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!

The Trick That Fooled Houdini

 He Fooled Houdini

The event took place Feb 6th, 1922 at the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago. There was a banquet for the Society of American Magicians and Houdini was the guest of honor. At some point in the evening Sam Margules brings Vernon over to meet and show Houdini a trick. One article I read said, Houdini rolled his eyes and reluctantly agreed. The young Dai Vernon, brought out a deck of cards, shuffled them and had Houdini remove a card and sign it. Houdini wrote 'HH' on the card. Then Vernon, took the signed card and placed it second from the top. Everything was very slow and deliberate. Vernon then turned over the top card and there was the selected-signed card. Houdini was stunned. Dai Vernon did the trick again. The second time Houdini was also surprised. He began to call out possible methods, all of which were incorrect. A third showing, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, and seventh and Houdini was fooled each time. One telling of the story features this addition, "Mutual friends seated at the table said: "Don't quibble, Harry, you're fooled this time". According the a promotional piece of Vernon's, Houdini finally made the admission and added, "Vernon is certainly the best man I have ever seen with cards." 

Thereafter, Dai Vernon, who was going by Dale Vernon at that time, used the moniker 'He Fooled Houdini' in all his promotions. Quite reminiscent of Thurston's approach with Herrmann. If you're wondering about sources, I found this story in Genii Magazine, but also in the book, He Fooled Houdini-Dai Vernon A Magical Life by Bruce Cervon and Keith Burns, and it's in other books as well.  

And now, watch The Trick That Fooled Houdini!

All The Anna Eva Fay Links You'll Ever Need

 Episode 74 of the Magic Detective Podcast is finally up and ready to listen to. After a very long delay I was finally able to finish it. As I mention in the podcast, I got distracted with some other interests, so the podcast took a break for a while. But I have had this episode 2/3rds finished since December, so I just had to get it done. I chose to not repeat a lot of information that is I included on other podcasts. Instead, I just gave the episode numbers for anyone who wanted to check them out further. However, to make it even easier, I will put links to those episodes below. AND I will put a link to all the Anna Eva Fay articles on this site, so you can SEE some of the things I spoke of, like the grave for example.

Thanks for being a listener and reader to my blog and podcast. I do intend to continue this project for many years to come!

All the articles on Anna Eva Fay:  https://www.themagicdetective.com/search/label/Anna%20Eva%20Fay

The Fox Sisters Ep 57 https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/ep-57-the-fox-sisters-their-spirits/

Washington Irving Bishop Ep 15  https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/three-pioneers-of-mind-reading/

Houdini & Anna Eva Fay Ep 22  https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/houdini-anna-eva-fay/

Samri Baldwin Ep 30  https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/samuel-spenser-baldwin-pioneer-clairvoyant/

The Anna Eva Fay Ep 74 https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/ep-74-anna-eva-fay-the-great-19th-century-medium/