1
00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,280
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of I

2
00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 1: Heart Radio because I am, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,479
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck, Brian over there,

4
00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:22,720
Speaker 1: and Jerry's here. She's invisible but here. And this is

5
00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:26,880
Speaker 1: the Mystery Magic Podcast hour a k A. Stuff you

6
00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,840
Speaker 1: should know. I feel like we haven't covered much magic

7
00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,720
Speaker 1: related stuff, have we not nearly enough? Oh? Yeah, you

8
00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,559
Speaker 1: into it? Yeah? I find it interesting for sure. Um,

9
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:43,320
Speaker 1: and I think magicians are pretty cool people typically. Um. Yeah,

10
00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:47,479
Speaker 1: you know Toby, our friend Toby he um he and

11
00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:52,480
Speaker 1: I were talking about um working on a magic podcast,

12
00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:56,200
Speaker 1: kind of like a magic skeptics podcast, a couple of

13
00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 1: his good friends, and they're just they're just cool dudes,

14
00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:04,200
Speaker 1: chill people, interesting, very witty, sharp, not pink boys at all.

15
00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:07,520
Speaker 1: You guys should totally do that. This is years and

16
00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:11,399
Speaker 1: years ago, said that Chip. Well, he's a big movie producer. Now, yeah,

17
00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: that's magic podcast. No, thank you. Well, I'm glad to

18
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,560
Speaker 1: know that you found some cool magicians. Yeah, are you

19
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,120
Speaker 1: not familiar with cool magicians? No? I mean the magicians

20
00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,920
Speaker 1: I know about are decidedly uncool. Oh, I see, like

21
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,320
Speaker 1: Ben Stiller and arrested Development instiller and arrested Development. Yeah

22
00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,639
Speaker 1: he was Job's rival. Oh right, you know, I forgot

23
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:39,800
Speaker 1: about that kind of a white snake thing going on.

24
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:43,000
Speaker 1: I think I'm thinking mainly about the time I went

25
00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,760
Speaker 1: to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles and I felt

26
00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:49,760
Speaker 1: like one of the cooler people there, which is unusual. Okay,

27
00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:51,440
Speaker 1: full of a lot of people. I don't mean like

28
00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,639
Speaker 1: fonds cool. I mean cool in the in the fact

29
00:01:54,680 --> 00:02:00,680
Speaker 1: that they're like interesting, they are sharp, they're quitted. Uh. Um,

30
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,000
Speaker 1: they will take your wallet from you if you're not careful.

31
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:06,160
Speaker 1: That kind of cool, you know what I mean? Okay?

32
00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,120
Speaker 1: Was Judini cool? Uh? In a lot of ways? He

33
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,560
Speaker 1: was very cool? Um, the band in a lot. No,

34
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,560
Speaker 1: that's pretty they were very cool. Um in a lot

35
00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:19,600
Speaker 1: of ways. I think he was cool in some other ways.

36
00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:23,640
Speaker 1: He wasn't necessarily super cool. But I think overall you

37
00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,720
Speaker 1: could say, yes, Houdini was cool in the sense that

38
00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,680
Speaker 1: a good magician is cool. Yeah. This is one of

39
00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:32,639
Speaker 1: those guys where I did a little digging to see

40
00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:35,800
Speaker 1: if if we needed a like, see if he was

41
00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:39,680
Speaker 1: some monster in his personal life. I didn't see anything

42
00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 1: like that. I think he was a pretty intense guy

43
00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:44,120
Speaker 1: and maybe and I'm sure a man of the time,

44
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:48,440
Speaker 1: but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me. Uh.

45
00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:51,760
Speaker 1: And we should mention big thanks to boy a bunch

46
00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,000
Speaker 1: of things. History dot com, Smithsonian Magazine which is always great,

47
00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: PBS New Yorker, and of course the great Harry Houdini

48
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 1: dot com. Yes, there's also a couple of other sites

49
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,760
Speaker 1: that I got some stuff from, like, um, wild About

50
00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:09,680
Speaker 1: Harry is a good Houdini site, And there's this, Uh,

51
00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,359
Speaker 1: there's this some documentary series by a site called Timeline,

52
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,440
Speaker 1: and the one I saw was hosted by Alan Davies.

53
00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:18,919
Speaker 1: It's called Life and Magic of the Real Harry Houdin

54
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,840
Speaker 1: and Houdini and it was just like this, you know,

55
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,480
Speaker 1: hour long, pretty cool little documentary. I thought it was

56
00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:28,040
Speaker 1: very neat. I got like good info from that too.

57
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,800
Speaker 1: It's on YouTube too. Well. I was, Uh, I was

58
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,000
Speaker 1: into Houdini when I was a kid for a short time,

59
00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:36,120
Speaker 1: and I think that it was probably just because it

60
00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,360
Speaker 1: was a short time where I was, And I think

61
00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:42,120
Speaker 1: a lot of kids go through a magic phase, uh,

62
00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:44,600
Speaker 1: whether it's going to a trick shop and getting a

63
00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,400
Speaker 1: fake deck or learning your first dumb little card trick

64
00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:51,119
Speaker 1: that's not very good, but you think it's awesome. It's

65
00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,680
Speaker 1: just something that I feel like almost every kid goes

66
00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:56,480
Speaker 1: through a brief little magic phase and sometimes it sticks

67
00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,600
Speaker 1: and you become super cool. Evidently that's right, exactly. So there,

68
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:02,600
Speaker 1: I saw a couple of things that seemed to support

69
00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 1: that he wasn't a monster by the way, chuck Um.

70
00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,400
Speaker 1: One of them was that he would go to like, um,

71
00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:11,440
Speaker 1: the children's ward in hospitals and perform magic for the

72
00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,960
Speaker 1: kids and beat them up take their money. Yeah. But

73
00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:17,440
Speaker 1: I mean, like, if you think about it, that's not

74
00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,440
Speaker 1: something that just anybody does, you know, Like that's that's

75
00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:24,320
Speaker 1: time he could be do spending doing something else. Um.

76
00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:30,520
Speaker 1: He was like almost almost pathologically devoted to his mother

77
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,080
Speaker 1: m making sure that she was well taken care of.

78
00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,279
Speaker 1: I think also one of the I saw that that

79
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,320
Speaker 1: was like a possibly a driver of his ambition as well,

80
00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,200
Speaker 1: that he wanted to be Mom's favorite, an impressor more

81
00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:45,719
Speaker 1: than any of his siblings because he was one of six. Yeah,

82
00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:50,200
Speaker 1: and also that his father was never much of his success,

83
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:52,120
Speaker 1: which will get to and I think I think those

84
00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:55,080
Speaker 1: are definitely the big drivers. But he himself called himself

85
00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,360
Speaker 1: a mom's boy, like he used those two words together. Yeah. Yeah.

86
00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:00,960
Speaker 1: There's a famous picture of him with his his wife

87
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,880
Speaker 1: Bess and his mother and he's got like his arms

88
00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:06,279
Speaker 1: around both of them and he calls them my two

89
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,880
Speaker 1: girls or my two sweethearts or something like that. So

90
00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:11,719
Speaker 1: I mean, like, I know, hats off the best for

91
00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,239
Speaker 1: being like, all right, let's go with it. We're gonna

92
00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:16,280
Speaker 1: go with it. I'm definitely not gonna try to probably

93
00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:18,479
Speaker 1: that one LuSE it's not gonna work. So we're just

94
00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:20,440
Speaker 1: gonna go with it. And I say, good for her,

95
00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:23,560
Speaker 1: all right, Well should we get into it. Yeah, let's

96
00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:25,640
Speaker 1: because you said something about his father, and I think

97
00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,160
Speaker 1: that that's an important thing to understand about Houdini um

98
00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:32,520
Speaker 1: from the get go, is that he was essentially born

99
00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,159
Speaker 1: into poverty and it just got worse as he got

100
00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:38,120
Speaker 1: older because his father was a rabbi, and if there

101
00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,400
Speaker 1: is such a thing, his father was a failed rabbi.

