Visiting with Margery the Medium

Last week, I was in the Boston area to attend and lecture at the Yankee Gathering. This is a wonderful magic history conference put on by the New England Magic Collectors Association. When I went to the registration booth on the first morning of the conference, I found out that the festivities didn't get going until later in the day. I was very glad about this, because it gave me an opportunity to take a slight detour.

I jumped in my car, along with my assistant Denise who was traveling with me, and we set sail for Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. I had a map of the cemetery so I knew where in the cemetery to look, or so I thought. My trusty map, with a big red X marking the location of Margery's final resting place turned out to be wrong. So we began to stroll in the vicinity hoping to come across the grave. Twenty minutes or so later, we kept turning up nothing.

Finally, I stopped and considered going to the front gate to see if they knew where she was. But then I looked, and immediately in front of me was a moss covered grave. Removing the moss reveals the name STINSON in big bold letters. It was right there next to me, the grave of Mina Stinson Crandon, better known as Margery the Medium, one of the great Houdini's toughest adversaries.

A great book about Margery and the battles she had with Houdini came out last year called The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher. If you're interested in locating the grave for yourself, it's located off of Birch Avenue in the Artemisia section.  The grave faces the road, and isn't too hard to find now, thanks to the resourcefulness of Denise.

Sneak Peak: Houdini's Hamburg 8 Handcuffs

John Hinson was like Santa Claus at the Yankee Gathering this year. He brought a number of things that he wanted me to see. One item in particular was Houdini's pair of Hamburg 8 handcuffs. Not only did I get to see them, but I also got to try them on. When he made this suggestion, I knew that they were not likely to fit, as most Hamburg 8s don't fit me, I need the larger version which I'm not sure were available during Houdini's day.  John did not bring the key, but even if he had, I don't think they would have shut. Still, it was pretty cool holding and experiencing a pair of Houdini's cuffs.

Yankee Gathering Review will be Coming Soon.

Coming Soon...

I will have some reviews and stories from this years Yankee Gathering 2016, shortly. But I am on my way to a Business Marketing Conference, so it won't be will next week. Suffice to say it was a fantastic time and I would encourage anyone interested in magic history to attend this event.

The Great Maro At The Yankee Gathering

In just a few hours I'll be leaving for Massachusetts to attend The 2016 Yankee Gathering. Not only am I attending this event, but I will also be speaking. I'll be repeating my lecture from last year on The Great Maro. I did have to tweak the presentation slightly for this group. Previously I presented the lecture for a group of lay people. This time it's a group of magicians. Due to the fact that Maro was one of the lesser known magicians of his time, I hope the audience enjoys what I have to share with them!

I will do my best to give you updates on the event as well as share photos along the way!

Happy Magic Day, The 90th Anniversary of the Passing of Harry Houdini

Happy Halloween, Happy Magic Day. Today marks the 90th Anniversary of the passing of magic's most iconic performer, Harry Houdini. There has been quite a bit written over the past 2 weeks concerning this 90th Anniversary. Events are planned and some have already taken place to commemorate Houdini's life and to try and contact his spirit, again.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Houdini isn't coming back. Ouch, that was harsh. But there is good news. Houdini does speak from beyond, sort of. He speaks through folks like Patrick Culliton, John Cox, Arthur Moses, Fred Pittella, David Saltman, Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz, Joe Notaro, Tom Interval, Bill Kalush, Kevin Connolly, and yours truly. And there are probably a few others whose names I missed, my apologies to you if I did. The point is, we are sort of the keepers of the flame. We collect, we research, we discover new things about Houdini and we share them.

Some of us even perform. Just yesterday I did 2 shows which opened with three back to back escapes. I had heard there was a young fellow from Pittsburgh who was going to recreate Houdini's upside down hanging strait jacket escape, and my friend Andrew Basso pays homage to Houdini every time he performs the Water Torture Cell in the show The Illusionists.

Ironically, for us, there is no escaping Houdini.

I had been working on two separate articles about Houdini, both of which I just have not had time to complete. I don't want to put up a partially researched articles when it could be a real gem, so those two articles will have to wait until I have some time to work on them. My fellow Houdini bloggers have more than filled up the space that I've left by not posting, and then some. I had some big plans for #90, but events in my personal life have occupied the majority of my time and prevented me from following through some of the more interesting things I wanted to do.

For now let me wish the Spirit of Houdini the best. I don't think you should congratulate someone on the day of their death. But I can say, even 90 years later, Mr. Houdini, you are sorely missed.

A few years ago I wrote an article tracking the body of Houdini after he died until his funeral. You can check that article out here: http://www.themagicdetective.com/2012/01/tracking-body-of-houdini.html

And if you want MORE Houdini, just follow this link to all the articles on this site about Houdini
http://www.themagicdetective.com/search/label/Houdini