The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero

602 Pages·2006·5.87 MB·English

by  William Kalush

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The Secret Life of
Houdini

1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Copyright © 2006 by Light and Heavy, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9850-6
ISBN-10: 0-7432-9850-0
ATRIABOOKS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com
For three wonderful mothers—
Cecilia Weiss, Lilyan Sloman, and Jean Kalush
From the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
1. THE OATH
2. STARVING FOR A LIVING
3. THE CELEBRATED CLAIRVOYANTS
4. QUID PRO QUO
5. THE KING OF HANDCUFFS
6. M
7. POLICE STATE
8. TAMING THE BEAR
9. THE CHALLENGE OF THE MIRROR
10. LEAP OF FAITH
11. KILL THY FATHER
12. DEATH VISITS THE STAGE
13. ABOVE THE DOWN UNDER
14. THE EMPEROR OF SYMPATHY-ENLISTERS
15. CHINESE WATER TORTURE
16. FORGIVE
17. FIGHTING OUR WAY TO THE GRAVE
18. DEATH BY MISADVENTURE
19. ART IMITATES LIFE
20. SAUL AMONG THE PROPHETS
21. LITTLE SISTER WILL DO EXACTLY AS BIG BROTHER SAYS
22. MARGERY’S BOX
23. MY OWN SECRET SERVICE
24. I…AM A FAKE
25. AN EYE FOR AN EYE
26. THERE IS NO DEATH
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Authors
Foreword
A
S AN AMATEUR MAGICIAN, I FREQUENTLY ask members of an audience to just
think of a famous magician. When I ask people to raise their hands if they
happen to be thinking of Houdini, inevitably about three-quarters of the hands go
up—this despite the fact that Harry Houdini died eighty years ago.
No one would be more pleased with this than Houdini himself, who, as this
book illustrates, sought throughout his life to imbed his image in the world’s
consciousness. He did this with strenuous feats of daring that fully justify the
appellation the authors apply—America’s first superhero.
My own interest in magic ignited when as a child I saw the 1953 movie
biography of Houdini, starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. I ran immediately to
my local public library and checked out what was then the only full-length
biography, Houdini: His Life Story. It was written by Harold Kellock two years
after Houdini’s death, with the “recollections and documents” of the magician’s
wife, Beatrice. It was remarkably thorough for an authorized biography and is
still a good read, but it was told, of course, from the perspective of a devoted
spouse.
There have been many subsequent biographies, and the better ones have
each penetrated a bit deeper below the surface of the Houdini legend. But it is
hard to imagine a more difficult subject for biographers than a man who was in
his time one of the world’s foremost exponents of secrecy and who was
determined to tell the public only those things that burnished his legend. Getting
to the essence of the man—what made him tick—has been an extraordinary and
almost always controversial task.
The book you now hold breaks new ground. The evidence the authors have