A Little More on the Magic History Contest

As it stands right now there are between 25-30 questions to the contest. I may alter that before Oct1, but it will be somewhere in that range. The questions are all magic history related and there are a couple trick questions in there, which means you have to really pay attention to what is being asked.

First Prize

Originally, the idea of a contest was going to be something just for fun. But as I got more serious about it I figured I'd give away a prize or two. So first prize will be a copy of the new book "The Amazing Harry Kellar" by Gail Jarrow. The second prize, if there is a second prize winner, will be a copy of the book "Houdini His Legend and His Magic" by Doug Henning, hardbound copy.

The winner(s) will be announced on October 31, 2012 on the Magic Detective Show on Youtube, and there will be a link on this site as well. So that means after months of delay the Magic Detective Show will finally hit the internet. The first episode will actually air before October 31st and I'll give you an update shortly on when that will be......

Magic History Contest Begins Monday

Be here Monday October 1, 2012 because that's when I'll post the Questions for the First Annual Magic Detective History Conference! I'll also post the rules and prize information. The contest will run until Midnight October 30th, 2012. Then on October 31, 2012, I'll announce the winners of the contest.

Before Monday comes around I'm hoping to get another article finished, this time on magician who I didn't know that much about but have enjoyed researching his life and career.

Elect the Next President, Houdini

Above is a famous poster known as the 'Houdini For President' poster. I got to thinking about this, especially given that it's an election year and started doing some research into Houdini's presidency.
As it turns out Houdini was President a lot! In 1911, Houdini was elected President of the Magician's Club of London. The Magician's Club was the brainchild of Will Goldston, but Will chose the position of Treasurer and allowed Houdini to remain President of the club until he died in 1926. After this Goldston took over until his death at which point the club vanished into the night.

In 1917, Houdini was elected President of the Society of American Magicians. Houdini served as the Most Illustrious President until his untimely death. On his gravestone it actually reads M.I. President 1917-1927, even though Houdini died in 1926.

In 1919, he became the President of the Martinka Magic Company. Interestingly, the Society of American Magicians, or S.A.M. as it's known, was actually formed in the backroom of Martinka's Magic Shop back in 1902. Even on the logo that Martinkas uses today it says "Formerly Owned by Harry Houdini"

One of Houdini's first jobs as President was to also purchase the Hornmann Magic Company and merge it together with Martinkas. Houdini only lasted 9 months in office before selling off his 51 percent controlling stock to Alf Wilton who was one of the original partners in the deal to purchase Martinka's from Charles Carter. He only lasted a short time because yet another Presidency was taking up his time...

Houdini's final office of the Presidency was for the Houdini Picture Corporation, though I imagine that is one office he might have passed on had he known how tough the movie studio business was. He should have stuck with making movies for others rather than trying to do everything.

The 'Houdini For President' image was later used in 2002 as the image for the Houdini U.S. Postage Stamp that the Society of American Magicians lobbied for for many years.

I think modern day Presidents and politicians of all kinds admire magicians and Houdini. Magicians have the ability to misdirect and fool their audiences, while Houdini could escape from impossible situations and have the people rooting for him the whole time. Sounds like a politicians dream!