102
00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:43,640
Speaker 1: He couldn't make it as a rabbi. I know that was.

103
00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,120
Speaker 1: I was surprised to see that because all like everywhere

104
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,440
Speaker 1: I looked, it would continually say like, boy's dad just

105
00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:54,560
Speaker 1: couldn't make the rabbi. Racket work, and I kind of,

106
00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:56,760
Speaker 1: I don't know, I kind of naively assumed that if

107
00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,840
Speaker 1: you were sort of giving up a life of trying

108
00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:02,880
Speaker 1: to a make you know, money as a capitalist for

109
00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:06,159
Speaker 1: a living by going to the church and being a

110
00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,120
Speaker 1: steward of the church, then you would at least do Okay,

111
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,320
Speaker 1: you'd think so. But I think that means that he

112
00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:14,880
Speaker 1: was so charmless he couldn't even muster up a congregation

113
00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:18,320
Speaker 1: to to to surround him. So he was a hard

114
00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:21,600
Speaker 1: luck kind of guy. And as a result, Harry uh

115
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,560
Speaker 1: was was raised in poverty, had to go to work

116
00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,000
Speaker 1: from a very young age, and also like missed out

117
00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:29,920
Speaker 1: on a formal education as a result too, And so

118
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,080
Speaker 1: those things kind of converge to also, I think kind

119
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:36,480
Speaker 1: of drive him to prove himself that yeah, maybe he

120
00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:38,440
Speaker 1: didn't go to school and maybe he was born poor,

121
00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:40,800
Speaker 1: but he could still be a superstar, he could still

122
00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:46,279
Speaker 1: amaze people, he could still be um idolized. Basically. Yeah.

123
00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,240
Speaker 1: His his dad's name was Meyer Weiss, his mom was

124
00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:54,760
Speaker 1: Cecilia Steiner Wights, and he was born Eric E. H

125
00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:59,000
Speaker 1: R I C. H Viights in March of eighteen seventy

126
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,000
Speaker 1: four in Hungary. Uh In Budapest, but he when he

127
00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,240
Speaker 1: was four, he came over and joined the family in Wisconsin,

128
00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:10,600
Speaker 1: and his dad did manage to have a small congregation

129
00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:15,000
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, I think in Appleton and Uh they changed

130
00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,120
Speaker 1: immigration officers changed the name to Vice with two s

131
00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,800
Speaker 1: is instead of an s z, and Eric went by

132
00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:26,000
Speaker 1: Airy E h R I E. The only reason I

133
00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:28,520
Speaker 1: mentioned Airy is because that comes into play later when

134
00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:30,640
Speaker 1: he takes on the name Harry is sort of an

135
00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:34,040
Speaker 1: Americanized version of that name. So that's where the Harry

136
00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:38,320
Speaker 1: came from. Um. Yes, he uh, he was. He started

137
00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,120
Speaker 1: working I think uh and when he was still single digits,

138
00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:45,200
Speaker 1: but he started performing also around the same time too.

139
00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,160
Speaker 1: When he was nine, he made his debut as a

140
00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:51,559
Speaker 1: trap He's artist, Eric the Prince of the Air nice

141
00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:54,800
Speaker 1: and he was always a rather short stature. I think

142
00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,800
Speaker 1: he topped out at five point five ft five inches

143
00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:03,760
Speaker 1: five point five um, but he was extremely fit. He

144
00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,080
Speaker 1: decided early on that he wanted to be very athletic

145
00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,440
Speaker 1: as much as he could be, so he really like

146
00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:11,560
Speaker 1: he was doing things like you know, when he moved

147
00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:14,120
Speaker 1: to New York a few years later. Um, he was

148
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,600
Speaker 1: doing things like running five miles around Central Park every day,

149
00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,360
Speaker 1: which is super commonplace today, but you know in the

150
00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:23,600
Speaker 1: eighteen late late nineteenth century, that was weird. Yeah. I mean,

151
00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,000
Speaker 1: like god knows what kind of shoes he was wearing

152
00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:27,400
Speaker 1: for that kind of thing, but he would do that

153
00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:29,880
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So he was short of stature, but

154
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:34,560
Speaker 1: also very athletic um self taught to Yeah. So, like

155
00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 1: you said, they eventually landed in New York um after

156
00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,719
Speaker 1: you know, his again, Rabbi Weiss was not doing so well,

157
00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:44,760
Speaker 1: so he was kind of always on the move trying

158
00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:48,360
Speaker 1: to find somebody to listen to him, and they eventually

159
00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:51,920
Speaker 1: get to New York and in eighteen nine one, which

160
00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:56,520
Speaker 1: would have been uh, what's the math there? S sixteen

161
00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:59,840
Speaker 1: is seventeen ish. We were trying to figure out before Ghostbusters,

162
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:02,280
Speaker 1: no no, I was trying to figure out how old

163
00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:05,600
Speaker 1: he was. Uh, he's like sixty or seventeen when he

164
00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,040
Speaker 1: teamed up with this buddy, Jacob Himan. I'm sorry him,

165
00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:13,600
Speaker 1: himman him, Why did that look weird on the paper?

166
00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:18,480
Speaker 1: You may be having a stroke. I hope not. The

167
00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,720
Speaker 1: brothers Houdini is what they called themselves, and Harry again

168
00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,240
Speaker 1: is what he went by because of Airy and then

169
00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,080
Speaker 1: as far as Judini goes, his favorite French magician's last

170
00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:32,520
Speaker 1: name was Robert Houdin, so he threw an eye on there,

171
00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:37,800
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, he's Harry Hudini for evermore. Yeah,

172
00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,240
Speaker 1: I think so. I saw in that documentary that somebody

173
00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,280
Speaker 1: told him that adding an eye to a name in

174
00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,600
Speaker 1: French means that you're saying you're like that person. So

175
00:09:45,679 --> 00:09:49,000
Speaker 1: he was saying Hohodini, like he's like Hudin Houdin hudan

176
00:09:49,679 --> 00:09:52,760
Speaker 1: Um who was his idol for at least while he's

177
00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:54,720
Speaker 1: growing up. And then apparently later on he kind of

178
00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:56,960
Speaker 1: turned on him and exposed all of his secrets after

179
00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:59,800
Speaker 1: the guy had died, which was actually not cool. It

180
00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:02,080
Speaker 1: not cool. And there I think there was also a

181
00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:05,920
Speaker 1: tradition of the eye name on those kind of acts

182
00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,880
Speaker 1: like yes, but I think he may have started that.

