Houdini Commemorative T-Shirt

Here is something you don't see every day. A Commemorative Houdini T-shirt. This is produced by the Camel City Goods Company, and it commemorates the Nov 24th, 1924 performance by Houdini at the Winston Salem Reynolds Auditorium. I'll be honest, I didn't go back and fact check this to see if Houdini did indeed perform there on that date*. I just thought it was a very cool t-shirt.

You can get one here: https://www.camelcitygoods.com/products/houdini-escape-lieu

I've done a bit more research into this, and apparently this is the second t-shirt. The original was a tan shirt with reddish lettering. There was also a commemorative button issued by the same company.

*I've gone back to see if I could find any proof of Houdini performing in Winston-Salem on Nov 24th 1924, and sure enough, an article in The Frederick News, Nov 25th, 1924 mentions his appearance at The Reynolds Memorial Hall in Winston Salem on the 24th.

Happy Birthday Howard Thurston!

On July 20th, 1869, just a few years after the end of the US Civil War, Howard Thurston was born. He was born in Columbus Ohio, and is also buried in Columbus, at the Greenlawn Abbey.

Howard Thurston was certainly one of the greatest magicians of his era. He created an enormous traveling illusion show. He purchased Harry Kellar's Show and toured the country with Kellar for a year. Then on May 16, 1908 in Baltimore MD at the Ford's Theater, Kellar passed his Mantle of Magic on to Howard Thurston.

Howard Thurston died of Pneumonia on April 13, 1936. There is a FANTASTIC book on the life of Thurston by Jim Steinmeyer called The Last Greatest Magician In The World. I would encourage anyone interested in magic history or theatre history to check out this great book.

Thurston's Final Resting Place-GreenLawn Abbey

New Magic History Books You MUST Have

The book above, The Secret History of Magic, just arrived in the mail yesterday.  This book is by Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer. I wish this was a book review but I've not finished the book yet. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I must admit that I LOVE The cover! They took a Servais Le Roy poster and deleted the background so it's against a layer of white, with the books title. Wow does it look good.

As for the content. Some interesting chapter titles: Origin Myths, False Accusations, Disenchantment, Second Sight, Separate Spheres, The Confessions, The UnMasking, The Golden Age, Variety, Thought Transmissions, Before Your Eyes, The Real Secrets of Magic.

I can tell by some of the chapter titles who may be the 'stars' of those chapters. But again, this is no review of the book. To get a copy yourself, go to https://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Magic-Story-Deceptive/dp/0143130633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531919580&sr=8-1&keywords=the+secret+history+of+magic

I'll have a review of the book at a later date!