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Speaker 1: Hollywood Land is a production of Double Elvis. This is

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Speaker 1: the story about a ghost, a ghost story, a ghost

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Speaker 1: who was full of shit, a ghost too many say

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Speaker 1: represented the greatest illusionist of all time, escape artist Harry Houdini.

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Speaker 1: But it's also a story about the occult, about magic,

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Speaker 1: about fame and grief, and about a mansion where great

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Speaker 1: music was made. Unlike that music I played for you

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Speaker 1: at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.

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Speaker 1: That was a fair use. Sample from the Library of

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Speaker 1: Congress of Illusion Waltz by Princess Orchestra. Play you that

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Speaker 1: clip because I can't afford the rights to a clip

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Speaker 1: from Terry Gilliams The Fisher King. And why would I

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Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of modern day grail quest Cheese?

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Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one

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Speaker 1: movie in America on September twenty fourth, nineteen ninety one,

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Speaker 1: and that was the day the Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Speaker 1: released the album Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic, further stoking the

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Speaker 1: myth of Harry Houdini's ghost. On this episode, the Occult, Fame, Grief,

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Speaker 1: the Chili Peppers, and the Ghost of Harry Houdini. I'm

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Speaker 1: Jake Brennan in this this Hollywood land, John Fruchiante, guitarist

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Speaker 1: for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, felt the hairs on

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Speaker 1: the back of his neck stand up. He was staring

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Speaker 1: at a missing panel on the ceiling, watching the darkness

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Speaker 1: inside stare back at him. He heard the sounds again,

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Speaker 1: strange noises, voices, and then a disembodied scream somewhere between

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Speaker 1: pleasure and pain. John thought about what his friend and bandmate,

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Speaker 1: Chili Peppers bass player Flee, had told him the other day.

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Speaker 1: That he saw a lady dressed in black walking around

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Speaker 1: this place, but not just any lady. She was there,

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Speaker 1: and also she wasn't there. She was translucent, a ghost.

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Speaker 1: John Fruchante wasn't sure what he expected from this rehab

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Speaker 1: man in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, but

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Speaker 1: it wasn't this. For decades, Laurel Canyon, nestled up in

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Speaker 1: the hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, have

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Speaker 1: been a creative sanctuary for artists and musicians. In the

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, it was ground zero for the counterculture movement.

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Speaker 1: Home to Mama Cass, Frank Zappa, the Birds in Buffalo, Springfield.

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Speaker 1: It's where Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell fell in love

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Speaker 1: and then dropped out of love. It's where John Lennon

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Speaker 1: dropped acid for the first time while the actor Peter

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Speaker 1: Fonda told him what it was like to be dead. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that last one technically happened in Bennett at Canyon, I think,

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Speaker 1: but it's like right next door, so you know, close enough.

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Speaker 1: And now, in nineteen ninety one, roughly a quarter century

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Speaker 1: after the Summer of Love, John Fruchianta and the Red

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Speaker 1: Hot Chili Peppers found themselves carrying on that rich tradition,

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Speaker 1: living in a four bedroomhouse in Laurel Kenyon, specifically on

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Speaker 1: Laurel Canyon Boulevard, which was referred to aptly and quite

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Speaker 1: simply as the Mansion. Along with their producer Rick Rubin

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Speaker 1: an engineer Brendan O'Brien, the band had installed a makeshift

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Speaker 1: studio inside the mansion so that they could record their

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Speaker 1: fifth studio album there. That album, Blood Sugar Sex Magic,

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Speaker 1: would transform the group from freaky stylely La Seinsters into

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Speaker 1: one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. But

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Speaker 1: more on that in a minute. The idea was that

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Speaker 1: the Chili Peppers would live and work in the same

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Speaker 1: space for the duration of the album's recording, thus isolating

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Speaker 1: themselves from the influence of the outside world while also

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Speaker 1: tapping into their deep musical brotherhood. Or, as the band's

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Speaker 1: lead singer Anthony Ketas so poetically put it, by not

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Speaker 1: recording in a traditional studio, they avoided the quote anal

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Speaker 1: retentive vibrations of the sterilicity involved with that sort of

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Speaker 1: recording environment unquote. But drummer Chad Smith, the odd man

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Speaker 1: out in the Chili Peppers in more ways than one,

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Speaker 1: didn't want to spend every night in the mansion with

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Speaker 1: the other guys. He just met the girl that he

