Upcoming articles

I often take for granted that not everyone is familiar with many of the classic stories from the annals of magic history. I study and read about this stuff all the time but not everyone does. With the a new generation of magicians quickly coming into the fold, I'd like to be able to contribute to the newcomers knowledge as well as those that have been into this for a long while.

So in the coming weeks and months, I'm going to try and share some of the more classic stories in the annals of magic history. So expect to see articles on Sigmund Neuberger, Helmut Schrieber, Max Katz Brietz, Billy Robinson, Matthias Buchinger and more. There will also be some new Houdini articles coming. There is one that I'm currently working on which should be out fairly soon. I'm a little behind, but I'll catch up soon enough. So keep watching for the new articles on our old art!

The Man Who Knows

You've probably seen the posters before. The man with the unusual gaze wearing a turban. Who was he? Did he really know?

His real name was Claude Alexander Conlin (1880-1954) and he was one of the premier mind readers of all time. He was called a crystal gazer by some, a con artist by others and he admitted to killing at least four men in his lifetime.  He began his career in show business around 1902 by doing a magic act. Not just any magic act though. Part of his act was an escape act basically copied from Houdini. There were many performers ripping off Houdini at this time and work for no named escape artists was pretty thin.

WILD ABOUT HARRY: A look back at HOUDINI (1953)

My initial interest in magic happened with this HOUDINI movie by Tony Curtis. I love all the Houdini movies (with the exception of Death Defying Acts). John Cox who has the fantastic WildAboutHoudini.com blog has written several pieces about the various Houdini movies. The first is the 1953 movie starring Houdini and John has got some great information on the making of the movie. At the very bottom of his blog are links to the other articles. He covers: The 1976 The Great Houdinis, The 1987 Young Harry Houdini, The 1998 HOUDINI by TNT, and the 1997 Fairy Tale: A True Story movie. There are two different blogs about the Paul Michael Glaser movie 'The Great Houdinis' so be sure to check them both out.