Houdini: A Life Worth Reading (13 page)

Houdini was buried in the elaborate coffin that he had commissioned for his Buried Alive stunt, in which he was to escape the locked coffin submerged in the vault filled with sand. His body was shipped from Detroit to New York City, covered in flowers, and taken to a funeral home.

Houdini was buried on November 4, 1926 in the plot where he had frequently visited his mother. His elaborate instructions for his funeral were followed, including the inclusion of his mother’s letters to him in a bag as a cushion under his head in his coffin. Bess and Houdini’s siblings attended the funeral, as did two thousand mourners, with two thousand more crowding the streets outside. The Society of American Magicians executed a special rite, breaking a wooden wand on the coffin.

Some of Houdini’s secrets he explained during his lifetime, and some have since been discovered by others. But many went to the grave with him, leaving the world to wonder how he accomplished his marvelous feats. The people who knew, Dash and Bess, never revealed their knowledge to the public.

After reading about Houdini and his obsession with work and fame, it should come as no surprise that he died, so to speak, in the saddle. His drive to be greater and greater is best expressed in his own words. He wrote a little of this drive in
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods.

My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the every-day commonplaces of my business. But I have never been without some seeming marvel to pique my curiosity and challenge my investigation.

It is pleasant to think of him working until the end not because he had to, but because some “seeming marvel” had “piqued his curiosity.”

After reading this chapter, you will know more about

• Dr. Saint:
  After Houdini’s death, Bess possibly married her employee.
  

• Communication from the dead:
  Despite many attempts, Houdini never appeared at a séance to speak the agreed-upon words to Bess.
  

• Bess’s death:
  The former performer died in 1943 of a heart attack.
  

• Dash:
  The magician Hardeen continued to perform in “The Houdini Show.”
  

Bess, who upon Houdini’s death announced that the world would never know what she had lost, continued to wait for a sign from Houdini.
She and Houdini had made a pact that if either of them passed away, the other would await a secret, pre-agreed-upon code word to be communicated. For two years after Houdini’s passing, Bess held open a $10,000 reward to any medium who could help her communicate with her husband. She waited and listened for the secret words, but found that all the mediums were full of were lies and deceit. She canceled her offer, sold 278, and moved to California. There she met Charles David Myers, who called himself Dr. Edward Saint. She hired Dr. Saint to take over her business affairs, and he devoted himself to preserving Houdini’s legend. Bess and Dr. Saint were very close and it was speculated that they married, but no one knows for sure.

On Halloween night of 1936, the ten-year anniversary of Houdini’s death, Dr. Saint presided over a séance on top of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, California. Bess and over two hundred magicians were in attendance. The séance table was laid out with locked handcuffs, a gun, and a slate, for Houdini to use to impart to Bess the secret code word. After intense pleadings for Houdini to appear, nothing happened. Bess gave up. She announced that spirits did not exist and that she would not try anymore to reach Houdini. Reportedly, immediately after her declaration, a clap of thunder and a cloudburst broke the night sky.

Bess died of a heart attack in 1943, while on a train in California. Prior to her death she had announced that she would not be returning from the dead or communicating by any means with the living. She was fed up with believing such things were possible. She revealed that the secret words that Houdini and she had agreed upon to share if able to communicate as spirits were “Rosabell,” the name of an old song, and the word “believe” spelled out in a special magician’s code. According to her sister, who was traveling with Bess at the time of her heart attack, Bess re-converted to Catholicism during her last hours, and she was buried not next to Houdini as he had surely wished, but in a separate Catholic cemetery.

Hardeen returned to the stage after Houdini’s death, performing many of his brother’s famous tricks in a performance called “The Houdini Show.” Hardeen lived until 1945.

Part of the secret message from the deceased Houdini, “Rosabell, believe,” comes from a song. Like so many old songs, there are multiple versions with small changes, but a common rendition is as follows:

Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle,
I love you more than I can tell,
O'er me you cast a spell,
I love you, my Rosabelle
!

The legend of Bess and Houdini claims that she sang this song in the first show she and Houdini shared very early in their careers. As such, the song had special meaning for the two.

Of course “believe” is self-explanatory. If Bess had seen that message, she surely would have.

