Houdini Grave Videos

You never know what you'll turn up when doing research. I found this site http://wn.com/Houdini%27s_grave_in_Queens which is filled with online video clips of Houdini's Grave. Actually, one of these clips caused me to head in a new direction on research (can't say what that is yet). The very first clip is John Cox from the famous and fantastic www.wildabouthoudini.com blog. It's kind of funny watching the various videos because some of the people who are visiting are either magicians or Houdini fans and know their stuff while others are not too knowledgeable. Still, I found it interesting. Also, there is a video there of a look inside an old BF Keith's Theatre in Flushing NY. It's really wild, kind of sad also at the same time. That video has nothing to do with Houdini that I know of, it just so happens to be listed on this site.

You'll find out if you didn't already know that Bess has a gravestone with Houdini but she is not there. She was Catholic and thus not buried in the Jewish cemetery. She is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne NY. Harry Houdini had two birthdates and two places he was born, but Bess out did him because she has two tombstones! (is that morbid? sorry)

Just a little historical note, not far from Houdini's grave in Machpelah Cemetery is the grave of magician Signor Blitz. He was such a popular magician that upwards of 13 other performers were traveling the country and using his name and some were using his promotional material. Blitz wrote his own autobiography which is called ‘Fifty Years In the Magic Circle". There is a famous exchange between Blitz and President Lincoln. Lincoln was present during a show Blitz was doing for a group of children, among the children was Tad Lincoln. Lincoln asked Blitz how many children he has made happy. Blitz replied that it must be thousands. President Lincoln follows with "I fear that I have made thousands and tens of thousands unhappy." This exchange took place as the Battle of Gettysburg was being fought.

Who Inspired Houdini?

Dr. Lynn (John Hugh Simmons)

It's well known that Houdini changed his name to reflect his admiration for Robert Houdin. It is said that after reading the Memoirs of Robert-Houdin that is when Ehrich Weiss decided to become a magician. But there was someone before that. Several of the Houdini biographies name Dr. Lynn as the magician Houdini saw as a boy.

The story has it that young Ehrich Weiss went to the theatre with his father, Rabbi Samuel Mayer Weiss and they saw a performance by Dr. Lynn. Ehrich was enthralled by the performance and later in life he purchased all the props from the act from Dr. Lynn's son. Much is made of the routine "Palingenisia" which is a dismemberment routine. In Dr. Lynn's show he would cut off the arm, then a leg and then the head of a person and the restore that person back to normal. This was an invention of Tobin, who was also the inventor of the Sphinx Table. The methods for the two effects were similar but the effects were quite different.

Ward Memorial Theatre Milwaukee

When did Houdini see Dr. Lynn? We know it was in Milwaukee so it was between 1882 and 1887.  Ehrich would have been between 8 and 13 years old. Dr. Lynn shows up in America in 1882 performing in NY and then is gone again by 1886. I may have tracked down where the Weiss's saw Dr. Lynn perform. The Grand Opera House in Milwaukee is possibly the spot. It was built in 1871 and was not far from the area where Rabbi Weiss tried to open a private school. The Grand Opera House burned down in 1893 and the Pabst Theatre was built on the same location. The Pabst Theatre is still there and is still used as a live venue theatre.

There have been over 100 theatres built in Milwaukee over the years but I could only find two that fit that time period. The other is the Ward Memorial Theatre which was completed in 1881. There is a good chance that it was one of these two theatres that young Houdini went to with is father and first was exposed to magic.

I think there may have been a little bit more in Dr. Lynn's performance that interested young Ehrich than just Palingenisia however. It seems Dr. Lynn also did Rope Ties, Spirit Writing and Spirit Manifestations, and his own version of the Maskelyne Trunk Trick. The Maskelyne Trunk Trick is the basis for the routine that started Houdini's career, the Metamorphosis/Substitution Trunk! It's kind of funny that rope ties, spirit writing/manifestations and the trunk trick all became important parts of his repertoire later in life.

All of this research began when I was looking at the photos in Patrick Culliton's book 'Houdini-The Key', on page 400-401 of Houdini presenting Palingenisia and also photos of the secret workings of the trick. The back edge of the cabinet seems to be the give-away, it goes straight across but in reality if Houdini were really using the Dr. Lynn props, the floor would angle backwards in two directions from where Vickory is standing (sorry, I don't want to divulge the method so if you don't have the book or don't know the method then this will be confusing) Plus to top it off, Houdini is supposed to be using Dr. Lynn's actual apparatus, but the cabinet drape looks kind of modern to me, not something from the 1870s. Though in all truth, the method could be working so well that my eyes are fooled into seeing it incorrectly. Afterall, that is what illusion is all about, deceiving the eye. These subtle discrepancies  got me wondering about Palingenisia and Dr. Lynn and before I knew it my office looked like a library had exploded with books everywhere!

By the way, If you'd like to see what Palingenisia looked like, here is a recreation presented at the LA Conference on Magic History that I found over on Youtube. Dr. Lynn did not have mylar in his cabinet, but try and overlook that small alteration. The presentation is superb and actually better than the trick. Though I wonder if it looked better LIVE as opposed to video.

The grave of Hofzinser

Johann N. Hofzinser
Vienna, Austria
photo courtesy Magic Christian www.hofzinser.net

I was just thinking that in some way Houdini is like a gateway drug. You get interested in magic because of him and then you get hooked and move on to bigger things! One of his fascinations was visiting the graves of famous and not so famous magicians. Somewhere along the line this too became an interest for me. So much so that I started collecting images of these famous graves. They are not always the easiest things to find. The photo above is the grave of one of the GREATS! He came years before the golden age of magic. This is the grave of Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser (1806-1875) and he was a great Viennese Magician. He has been referred to as the most important card conjuror of all times. He was also one of the early Salon performers and as I suspected after so much of my research on Robert-Houdin, he was probably just as influential in Austria as R-H was in Paris. Both of their contributions to magic are still felt today!

Hofzinser was a cousin of Ludwig Dobler. Dai Vernon held  Hofzinser in high regard. He even gave one of his sons the middle name of Nepamuk. Hofzinser’s card work lives on today in many ways. His effects are still popular as are his sleights and even a number of his gimmicks. In fact, even I use one of his forces and spread cull. The charming ‘Everywhere and Nowhere’ card routine is Hofzinser’s and I’m wondering if it wasn’t first called “To Think and Forget”. One famous piece of magical apparatus that I am familiar with was called ‘The Rose Mirror’. I have seen the Rose Mirror in person as it is in the collection of Ken Klosterman. There are a number of Hofzinser’s apparatus pieces in the collection as a matter of fact. His ‘ink to goldfish’ is there as well.

As I continue down the road researching Victorian magic, I look forward to learning more about Johann Hofzinser. By the way, the photo above and much of the biographical information here is courtesy of Magic Christian who gave me permission to use the above photo. Please visit his website at www.hofzinser.net to learn more about this wonderful Viennese magician. Ottokar Fischer wrote two books on Hofzinser which were translated into english by S.H. Sharpe which is no doubt how much of his card magic survived. Magic Christian has also written a couple books on the card magic of Hofzinser. For those that might not have these books, try ‘Greater Magic’ as there are several references to Hofzinser in the pages of that book.

The grave is located at the Vienna Central Cemetery, Group 4, Row 2, Tomb 16

J.N.Hofzinser, Rest in Peace.

(most of this is a reprint from a previous blog post I did at www.artistofmystery.com)