The Magical Three Stooges

The Three Stooges, comedy icons from the early days of movies. Their popularity continues today though all of the various Stooges are gone. I spent some time recently on Youtube watching videos of interviews with Moe Howard and Larry Fine. The history of their act is fascinating to me. Though I wouldn't say I'm a typical fan of the Stooges. I guess for me, they were intriguing and interesting in the same way a magic act or a manipulator would be, but not really all that funny. That's not meant to be a slam on the Stooges, as some people find them hilarious. I just saw them differently and yet still entertaining.

More Houdini Celebrations

Even WIRED Magazine is getting into the celebration of Houdini's Birthday. Google of course deserves a big huge HIGH FIVE for putting up the Houdini/Google logo today and making people aware of the day.

Thank YOU - Record Day for MAGIC DETECTIVE

Yesterday my friend John Cox over at www.wildabouthoudini.com announced he had the biggest one day number of visits to his site. He deserves it as his site is simply fabulous and is all Houdini 24/7. BUT, as it turns out the Houdini Luck is getting spread around and over here at Carnegie:Magic Detective I just hit my best day as far as number of views. Not bad considering this site is only half Houdini and the rest general magic history. (ok, maybe it's 2/3rds Houdini, lol).

ANOTHER Houdini's Birthday

Paul Michael Glaser as HOUDINI

Just a few hours from now when it's March 25th, we'll be celebrating another Houdini's birthday. This time it's the birthday for actor Paul Michael Glaser who was born , March 25th, 1943.

Best Wishes to the Birthday Boys

We all know it's Houdini's birthday. But did you also know that Rosco 'Fatty' Arbuckle was born on this day in 1887?  Fatty Arbuckle was a pioneer comedian during the Silent Film era. He holds the distinction of being the first person to be hit with a pie on film! When newcomer Charles Chaplin was hired by Mack Sennett to replace a comedian who had just left, Chaplin borrowed the pants of none other than Fatty Arbuckle to help create his character 'The Tramp'.

Happy Birthday Houdini

Rest in Peace Dorothy Young

Dorothy Young, passed away on Sunday at the age of 103. She is the last living person to have worked with and seen Harry Houdini. She had quite an interesting life as a dancer and dance instructor, painter and more.

Dorothy answered an Ad in Variety Magazine to be a showgirl in Houdini's Last Tour. She was the last to audition and got the job. She was the girl in the 'Radio' Illusion in which the box would be showed empty. Then Houdini would turn the dial and the radio could be heard to be playing a 'charleston' dance number and out would pop Dorothy dancing the 'charleston'.

Doyle & Houdini: Spirits & Skeptics - The Barnes & Noble Review

Here is another interesting piece I discovered. It has a slideshow with some interesting graphics discussing the relationship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

WILD ABOUT HARRY: MAKING OF THE GREAT HOUDINIS

Paul Michael Glaser as HOUDINI

You must check out this blog about the Making of the Great Houdinis Movie. John Cox has outdone himself. Incredible!

WILD ABOUT HARRY: MAKING OF THE GREAT HOUDINIS: "Unused promo art for The Great Houdinis (from the collection of MSW) Anyone who has spent any time reading this blog knows I have a bit o..."

The Animated Romance of Harry and Bess

This is a very short animated movie (below) about Houdini and Bess that I found on Youtube. I think it's rather cool. Though in all honesty, I WANT MORE!!!! By the way I first saw this fellows animation in the Lemony Snicket's movie. The website for the animator is http://www.benjamingoldman.com/

Jesse Lasky's Magic

Jesse L. Lasky

He was born Jesse Louis Lasky on September 13th 1880. He is probably best known as one of the folks who started Paramount Pictures. However Jesse Lasky had some connections to magic which are quite interesting. But first, how did he get into show biz in the first place?

He began in his teens by performing the cornet. In 1899 he went to Nome Alaska along with many others during the gold rush. While there he continued to play the cornet in music halls and saloons. After a year he headed back to San Fransisco and teamed up with his sister Blanche and they developed a Quick Change Act. This leads to him being hired in 1902 by Leon Herrmann, the nephew of Herrmann The Great. Jesse and his sister present their act, and he also plays cornet in the show with Herrmann for a 40 week tour of the U.S..

Leon Herrmann's Birthday

March 13, 2011 marks the 144th birthday of Leon Herrmann. He was the nephew of Alexander Herrmann, better known as Herrmann the Great! He came to America in 1897 to work with Alexander's widow Adelaide and perform in the show. He bore a striking resemblance to that of Alexander Herrmann.

According the a NY Times article dated Jan 3, 1897, Leon had worked previously with both Alexander and his older brother Carl in their shows in Europe and South America so he was not just starting out in magic but had a firm background in the art.