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Speaker 1: was pretty sure he was gonna marry one day at

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Speaker 1: after hours hanging with these dudes. The last thing he

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Speaker 1: wanted to do was hang out with them some more,

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Speaker 1: go put socks on their dicks or whatever it was

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Speaker 1: they were doing, and not when he had a lady

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Speaker 1: waiting for him back home. Plus, the mansion was creepy

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Speaker 1: as fuck. Weird shit happened there all the time. But

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Speaker 1: this being the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the same band

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Speaker 1: that was currently laying down new tunes with titles like

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Speaker 1: Suck My Kiss and Sir Psycho Sexy. The supernatural vibe

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Speaker 1: of the place quickly took a turn from creepy to horny.

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Speaker 1: John was the first one to hear it, the sounds

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Speaker 1: of a woman getting laid in one of the other rooms.

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Speaker 1: It sounded so real, but just like the trapdoor in

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Speaker 1: the ceiling, John couldn't see anything. It didn't matter. The moaning,

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Speaker 1: the panting, the shrieking climaxes, they couldn't be ignored. Up

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Speaker 1: to that point, John had focused solely on the music

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Speaker 1: he was making with the band, and they had a

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Speaker 1: tight deadline, a deadline that Warner Brothers Records was holding firm.

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Speaker 1: But he just couldn't hold out any longer. He spent

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Speaker 1: the next night in that room, turned on by all

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Speaker 1: that weird ghost sex, a room in which, as he

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Speaker 1: later told Interview Magazine, he furiously masturbated. Still, John and

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Speaker 1: the others were curious as to who or what these

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Speaker 1: spirits were, so they called in a team of paranormal

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Speaker 1: experts to investigate, or should I say so called paranormal experts,

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Speaker 1: Because after a few visits in which the investigators seemed

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Speaker 1: to become possessed by whatever was in the house, it

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Speaker 1: became apparent that they were simply trying to scare the

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Speaker 1: band in order to make a quick buck. Cut to

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Speaker 1: a few months later, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Speaker 1: were the ones making the bucks. Big Bucks, released in

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Speaker 1: September of nineteen ninety one, and led by the tremendous

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Speaker 1: success of the ballad Under the Bridge, Blood Sugar, Sex

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Speaker 1: Magic made the band megastars. And while that album was

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Speaker 1: making its way up the charts and John, Anthony, Flee,

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Speaker 1: and Chad all returned to their respective homes in the

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Speaker 1: Greater Los Angeles area. Back on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, ghosts

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Speaker 1: continued to haunt the living, and just because a team

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Speaker 1: paranormal investigators tried to take the Chili Peppers for a ride,

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Speaker 1: it didn't mean that the spirits inside the place weren't real.

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Speaker 1: Years later, after Rick Rubin purchased the mansion at two

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Speaker 1: four five one Laurel Cannon Boulevard and continued to use

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Speaker 1: it as an unorthodox studio, the band's Slip Knott had

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Speaker 1: their own creepy encounter with an apparition while recording there,

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Speaker 1: this time the ghost of a man in the tuxedo

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Speaker 1: The legend of Rick Rubin's haunted mansion grew partly because

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Speaker 1: it was commonly being referred to as the Houdini Mansion,

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Speaker 1: named for the iconic illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini,

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Speaker 1: who died back in nineteen twenty six. While calling Rick's

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Speaker 1: place the Houdini Mansion is something of a misnomer because

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Speaker 1: there's no evidence that Houdini ever lived at two four

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Speaker 1: five one Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Now just down the road

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Speaker 1: a piece, there's another mansion, this one at two four

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Speaker 1: zero zero Laurel Canyon Boulevard, as well as its smaller

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Speaker 1: guesthouse across the street, number two four three five, and

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Speaker 1: there is some evidence that Harry Houdini and his wife

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Speaker 1: Bess may in fact have resided at one or both

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Speaker 1: of these addresses when Houdini was in town to shoot

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Speaker 1: a couple of movies near the end of the silent

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Speaker 1: film era, and it was in the exact area the

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Speaker 1: twenty four hundred block of Laurel Canyon that the small

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Speaker 1: but devoted group of people gathered every year on Halloween night,

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Speaker 1: October thirty first, the anniversary of Harry Houdini's death. They

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Speaker 1: gathered to perform an annual ritual, and they performed this

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Speaker 1: ritual in nineteen thirty six and nineteen fifty six, even

