WILD ABOUT HARRY: William Kalush discusses Houdini's enduring fame a...

During this years Essential Magic Conference, William Kalush (above) author of the The Secret Life of Houdini and director of the Conjuring Arts Research Center gave a short abbreviated talk on Houdini and what made him so successful. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the conference for me. This past weekend, Mr. Kalush was at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles to give the hour long version of this fine lecture.
John Cox of WILD ABOUT HARRY was there and covered it quite well. Please click the link below to read John's blog about the Kalush talk on Houdini.

WILD ABOUT HARRY: William Kalush discusses Houdini's enduring fame a...: "William Kalush, author of The Secret Life of Houdini and director of the Conjuring Arts Research Center , gave a talk on 'Houdini and His ..."

The Elusive Moth BOOK

I was quite excited when the mailman delivered a package to me yesterday containing a brand new book. The title, Memoirs of an Elusive Moth by Adele Friel Rhindress. I've mentioned Adele before in my blogs, but in case you don't know she worked with Harry Blackstone Sr. for several seasons. This book is about her adventures from that time period.

First thing I want to say, is it ok to give a book a standing ovation? I loved this book!!! For one, though it is about the Blackstone show, you really get the see the show through Adele's eyes. She has a number of her own adventures that she shares as well. I got a kick out of the 20 hour sleeping story. Actually, I enjoyed all the stories! I also had the honor of hearing a number of these stories in person last summer when I was in Pigeon Forge and Adele and I went to lunch one day.

She describes in the book, a letter that Harry Blackstone Sr. sent her about the new season and how he wanted her to come back to play the part of 'The Elusive Moth', a new routine they were creating specifically for Adele.  I actually got to see the letter during our lunch last year. Also, Adele was a featured speaker during my 'Magic Detective' Session at KIDabra and she shared a couple stories about Harry Blackstone JR. that also appear in the book. But there are many things I had not heard before and she captures them so well. She talks about Del Ray and Nick Ruggerio as well as a number of her fellow female assistants in the show. Adele also shares stories about the non performing cast members and helps the reader to see how important each and every person is/was in the production of the stage spectacular known as Blackstone And His Show of 1001 Wonders!

Besides giving the reader a sense of what it was like traveling with the Blackstone show,  she also gives a glimpse into her own life as well, which I was really happy to read. The book is about HER and her experiences and I'm so glad that she included some none magic history in there as well.

If you love history, get this book. If you know Adele, you must get this book. But if you just want to just read a book that will make you smile, then without a doubt get a copy of this wonderful book, The Memoirs of an Elusive Moth!

To order: http://www.squashpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=256&osCsid=d4fac40e497eb5d7bf8baa0a530d8c39

Houdini Wax Recordings

Yesterday during the Essential Magic Conference, David Copperfield took all the viewers of the conference on a virtual tour of his museum. One of the stops along the way was the Edison Wax Cylinder Recording of Houdini's voice. Houdini fans have heard this before no doubt. But something struck me as odd when I first heard Copperfield play it back.

It's slightly different than the version I had heard in the past. My guess is that Houdini recorded this speech several times, but I had never heard anyone ever mention that fact. Proof of the 'different' recording was not easy as I had to replay the Copperfield clip and then find one of the other clips. The speech pattern is almost identical. However, there was one giant give-away when on the Copperfield clip Houdini is heard to say "after it has been filled to the brim with water". But on the clips you can find on youtube and other places, Houdini says "after it has been filled with water". NOT 'filled to the brim', but just 'filled with water'. There are a couple other changes in script as well, so it is a different version.

Though not a major discovery, I'm wondering if anyone else picked up on this. You can listen to Houdini speak below. But you would have had to register for the EMC 2011 Conference to hear the other version. If you did, it's on Session 9.

UPDATE: John Cox over at WildaboutHoudini.com has an article about the original 'first' discovery of the Wax Cylinders. http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2010/11/houdini-speaks-in-1970.html