183
00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:11,760
Speaker 1: Oh really, I'm not sure, but he was the blond

184
00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,880
Speaker 1: niece and right right, um, I think as far as

185
00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:18,440
Speaker 1: magic goes, he may have been the the originator of

186
00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:20,440
Speaker 1: that because I saw some of like one of his

187
00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,480
Speaker 1: other um uh contemporaries who who helped kind of train

188
00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,960
Speaker 1: him was last name Heller. There was a haller like

189
00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:32,080
Speaker 1: there was no other eyes that I saw interesting. Yeah, alright,

190
00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:35,040
Speaker 1: so he kicked off the big eye crazy that's still

191
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:38,839
Speaker 1: going crazy today. It is the iPhone. Um. So he

192
00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:44,200
Speaker 1: I think his dad died in Uh. Harry is eighteen

193
00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,600
Speaker 1: at this point, and he does a very unusual thing

194
00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:51,000
Speaker 1: and that he actually leaves his mom behind along with

195
00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:52,800
Speaker 1: his brothers, which was a big deal for him, like

196
00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,520
Speaker 1: you said, because he was a self professed mama's boy.

197
00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:58,480
Speaker 1: And he took off on the road doing his act

198
00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:00,960
Speaker 1: kind of through New York, through the mid West. I

199
00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:03,080
Speaker 1: was doing okay, he was performing kind of all around.

200
00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:05,920
Speaker 1: It was a bit of a grind, uh with with

201
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:10,560
Speaker 1: Hyman still sounds weird and not because of what you think. Uh.

202
00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:14,400
Speaker 1: And then eighteen ninety four, his younger brother replaced him

203
00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:17,680
Speaker 1: in just for a short while, because later that year

204
00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,319
Speaker 1: he would meet eighteen year old Brooklyn Knight to name

205
00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:25,960
Speaker 1: the villamina Beatrice Ronner or Bess, and she became his

206
00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:29,920
Speaker 1: magic partner. And you know, they called him assistants. She

207
00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:33,600
Speaker 1: would have been the one on stage, you know, looking

208
00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,679
Speaker 1: pretty and doing all the flourishes. And it's a tradition

209
00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:41,040
Speaker 1: and magic that I know, I don't want to use

210
00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:45,240
Speaker 1: word problematic, but it has changed in more recent years. Yeah,

211
00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:47,880
Speaker 1: but this is at the time when a magician's assistant

212
00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,200
Speaker 1: was a lady in a bathing suit. Yeah, basically, and

213
00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:54,080
Speaker 1: and Best was no exception to that, although if you

214
00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:57,640
Speaker 1: read some of the descriptions of some of the illusions

215
00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:00,240
Speaker 1: and tricks that they did together, she was just as

216
00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:03,560
Speaker 1: much a magician in her own right as he was. Um,

217
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:05,960
Speaker 1: she definitely got her training from him. I think he

218
00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:10,320
Speaker 1: discovered her in a singing troupe. Um. But like like

219
00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,280
Speaker 1: she grew to be just as adapt at magic and

220
00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:16,320
Speaker 1: sleight of hand as her husband, which is pretty cool. Yeah.

221
00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:19,640
Speaker 1: It's interesting the things that have become boys clubs over

222
00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:23,040
Speaker 1: the years, and like magic is definitely one of them.

223
00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,400
Speaker 1: It's I mean that's changed a lot over the years,

224
00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:27,680
Speaker 1: but it always I mean, going to the Magic Castle

225
00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,000
Speaker 1: and you're in, you're mainly going to see male performers

226
00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:34,520
Speaker 1: and a bunch of old man dressed in suits. Uh,

227
00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,360
Speaker 1: it's just a fund It odd that it's something that

228
00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:40,280
Speaker 1: maybe just appeals to young boys. I don't know. My

229
00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,240
Speaker 1: sister wasn't into magic, and my brother and I were so,

230
00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:44,679
Speaker 1: but there's something too much of that is just like

231
00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:49,120
Speaker 1: the gender norms and expectations of society where it wasn't

232
00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:51,960
Speaker 1: like presented to your sister in a way that it's like, hey,

233
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:55,160
Speaker 1: isn't this interesting? Like everything else. Yeah, there was a

234
00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,240
Speaker 1: documentary I saw. I'm sure I mentioned it before, um

235
00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:02,920
Speaker 1: years ago, about these like up and coming teenage magicians

236
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:05,599
Speaker 1: who are all trying to make their way through competitions

237
00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:09,440
Speaker 1: to the Magic Castle to like a grand showcase, and

238
00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,400
Speaker 1: they follow these ones. There were there was at least

239
00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,320
Speaker 1: one girl that I remember, and she was good. Um,

240
00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:17,760
Speaker 1: but I mean she must have been thirteen fourteen at

241
00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:19,520
Speaker 1: the time and have been into it for years. So

242
00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:23,480
Speaker 1: clearly there's something you know that appeals to some girls too,

243
00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:27,520
Speaker 1: even if it's not directed towards them. He has a

244
00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:29,600
Speaker 1: great documentary. You gotta see it. And by the way,

245
00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:32,960
Speaker 1: since we're speaking of documentaries, you have of course seen

246
00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:36,760
Speaker 1: Love on the Spectrum, have you not? No, you recommended

247
00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:40,800
Speaker 1: that a few weeks ago. Just we'll just stop. I'm

248
00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:43,880
Speaker 1: gonna I'll give you about six hours. Okay, you just

249
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,559
Speaker 1: go watch and we'll come back and finish recording. Okay,

250
00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:48,719
Speaker 1: all right, Well, then another three weeks you can bring

251
00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,240
Speaker 1: it up again. You you just have to see it. Okay,

252
00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:53,640
Speaker 1: I'll see it. It's like again, I'm giving you a

253
00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:57,840
Speaker 1: gift here. Oh did you make it? No? No, just

254
00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:00,000
Speaker 1: telling you about it as a gift as what I'm

255
00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:03,199
Speaker 1: and say. It's that sweet. Alright, well everyone watch Love

256
00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:05,079
Speaker 1: on the Spectrum and we're going to take a break

257
00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:08,720
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about Houdini's eventual success right

258
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:31,800
Speaker 1: after this. Alright, so we got Houdini, we got best together,

259
00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:34,640
Speaker 1: and now things can begin in earnest and they kind

260
00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:38,360
Speaker 1: of pick up together where what Houdini had started, which

261
00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:44,760
Speaker 1: was very small little venues, sometimes a side show UM,

262
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,000
Speaker 1: sometimes a museum like a P. T. Barnum type museum.

263
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,120
Speaker 1: If they were lucky, um, they were just kind of

264
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,600
Speaker 1: there almost part of the woodwork or the furniture um

265
00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:57,600
Speaker 1: with other stuff going on. They weren't doing actual shows.

266
00:14:57,840 --> 00:14:59,520
Speaker 1: And if they were doing a show, it was a

267
00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:03,400
Speaker 1: small act in a larger circus. And it was a

268
00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:07,680
Speaker 1: grind from what I understand. Yeah, I mean travel back

269
00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:11,040
Speaker 1: then was not as still a grind, but it definitely

270
00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,680
Speaker 1: wasn't fun and they were on the road all the time.

271
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:19,000
Speaker 1: And then finally in they met a man named Martin

272
00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:22,920
Speaker 1: Beck who was a big name and a big up

273
00:15:22,960 --> 00:15:26,120
Speaker 1: and comer in the vaudeville scene, which at the time,

274
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:28,080
Speaker 1: I mean you think of vaudeville now is like these

275
00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,920
Speaker 1: kind of little shows, But at the time that was

276
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,760
Speaker 1: kind of the peak of the touring world and the

277
00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:35,920
Speaker 1: live theater world. If you were doing vaudeville, that was

278
00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:39,080
Speaker 1: that was sort of top of the pops. And he

279
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,720
Speaker 1: saw them perform in St. Paul, Minnesota and was really

280
00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:45,080
Speaker 1: knocked out. He did this one of his handcuff escapes.