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Speaker 1: as late as nineteen ninety one, at the moment that blood, sugar,

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Speaker 1: sex magic was being blasted from car windows cruising down

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Speaker 1: nearby Hollywood Boulevard. This ritual was conducted under the belief

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Speaker 1: that Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist of all time,

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Speaker 1: had saved his best trick for last, that he was

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Speaker 1: going to find a way to escape from the great beyond,

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Speaker 1: to tear the fabric between this world and the next,

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Speaker 1: and furthermore, that this group of true believers would be

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Speaker 1: his guide as he made his unprecedented exit from the suite. Hereafter,

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Speaker 1: those carrying out the ritual did so hidden amongst laurel canyons,

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Speaker 1: flora and fauna, lit only by candlelight, emboldened not by

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Speaker 1: blood or sugar or sex, but by magic, black magic,

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Speaker 1: reaching into the dust of the past, peering through the

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Speaker 1: veils of time, reality, and reason to do the impossible,

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Speaker 1: to wake up a dead man and bring.

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Speaker 2: Him back to life.

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Speaker 1: What is magic? The Mirriam Webster Dictionary describes it as

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Speaker 1: quote the use of means such as ms or spells

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Speaker 1: believed to have supernatural power over natural forces. That's the quote.

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Page and David Bowie's favored occultist Alistair Crowley, define

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Speaker 1: magic as the science and art of causing change to

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Speaker 1: occur in conformity with will. While the yacht rock band

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Speaker 1: America once insisted in a top ten single that you

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Speaker 1: can do magic, many of you out there probably think

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Speaker 1: that in reality, magic is a bunch of bullshit, and

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Speaker 1: you know what, you're not wrong. Stage magic, magic for entertainment,

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Speaker 1: all that pick a card, any card, rabit out of

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Speaker 1: a hat. Stuff. Yeah, that's total bullshit, bullshit by design.

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Speaker 1: It's not magic. I'm putting air quotes around that word,

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Speaker 1: by the way, so much as it is sleight of hand,

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Speaker 1: smoke and mirrors, misdirection. You know this though, but seeing

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Speaker 1: as you also know is believing and getting you to

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Speaker 1: believe in something unbelievable is the whole game when it

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Speaker 1: comes to being a magician. Harry Houdini, for one, understood

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Speaker 1: this better than most. This is why he took the

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Speaker 1: breaking out of handcuffs. Not only was his mouth tape shut,

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Speaker 1: but completely naked, so that he theoretically had nowhere to

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Speaker 1: hide a key. And if you were alive way back

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Speaker 1: at the turn of the twentieth century and saw Houdini

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Speaker 1: do the impossible and only his birthday suit, he did

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Speaker 1: so knowing the old story about how when he was

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Speaker 1: barely old enough to walk, he was already picking the

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Speaker 1: locks of his mother's treat box where she kept her

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Speaker 1: homemade apple cake. My point, you went into the experience

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Speaker 1: already believing that there was something special about the guy,

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Speaker 1: the Harry Houdini we all think of now in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four, the illusionists who slipped out of straight jackets,

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Speaker 1: who cheated death while submerged upside down in what he

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Speaker 1: called the water torture chamber. That was a persona created

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Speaker 1: in a large part by Houdini's very real limitations. Ask

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Speaker 1: any magician then and now, and they'll tell you Harry

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Speaker 1: Houdini was a shitty magic man. What he was good

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Speaker 1: at was escaping from situations that John Q. Public could

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Speaker 1: never manage to escape from. That's how Houdini's legend was made.

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Speaker 1: He was the world's first escape artist. And not only

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Speaker 1: was he the first, more importantly, he was the best,

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Speaker 1: at least That's how he promoted himself. Houdini was aggressive

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Speaker 1: when it came to self promotion, and he took no prisoners.

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Speaker 1: You'd get in his way, you steal his thunder, you

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Speaker 1: attempt to rewrite his story, you should prepare to be destroyed.

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Speaker 1: Even the great magician from whom Houdini took a stage name,

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Speaker 1: Jean Eugene Robert Houdin, eventually found himself and his disciples

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Speaker 1: crosshairs at five five and all muscle. The man formerly

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Speaker 1: known as Eric Weiss, a native of Budapest, even though

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Speaker 1: he'd have you believe he was born in Appleton, Wisconsin.

