Houdini on American Heroes Channel

I just watched a show on the American Heroes Channel called Americas Most Bad-Ass. It's a historical match up between 4 different famous people. In the episode tonight, the match-ups were Neil Armstrong, Teddy Roosevelt, John Dillinger and Harry Houdini. There are at least two so called experts per contestant, we got, Larry Sloman, co-author of The Secret Life of Houdini and NY magician Matthew Holtzclaw. I honestly had not heard of any of the other folks who represented the other three people.

First off, whose idea was it to pit Houdini against an astronaut? Really? The choice of stories told for Houdini were not the best in my opinion. They opened with Houdini's first straight jacket escape in Washington D.C.. You know what, I can think of someone else a little better prepared to talk about HOUDINI in WASHINGTON D.C. than the two guys they had on the show. Call me crazy, but I do know someone who has written quite a lot about it and has actually been to both locations where he did his upside down straight jacket escapes, as well as researched all his challenges in the area, where he stayed while he was in D.C. and many other aspects of his D.C. escapes.

The second story they choose was the Houdini Frozen Over Belle Island Bridge Escape, which was not frozen over, though, they again throw out that falsehood. I can think of someone who did a fantastic article on Houdini's Belle Island Jump recently. Maybe they should have talked to him. In fact John Cox and yours truly may have been able to provide enough information that would have helped Houdini fare a little better than he did on the show.

They brought up Teddy Roosevelt flying in a plane, not flying the plane, but flying in a plane. But no mention of Houdini's historic First Flight in Australia where he actually flew the plane.  Now, in truth, the show is very tongue in cheek and more of a fun way to share history than an actual contest. But I think if you're going to share history, let's get it right.

In my book, the first man to walk on the moon, pretty much beats anyone. Did he? You'll have to watch the show for yourself.  But if you want a really fun test, ask any school child, ask some teens, ask some 20 and 30 year olds who Armstrong, Roosevelt, Dillinger and Houdini were. My bet is, Houdini will come out as the best known of the bunch, even beating the astronaut. But then again, I'm slightly biased :)

Houdini - Detroit Landmark

My friend Andrew Basso is an escape artist from Italy. He is truly an International Escape Artist however. He is one of the featured performers in the show The Illusionists that is currently touring the United States. Andrew has been checking out various Houdini hotspots along the tour route.

A few weeks ago, I saw a photo of Andrew wearing the actual Steel Straight Jacket used by Tony Curtis in the movie Houdini. This was in the collection of someone in Canada (I think). I occasionally will get a text from Andrew asking about Houdini's connection to this city or that city. And this morning, I sent him some information on Detroit.

As you may or may not know, most of the landmarks in Detroit connected to Houdini are long gone. But there is one that still remains, Wm. R. Hamilton's Funeral Home on 3957 Cass St.. This is where Houdini was embalmed by John Fraser, one of the employees at the funeral home. The photo at the top of the page shows Andrew in front of the Funeral Home.

If you have not seen The Illusionists, I would encourage  you to do so. Andrew does an upside down Straight Jacket Escape and The Water Torture Cell during the show. He is a very charismatic performer with very humble approach to his art. That seems like a contradiction, but it's not. Andrew is not over the top, not bombastic, he is likeable, friendly and you'll find yourself rooting for him to defeat his bonds while he attempts his escapes. Check him out in The Illusionists on tour!

The Grim Game-Houdini's Best Movie

I believe it is tonight, March 27th, when a whole new generation of people will get to see, for the first time, the cinematic magic of HOUDINI. Not, Tony Curtis, Paul Michael Glaser, Harvey Keitel or some other actor portraying Houdini, but instead, the real honest to goodness Harry Houdini. Tonight, at the TCM Film Festival, audiences will get to see The Grim Game for the first time in many many years. As far as the motion picture industry was concerned, this movie was lost. Only a small 5 minute segment of film seemed to remain from the original print. The magic world, at least some of us in the magic world knew otherwise. We knew a print existed though it's condition was anyone's guess.

Thankfully, through the tireless work of Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brooks from the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Rick Schmidlin a Film Preservationist, along with Turner Classic Movies the movie was purchased from it's previous own, Houdini collector Larry Weeks and tonight the movie will make it's 21st Century debut.

I have a wish, and I doubt it would come true, but I would love to see this movie get released to movie theatres all over the country and then perhaps find it's way to get nominated by the Academy Awards Committee for some honor. If nothing else, perhaps it's time to recognize HOUDINI for his contribution to Movie Making.

Oh, by the way, I was slightly incorrect when I said that HOUDINI aka Tony Curtis wasn't going to be there. Actually, according to the list of movies at the Festival, the 1953 Paramount movie HOUDINI, starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, will be showing at the Turner Classic Movie Film Festival. I know we will get a full report from our friend John Cox about these movies. And I'm sure we will hear from Dick and Dorothy as well as they will be at the festival as well. Exciting times to be a Houdini fan!


UPDATE: Ok, I got the date wrong! It's tomorrow night. That doesn't make me any less excited about this. I'm going to throw things over to John Cox who is THERE and has been following this much better than I have. John runs WildAboutHoudini and if you don't know that you are either new to all this stuff or living under a rock. Here is his latest post about the movie, http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2015/03/tomorrow-grim-game-will-be-free.html