281
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:48,880
Speaker 1: And he also took these challenges. He was very famous

282
00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:50,720
Speaker 1: for people saying, hey, can you do this? Can you

283
00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:53,800
Speaker 1: get out of the ease? And uh it really you know.

284
00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:55,520
Speaker 1: He would do this in public and it would help

285
00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,960
Speaker 1: like promote his brand basically and get a lot of press.

286
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,840
Speaker 1: And he was challenged with a pair of handcuffs from

287
00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:05,120
Speaker 1: Beck and he got out of those and Beck said, kid,

288
00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,520
Speaker 1: you got it being Omaha in March, and I'll pay

289
00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:14,360
Speaker 1: sixty bucks, which is about eighteen hundred dollars today. So

290
00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:18,200
Speaker 1: it was good money. And all of a sudden they

291
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:21,080
Speaker 1: are killing it on the vaudeville circuit. Yeah, his his

292
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:25,920
Speaker 1: um his cable to them said, I might proposition you

293
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,160
Speaker 1: for all next season as well. So it was like

294
00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:30,280
Speaker 1: it was a big, big deal. It wasn't just that

295
00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:32,520
Speaker 1: one show. Was like, Okay, you've just made it to

296
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:35,000
Speaker 1: the big time. And so all of a sudden they're

297
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,520
Speaker 1: in with with Martin Beck, who basically is the king

298
00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,960
Speaker 1: of the Western Circuit of the Vaudeville of vaudeville, and

299
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,320
Speaker 1: they're playing all over the place, making a lot more

300
00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:50,520
Speaker 1: money than they were before, playing fewer shows, um, putting

301
00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:55,000
Speaker 1: in fewer hours on stage, and getting compensated better for it.

302
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:57,200
Speaker 1: They're like, all right, this is this is pretty great.

303
00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:59,880
Speaker 1: I can I can go with this? Yeah, And he

304
00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 1: you know, I mentioned that when he would go to

305
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:05,439
Speaker 1: these towns, he would do these challenges and stunts for

306
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:07,920
Speaker 1: the public and the press. And one of the things

307
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:09,520
Speaker 1: he did that would later come back to buy him

308
00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:11,840
Speaker 1: a little bit was he would always like the cops

309
00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,400
Speaker 1: would come out and he would you know, he would

310
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:16,000
Speaker 1: have the cops lock them up and put him in

311
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,480
Speaker 1: handcuffs and do all this stuff, which was great press

312
00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:22,600
Speaker 1: of course, but um, as we'll see later on in Germany,

313
00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:24,320
Speaker 1: that didn't go over so well with the cops. But

314
00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,720
Speaker 1: he he was known because of this is uh, the

315
00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:32,680
Speaker 1: king of handcuffs and also the celebrated police battler. Yeah,

316
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:34,560
Speaker 1: I mean, and and not only did it kind of

317
00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,480
Speaker 1: drum up like attention in a new town where they

318
00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:39,040
Speaker 1: may not have heard of him. This guy shows up

319
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,399
Speaker 1: to a police station, says, put me in jail, and

320
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 1: then gets out like in five minutes or something like that. Um.

321
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,800
Speaker 1: But also the cops end up talking to the press

322
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:50,480
Speaker 1: and they say, we have no idea how he did it.

323
00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:54,159
Speaker 1: So now you have an official endorsement that you just

324
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,359
Speaker 1: got for free out of like the cops and the

325
00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:00,280
Speaker 1: local police, you know. So it was like it was

326
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:02,000
Speaker 1: a very smart thing to do. And he would do

327
00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:03,640
Speaker 1: that from town to town to like you said, drum

328
00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:07,120
Speaker 1: up publicity and also to sell tickets. Like this would

329
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,439
Speaker 1: be a way that his shows would go from you know,

330
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,880
Speaker 1: moving ho home and then to sell out with one

331
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:15,159
Speaker 1: of his publicity stunts. So he was really good at

332
00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,400
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, alright. So he's making all this dough.

333
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,639
Speaker 1: He tries to get a tour together with Beck to

334
00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:24,560
Speaker 1: go to Europe because if you know, if you really

335
00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:26,639
Speaker 1: back then it wasn't if you can make it in

336
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:28,320
Speaker 1: New York, you can make it. Make it anywhere. It

337
00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:30,160
Speaker 1: was if you could make it in Europe, you could

338
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,119
Speaker 1: make it anywhere. And Beck was sort of, um, not

339
00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:35,239
Speaker 1: too high on that idea. So I think they had

340
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:39,280
Speaker 1: a falling out, and Houdini put him, uh, put a

341
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:42,320
Speaker 1: tour together for he invests for themselves to go kind

342
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:45,000
Speaker 1: of run their own show, and they did. They went

343
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,680
Speaker 1: to Europe and were equally as successful all over Europe

344
00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:53,440
Speaker 1: and the UK performing this you know, these feats of escape. Yeah,

345
00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,840
Speaker 1: and Russia too. He basically did a world tour over

346
00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:00,040
Speaker 1: the course of five years. He invested they just like

347
00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:02,560
Speaker 1: they still listen to it. We're gonna we're gonna try

348
00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,520
Speaker 1: to really kind of make this to the next level.

349
00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 1: And he he took the same kind of um like

350
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,640
Speaker 1: publicity chasing stuff from town to town that he did

351
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:13,920
Speaker 1: in the US that served him so well. He did

352
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,879
Speaker 1: the same thing in Europe too, and um he uh

353
00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:21,600
Speaker 1: he in bests like really kind of up the act

354
00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:24,840
Speaker 1: around that time, like they started coming with more and

355
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:30,800
Speaker 1: more like grander illusions and tricks and stagecraft, and um,

356
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,359
Speaker 1: the the European thing was a huge success in it

357
00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,320
Speaker 1: That's what catapulted him into like superstar and he became

358
00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:40,520
Speaker 1: an international star thanks to that, that five year tour. Yeah,

359
00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:43,200
Speaker 1: and that was in Germany. How I mentioned earlier, the

360
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:46,439
Speaker 1: police there, I don't think liked the fact. You know,

361
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:48,880
Speaker 1: the German police aren't known for their senses of humor,

362
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:51,480
Speaker 1: and I don't think they thought it was super cool

363
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,880
Speaker 1: that he would go over there and sort of uh,

364
00:19:54,359 --> 00:19:55,919
Speaker 1: not making fool of them, but I think they may

365
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 1: have some of them may have taken it that way.

366
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 1: So they police officer in Cologne, Germany accused him of

367
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:08,480
Speaker 1: fraud at one point Houdini fired back that that is slander. Uh.

368
00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,879
Speaker 1: And then I think he had to go to court

369
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:14,080
Speaker 1: and expose some of his tricks, which he wasn't too

370
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:16,520
Speaker 1: wild about, but he had in order to get out

371
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:18,399
Speaker 1: of it. He had to kind of expose how he

372
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:20,679
Speaker 1: did some of these tricks. But it did work and

373
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:22,119
Speaker 1: he did get out of it. Yeah, and now he

374
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:25,000
Speaker 1: had an official court endorsement that he was no fraud,

375
00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:28,960
Speaker 1: he was an actual true magician. So and it was

376
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,919
Speaker 1: a big deal too because Germany at the time was

377
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 1: under the Kaiser who ruled it with an authoritarian state,

378
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:38,240
Speaker 1: or ruled an authoritarian state, and um to take on

379
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,679
Speaker 1: Germany and then prevail like it took. It took khutzpah,

380
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,480
Speaker 1: as his dad might have said, you know so. Um.