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Speaker 1: Harry Houdini, like the greatest of showmen and the toughest

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Speaker 1: of bullies, dared anyone who listened to prove him wrong.

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Speaker 1: Bring him a set of cuffs and he'd break free.

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Speaker 1: Lock him in a prison cell and he'd bust out.

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Speaker 1: But Houdini was no superman. He wasn't an alien from

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Speaker 1: another planet. He was only human. The means and methods

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Speaker 1: of his particular brand of illusion were real, and thus

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Speaker 1: the one thing that really got Houdini's goat was when

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Speaker 1: someone tried to undermine all his hard work, his real

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Speaker 1: work by giving credit to magic. Spiritualists were having their

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Speaker 1: moment at this time in history, the early nineteen hundreds. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'll think of a spiritualist like a medium, someone who

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Speaker 1: claims they can communicate with the dead. In Houdini's eyes,

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Speaker 1: spiritualists were like those guys hired to investigate the ghosts

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Speaker 1: who convinced John Fruchiante to rub one out in a

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Speaker 1: haunted mansion, and they were a cheap parlor trick, a hoax.

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Speaker 1: Houdini had more respect for the common criminal, the person

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Speaker 1: who was openly cheating you. We know this because he

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Speaker 1: wrote and published a book called The Right Way to

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Speaker 1: Do Wrong, which, besides being a great title, was all

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Speaker 1: about how to commit crimes and actually get away with them.

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00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:13,360
Speaker 1: But again, Harry Houdini was only human, and even he

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Speaker 1: could be convinced to give the whole spiritualism thing a try,

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Speaker 1: especially when his beloved mother, Cecilia, had died of a

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Speaker 1: stroke in nineteen thirteen at the age of seventy two.

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Speaker 1: Cecilia was Houdini's rock. Some even said she was the

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Speaker 1: motivation behind his career, that the reason he worked as

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Speaker 1: hard as he did was because he once promised his

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Speaker 1: father that he Houdini would take care of his mother

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Speaker 1: till her dying day, and now that day had arrived,

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Speaker 1: and Houdini, pained and grieving, would do anything to speak

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Speaker 1: with her again. So years later, when his good friend,

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Speaker 1: the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes,

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Speaker 1: along with Doyle's wife Lady, invited Houdini and his wife

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Speaker 1: Bess to a seance, Houdini took the bait the Doyles,

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Speaker 1: like many at the time bodily stock and spiritualism. Sir

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Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle hoped that by performing the seance, by

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Speaker 1: contacting Houdini's dead mother, he could bring some solace to

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Speaker 1: his friend in a time of great need. Let's set

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Speaker 1: the scene. The room is dark, the blinds are drawn.

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Speaker 1: The faint sound of ocean waves gently lapping a nearby

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00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,080
Speaker 1: beach here carried on the wind through an open window.

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Speaker 1: Candle flames flicker on a table in the center of

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Speaker 1: the room, and they toss shadows on the wall at

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Speaker 1: one end of the table, the Houdinis at the other end,

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Speaker 1: the Doyles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hung his head and

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00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,200
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini followed his friend's lead and did the same.

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Speaker 1: The Lady Doyle began to speak, Cecilia, Cecilia Weiss, are

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Speaker 1: you here? This was the same question Houdini himself had

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00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:58,920
Speaker 1: been asking for years now, Mama, Mama, Mama, are you here?

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00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,400
Speaker 1: He saw his dead mother in dreams. He often startled

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Speaker 1: awake in a cold sweat, reaching out for her, but

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00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:09,640
Speaker 1: she was never there when he called. She was always

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Speaker 1: just out of reach. Tonight, however, when Lady Doyle asked

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Speaker 1: that question, Cecilia, are you here tonight? The question was

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Speaker 1: answered by three loud knocks on the table. Every muscle

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Speaker 1: in Houdini's body tensed up, his throat clenched. The flames

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00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:32,119
Speaker 1: of the candles on the table flapped wildly, as if

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00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:35,159
Speaker 1: something had just passed through them. Was his mother really

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Speaker 1: here in this room with him? Right now? Harry Houdini,

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00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:44,159
Speaker 1: the world's greatest skeptic, could feel the impossible happening he

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00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:48,040
Speaker 1: was starting to believe. Suddenly, Lady Doyle picked up a

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Speaker 1: pen from the table in front of her and began

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00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,000
Speaker 1: writing on sheets of paper. She wrote fast, and seeing

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00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:54,840
Speaker 1: that she wasn't even looking at what she was writing.

