New Houdini Documentary On It's Way....and more!

 

Apparently, our friend John Cox has been holding out on us. Yesterday, he announced a new 3 part documentary that is coming out on Houdini, that he has been consulting on. It is called HOUDINI - Back From The Dead. This is going to appear on FOXNATION, and debuts Oct 14th. FoxNation has a good reputation for putting out quality historical programming having done projects in the past on George Washington, The World War 11 Generation and more.

What seems different here is the use of ai in creating new footage of Houdini, not just still images, but what appear to be video representations of his act and life. I am not a fan of ai. In fact, in some areas I am very much against it. But, it does have it's uses and here is an example of something that just cant quite be recreated by humans beings. Famous photos of Houdini come to life in a very interesting way and the results of stunning.

This is not the only documentary on Houdini using ai. There are some really pathetic ones online, that have dreadfully poor graphics and images that do not even look like the man. This one however is spot on. 

There is another Houdini Documentary in production at the moment, which is also using ai. But it also includes interviews with living breathing humans. That one debuts next year, I believe in February. That particular project began as a short video documentary for the Society of American Magicians, but has ballooned into a rather major project. 

100 years later, we are still talking about, studying, and learning about Houdini. Though his name is synonymous with 'ESCAPING' the reality is, his name is also synonymous with 'ACHIEVEMENT'. Maybe its achieving impossible things, being able to push forward and actually tackling what appear to be impossible odds to reach your goals and dreams. Because of this, Houdini will continue to remain in the public consciousness for many years to come.

You can watch the trailer below. And check out John Cox's announcement on his blog.

   

A Rare Peek At The Vanishing Elephant

 

On my recent podcast interview with Eric Colleary, the curator of Performing Arts at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas, and the man responsible for the new book and exhibit Houdini's Library, we talked about missing Houdini posters. I said, I was fairly confident Houdini must have had a poster for the biggest trick in history. Eric said there were actually two mock-ups of potential posters in the collection. 

One of these was made into a greeting card, which he was kind enough to mail to me. It is a wonderful piece and you can just imagine what the finished product might have looked like. Clearly this is an artist rendition of what the effect might have looked like. 

In real life, we know some sort of box was rolled around the elephant, but beyond that, the actual details vary from person to person. Some claiming the effect was unbelievable. Others saying they really couldn't see what was happening, due to sight restrictions. None of the props used in the effect remain, or at least are known to remain. Perhaps someone has a small garage in NY, that once was actually the box for an elephant, lol!

The Houdini's Library Exhibition is currently running at the University of Texas/Austin, and will continue to run until late January 2027. 

In case you missed the episode with the interview, here is the link: https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/ep-118-dr-eric-colleary-houdinis-library/

And I don't usually do this, but I also recommend you listen to Adrian Tenant's interview with Eric Colleary, his link is here: https://themagicbookpodcast.com/episode/dr-eric-colleary-houdinis-library

The two interviews are very different and should help to answer a lot of questions that might remain.

The Houdini Podcast

 

The Houdini Podcast is a new project using the existing episodes from The Magic Detective Podcast that are on Houdini and creating its own playlist. Eventually, I may take these various episodes and pull the featured audio and add new commentary for an actual separate podcast. But for now, you can listen to 30 plus episodes on Houdini and folks that had connections to him. 

The best way to get to the podcast is go to TheHoudiniPodcast.com and you will see the list. I have tried to put episodes in a timeline of when they happened, not when the episodes appeared. More than 15 hours of Houdini content!!!

Any future episode of the Magic Detective Podcast that features Houdini will also go directly into the Houdini Podcast. What can you expect going forward? Margery the Medium, Houdini in Various Locations, Houdini In the Movies, And interviews with authors, collectors, and historians!