The Challenge Houdini Refused

Houdini accepted many challenges throughout his life. In truth, he set up many of those very challenges. But in October of 1921 Houdini was hit with the most darling challenge of his life! I found this little story in the Oct 2, 1921 edition of the Saginaw News Courier. The headline of the article reads "HOUDINE Stopped, Wife is Reason He Can't Go Through". Yes, they spelled his name wrong in the headline.

Apparently, Houdini received a letter from a young lady in Auckland, New Zealand. In the letter she said she was 18 and alone and had an annuity of 2500 pounds per year and she was 'willing to accept a proposal of marriage from Houdini'. The letter went on to say "she knew by his motion pictures that he was an honorable man and therefore had implicit confidence in him. She suggests that if he will cable her she will come by the first convenient boat to become "personally acquainted" with him."

She goes on to say "They can keep company for three months and if after that time they find they are not mutually fit she can return home. She adds, she is not stage struck, but simply thinks that fate will be kind."

The article concludes that the only thing standing in the way from Houdini accepting the challenge is...Mrs. Houdini! (What a spoiled sport she was!)

I would like to add, for the sake of clarity, that any rich or fairly well off single ladies, with a modeling background, who are interested in testing out this theory in the 21st Century, I have no Mrs. Houdini, or Mrs. Carnegie as it were, to get in the way. And you need not come by boat! But you should send a photo first :)

Steve Baker Mr. Escape Update

I spoke with a friend of mine today, Steve Baker, known professionally as Mr. Escape. Steve is in his 70s now and not in the best health. He has had a number of serious health scares and was in a rehab/nursing home for quite a while. Though he is home now, I can tell he's not the same. As we spoke today he went on and on about how puzzled he is that no one contacts him. I mentioned the fact that maybe it had something to do with the fact that he doesn't give out his phone number, he no longer has email and no one has his address. His response, "I have email". So I followed that up with, "really, for three years you've been telling me that you needed to get your computer working again. So you've got it working now?". He replied "yes." So I sent him an email after we got off the phone and it bounced back, exactly as I expected it would. I get the impression that in his mind he thinks it's several years ago. I know for a while he was having a serious issue with short term memory, but they've amazingly got that resolved.

He is surely a controversial figure. He's probably pissed off more people in the magic world than I've even met! And yet, he can count some very big names as good friends. He's always had a combative nature to him which is unfortunate because the 'everyday Steve' is a pretty nice fellow. But I also am aware of the honory side of Steve that probably did more to get him in trouble than help him. I can't tell you how many fires I've tried to put out where he was concerned, sometimes it worked, often times it didn't. But escape artists by nature are complex people and then again, aren't we all.

Below is a video from last year of Steve while he was in the Nursing Home. An effort was made to bring back his belongings from his California storage unit. For the record, everything was brought back through the efforts of Theresa Greenwood and some friends of hers. At any rate you can see Steve as he looked then. I believe he is doing a little better now, though his memory is spotty sometimes.

Chung Ling Soo's Warehouse

Back in 2010, I wrote a short piece about Chung Ling Soo's House in London and I mentioned that he had a warehouse in the back but that I had no photo of it. Well now I do! Thank to Jon Becker, who brought this to my attention.

The photo is of the warehouse and apparently in recent years there were attempts to demolish the site which did not happen and now there is an application in to see if the developer can convert it into a residential dwelling.

Mr. Becker is researching Donald Stevenson, who worked for Soo and was also the person who took possession of Harry Houdini's airplane. How amazing it would be to one day locate this priceless gem...if it still exists. At least it would be nice to know what eventually happened to it.