381
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: After that, they kind of go back to America. I

382
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,280
Speaker 1: think in nineteen o five, after five years of touring

383
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,720
Speaker 1: Europe a lot of money, yeah, a lot of money,

384
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 1: a lot more stardom. Um. This could have been a

385
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,960
Speaker 1: really like easy time for he Best to just settle

386
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,560
Speaker 1: down and say, you know what, we we've made it.

387
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:07,400
Speaker 1: We're rich, we're good, we can retire forever. Um, let's

388
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,160
Speaker 1: just live the good life. And they made some attempts

389
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,200
Speaker 1: to that. I think Best really was ready to settle down,

390
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:17,479
Speaker 1: and I think Houdini was like saying he would. So

391
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:19,879
Speaker 1: they bought a brownstone at Harlem. There was a farm

392
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,440
Speaker 1: in Connecticut they bought. Mom moved in with them, and

393
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:27,080
Speaker 1: he was making the gestures of settling down, and then

394
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:28,960
Speaker 1: he said, you know what, I've gotta I've gotta get

395
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 1: back out there. I'm getting stale. Yeah. I mean, I

396
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:34,960
Speaker 1: think one of my big takeaways from reading about his

397
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 1: life it was that. And we'll get into some of

398
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,879
Speaker 1: his inventions later, but he was really an innovator and

399
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 1: he was never content to um to just sort of

400
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:46,320
Speaker 1: sit back and do the same old tricks. I think

401
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,600
Speaker 1: he always wanted to invent new stuff, new gadgets and

402
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,320
Speaker 1: new tricks to do for people. And I think it

403
00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: was in nineteen o eight, uh that he had his

404
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: he developed his milk can escape, one of his more

405
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:02,119
Speaker 1: famous uh because this is you know, he did a

406
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:03,880
Speaker 1: couple of things where basically he was like, I might

407
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,240
Speaker 1: die if this doesn't work, And those were always the

408
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,800
Speaker 1: biggest tricks. Yeah, And like in that one, it was

409
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,359
Speaker 1: a milk canon overside milk can, which is like a

410
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 1: giant metal can that a human could conceivably fit into

411
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,440
Speaker 1: if they were very small and five ft five um

412
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:19,200
Speaker 1: and it was filled with water, and he would get

413
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:21,760
Speaker 1: in there and they would padlock the top and put

414
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:23,960
Speaker 1: a curtain behind, put it behind the curtain, and then

415
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,600
Speaker 1: you know, two minutes later he would ask, he would

416
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 1: tell the audience like try to hold your breath along

417
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,840
Speaker 1: with me, and which just really raised the tension of

418
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: the in the theater um. And then like two minutes

419
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,760
Speaker 1: later he would like come up from around the curtain

420
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,880
Speaker 1: like soaking wet and like out of breath, but triumphant,

421
00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:43,280
Speaker 1: and everybody would just go nuts. Um. And then that

422
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,240
Speaker 1: milk can. I don't know if it was his originally

423
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,640
Speaker 1: or if he like innovated it from somebody else, But

424
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:52,199
Speaker 1: he found out later that there were imitators doing the

425
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,919
Speaker 1: same thing, and he hated that kind of stuff. He

426
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,400
Speaker 1: hated imitators, He hated people like using his work, whether

427
00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:00,359
Speaker 1: they credited him or not. He just did not like

428
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:02,880
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But then that would push him

429
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 1: to innovate further. So he just abandoned the milk can altogether,

430
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 1: which had brought him so much success, and moved on

431
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 1: to like increasingly more dangerous things. Um. His greatest invention

432
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: was the Chinese water torture cell, which is kind of

433
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 1: similar to the milk can, but just even more nuts

434
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:24,840
Speaker 1: and even more dangerous. Yeah, that's easily his most famous trick.

435
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,680
Speaker 1: That's the one that you always see if you look

436
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,120
Speaker 1: up Houdini's greatest tricks. It's it's like you said, it's

437
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:33,520
Speaker 1: the same thing, but it's a clear tank of water.

438
00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 1: And he is lowered from his ankles, um, I think,

439
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 1: sometimes cuffed, sometimes in a straight jacket, and uh, you know,

440
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:44,520
Speaker 1: you can see him, and of course then they raised

441
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: the curtains so you can't see what's going on. Are

442
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:48,600
Speaker 1: we gonna tell people how they how he does some

443
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: of this stuff? I'll tell you what. Since there's so

444
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 1: much to say about him anyway, we probably don't have time.

445
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: But there's a really great Gizmoto article It says like, um,

446
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: the secrets behind Houdini's ten Greatest Tricks. That really does

447
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,919
Speaker 1: a great job of explaining it. I am. Oh, yeah,

448
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: I mean, let's just say this. Judini was very good

449
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 1: at things like getting out of handcuffs. He was a

450
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,480
Speaker 1: master of like locks and lock picking. So he did

451
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: learn like tons and tons of skills. It's not to

452
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: say that if a magician has a trick and you

453
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: learn how to do it that they're not skilled. But

454
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 1: when it comes to some you know, these contraptions, they're

455
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 1: they're rigged. Of course it's not real magic. He didn't

456
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:29,879
Speaker 1: purport to be doing real magic. Uh. He just wanted

457
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 1: to be a performer in de light audiences and he

458
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,920
Speaker 1: did that. Yeah, sometimes the answer is really simple, like oh,

459
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,120
Speaker 1: there's hinges or it's not really yeah exactly, like there's

460
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,640
Speaker 1: a there. Like when you find these explanations, you're like, oh,

461
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,840
Speaker 1: that's that's still pretty interesting that he was able to

462
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:46,720
Speaker 1: do this, and and a lot of times like he would,

463
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 1: he would take longer purposefully than he needed to. He

464
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: could get out of these things in a matter of seconds,

465
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: but he might say, like take two minutes to appear, um,

466
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:58,879
Speaker 1: just to keep the tension ratcheted up, make it that

467
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,679
Speaker 1: much more amazing. But he also like some of the

468
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,240
Speaker 1: slight of hand that he and Best would do. Um.

469
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: I read that his handcuff tricks. He was the guy

470
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: who started handcuff tricks um, like escaping from handcuffs. Um.

471
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,880
Speaker 1: And when somebody came up and said, like, I had

472
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: these cuffs specially made for you, and I want to

473
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,280
Speaker 1: see if you can get out of them, like he would,

474
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 1: he would ask to examine them, asked to examine the key,

475
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:25,959
Speaker 1: and Best would just kind of be standing there looking too,

476
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,479
Speaker 1: and she'd she'd make note of what the key looked like,

477
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 1: and then she'd slip away without anybody noticing, backstage to

478
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:36,479
Speaker 1: their huge giant ring oh keys, find a key that

479
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:39,960
Speaker 1: looks similar, and then like give Harry a kiss or

480
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,679
Speaker 1: like like something like that, and they would exchange keys,

481
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 1: and then he would hand their key back to the

482
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 1: person and palm the key that they had been letting

483
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: him inspect and then managed to swap it out again

484
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: later on. So like the sleight of hand, and like

485
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,479
Speaker 1: the trickery that was involved in and of itself, is

486
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: is masterful. Like I don't like if you if you

487
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: take actual magic out of the equation, I don't see

488
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 1: how this could be any less impressive, you know what

489
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: I mean? Yeah, I mean every time I've seen and

490
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 1: I haven't been to many magic shows, but like at

491
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: the Magic Castle, you want to be entertained and you

492
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,399
Speaker 1: want someone to perform a good trick, no one in

493
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 1: the audience, I mean, you want the audience leaving going, boy,

494
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 1: how did they do that? Not? Was it was that real?

