Houdini Challenged!

 

I have had this talk with numerous people and yet have never put it in print. There are many reasons Houdini became famous but one, was paramount. The Challenges. Back in the Vaudeville Days, you would pay one price to see many acts. And even though they performed daily, you would likely only see them once. Why? Because they did the same act. Some artists did the same material for their entire careers. 

But then along comes Houdini. And he flips everything on it's head. When he comes to town, Monday night he will be doing his Needle Swallowing and Metamorphosi act. But before he finishes, he tells the audience that on Tuesday, he won't be going these things. NO! Because you see, he has been challenged by the local brewery to escape from a beer keg filled with beer! But hold on. Wednesday, a group of local sailors claim they can tie up Houdini with rope in a way he cannot escape! Thursday, oh Surprise, he's hanging upside down from a Straitjacket at the local newspapers office and then he will announce the Thursday night challenge. You see, every night was something different. So audiences would have to come back, again and again and again. No two evenings were the same!

The more impossible the escape, the more people would show up. If there was danger involved, well, that could bring out recording setting numbers of people. His bridge jumps for example, brought a huge crowds. It was outdoor theater and as he said, everyone wants to come out and see someone die. Small playbill were handed out and distributed all over town announcing these various challenges. Who would do the challenging? Local businesses. The local brewery, the local newspaper, a nearby dairy farm. In the case of the image at the top of the page, this was from the Weed Tire Company. They made tire chains for tires that had to go through dangerous weather conditions like snow, ice and high water. 

The challenge took place April 10th, 1908 at Keith's Theater in NYC. The success of the event did two things. It brought much press to Houdini. But it also promoted the Weed Tire Companies new brand line of Tire Chains. The cross promotion was so successful, that Houdini repeated the challenge escape in Philadelphia.  It certainly created an iconic image.

Houdini Back From The Dead - A Review

 

I just finished watching all three episodes of Houdini Back From the Dead, a documentary/movie on Fox Nation. I know a fair amount of people will not watch it because it's Fox, their loss. And a fair amount won't watch it because it's AI, also, their loss. It is far from perfect. Many moments are breathtaking. For the average viewer there is much to enjoy. It does a good job of telling Houdini's story. In my opinion it does get a couple things wrong, but I don't know there is a movie or documentary that hasn't done that to some degree. Overall, it's pretty accurate.

Here is what you get to see. You see Houdini as a boy, you see some of his early life. Not in still images, but images brought to life, or apparent life. You see a teen aged Houdini, and you see Houdini starting out in his career. Many historical moments are covered, like his meeting Martin Beck at the Palm Garden in St. Paul MN. Houdini doing his handcuffed bridge jump escapes. Hanging upside down in a strait jacket and escaping. 

They cover his touches with aviation in Australia and they look amazing. They actually give a decent rendition of the Vanishing Elephant. The problem is the theater is way too small to be the Hippodrome! You will get to see Houdini and his Milk Can Escape, which I thought they were going to reveal, but didnt and then hinted at later. You get a very graphic rendition of the accident in Albany in the Water Torture Cell. Trust me, it's quite graphic. But there is also an interesting moment. When the doctor comes on stage to examine Houdini and his ankle, take a good look at the Doctor. He is an older Houdini. Its like they ran out of ai faces, lol. 

Houdini generally looks like Houdini throughout. Bess, Dash other people, do not like like themselves, they resemble the real people, but they are not spot on like Houdini is. Margery is another one, I do not think looks like Margery. But the famous photo of her on her front door step looks totally real.

Missing are Vickery, Kukol and Collins, Houdini's chief assistants. Yet we get Charmain London. And we also get a recreation of the time when Bess returns all the love letters to women who wrote Houdini over the years. But no Daisy White, too bad.

On the negative side: The voice of Harry is awful. Harry sounds like John DeLancie, Q from Star Trek the Next Generation.  Apparently, the roles were played by real actors who then had their faces replaced by ai to look like the different characters, or maybe just had the actor who played Houdini, had his faced changed. Because the others didn't look as spot on.   The narrator was my least favorite, I found him annoying.

As an escape artist, its kind of humorous to watch, as sometimes they have historically accurate handcuffs from the times, darbies, towers, bean cobbs, but then there are crappy ai cuffs, lol. The depiction of the Metamorphosis is wrong. A ton of work went into the detail of the cabinet to make it historically accurate, but then they blow it by placing a cloth over the head of Houdini, instead of putting him into a bag and tying it up. They also never show his 'ghost house' which he used for many handcuff escapes. They also seem to make light of the Water Torture cell and how fast Houdini really escaped. 

Unless I dozed off, I don't recall the Mirror Cuff Challenge, where he cut his coat off with a pen knife. That would have been cool to see. And its possible I dozed off, for a couple minutes. Not because it was bad, but because it was 1am. 

John Cox, David Haversat, Roger Dryer and Dr. Bruce Overbook are listed as consultants.

Despite my little nit-picky things, it's very watchable and enjoyable. And, no real magicians were harmed in the making of this documentary! 

Now for those who shake and convulse when they hear the word FOX, just go on Amazon Prime. You can get a free 7 day trial. Plenty of time to watch the 3 episodes. And then you can quit before the seven days are up. 

I think the big question for many will be the ai. The entire thing was made with ai. I have a love/hate relationship with ai. But even I am involved in two projects right now that involve ai., so I can't totally dismiss it. And, like it or not, ai is not going away. There was a moment in the documentary that made me sit up and take notice. This is when they mention the introduction of Motion Pictures put a real hit on live theater. And now we have ai which is putting a real hit on many many things. I will say, in regards to magic, I truly believe there will always be an outlet for live in person performances. I would venture video related magic, probably going to die or take a big hit. But its not just magic. Im seeing music, so called recording artists who play in what appear to be live venues, and it's all ai generated. They won't ever perform LIVE. But its hard to tell the difference online now.

I do not trust ai for research, it gets too much wrong. But, it completely rebuilt 4 websites for me in less than 90 minutes, 3 of which had be unaccessible for several years. There are clearly positive aspects to the technology. How we use it, is what is important. And then there is the other side, when it starts using us. But that is a topic for another day.

Dunninger's Spirit Trumpet

 

After Houdini passed, Joe Dunninger took up the mantle of exposing Spirit Mediums and effects. He had the benefit of film and TV. And because of this, we still have some of Joe's presentations that we can watch on video. One item he always used in his Exposure demonstrations was a spirit trumpet. In fact, he even brought it out when he attended Houdini Seances.

You can clearly see the trumpet in the photo at the top of the page. That trumpet, along with the other props used in Dunninger's Exposure Lecture remained in a briefcase after he died. That briefcase stayed in the family until it was purchased by magician and historian Wayne Alan. It now resides in his National Museum of Magic. In the photo directly above you can see the briefcase and trumpet along with some spirit slates in a glass cabinet. That same photo was in my last blog post about the 1953 Houdini movie table.

Directly above, you will see me holding the actual trumpet. This was during an afternoon when Wayne and I were going through the briefcase. We even found a unique item that, at the time, we had no idea what it was. It was a strange metal device, it had two flat pieces of metal sticking out and it appeared that you could wind it up. I later discovered what this strange wind-up mechanism was. It was a secret device to replicate knocking sounds on a door or wall or window. The discovery came from the book, Inside The Medium's Cabinet by Joe Dunninger. I found a picture of the very same device in there along with a description of what it does. I did not, take a photo of it however, you can see the picture from the book.