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00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,960
Speaker 1: Auto writing they called it psychography. Allowing a spirit to

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00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,080
Speaker 1: manipulate your hand and write for you. Houdini knew this

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00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:04,960
Speaker 1: to be one of the buzzwords around spiritualism, and now

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Speaker 1: he was watching it happen in the flesh. And by

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00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,320
Speaker 1: the time Lady Doyle had finished, she had written on

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00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:14,240
Speaker 1: fifteen pieces of paper, all of it a long, loving

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00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:19,119
Speaker 1: message to Houdini from his deceased mother, or so the

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00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,399
Speaker 1: Doyle said. The papers were handed over to Houdini and

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00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:25,199
Speaker 1: he began to read, but not before he noticed what

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00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:27,320
Speaker 1: Lady Doyle had drawn at the top of the first

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00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:33,240
Speaker 1: page across odd, he thought, seeing as his family was

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Speaker 1: not Christian but Jewish. And then as he began to

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00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,359
Speaker 1: read in earnest he was struck by how the words

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00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,440
Speaker 1: were written in English, not in German, which was the

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00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:46,040
Speaker 1: only language his mother spoke. That was all the proof

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Speaker 1: he needed. He didn't even need to know that the

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00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:50,199
Speaker 1: three knocks on the table at the start of the

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00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:52,919
Speaker 1: seance had actually been made by Lady Doyle herself, not

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00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:56,800
Speaker 1: by a spirit. Harry Houdini had been hoodwinked by a friend.

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00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,320
Speaker 1: No less, he'd been made to look like a dupe,

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00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,639
Speaker 1: and Houdi would not be made to look like a doe.

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00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:07,240
Speaker 1: The seance ruined Houdini and Doyle's friendship forever. It also

285
00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:11,520
Speaker 1: sent Houdini on a crusade against spiritualism. He publicly took

286
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 1: on bogus mediums who were conning people out of their money.

287
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,359
Speaker 1: He testified before Congress and hopes that he could single

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00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:22,040
Speaker 1: handedly outlaw seances altogether. They were bad for Houdini's image.

289
00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:25,879
Speaker 1: They were bad for business, and around this time the

290
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:30,600
Speaker 1: nineteen tens the nineteen twenties, business was very good for

291
00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:35,239
Speaker 1: the world's pre eminent escape artist. Harry Houdini was one

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00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:37,680
Speaker 1: of the most famous people on the planet, as big

293
00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:41,160
Speaker 1: as Babe Ruth or Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was a master

294
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:45,479
Speaker 1: of the moving picture. Movies dazzled American audiences, and they

295
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:49,199
Speaker 1: were their own kind of magic. For Harry Houdini. Cinema

296
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,520
Speaker 1: was another illusion, another conduit from which to saturate the

297
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:56,560
Speaker 1: market with his brand, which is why in nineteen nineteen,

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00:19:57,119 --> 00:19:59,760
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini and his wife Bess pulled up stakes from

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00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,400
Speaker 1: their home in New York City and went out west

300
00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:05,840
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles so that the world's greatest escape artist

301
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:12,520
Speaker 1: could become a big movie star. Instead. He became something else, immortal.

302
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:17,359
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this.

303
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 2: We're we're, We're.

304
00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 1: Contrary to popular belief, Harry and Bess Houdini never owned

305
00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:30,720
Speaker 1: the mansion at twenty four hundred Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the

306
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 1: one just down the road from Rick Rubin's mansion, nor

307
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,040
Speaker 1: did they own the guest house across the street. Those

308
00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:40,280
Speaker 1: were the property of Ralph M. Walker, a department store

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00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,480
Speaker 1: executive who happened to be friends with the couple. Hard

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00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 1: evidence is scarce, but let's just say it is very

311
00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:49,439
Speaker 1: likely that Ralph Walker let the Houdinis crash in his

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00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,560
Speaker 1: guesthouse while they were in town for Harry to shoot

313
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:57,560
Speaker 1: two movies, The Grim Game and Terror Island. Rumor had

314
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:00,639
Speaker 1: it that the guesthouse had an elevator that dropped you underground,

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00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,080
Speaker 1: where you could make your way through a dark tunnel

316
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:07,400
Speaker 1: passing beneath Laurel Canyon Boulevard and find yourself surfacing over

