The Man Who Knows

You've probably seen the posters before. The man with the unusual gaze wearing a turban. Who was he? Did he really know?

His real name was Claude Alexander Conlin (1880-1954) and he was one of the premier mind readers of all time. He was called a crystal gazer by some, a con artist by others and he admitted to killing at least four men in his lifetime.  He began his career in show business around 1902 by doing a magic act. Not just any magic act though. Part of his act was an escape act basically copied from Houdini. There were many performers ripping off Houdini at this time and work for no named escape artists was pretty thin.

WILD ABOUT HARRY: A look back at HOUDINI (1953)

My initial interest in magic happened with this HOUDINI movie by Tony Curtis. I love all the Houdini movies (with the exception of Death Defying Acts). John Cox who has the fantastic WildAboutHoudini.com blog has written several pieces about the various Houdini movies. The first is the 1953 movie starring Houdini and John has got some great information on the making of the movie. At the very bottom of his blog are links to the other articles. He covers: The 1976 The Great Houdinis, The 1987 Young Harry Houdini, The 1998 HOUDINI by TNT, and the 1997 Fairy Tale: A True Story movie. There are two different blogs about the Paul Michael Glaser movie 'The Great Houdinis' so be sure to check them both out.

Houdini's Chosen Birthday

Today is the day in which Houdini actually celebrated as his birthday. It's possible that he never knew his real birthday and if you go over to WildAboutHoudini.com, John Cox has a few more things to add to this.

Let me give you my take, and please know this is my opinion. For the past few months I've been delving into the world of genealogies. Digging up information on where my family originated has been exiting at times and frustrating at others. After having read through hundreds of different Census Records, I've noticed a very common trait. People prior to the 1900s didn't seem to either record or remember their dates of birth. Perhaps it wasn't important to them. It's very common to find a Census record for say 1880 that lists one birth date or birth year and then when you find one from say 1910 for the same person, the dates have changed. Birthdates and years are often recorded as 'about 1880' or 'abt 1900'.