Saturday, April 30, 2022

Siegfried and Roy Estate Auction In June

 


The incredible estate of Siegfried and Roy goes on the auction block June 8th and 9th, 2022. The auction house Bonhams will be conducting the auction LIVE in Los Angeles. It appears that the auction is made up of furniture, jewelry, and personal possessions of the two Masters of the Impossible. However, I did note that there are show costumes in the mix. So will there be actual magic related items, books, memorabilia, props, illusions???? That I am not certain.

Here is the link to the auction site: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27447/siegfried-and-roy-masters-of-the-impossible/ 

In Oct 2003, during a show, and also on his birthday, Roy Horn was attacked by one of his tigers on stage at the MIRAGE Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. Roy's tiger Mantacore, bit Roy in the shoulder and dragged him off the stage. The duo claimed that Roy was having a stroke and the animal sensed Roy's dilemma and dragged him off the stage to safety. Roy did have a stroke, but it's not know if it was before or after the animal bit him. And further, the animals bit severed Roy's spine and caused an incredible amount of bodily damage. This ended the careers of the long lasting show on in Las Vegas. And it confined Roy to a wheel chair for the remainder of his life. He could stand and walk short distances, but with great difficulty. 

On May 8th, 2020, Roy Horn died of complications due to Covid-19.

Siegfried Fischbacher died Jan 13, 2021, only 2 days after revealing to the world that he had terminal pancreatic cancer. He was 81 years old when he passed away.

They were larger than life personalities and this auction is going to feature some breathtaking items for sure. Below is an example of a beautiful wooden carved chair among the auction items.



Sunday, April 3, 2022

Houdini's Conradi Lamps

 


These are Houdini's Conradi Lamps that he used in his 3-In-One Show in 1926. These are being presented by Doug Henning on one of his annual TV specials. The clip is short, it only shows the Conradi Lamps.

Friedrich Conradi was a German Magic Dealer and builder who built wonderful apparatus magic around the turn of the 19th into 20th centuries. 

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Houdini Playlist for Episodes of Magic Detective Podcast

 


Here is the updated list of Houdini episodes from the Magic Detective Podcast. I've tried to put them mostly in chronological order, or as close to it as I possibly could. Twenty-two of the 75 episodes feature Houdini. And there are more coming! Just click the image above to see a larger version of the picture.

The podcast is located at  https://www.magicdetectivepodcast.com 


Sunday, March 27, 2022

Podcast on Houdini's Needle Mystery


Finishing my Houdini Week is podcast Episode 75. In this episode I take a deep dive into Houdini's Needle Mystery. I've written about it several times on the blog. So I took ALL of that information, plus some info from other articles and some new information and compiled them into a great episode.

For those who would like to listen to it, well, just look below!

Friday, March 25, 2022

Happy 148th Birthday HOUDINI

 


March 24, 2022 was the 148th birthday of Harry Houdini. I'm not sure what was up this year, but it seemed like every single magician on Facebook had a post about Houdini's birthday, far more than the normal amount. That is very cool. 

I had planned on doing a Houdini Week of video tie-ins with my Magic365 Project.  On Tuesday I did The Trick That Fooled Houdini. But Wednesday a major sinus headache kept me from making a video. Thursday, which was his birthday, I produced two videos. The first shows an escape from a pair of Hamburg 8 Handcuffs, but then a bit of history on the cuffs and a shot of me wearing Houdini's own Hamburg 8s. Then a second video posted later in the day had a routine I created on Houdini's Vanishing Elephant Illusion. It used a common piece of magic apparatus, a Silk Cabby. I realized one day that the Silk Cabby was very similar in look to Houdini's Vanishing Elephant Cabinet, at least from the descriptions. We don't really know exactly how it looked because it was never photographed, nor does it survive to this day.

I have one more video on Houdini but I won't be posting it until Saturday. The Elephant video has not received near enough views yet, and I haven't posted it over on Instagram. So I'll use it for tomorrows video and then post one more new one on Saturday. Below are today's two videos, enjoy!