The Most Famous Magician of All Time

Ask someone who the 'most famous magician' is or was, and you're likely to hear: Houdini, David Copperfield, David Blaine, and maybe even Merlin, if the person is trying to be clever. Certainly all of these individuals are famous and certainly all rank high. But the most famous magician is one you've likely all heard of and yet never heard of. What? Read on.

His name was William Vincent. Surely, you know who I'm talking about now. No? Well, he did not go by his real name. Like many magicians, (myself included), he went by a stage name. And his stage name became so iconic, that even small children today know it. He was known as Hocus Pocus. That's right, the phrase that so many people think of as 'magic words', was actually a magician.

During the reign of King James of England (1603-1625), Vincent was known as "The King's Most Excellent Hocus Pocus." He was a juggler, an artist in legerdermaine. His tricks included the Cups and Balls and the cut and restored 'tape' trick, among others. Vincent began his career in 1619 after receiving a licence 'to exercise the art of Legerdemaine in any Townes within the Relme of England and Ireland.'

A book titled, Hocus Pocus Jr. was published in 1634. A short book of 50+ pages, it contains a wealth of knowledge on how to present the Cups and balls and many other wonderful tricks popular during the 17th Century.

The new book, The Secret History of Magic by Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer says that Vincent is the author of the book, Hocus Pocus Jr.. Other sources list the author as anonymous, and still other sources say 'it could possibly have been William Vincent'. 

Many editions of Hocus Pocus Jr. were printed after the original, and apparently each new edition contained new material. Houdini's copy resides in the Library of Congress and is available to view or download as a .pdf. Here is the link.

William Vincent died a few years after the publication of Hocus Pocus Jr.. according to the website www.hocuspocusjr.com (the actual site is long gone, but you can see the original in the Internet Archive site)

Magic Potion #9 Houdini Artwork

I stumbled upon this yesterday. An unusual piece of art using HOUDINI. It reminded me of the Tony Curtis movie, when they referred to the Water Torture Cell as 'The Man In The Bottle'. Here, Houdini IS the MAN in the bottle!

If you're interested in this piece, you can pick it up in various sizes and in various mediums like canvas, wood print, and more.  http://studio-v.wingsdomain.com/featured/magic-potion-number-9-patent-pending-20140922-wingsdomain-art-and-photography.html

Houdini Commemorative T-Shirt

Here is something you don't see every day. A Commemorative Houdini T-shirt. This is produced by the Camel City Goods Company, and it commemorates the Nov 24th, 1924 performance by Houdini at the Winston Salem Reynolds Auditorium. I'll be honest, I didn't go back and fact check this to see if Houdini did indeed perform there on that date*. I just thought it was a very cool t-shirt.

You can get one here: https://www.camelcitygoods.com/products/houdini-escape-lieu

I've done a bit more research into this, and apparently this is the second t-shirt. The original was a tan shirt with reddish lettering. There was also a commemorative button issued by the same company.

*I've gone back to see if I could find any proof of Houdini performing in Winston-Salem on Nov 24th 1924, and sure enough, an article in The Frederick News, Nov 25th, 1924 mentions his appearance at The Reynolds Memorial Hall in Winston Salem on the 24th.

Happy Birthday Howard Thurston!

On July 20th, 1869, just a few years after the end of the US Civil War, Howard Thurston was born. He was born in Columbus Ohio, and is also buried in Columbus, at the Greenlawn Abbey.

Howard Thurston was certainly one of the greatest magicians of his era. He created an enormous traveling illusion show. He purchased Harry Kellar's Show and toured the country with Kellar for a year. Then on May 16, 1908 in Baltimore MD at the Ford's Theater, Kellar passed his Mantle of Magic on to Howard Thurston.

Howard Thurston died of Pneumonia on April 13, 1936. There is a FANTASTIC book on the life of Thurston by Jim Steinmeyer called The Last Greatest Magician In The World. I would encourage anyone interested in magic history or theatre history to check out this great book.

Thurston's Final Resting Place-GreenLawn Abbey

New Magic History Books You MUST Have

The book above, The Secret History of Magic, just arrived in the mail yesterday.  This book is by Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer. I wish this was a book review but I've not finished the book yet. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I must admit that I LOVE The cover! They took a Servais Le Roy poster and deleted the background so it's against a layer of white, with the books title. Wow does it look good.

As for the content. Some interesting chapter titles: Origin Myths, False Accusations, Disenchantment, Second Sight, Separate Spheres, The Confessions, The UnMasking, The Golden Age, Variety, Thought Transmissions, Before Your Eyes, The Real Secrets of Magic.

I can tell by some of the chapter titles who may be the 'stars' of those chapters. But again, this is no review of the book. To get a copy yourself, go to https://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Magic-Story-Deceptive/dp/0143130633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531919580&sr=8-1&keywords=the+secret+history+of+magic

I'll have a review of the book at a later date!

Houdini-opoly The Board Game For Magic Fans!

This is really almost too good to be true. I mean, who would go to the time, effort, and even struggle to produce a version of an Opoly Game with HOUDINI as the focus? Umm, well, Houdini fans and magic historians, that's who! And when it comes to fans of Houdini's and two people who have dedicated their lives to keeping the memory of Houdini alive, you can't get much more dedicated than Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz.

They began the process with a kickstarter campaign and ended up producing an extremely successful campaign! The concept of a board game about Houdini seems on one hand to be very dated. But SO WAS HOUDINI. He's from another time. Yet even though he lived 100 years ago, he is just a relevant and popular today as ever. So I'd say their choice of a board game was sheer brilliance!

I will be honest, when the box arrived, it's so breathtaking I did not even want to open it. It was a struggle in fact to tear open the shrink wrap and see what was inside. It's one of those double edged swords, do I or don't I? But I had to. Curiosity for one was just overwhelming. But secondly, I needed to see if the inside was as spectacular as the outside. The answer....

WOW! It's even more amazing on the inside! Take a look at the board itself. So many incredible details included on the board, so many great photos. And now look at what comes inside the box...many pieces familiar in other Opoly games, the properties, the cards and money. But take a closer look, the cards, the money, they've been Houdini-ized!

I'm not sure I can bring myself to open the bags and money/houses/game pieces though. So that means I might never get to PLAY Houdiniopoly. Wait? What am I saying??? I've GOT TO PLAY THIS GAME NOW!!!! I'm going to contact some fellow magicians and coordinate a Houdiniopoly Night! How cool would that be!?!

There is one more little treat I'd like to share with you. For the folks who contributed to the kickstarter campaign there were some goodies given as a thank you for contributing. This was a bag of extra game pieces, all based on Houdini's career. So you've got an Elephant for the Vanishing Elephant, a couple dogs that are just like Houdini's pets, a Milk Can, some barrels, a playing card, top hats and more! It's just awesome.

If you're wondering how to get one (or two or three) of these board games yourself, it's so easy. Just go to Houdiniopoly.com I'm beyond impressed with the quality of this product. The thought and time and energy that went into this is evident in the final product. I want to thank Dick and Dorothy for including my name among those who helped with this. I'm not sure how much I really did, other than contribute. I was a bit 'out of touch' when this was all being developed. In fact, looking back over the various emails, I see that I had planned to contribute more to put an ad on the back of the game for TheMagicDetective. com but I just didn't get it done. Life has been a little challenging the last couple years, but things are looking up. And things will be looking up for YOU too when you order your own Houdiniopoly Board Game!!! Do it today as I'm sure these are in limited supply.