Wednesday Wonders by David Copperfield

Are you on Instagram.com? Well, you might want to sign up. David Copperfield announced this week he will be posting photos from his collection every Wednesday in a project he calls #WednesdayWonders. I love this. The screen shot above is from his first announcement of the project. But it wasn't the first photo. Later in the day a photo appeared that showed a cool glimpse of Robert Houdin's Pastry Chef Automaton.

Instagram is owned by Facebook, and it's easy to sign up. It's also easy to follow people on there. David's name on Instagram is d_copperfield. Mine by the way, is carnegiemagic. I would encourage you to follow David to keep up with his #WednesdayWonders project, and please while you're at it follow ME as well. AND ALWAYS be sure to press the 'heart' button on the page to show you LIKE the photo. :)

Christmas with Houdini

Houdini loved Christmas. A simple google search for Houdini and Christmas will unveil a multitude of different Christmas Cards and Christmas Greetings from Houdini and Bess. One of my favorite things that I discovered about Houdini was he also loved to work during the Christmas holidays. To set the stage, this was a time of year when a lot of Vaudeville acts went home to celebrate. And traditionally, the Vaudeville houses saw a decrease in attendance during this time too. But Houdini, never turned down Christmas work. In fact, the Vaudeville theaters loved Houdini because he was such a draw and his appearances over the holidays was just the edge they needed to bring people in.

It's true Houdini was Jewish. But I know a lot of Jewish people who enjoy Christmas. As a dear friend once said to me, "my family and I LOVE to get gifts, so yes we celebrate, and we have a Christmas tree and everything!".  I'm told that there is a photo of Houdini and family with a Christmas tree in 278, his home in Harlem. But for some reason I can't seem to locate it at the moment. At any rate, Houdini certainly celebrated and enjoyed Christmas.

I think my favorite of the Houdini cards is the one below. It's a classic and I've loved it since the first time I saw it years ago.

A Few Talks With David Copperfield

On the Facebook page for the Essential Magic Collection, there are 7 video interviews that Luis DeMatos conducts with David Copperfield. Among the topics: Magic Books, Houdini, Chung Ling Soo, Dante, Robert Houdin and more. The interviews are fairly short but wonderful.

In the video that discusses magic books, David Copperfield tips the fact that he is trying to acquire the bookcase that was in Houdini's home at 278. I would imagine that he will eventually end up with it (IF he doesn't already have it). Copperfield also mentions he owns half of the Houdini Collection of magic books, the other half being in the Library of Congress.

As far as collections go, I never get tired of the glimpses inside of David's ever growing collection. And my admiration for Luis DeMatos goes up and up all the time when I see his incredible video projects both magic and now in this documentary style.

To see the videos, follow this link https://www.facebook.com/EMCollection/videos/vb.132396572192/10155986671877193/?type=2&theater