1. Ehrich Weiss eventually chose the name Houdini because

a. It was a popular term for a magician

b. He read about Robert-Houdin, a famous magician

c. It was unlike any other name being use at the time

d. It was a name from the line of clothes he worked on in the factory

2. Houdini’s family was

a. Small, wealthy, and well educated

b. Large, wealthy, but poorly educated

c. Small, poor, and struggling

d. Large, poor, and struggling

3. The young Houdini ran away from home because

a. He wanted to ease some of his family’s financial burden

b. He was abused

c. He wanted to join the circus

d. He heard about an opportunity to become a magician

4. Jacob Hyman introduced the young Houdini to

a. Magic tricks

b. Gymnastics

c. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

d. Drugs

1. Who were the original members of “The Brothers Houdini”?

a. Jacob and Dash

b. Dash and “Harry”

c. Jacob and “Harry”

d. Just “Harry” acting as two people

2. Houdini’s popular early major escape trick was called

a. Butterfly

b. Chrysalis

c. Houdini on Fire

d. Metamorphosis

3. Who introduced Houdini and Bess?

a. Dash

b. Jacob

c. Bess’s mother

d. The Rahners

4. Who was Martin Beck?

a. Houdini’s rival in love

b. Houdini’s rival in magic

c. Houdini’s stagehand

d. Houdini’s manager

1. How was the Nude Cell Escape received in England?

a. Terribly: Everyone was shocked

b. Terribly: It failed to work

c. Very well: It made a name for him

d. Very well: It failed to work, but everyone liked seeing him naked

2. What bit of luck possibly helped Houdini win his slander lawsuit?

a. A judge’s already-open safe

b. A sympathetic jury

c. A jury composed mostly of magicians

d. A snow storm

3. How did Robert-Houdin’s family receive Houdini?

a. Very well: They gave him a dinner party

b. Very well: They let him stay at their house

c. Poorly: They wouldn’t even see him

d. Poorly: They accosted him in public

4. Houdini performed in Russia despite what challenge?

a. A prohibition on handcuffs

b. A strong anti-Semitic sentiment

c. A wrongful incarceration

d. A prohibition on women performing, which put Bess out of commission

1. What is 278?

a. The number of times Houdini escaped from handcuffs

b. The address of the house Houdini purchased for his family

c. The largest number of people Houdini could draw in the U.S.

d. The number of imitators Houdini challenged

2. For which of the following tricks did Houdini need to practice holding his breath?

a. The Milk Can Escape and the Manacled Bridge Jump

b. The Milk Can Escape and the Packing Case Escape

c. The Packing Case Escape and the Manacled Bridge Jump

d. The Packing Case Escape and the Nude Cell Escape

3. When Houdini escaped from Charles Guiteau’s cell, what extra trick did he

perform?

a. He called the jail from a different location

b. He emerged from an underwater tunnel

c. He swapped the other prisoners’ cells

d. He locked Bess in the cell

4. Which Boston trick almost failed and took Houdini an hour to complete?

a. An escape from an envelope

b. An escape from a boiler

c. Being handcuffed to a trolley

d. An escape from a mailbag

1. Houdini was so seasick on his voyage to Australia that he supposedly

a. Jumped ship and swam to shore

b. Had to be hospitalized for his entire stay in the country

c. Couldn’t perform magic upon arriving

d. Lost twenty-five pounds

2. How did Houdini balance performing magic and learning to fly?

a. He didn’t: he never learned to fly

b. Poorly: He exhausted himself

c. Well: He performed magic tricks while in the air

d. Very well: He became the first airplane magic act to great praise

3. How did Houdini feel about boxing?

a. He was passionate about it

b. He was disinterested in it

c. He was disgusted by it

d. He never saw it

4. What was Houdini’s long-term reaction to flying?

a. He continued flying his whole life

b. He never made it off the ground and gave up

c. He sold his plane after a few years

d. He became a professional pilot for the next twenty years

1. Why did Houdini perform his underwater escape from a pine box in federal waters?

a. The police prevented him from doing it in the East River of New York

b. The police prevented him from doing it in the Charles of Boston

c. The East River in New York was too polluted

d. The Charles in Boston was too polluted

2. Who was Young Abe?

a. Houdini’s new assistant

b. Dash’s new stage name

c. Bess’s new stage name

d. Houdini’s eagle

3. Who was Jenny?

a. Bess’s sister

b. Houdini’s elephant

c. Dash’s wife

d. Houdini’s eagle

4. Why did Houdini begin training to stay underwater for an hour?

a. Because he wanted to beat Charles Morritt’s record

b. Because he wanted to beat Rahman Bey’s record

c. Because he was challenged to by a fan

d. Because Bess told him he couldn’t

1. Why did Houdini eventually drop the “Harry” part of his stage name?

a. There were too many magicians named Harry

b. He went back to his original name