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The Secrets Behind Harry Houdini’s Ten Greatest Illusions..

The Secrets Behind Harry Houdini’s Ten Greatest Illusions..

By Steve Winalda for Gizmodo

There is an unwritten rule among magicians never to reveal how a trick is done. So when a 2004 exhibition explained Harry Houdini’s illusions, magicians around the world were apoplectic. David Copperfield called it a breach of magic protocol, and performers declared that they would boycott the exhibition. Many claimed to still use Houdini’s tricks themselves.

But Harry has been dead nearly 90 years. Despite their claims, few modern illusionists use his dated techniques. And the great magician’s secrets had been revealed decades earlier. He had been in his grave just three years when his team began spilling the beans.

This list is for those who want to know Houdini’s secrets. Those who don’t want to know should stop reading now…

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Trick Or Cheat? A Pair Of Magicians Have Their Day In Court

Trick Or Cheat? A Pair Of Magicians Have Their Day In Court

houdini  By Samantha Beckett for Above The Law…   

In 1926, Harry Houdini did not have a happy Halloween. The world-famous magician and escape artist died on October 31, 1926, at the age of 52. The man who appeared to cheat death countless times died of peritonitis, the last in a month-long series of injuries and ailments that included a ruptured appendix — the result of surprise punches to his stomach from a McGill University student. This week, On Remand looks back at The Great Houdini and the cases of two magicians who used the legal system to try to take their secrets to the grave…

Born in Budapest in 1874, Houdini (born Erik Weisz) immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin, at the age of four. Five years later, he joined the circus as a trapeze artist, launching his career as a performer. By the age of eighteen, young Erik Weisz had left the circus and his name behind. Adopting the moniker Harry Houdini, he embarked on a career as a professional magician and escape artist. Early in his career, Houdini focused on handcuff and prison escapes. (In 1902, Houdini escaped from the federal prison cell in Washington that once held President Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau.) He then moved on to escapes that were more dramatic — and more dangerous. Houdini’s death-defying escapes included freeing himself from a sealed milk can, “Chinese water torture cell,” and a straightjacket while suspended from a crane. Houdini also performed several variations of a “buried alive” stunt…

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A Magician Among the Spirits: The Improbable Friendship of Harry Houdini & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A Magician Among the Spirits: The Improbable Friendship of Harry Houdini & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Eighty-eight years ago today, Harry Houdini, the foremost magician and escape artist of the 20th century, found himself in a situation he couldn’t escape. It was the situation that no one escapes – his last day on earth. Houdini’s final bow just happened to occur on Halloween.

The timing might have amused the famous illusionist had he been in a position to appreciate the irony. When he wasn’t escaping from straitjackets while hanging upside down from a skyscraper, Houdini spent a considerable amount of his time debunking stories of supernatural phenomena, particularly the belief in spirits. To die on the celebration day of ghouls, goblins, and ghosts would have been high comedy indeed to the man who had sometimes been perceived as possessing supernatural powers himself…

Read more at: 

http://www.biography.com/news/houdini-arthur-conan-doyle

Magicians Penn & Teller on Houdini, Graceland and their first Memphis show in 17 years..

Magicians Penn & Teller on Houdini, Graceland and their first Memphis show in 17 years..

 By Jody Callahan for the Commercial Appeal – Memphis

On Sept. 1, 1923, the legendary Harry Houdini thrilled Memphis with his acts of derring-do in a show at the Orpheum Theatre.

Ever the master showman, Houdini invited Memphians to bring their own hammers and nails to lock him inside a box. They did, and of course, the box didn’t hold him for long.

Earlier that day, to drum up ticket sales, Houdini dangled in a straitjacket from the roof of the former Commercial Appeal building, as 2,000 Memphians gathered in Court Square held their collective breath. Not to worry, as Houdini pulled one arm, then the other, out of the straitjacket and was soon lowered to the ground, unharmed and basking in the applause.

On Friday night, noted magicians Penn and Teller will play the hallowed ground where their idol once performed as they return to Memphis for the first time in 17 years. Even though the original Orpheum burned down a month after Houdini’s show, the new building, erected in 1928, sits on the same site…

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Magic News doesn’t generally publish stories about upcoming performances.. but.. this article contained a lot of interesting and historical information, so, I’m making an exception… Editor