
You can buy Houdini Il Mago Della from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.it. You can also download a PDF of the first chapter from the publisher, Biancoenero.
What's this? Scandal baby Evelyn Nesbit receives top billing over Houdini who is relegated to a mere footnote; "also Houdini." Can it be? The mighty Harry Houdini playing second fiddle to the Kim Kardashian of her day!?
Okay, while this is a real newspaper advert from 1919 (which I recently nabbed on eBay), it is not advertising Nesbit and Houdini in person. These are their respective movies sharing the bill at the Empire Theater.
Nesbit's Woman, Woman was released on January 19, 1919, and this could be an ad for opening day. The reference to "Houdini" is actually The Master Mystery, his 15 part serial which was rolling out chapter by chapter at the Empire and, of course, would play second fiddle to a feature. Here's another Empire ad that makes this a little clearer.
Still, you have to think this kind of supporting player billing would rankle Houdini. It's probably why he went on to make feature films himself after entering the business with Mystery.
But this also makes for an interesting double bill. Although Evelyn Nesbit played fictional characters in her films (she's Alice Lindsay in Woman, Woman), her movies were really about showcasing her in films and situations that echoed her real-life infamy as temptress/victim/fallen woman. This is very similar to how Houdini's movies were really about selling the great escape artist in a fictional context. It's also worth pointing out that real movie fame eluded them both.
Houdini and Evelyn would travel side by side through the 20th Century as representatives of the Gilded Age. Both burst onto the scene in 1900; both had biopics made about their lives the 1950s -- Houdini with Tony Curtis in 1953 and The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing with Joan Collins in 1955 -- and both appeared as characters in the book, play, and film versions of E. L. Doctrow's Ragtime. However, Nesbit's name and fame is fading while Houdini has become a household word.
But lets give this one to Evelyn. At one point she was as famous a Houdini, and I've always had a bit of a thing for her...
The Hollywood News has posted this image of Isla Fisher under the headline, "Isla Fisher Is The New Houdini In Now You See Me".
Directed by Louis Leterrier and due for release in January 2013, Now You See Me focus on a band of illusionists who become the target of the FBI after it's discovered that they rob banks while performing their acts. The film stars Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo (who played Hardeen in 1998's Houdini), Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Caine, and Isla as, presumably, the escapist of the team.
Just a heads-up that you only have one week left to see the traveling exhibition Houdini Art and Magic at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin. The show closes this Sunday, May 13, 2012.
Our friend Mick Hanzlik (author of Houdini’s Mirror Handcuff Challenge, Getting Closer to the Truth and Looking into the Mirror) has sent over a link he discoverd to an online Houdini slot machine. This UK based game has a Demo mode so you can play (for a while) without having to spend real money. It's addictive! I played for an hour just so I could see all the different bonus page images, some of which I'm sharing below. But I'm not sure I saw them all, so...
Check out this time-lapse video of the creation of a Houdini tattoo by artist Shane O'Neill. O'Neill recently won Spike TV's InkMaster competition, and I can see why. This is pretty impressive.
Continuing our look back at issues of Genii, The Conjurors Magazine that have featured Houdini on the cover, here we have Vol 4, No. 2, October 1939, which this time gives the cover over to that other Houdini -- Bess.
Genii was originally conceived as a magic magazine devoted to West Coast magic news, and Bess Houdini was a huge part of the West Coast magic scene and a source of great pride for the magic community. (Interestingly, there is a hint of jealously in a mention that "a handful of people in New York" are spreading rumors that Bess doesn't have to pay for her Genii ads). Bess was very close with editor and publisher William Larsen Sr. and his wife, Gerri. In fact, much of the memorabilia that now fills the Houdini Seance Room at The Magic Castle comes from this time and association. The mutual affection is in full bloom here as William Larsen writes:
In all the world there is no more staunch supporter of magic than is Mrs. Harry Houdini, widow of then late great magician and escape artist. [...] Mrs. Houdini has lived in New York, Florida and California. She is now a frequent visitor to the first mentioned states. But we claim her, here, as our own. Her home, beautifully situated on one of the finest, widest streets in Los Angeles, is a mecca for local magicians; for out of town conjurers when they visit Southern California. It is there that Beatrice Houdini presides as the fist lady of Magicdom. Is is there that conjuring men can go and talk, and live over again the grand, mighty days of the glorious past. [...] Houdini made his name mighty and powerful. Mrs. Houdini has made it lovable and charming. [...] Hail the Queen of Mystery -- Mrs. Harry Houdini!
Later in the issue it's reported by Geri Larsen that the Magigals (an organization for female magicians and wives of magicians) held "one of our very best" meetings in Bess' Hollywood home. "The best trick of all being the production of a marvelous repast from behind a gorgeous teakwood screen." The issue closes with two tribute pages to Houdini -- one from Bess and the other from Hardeen. The issue also reports on the death of Horace Goldin.
You know, reading these old issues, I'm starting think this series might turn out to be more interesting than I first thought. It clear that Genii and Houdini had a real love affair in the early years, but I'm not sure that remained the case. Will looking at these issues one by one reveal when the relationship went sour and why?
Dean Carnegie has posted to his blog Carnegie: Magic Detective what he believes could be a new photo of Houdini's mother, Cecelia Weiss. Or it could be Cecelia's mother, Hannah Steiner, who is buried in the family plot in Queens. Dean is looking for feedback, so click on the headline to have a look at the pic and let him know what you think.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Hunger Games director Gary Ross is in talks to direct The Secret Life of Houdini for Lionsgate.
Lionsgate's Houdini project, one of several in development around Hollywood, is loosely based on The Secret Life of Houdini, The Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman. Summit Entertainment (which was acquired by Lionsgate in January) picked up feature-film rights to the book in March 2009 with a eye towards launching a fictional action adventure franchise "featuring a character who is part Indiana Jones and part Sherlock Holmes." The most current screenplay is by Noah Oppenheim.
Ross directed 2003's Seabiscuit before helming the mega-hit Hunger Games. He recently bowed out of directing the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.
Ironically, Catching Fire will now be directed by Francis Lawrence, who is attached to direct his own "action adventure" Houdini project at Columbia/Sony. That project is being written by Scott Frank.
Might we see a battle of the Houdini movies next year?
Stay tuned.