317
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,720
Speaker 1: at the Big House, a three story, eleven bedroom, nine

318
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:13,840
Speaker 1: bathroom Mediterranean style villa with a ballet room and a

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00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 1: big stage for musicians. The whole underground tunnel business fits

320
00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: perfectly with Houdini's image a master escape artist who could

321
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 1: secretly escape from his own home, and you never saw

322
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,480
Speaker 1: exactly how he did it, how he got out of

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00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,920
Speaker 1: a coffin six feet underground, or how he pulled off

324
00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:32,879
Speaker 1: the metamorphosis act, the one where he was bound with

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00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 1: rope and locked inside a trunk, only for the trunk

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00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,640
Speaker 1: to be opened and revealed that he was no longer there,

327
00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,560
Speaker 1: and instead his wife Bess was in his place, bound

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00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 1: in the very same way. Maybe fake rivets, fake screws,

329
00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 1: or fake welds, and the construction of the apparatusus. Maybe

330
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,960
Speaker 1: real handcuffs were swapped of for trick handcuffs. He kept

331
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 1: audiences guessing, is the point, and he also made sure

332
00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: they had some skin in the game by welcoming their challenge.

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00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,640
Speaker 1: There was no problem he couldn't solve, and no outside

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00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: force he couldn't beat. You could even punch him in

335
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 1: the stomach if you wanted. He would easily absorb the

336
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:13,879
Speaker 1: blow with what appeared to be prodigious strengths. Houdini couldn't

337
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,040
Speaker 1: remember if he had actually issued that last challenge publicly

338
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,399
Speaker 1: to be punched in the stomach, but in nineteen twenty six,

339
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:24,560
Speaker 1: a student at McGill University in Montreal was telling him that, yes,

340
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 1: indeed he had, and furthermore, the student wanted HOODII to

341
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:28,679
Speaker 1: prove it.

342
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:30,399
Speaker 2: Now.

343
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 1: Hoodini was tired. His career as a movie star never

344
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:38,680
Speaker 1: took off like he expected it would, and one of

345
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 1: the two movies he made, The Grim Game, didn't even

346
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: get released. He was fifty two years old and these

347
00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,399
Speaker 1: days increasingly worn out by the physical demands that his

348
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:53,120
Speaker 1: job as an illusionist required. His fight against the spiritualist

349
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:55,960
Speaker 1: movement was a losing battle, not as great of a

350
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 1: loss as that of his mother, whose death thirteen years

351
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 1: earlier still weighed heavily.

352
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Speaker 2: On his.

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Speaker 1: This is all to say he wasn't operating at one

354
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,800
Speaker 1: hundred percent, and I haven't even mentioned the incredible pain

355
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 1: happening in his stomach, paying that he'd been experiencing for

356
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: weeks but had not told anyone about, not even best.

357
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:19,639
Speaker 1: But here in Montreal, at McGill, he was still a god,

358
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,040
Speaker 1: still revered by an adoring public that was humbled to

359
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 1: have the world's greatest escape artist in their presence, or

360
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: so thought the two students currently interviewing Houdini for the

361
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 1: school paper. That interview was on hold for a moment, however,

362
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 1: as a third student entered the room and brazenly asked

363
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,600
Speaker 1: if he could test one of Houdini's standing challenges. He

364
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: wanted to punch Houdini as hard as he could. Pudini

365
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: paused for a moment. Again he couldn't remember actually making

366
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,239
Speaker 1: that challenge to the public, but it didn't matter. He

367
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: was motivated not only by a promise he once made

368
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,400
Speaker 1: to his father, but by his own iconic status, by

369
00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:59,200
Speaker 1: his dominance as the most incredible entertainer of the day.

370
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: He would defend that status and that dominance by any

371
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,639
Speaker 1: means necessary, even if the crowd was small, like it

372
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 1: was today. So Houdini accepted the student's challenge. He began

373
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: to stand from where he was seated, but before he

374
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,200
Speaker 1: could straighten his back, tense up the right muscles, and

375
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,720
Speaker 1: get his athletic body in the proper stance for such

376
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,919
Speaker 1: an attack, the kid came in hot with a clenched fist.

377
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:26,440
Speaker 1: Three punches in quick succession to Houdini's ribs and stomach.

