Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Magic Detective Podcast Episode 6- Houdini's Final Days and Beyond


Episode 6 of The Magic Detective Podcast is about Houdini's Final Days and Beyond. All of this comes from previous articles here on the site, and I'm going to include the links below to the various articles. You'll be able to see a number of photos that help to illustrate the various stories.

But first, I'd like to include the names of the books that I mention in the podcast. These are all biographies of Houdini.

The Secret Life of Houdini -William Kalush and Larry Sloman
Houdini The Man Who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsey Gresham
Houdini His Life and Art by James Randi and Burt Sugar
Houdini His Legend and Magic by Doug Henning
HOUDINI!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss by Kennth Silverman
Houdini The Untold Story by Melbourne Christopher

Articles

Tracking the Body of Houdini
The Day Houdini was Buried
Last Days of Houdini
More of the Last Days of Houdini
The Manifestations of Houdini

Episode 7 should be up next Monday. It too will be about Houdini and then when I get to Episode 8, I'll explore some magicians you might not be familiar with.

And anytime you want to check out the podcast, you can always just click the link on the far right of the page. Or just go to MagicDetectivePodcast.com. You can also find the podcast in iTunes!

Monday, October 29, 2018

The Original Houdini Seance Coming


If you want a cool experience and you are in NYC Oct 31st, then you'll want to attend The Original Houdini Seance. This one will be in the afternoon, and at the site of Houdini's childhood home. Here is a link for more information. https://form.jotform.com/toddspr/-houdini-seance-event-registration

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Episode 5 Magic Detective Podcast The Early Years of Houdini

EhrichWeiss the Champion Runner

Episode 5 of The Magic Detective Podcast is up and ready to download. I had recently been searching through various podcasts for ones about Houdini. And my search sadly ended with none I could recommend. Actually, there was one, by The Bowery Boys, that wasn't too bad. But I felt that overall there was not a good solid podcast that covered Houdini properly. So I decided to go ahead and begin a series of podcasts about Houdini's life.

This first episode is more a Starter Guide to Houdini and covers his early years up until his marriage to Bess. I rather enjoyed the research on this because there were things I wasn't sure about that I was able to put into perspective. The research into his birthdate, or should I say 2 birthdates was amazing. One thing I left off, was an opinion I have regarding births during those times. I have done a LOT of ancestry work and after having scoured hundreds of Census records, I can tell you that dates of birth change often, as do the year someone was born. This was the case at least in the times before 1940. Usually the year is the thing that changes the most, it may change by a year or two. But the one thing that doesn't change are the places people are born. In that, Houdini is unique. Before 1900 he claimed to be Austrian, after 1900 he claimed to be from Appleton Wisconsin. And he even put this information on legal documents.

While doing the research I read an interesting piece about Houdini's days training as a boxer in Milwaukee. I included that in the blog, and I found that information in the Houdinifile.com

The main part of the podcast stops at the arrival of Bess Houdini, who in essence ends the run of the Houdini Brothers. I had a chuckle as it's often a love interest of some kind that breaks up a group. But in the case of Bess, she was extremely important to Houdini's future and I will cover that in a future podcast. And Houdini's brother Theo, was not totally at a loss, as Houdini put him to work as Hardeen, and later working for his Film Development Corporation.

The podcast finishes with a CRAZY piece of information I found in an old Linking Ring Magazine from October 1971. The article was titled 'Somewhere West of Budapest, Somewhere East of Appleton' and was penned by magic historian and collector Robert Lund, who was also the curator and owner of The American Museum of Magic. The article deals with Houdini's claim he was born on April 6th. Among the various things discussed in the article are a letter from Gladys Weiss to Bess Houdini, and a statement made my Leopold Weiss about his brother. It's definitely worth listening too.

There will be another Houdini Episode following this one. I don't intend to cover his entire life in this fashion, but I'd like to have a couple episodes that give a good overview of his life. I hope to have the next episode up in a couple days, as I have something important I'd like to promote. Here is the link again for Episode 5.