495
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: Were they conjuring the dark magic? Right? I enjoyed the

496
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:30,439
Speaker 1: you know, the Magic Castle. I know I told this

497
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 1: on movie Crush. I don't know if I ever talked

498
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,919
Speaker 1: about it here, But they have all these small parlor rooms, uh,

499
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: in addition to the big main room where the big

500
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: show is exactly, But the little parlor rooms what is

501
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: really what I enjoyed. They were very small, like not

502
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 1: many people in there, and that was just like good

503
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: old fashioned card tricks and stuff like that, where you're

504
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,639
Speaker 1: just so well practiced, and those were just always the

505
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 1: most fun for me. The big shows. I could take

506
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: it early bit. Well, you would have liked who Deni's

507
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 1: early work because that's pretty much what it consisted of,

508
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: close up magic and card tricks. Yeah, it's like David Blaine.

509
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,479
Speaker 1: I love all those early specials. But then when he

510
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:10,399
Speaker 1: was like, let me go stand on this thing for

511
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:15,159
Speaker 1: three years, and I didn't really care as much. You know,

512
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: he didn't like his three year standing phase. So, um

513
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: so he stood on a thing, right, Yeah, he stood

514
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: on a big tall thing. He did. I think he

515
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: was also frozen in a block of ice too. Maybe

516
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,920
Speaker 1: sure it was the thing. Um So, so who did?

517
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 1: He's got like this whole he just keeps innovating and

518
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: innovating and like just wowing the public more and more

519
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 1: and he keeps going. Um but there's there's also like

520
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 1: these other things happening at the same time. Like the

521
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: earliest early twentieth century was like a really innovative time

522
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 1: if you think about it. One of the things that

523
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: came out of it was the beginning of movies, and

524
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: so who didn't He was like the kind of person

525
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 1: who was like, yes, I can use that to do magic.

526
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: All I have to do is perform one trick. Once

527
00:27:57,359 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: capturing on film, we can just show everybody in the film.

528
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:01,879
Speaker 1: It's gonna be great because I'm like forty three now

529
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm really starting to feel it, you know,

530
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: hanging upside down in a straight jacket from a crane

531
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: six stories up or underwater in a tank like that,

532
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,440
Speaker 1: that wears on a person having to do at night

533
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: after night after night after night. Right, So he has

534
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: people exactly, So he was really well sometimes thousands, Like

535
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: he could draw a crowd, you know, at the height

536
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: of his stardom for sure. Um, but he like he

537
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 1: was very much drawn to film for that reason. One

538
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: of the big problems was is he was like zero

539
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: good at acting from whatever by all accounts, Yeah, he

540
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,080
Speaker 1: was like me, zero good at acting. I've seen you act.

541
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: You took that beasting. I thought you actually got stung

542
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 1: by a b I was that was one good. I

543
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 1: wasn't zero good, Okay, if we're on a scale of

544
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 1: one to I was one. But man, it was better

545
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 1: than Houdini. Uh. But it was the beginning of movies,

546
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 1: and people would go see anything that you put up

547
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: on the silver screen. So he was a big star.

548
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: He was like one of Hollywood's big first action heroes,

549
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 1: and he, like everything he did, went at at full

550
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 1: bore and said, all right, here's what i'm gonna do.

551
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start a production company and all these other

552
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: movie ventures, and none of those were super successful, but

553
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: he did have a brief stint as kind of the

554
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: big action guy of the day. Um, and these are

555
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 1: things that like, I think most people Judini aficionados of

556
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: course know all this stuff, but if you just know

557
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: Judini is a magician, you may not know that he

558
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: was a movie star or that he was a pretty

559
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 1: um advanced inventor. Because he's coming up with all of

560
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: these contraptions and machines himself to do these tricks. And

561
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: so he realized early on part of the problem with

562
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 1: that was if you want to safeguard something, you would

563
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: file a patent, But in order to file a patent,

564
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: you have to explicitly show how the thing works. So

565
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: he was caught in a between a rock and a

566
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: hard place magician wise, because he hated being ripped off,

567
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: but he didn't want to reveal these tricks to get

568
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: a patent on these machines. A lot of them. If

569
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: you look through his list of patents that he got

570
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 1: a lot of them he never even ended up using

571
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 1: or were abandoned kind of midway through the process of

572
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: getting them patented. Um. But he found a loophole in

573
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: performing these things on stage and getting them a copy

574
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: written as a live act. Right, So with a patent

575
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 1: you had to explain technically how the whole thing worked,

576
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: not the case with the copyright. Now, you just you

577
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 1: do a play and you copyright it and you're you're

578
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: you're good to go. And that's essentially what he did

579
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: with the Chinese water torture cell. He did a performance

580
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 1: in front of legendarily, I don't know if it's true

581
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 1: or not, but it's a pretty good story in front

582
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: of one single person on live on stage as a

583
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: one act play, and that enabled him to copyright it

584
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: in England. Yeah. I think he also copyrighted maybe the Metamorphosis,

585
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: um yeah, which was yeah, which he would just write

586
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: a play and then in the play this trick would

587
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: happen to describe the trick, but he didn't describe how

588
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 1: the trick to work. He just described, say, from like

589
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,800
Speaker 1: the audience's vantage point, and then bam. It was copy written,

590
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:16,719
Speaker 1: and anybody who tried that same trick would be infringing

591
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: on his copyright. Pretty smart. I think we gotta say

592
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: talk about that metamorphosis for a second though. It's worth saying.

593
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: So it was it turned himself into a butterfly. It was,

594
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: you know, he turned himself into Franz Kafka. That's a

595
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: very literary joke. UM. So he Best would be standing there,

596
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: Um helping him get into a sack, would pull the

597
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: drawstring at the top of the sack. He would get

598
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: into a box. The box would be chain trust padlocked, um,

599
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:50,320
Speaker 1: and then Best would put a screen up, clap three times,

600
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: and then on the third clap, the screen would come

601
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 1: down and it would be Houdini standing there. He would

602
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: unlock the box and open up the the giant mail

603
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: bag and there was Best popped out. And we're talking

604
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,440
Speaker 1: in a matter of seconds, a matter of seconds, this

605
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 1: thing happened, and that was the metamorphosis. And that was

606
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: a really good example of how good bestcot because apparently

607
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 1: they could trade places in reality with this trick. And

608
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: you can find out how it worked at his Moto article. Um.

609
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: But they had it down to where she could change

610
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 1: places with him in three seconds. You're doing Gizmoto a

611
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 1: big service here. Well, Gizmoto did the world a big

612
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 1: service by writing that article. So I'm just I'm just

613
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: paying it forward backward. I guess let's before we break,

614
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about his aviation career. Can

615
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: we do that, because if you're thinking aviator Harry Judini,

616
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: the answer is yes. Because he was such a driven man.

617
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: He would uh in performer. The Wright brothers had proved

618
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: that you could fly, so he was like, I need

619
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: to get in on that, because what's better to draw

620
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 1: a crowd out in public than to do something like flying.