He only worked with Adelaide Herrmann for three seasons before the personality clashes got to be too much and they parted ways.

One of these days I'll cover the Herrmann family more in depth.

For now, Happy Belated Birthday Leon!!!

The Spirit Cabinet - A History

This article is about the Spirit Cabinet illusion. However, there would be no spirit cabinet without The Fox Sisters. Margaret and Kate Fox were two young girls living in Hydesville NY with their parents. In 1848, the two sisters demonstrated that they could communicate with ghostly spirits by having strange rapping sounds manifest in their presence. Their abilities gave birth to a phenomenon/movement that would be known as Spiritualism. Later in life the sisters admitted they were frauds (but they even recanted that eventually).

Living not far from Hydesville, NY were two brothers, Ira and William Davenport. In 1854, the brothers started making claims similar to that of the Fox Sisters. To prove their abilities they created The Spirit Cabinet and took their show on the road. The Spirit Cabinet was a large rectangular wooden cabinet that rested upon two saw horses. This allowed the audience to view the cabinet from underneath. There was room inside for each brother to sit at opposite ends of the cabinet. I believe there was also room in between them as well for a spectator to sit if the routine called for that.  The basic effect was that the two brothers would be tied to the seats within the cabinet by members of the audience. A number of instruments, like bells and tambourines were placed in between them. The doors of the cabinet were closed to allow 'spirit darkness' and the manifestations would begin, the bells would ring, rapping could be heard and the tambourines would play.

Kellar's Last Mystery

Something is terribly wrong in magicland. This concerns the first Dean of Magicians Harry Kellar. Today, March 10th, marks the 89th Anniversary of his passing. He was cremated and his remains are in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles CA. All of that is accurate. What follows is the mystery.

As you may or may not know, I collect photos of the graves of magicians who have passed on. I think we should pay homage to those who have done so much for the profession and have now gone into eternity. I had posted the image below from the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery on one of my blogs in the past. This is the headstone for Harry Kellar's grave. It can be found near the road under a small tree in Section L, directly to the right of the front of the mausoleum.

The Strange Life & Death of Washington Irving Bishop

Washington Irving was an American author who is famous for many books including the stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" and "Rip Van Winkle" both which were written in 1820 and are still popular today.  There was another Washington Irving, however, this one was Washington Irving Bishop and he was supposedly the godson of Washington Irving.

He was born in 1856 to parents who were both devout Spiritualists. His mother, Eleanor, was in fact a practicing medium. He lived a fairly ordinary life, went to college and then got a job. He left that job to work for Anna Eva Fay the famous psychic/medium/mentalist. Before long, Bishop became Fay's manager. But something would happen to change all that. In 1876 an exposure of Anna Eva Fay's act appeared in a newspaper. The information was secretly provided by none other than Washington Irving Bishop. Right after this, Bishop left the employ of Fay and went about presenting his very own 'exposure' show revealing the tricks of Anna Eva Fay and other fake spiritualists. He even went so far as to expose the 'Second Sight' act that Robert Heller the magician had been presenting. Heller by the way, never claimed to be anything other than a musician and a magician.

Houdini and The Circus Busch

Founded in 1891, Circus Busch was one of the leading European Circuses in the world.  It was started by Paul Busch and seems to have it's origins in fairs or festivals that centered on weightlifting or strong man acts.  Over time more acts were added, including animal acts and many novelty acts.  By 1895 they put up a permanent building in the Bahnhof Börse in Berlin. They also had permanent locations in Vienna, Hamburg and other parts of Europe.

Houdini first appears at the Circus Busch in 1908 with his Straight Jacket escape and Milk Can Escape. This came as a surprise to the many handcuff act imitators who were expecting Houdini to show up with the act he had presented in Germany a few years before.

During another tour of Germany, September 21, 1912, Houdini debuted his original invention "The Water Torture Cell"at the Circus Busch. Houdini actually presented the Water Torture once before in England about a year and half before this, but that was before an audience of ONE. He did that in order to obtain a copyright of the act.

Magic History in March

Sorry for the slowdown of blog articles, but a sudden onslaught of performances has taken up all my time.  However, there are some very interesting things coming and there are a few things of note I'd like to mention.

On March 10th, there will be a very unusual article about Harry Kellar called "Kellar's Final Mystery" which I know will be very popular. I'm also working on another 'trick origins' piece that I'm still pretty deep into, so I don't know when that will be ready.  And keep your eyes open for the next Houdini article just around the corner.

Over at my Dead Conjurers site, I've added a few more graves along with a little biographical information of the people. Some of the most recent graves include:

Anna Eva Fay

The Original Dante - Oscar Eliason

John Henry Anderson -The Great Wizard of the North

Caryl Fleming 

Hardeen