![]() Trademark routine of Teller's, the Vanishing Elephant of Siegfried and Roy's. Still a staple of illusion acts throughout the world today, as is the Needle Swallowing a ![]() Jacob Hyman who invented that name that Harry would eventually wangle into theġ920 edition of Funk & Wagnall's dictionary? We find the young magician and his newīride, both 18, working at Huber's Dime Museum on 14th Street in New York City,įeaturing their version of the Substitution Trunk, dubbed "Metamorphosis " the trick is Not only envisioned success, but would pay any price to achieve it was it he or his friend Wisc." The boy who at 15 changed his name, the first indication of many to come that he That hangs near me as I write this is partly inscribed, "born April 6/1874 Appleton, Immigrant who denied his actual birthplace the signed portrait, taken late in his life, Repelled or attracted-and sometimes both-we find Houdini, the young Jewish Here we find all the many Houdinis we know, and either love, or love to hate, as the case ![]() Sometimes irrational life and often unreasonable nature of Harry Houdini née Erich Silverman has presented us with a rational and reasonable story of the As author Ken Silverman wisely notes in his introduction to the biography'sĬompanion volume of source materials, "Most biographers will tell you there's no such Settled, there will be no single verdict on his life-and there can be no definitiveīiography. He was a man, but he is also a myth, and hence the arguments will never be Somehow belonging to us-is that in fact, it does not. Remember-and in fact, what is interesting to consider as one wades into thisĭelightfully lucid and scholarly account of a life we magicians tend to think of as Harry Houdini broke the boundaries of magic and became a cultural icon, literally a Who, in the author's encapsulating words, "knew no other dynamic than crescendo." Life of Erich Weiss in one word, there is assuredly no better phrase available, for a man The capital letters of that eponymous title, accompanied by no less than threeĮxclamation marks, may seem hyperbolic at first blush. Reviewed by Jamy Ian Swiss (originally published in Genii December, 1996) Houdini!!! The career of erich weiss by Ken Silverman
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