378
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:31,200
Speaker 1: Houdini doubled over Jesus Christ. That hurt, and he could

379
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,199
Speaker 1: hardly get his bearings before the kids swung again. He

380
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 1: landed another punch as Houdini was going down, and another

381
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: and another, about seven in total. Houdini's insides were in turmoil.

382
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 1: He thought his stomach hurt before, but now it was

383
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 1: on fire. Still, he couldn't actually show that he was

384
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,439
Speaker 1: in pain, so he simply offered a tense smile to

385
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: the three kids in the room and politely said that'll do.

386
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 1: He wanted to put the whole ordeal behind him, the pain,

387
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:04,280
Speaker 1: the humiliation. But later that night, while performing on stage

388
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 1: in Montreal, Houdini began to sweat. His heart was pounding

389
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: in his ears, and the pain in his stomach was

390
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 1: getting unbearable. After the show, he collapsed. He was hot

391
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,399
Speaker 1: and then cold. His temperature spiked to one hundred and two.

392
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 1: He took a train to Detroit for his next show,

393
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 1: and there a doctor made the diagnosis that Houdini was

394
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: suffering from appendicitis. He was instructed to go to a

395
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 1: hospital for immediate surgery. Houdini declined treatment. The show must

396
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 1: go on and all that. So he took the stage

397
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:40,879
Speaker 1: in Detroit without one hundred and four degree fever. He

398
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 1: collapsed twice, his eyes burned, his lips quivered. He slipped

399
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: in and out of consciousness. His dreams began to mix

400
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: with reality. He saw faces, not only the faces of

401
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 1: those standing by his bed like best, but faces from

402
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: his past traveling medicine shows. Sideshow freaks, a Japanese acrobat

403
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 1: who once taught him how to swallow a ball and

404
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: cough it back up, the barker who gave him a

405
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:10,959
Speaker 1: crash course, and how to slip free from ropes. The

406
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 1: ghosts of his own mind haunting him or welcoming him.

407
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: He wasn't quite sure. He just wanted it all to stop,

408
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: so he finally relented and agreed to allow the doctors

409
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: in Detroit to remove his appendix. In the end, it

410
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 1: didn't matter, the damage was already done, whether the punch

411
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,680
Speaker 1: from that McGill student caused the appendicitis, had just made

412
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 1: it worse, or whether it even had nothing to do

413
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: with the appendicitis at all. Six days after that punch

414
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 1: and five days after surgery, Harry Houdini died on Halloween,

415
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: October thirty first, nineteen twenty six, but not before he'd

416
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,840
Speaker 1: spoken to the attending surgeon from his hospital bed. The surgeon,

417
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 1: doctor Charles Kennedy, was glad that Houdini was recovering Houdini's

418
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 1: fever had gone down and he was once again thinking clearly,

419
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 1: and that clarity led to some reflection. He told the

420
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 1: surgeon that he'd always wanted to be a doctor and

421
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: that he regretted not doing so, and the surgeon couldn't

422
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,959
Speaker 1: believe what he was hearing. Houdini was the greatest illusionist

423
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,199
Speaker 1: on the planet. He was rich, he was famous, and

424
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:22,199
Speaker 1: he brought people great joy. Houdini responded, not like he

425
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: was speaking to a surgeon, but like he was speaking

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00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:29,680
Speaker 1: to a priest. The difference between you and me, Whodini said,

427
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: is that you actually do things for people. I, in

428
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: almost every respect, am a fake.

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00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:02,359
Speaker 3: Oh thou disembodied those of you that have grown old

430
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:06,399
Speaker 3: in the mysterious laws of spirit landline we Greek dee.

431
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 3: We have gathered here at the appointed time. We have

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00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 3: complied with all the requirements to enable all of you

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00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 3: to make your presence known. All is in readiness. It

434
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:24,359
Speaker 3: is the spirit of the Houdini we wish to contact. Houdini.

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00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 1: Are you here?

436
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 3: Are you here, Houdini, Harry, We are all seekers after truth.

437
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 3: Please manifest yourself in any way possible to LEVI. Take

438
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 3: the table, move it, lift the table, move it, wrap

439
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 3: on it, spell out a cold Henry. Please please Bugini,

440
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 3: we are waiting.

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00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 2: Speak heady.