621
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: So he bought a by plane for about five grand

622
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,800
Speaker 1: in Europe, which is a lot of money back then,

623
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: still a lot of money, but you know it's even

624
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: more because it's modern times, because of inflation. Uh. And

625
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 1: he took it to Australia, supposedly took out the first

626
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 1: life insurance policy for an airplane accident in the history

627
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 1: of the world, and uh toward Australia and was the

628
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: very first person to fly an airplane on Australian soil. Yeah,

629
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: that's pretty historic if you think about it. And that

630
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 1: was like another good example of there was this new

631
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: innovative thing going on and he wanted in on it,

632
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,080
Speaker 1: so he went and did it and then on until

633
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 1: he didn't want to do it right once it became

634
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: kind of common place, he's like, oh, I'm done flying.

635
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: Yeah that was Houdini. Alright, So we'll take our last

636
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 1: break here and we'll come back and talk about his

637
00:33:50,760 --> 00:34:15,359
Speaker 1: battle with his spiritualists and his odd demise right after this. Okay, Chuck,

638
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: you promised a battle with the spiritualists, and I want

639
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:20,319
Speaker 1: to hear about it. Even though I think we kind

640
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: of talked a little bit about Houdini and our Spiritualism episode,

641
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,799
Speaker 1: and I know we definitely talked about yeah, there's just

642
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:30,439
Speaker 1: no way. And I know we talked about his death

643
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,840
Speaker 1: in our appendix episode. Not to give too much away, Yeah,

644
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: he's kind of appeared a couple of times. So he

645
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: hated the spiritualism movement. Uh. From the very beginning, it

646
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:44,680
Speaker 1: seemed like, um again, he was a performer and a

647
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:49,319
Speaker 1: magician who performed these really well thought out tricks, but

648
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: he m The idea from him was never I'm really

649
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 1: doing this stuff. It's I'm a I'm a master at

650
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: performing these escapes. He was really rubbed by the spiritual

651
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: us because he thought they were trying to con everybody

652
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,280
Speaker 1: because they were by saying we're really doing this stuff,

653
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: and he's like, no, you're just performing like me. But

654
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:12,640
Speaker 1: you're saying you're really doing it, and I don't like that. Yeah,

655
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:16,959
Speaker 1: you're taking advantage of people's grief, probably fleecing money out

656
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,480
Speaker 1: of them. Like there's a lot wrong with what you're doing.

657
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 1: And apparently so he was good friends for a brief

658
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 1: time with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the guy who wrote

659
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, who was at least as famous

660
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,160
Speaker 1: as Houdini by this time we're talking the early nineteen twenties,

661
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:38,319
Speaker 1: if not more famous because of Sherlock Holmes. Um and

662
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:44,279
Speaker 1: Doyle was a huge adherent of spiritualism, enormous, one of

663
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: the most gullible, smart people who ever lived. Um and

664
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:51,800
Speaker 1: Judini really wanted to be friends with him, so he

665
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:56,200
Speaker 1: kind of kept his sentiments about about spiritualism to himself,

666
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:01,000
Speaker 1: and the Doyle's invited Hudini you over for a seance

667
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:04,400
Speaker 1: because by this time Houdini's mom had died, and apparently

668
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 1: he feigned dead away when he got the news, like

669
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 1: he was in Europe at the time, and when he

670
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: woke up, he's just sobbing uncontrollably. I'm sure he still

671
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: went on stage. That was just what Houdini did, but

672
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 1: he took it rather hard. So when the Doyles like

673
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 1: invited him over for a seance, he went into it

674
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: open minded, hoping, you know, beyond hope. He would have

675
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:27,800
Speaker 1: loved to have spoken to his mom. But also I

676
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: think he was already had the kernels of skepticism, like

677
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 1: in the modern sense of the word, growing inside of him,

678
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 1: and he really it really rubbed him the wrong way.

679
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:45,160
Speaker 1: Like the whole thing started when his mother inhabited the

680
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 1: body of Mrs Doyle, Lady Doyle um and and made

681
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,279
Speaker 1: the sign of the Cross, which a lifelong Jewish mother

682
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,919
Speaker 1: would never do. And apparently it went downhill from there

683
00:36:57,560 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: and it really rubbed him the wrong way and he

684
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:03,279
Speaker 1: really resented it, and that led to the following out

685
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 1: of his friendship with Doyle. But also like his all

686
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: out just war on spiritualism and spiritualists. Yeah, I mean,

687
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 1: he ended up in court. He testified in front of

688
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:17,400
Speaker 1: Congress in support of a bill that outlawed fortune telling

689
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 1: in d c. H. And he specifically took on we

690
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: took on a lot of people, but um, Marjorie the

691
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 1: spiritualist Marjorie Mina Crandon was the wife of a Boston

692
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:31,080
Speaker 1: surgeon and and pretty big in that movement. And he

693
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:35,319
Speaker 1: got together with Scientific American magazine on a committee that

694
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:38,879
Speaker 1: they formed and exposed her basically and even put out

695
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 1: a pamphlet forty page pamphlet called Houdini Exposes the trick

696
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,320
Speaker 1: used by the Boston medium Marjorie. Yeah, dude, it was

697
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:49,879
Speaker 1: a very specific title. It was a very public war

698
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:53,200
Speaker 1: between them. At one point they had dueling stage presentations

699
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 1: in Boston which within days of each other. And Um,

700
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 1: Houdini finally got um so that he was part of

701
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: a committee for Scientific American who was looking to award

702
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: Bucks for evidence of actual mediumship you know of I guess,

703
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:16,880
Speaker 1: um like actual information from the other side or whatever.

704
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: And he he saw to it that she didn't get

705
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,720
Speaker 1: that she lost. But it was apparently a Harvard student

706
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,160
Speaker 1: who ended up unmasking or he just wrote that pamphlet

707
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: suggesting how she was probably doing it. And then also

708
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: he added he added an act to his larger act,

709
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:35,439
Speaker 1: which was kind of like a seance, and he would

710
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,359
Speaker 1: explain how this was all being done, which is pretty cool.

711
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: It was cool. What wasn't cool was how he died.

712
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 1: Yeah is that here to say? And I'm sure I've

713
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: made fun of Jay Gordon Whitehead before, but I'll do

714
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:56,920
Speaker 1: it again. Yeah. So here's what happened. He um, he

715
00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:00,279
Speaker 1: fractured his ankle in a performance doing the in thes

716
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:04,120
Speaker 1: water torture cell. And that kind of started this run

717
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: of bad luck. Um, if you believe in that kind

718
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 1: of thing. So he fractured his ankle, he's already a

719
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 1: little bit hobbled. Um. His doctor said, you probably shouldn't

720
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 1: be performing right now. He said, no, no, no, I'm

721
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 1: gonna do it anyway. I'm on tour and he went

722
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:21,680
Speaker 1: to Montreal and gave a lecture at McGill University where, um,

723
00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:25,240
Speaker 1: he invited these students backstage and you know the story

724
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: you've heard is true, like the hey, can you take

725
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,239
Speaker 1: a punch to the stomach? I've heard you can? And

726
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: Houdini is laid up on the couch because of this

727
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,879
Speaker 1: ankle says, yeah, I'm pretty good at that. And this guy,

728
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:39,479
Speaker 1: Jay Gordon whitehead. And this is a quote. It says

729
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:44,239
Speaker 1: abruptly delivered four or five terrible, terribly forcible, deliberate, well

730
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 1: directed blows, like just started wailing on his stomach. Apparently, uh,

731
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,160
Speaker 1: he wasn't ready for it. He wasn't tightened up or

732
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 1: you know, didn't have those abs rock solid. And it

733
00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 1: was decidedly uncool. Yeah, yes, not not just in cool,

734
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:05,319
Speaker 1: not funds cool, not cool by any definition. Apparently. Um,

735
00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 1: that same witness said that hoodin he was like, that'll

736
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,919
Speaker 1: do with his response to that, yeah, and he tried

737
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:13,839
Speaker 1: to play it off, you know, but he was like

738
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: that really hurt. And it just kept getting worse too,

739
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: like just that that. You know. Later that night he

740
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:22,680
Speaker 1: had stomach cramps. The next day he was racked with

741
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,319
Speaker 1: abdominal pain um and it was finally bad enough that

742
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 1: he went to a doctor and his doctor was like,

743
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 1: I think you might have appendicitis. You should go to

744
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: a hospital, and whodin? He said, never, I have to

745
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,360
Speaker 1: perform tonight and went on stage in Detroit and gave

746
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: what came ended up being his final final performance I think,

747
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:48,279
Speaker 1: on October nine. Because that doctor was absolutely right. It

748
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 1: was appendicitis, and he was in big trouble. Yes, it

749
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 1: was too late for him. Um, it was a rupture dependix.