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00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 1: What you've just heard is a recording of a sounds

443
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: that was conducted on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel

444
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: in Hollywood almost ninety years ago on Halloween night, October

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00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 1: thirty first, nineteen thirty six. The goal of the seance

446
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: was to make contact with Harry Houdini on the tenth

447
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 1: anniversary of his death. It was the brainchild of Houdini's widow, Bess,

448
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 1: and a man named Edward Saint, the guy you just

449
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 1: heard in that recording. Edward Saint was a former carnival

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00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: barker who became professionally and romantically involved with Bess a

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00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: few years after Houdini died, when she was depressed, drinking

452
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 1: and smoking way too much and throwing parties in seances

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00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: back at what came to be known as the Houdini Mansion.

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00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 1: Not Rick Rubin's mansion on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, but Ralph

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00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 1: Walker's three story Mediterranean style village just down the road,

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00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: the one with the guest house connected by an underground tunnel.

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00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: Like those parties best Houdini's rooftop seance was strictly invitation,

458
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: only three hundred people total. The CNB scene of Hollywood,

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00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 1: captains of industry, the true heads of spiritualism, all of

460
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: them craning their necks to get a glimpse of the

461
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 1: dimly lit table were Bess and EDWARDI went through the motions.

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00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,440
Speaker 1: Bess claimed that she and her late husband had made

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00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 1: a pact that the first one to die would attempt

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00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 1: to contact the other from the afterlife. She further claimed

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00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 1: that they had developed an intricate code, a string of

466
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: words that her dead husband would communicate to her in

467
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 1: order to prove that it was really him. And in

468
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 1: addition to the code, Harry Houdini's ghosts would then unlock

469
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: the pair of handcuffs resting on a table. In so

470
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: many words, Bess Houdini claimed that she was attempting the

471
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: greatest magic trick ever, bringing back the dead. Of course,

472
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: it was total bullshit, as much bullshit as a card trick.

473
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 1: Her dead husband could have told you that it was

474
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: nothing more than spiritualist Hoche entertainment. You could even call

475
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: it insurance. To make sure that Harry Houdini's name and

476
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 1: legend stayed relevant in the annals of time even as

477
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: time marched on. It was also the last time Best

478
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 1: led a public seance, but it wasn't the last time

479
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: the living tried to make contact with the ghost of

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00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini. A few miles northwest of the Knickerbocker on

481
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 1: Laurel Canyon Boulevard, among the willow trees, sycamore, and cottonwood,

482
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: year after year, on Halloween night, they gathered those who

483
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: believed in those who wanted to believe. They gathered when

484
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: Ralph Walker's mansion and guesthouse were still standing, and they

485
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: gathered when both properties burned to the ground in the

486
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: Great Fire of nineteen fifty nine. They gathered as ivy

487
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 1: began to consume the ruins, and they drew pentagrams on

488
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: crumbling pillars and burned candles on the remains of staircases.

489
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 1: They planted a wooden cross in the yard and draped

490
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 1: it with ceremonial beads. They sang out archaic incantations, hymns

491
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: to the underworld, designed to summon forth the greatest escape

492
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 1: artist who ever lived. And then there in the moonlight,

493
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 1: someone saw it, a figure, a man. He was walking

494
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 1: the grounds dressed in a sum and a bow tie.

495
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 1: He was there, and he wasn't as translucent as a

496
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: sliver of thinly sliced garlic. They followed closely behind, and

497
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: the man made no sound. It was like he was

498
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 1: walking on air. Seconds later, he disappeared into the mists.

499
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: He reappeared months later in Chicago, walking right into someone's bedroom.

500
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: Then in Long Beach, took possession of a medium and

501
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: spoke through her mouth. Soon after that, he was seen

502
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: in Kansas City, in Detroit, in Montreal, and the people

503
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 1: who saw Houdini's ghost all over the country swore that

504
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 1: what they saw was real, that he really had come

505
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: back from the dead. But how was his sleight of

506
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 1: hand misdirection? Old fashioned bullshit? As they say, a magician

507
00:32:55,240 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: never reveals his tricks. I'm Jake Brennan and this is

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00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: hollywood Land. Hollywood Land was created by Years Truly and

509
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 1: is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Follow like, rate

510
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 1: and review Hollywoodland wherever you get your podcasts, and get

511
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: in touch with us on social media at double Elvis.

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00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: If you like hollywood Land, check out my other show,

513
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: the award winning Disgraceland, which looks at the world of

514
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: music through the lens of true crime. Just search for

515
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 1: Disgraceland or wherever you get your podcasts. Good deus a

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00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: lot