750
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: He died on Halloween on October three, be first, with

751
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: Bess and a couple of his brothers at his bedside.

752
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:10,279
Speaker 1: And what's really what's what the debate is. You know,

753
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,319
Speaker 1: there was a lot of debate over the years about

754
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 1: whether or not he was murdered uh and had been

755
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: being poisoned by the Spiritualist, or whether the spiritual is

756
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:23,359
Speaker 1: hired this kid to go beat him up uh and

757
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 1: wail on his stomach or whatever. Yeah, exactly, And I

758
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,000
Speaker 1: think most people that really know have come out and said,

759
00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 1: none of that stuff is really true. That's really probably

760
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,520
Speaker 1: all speculation. But what the real question is is whether

761
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: or not it's possible and whether or not those punches

762
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 1: to the stomach actually ruptured his appendix, or did he

763
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,600
Speaker 1: already have an appendicitis happening and this might have just

764
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:51,880
Speaker 1: brought it to light or exacerbated it, or just maybe

765
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 1: maybe it was just ill timed all the way around. Yeah.

766
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 1: I think in our Appendix episode we landed on the

767
00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:00,719
Speaker 1: idea that no, it definitely didn't rupture his appendix. And

768
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,680
Speaker 1: apparently there's a study UM that looked at twenty years

769
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 1: worth of pendicitis and could only find just a handful

770
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:12,800
Speaker 1: of UM appendixes that were ruptured from like violence or trauma.

771
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: So it can't happen, but it's really rare. And even

772
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 1: Jay Gordon Whitehead Biff probably didn't rupture UM Houdini's appendix.

773
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,680
Speaker 1: But what he did do was he gave Houdini a

774
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:29,200
Speaker 1: good reason why his his abdomen would hurt right there,

775
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 1: and which would cause Hudini to just ignore it for

776
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:35,200
Speaker 1: longer than he otherwise might have had it had it

777
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 1: been a mystery sensation that he couldn't attribute it to anything,

778
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: And so Jay Gordon might had probably did and at

779
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 1: least indirectly lead to Houdini's death. But it was a

780
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:50,360
Speaker 1: neglected appendix or appendicitis that finally got him, and he

781
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: died of sebsis on Halloween in x in Detroit, of

782
00:42:55,160 --> 00:43:01,680
Speaker 1: all places. Yet uh so the kind of to put

783
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:05,400
Speaker 1: a tag on the spiritualist thing UM. Before he died,

784
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 1: he told best, he was like, hey, listen, I've got

785
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 1: an opportunity here if I'm about to die, uh to

786
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 1: really prove this this spiritualism thing is really bunk, Because

787
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try from the other side to get back

788
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 1: in touch with you. And you're gonna have to have

789
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: these seances and try and get in touch with me.

790
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 1: And and this is going to prove it once and

791
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,719
Speaker 1: for all. And for about a decade after his death,

792
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 1: Best did hold a seance. It never worked, of course,

793
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:36,800
Speaker 1: and she eventually quit. But the Magic Castle still has

794
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:42,279
Speaker 1: Houdini seances, I think every year. Uh. I don't know

795
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:45,759
Speaker 1: if you can just buy a special ticket or if

796
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,000
Speaker 1: you have to be invited to that. I know you

797
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:49,680
Speaker 1: have to be invited to get in period, but I

798
00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:51,920
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know how you get into that seance.

799
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: You gotta know somebody who at least knows somebody who

800
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:59,640
Speaker 1: knows somebody probably, um, I want to make fun of

801
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:03,880
Speaker 1: the some that theory though one more time about spiritualism.

802
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:06,279
Speaker 1: So there was a book called The Secret Life of

803
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:11,399
Speaker 1: Houdini where the um the authors said that if one

804
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: were just suspect Hudini, a victim of foul play, the

805
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:17,880
Speaker 1: section of organized crime that was composed of fraudulent spirit

806
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:23,279
Speaker 1: mediums must be considered likely suspects. It's like something off

807
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:26,879
Speaker 1: a history channel or something, you know. Yeah, and fun

808
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:30,240
Speaker 1: to make fun of. Yeah, you got anything else about Houdini?

809
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,080
Speaker 1: I got nothing else? All right? Well I don't have

810
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:36,759
Speaker 1: anything else either, But there's plenty more to learn. There's

811
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: tons of websites dedicated to Houdini. There's like lots of

812
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 1: documentaries out there and there it's pretty cool to go

813
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:45,080
Speaker 1: check them out. And also check out the gizmotor article.

814
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: And since I missaid, misspoke Gizmoto, it's time for a listener, mayo.

815
00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this another correction. Okay, good they're rolling

816
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 1: in lately, Yeah, we're rolling in them. Hey, guys, just

817
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 1: listen to the latest episode on Mental Records. And we

818
00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 1: heard from quite a few people on this one, by

819
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 1: the way. Uh, and as always it was great stuff. However,

820
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,880
Speaker 1: I think Josh provided a bit of unfortunate misinformation and

821
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:12,879
Speaker 1: claiming that sex offenders have the highest rate of recidivism.

822
00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 1: While this is a common claim, the evidence does not

823
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: support it. Uh. There are as always a lot of

824
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 1: different variables in the research on the topic. Notes that

825
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 1: there are so many different factors here to consider, but

826
00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:26,400
Speaker 1: the straight statement that sex offenders have been shown to

827
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 1: have the highest recidivum rates of any criminal is not

828
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: supported by the data anyway. There's a lot more research

829
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 1: out there as well, but I think that the statement

830
00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:38,160
Speaker 1: about recidivim rates reinforces the false belief among many that

831
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,279
Speaker 1: sex offenders are more likely to reoffend. Keep up the

832
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: good work, Mike. Uh. And Mike's in a bunch of

833
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 1: links uh that I went through and um it appears

834
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 1: that as correct. Yeah, we got that one wrong. Huh.

835
00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:54,040
Speaker 1: So thanks to Mike and everybody who wrote in to

836
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:56,959
Speaker 1: say it's not true, because we don't want to paint

837
00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:04,480
Speaker 1: anybody in an unnecessarily bad light. Agreed. Okay, if you

838
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:06,040
Speaker 1: want to be like Mike, can get in touch of

839
00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:08,879
Speaker 1: this with the correction, especially a vital correction. We love

840
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:11,240
Speaker 1: to hear those, and you can shoot us an email

841
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:17,840
Speaker 1: to stuff podcast at i heeart radio dot com. Stuff

842
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 1: you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For

843
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

844
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,600
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

845
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:29,520
Speaker 1: H