Houdini: A Life Worth Reading Read online

  XV. After Houdini’s Death

  Read It and Know It

  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.

  Know More About: Rosabelle

  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.

  Test Your Knowledge

  I. Ehrich Weiss, the Child Who Became Houdini

  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

  II. Houdini, the Struggling Magician

  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

  III. Houdini, the King of Handcuffs

  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

  IV. Houdini, Back in the United States

  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

  V. Houdini, the Aviator

  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

  VI. Houdini, the Evolving Magician and Illusionist

  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

  VII. Houdini, the Man

  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

  c. Houdini sounded more regal by itself

  d. There was a lawsuit that forced him to drop it

  2. How did Houdini falsify his passport?

  a. He changed his name to Dash

  b. He changed his birthplace from Hungary to America

  c. He changed his mother’s name

  d. He made himself six years younger

  3. Why did Houdini perform a three-hour show at Sing Sing?

  a. He was prevented from leaving by the prisoners, who loved him

  b. He was stuck underwater for much longer than he intended, about an hour and a half

  c. He wanted to beat the last magician’s record

  d. He related to the prisoners, believing that he might have been one of them if circumstances had been different

  4. What was Houdini’s relationship with his mother like?

  a. Very controversial: she hated magic

  b. Very close: he cared for her for the rest of her life

  c. Very strained: she didn’t like Bess because Bess was Catholic

  d. Very supportive: she gave Houdini money whenever he needed it

  VIII. Houdini, the Writer

  1. Why did Houdini resign from SAM?

  a. They told him he wasn’t a good magician

  b. They tried to make him give up any tricks involving water

  c. They wanted him to be president, but he wasn’t interested

  d. They wouldn’t adopt his magazine, Conjurers’ Monthly

  2. Why was Houdini’s book Handcuff Secrets controversial?

  a. Law enforcement officials worried it would help criminals

  b. He claimed the book as his own even though he didn’t write it

  c. It had too many pictures of Houdini naked

  d. It described Houdini’s affair

  3. What does M-U-M stand for?

  a. Magic United Majesty

  b. Magicians Unmask Magic

  c. Magic Unity Might

  d. Nothing, it is a meaningless acronym

  4. What was A Magician Among the Spirits?

  a. Houdini’s movie supporting Spiritualism

  b. Houdini’s book supporting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  c. Houdini’s movie attempting to set himself up as a Spiritualist leader

  d. Houdini’s book attempting to expose fraudulent mediums

  IX. Houdini, the Movie Star and Producer

  1. Why was Houdini interested in Hollywood?

  a. As always, he had a strong desire to stay relevant

  b. He wanted to expose the secrets of magicians on the big screen

  c. He had a bet with Dash that Hollywood would thrive

  d. He thought he could get more women there

  2. What did reviewers think of Houdini the actor?

  a. They loved him

  b. They thought he was a good actor, but a bad magician

  c. They thought he was a bad actor with little range

  d. They thought what he paid them to think

  3. How did Houdini’s company, the FDC, do in Hollywood?

  a. Very poorly: it never got past the planning stage

  b. Very poorly: it was not financially sound

  c. Very well: it made him rich

  d. Very well: it made Dash rich

  4. What was one long-term result of Houdini’s Hollywood career?

  a. A lot of lawsuits

  b. A long and successful stint as an actor for Houdini

  c. A fan base in Australia

  d. The end to his marriage

  X. Houdini, the Collector

  1. What collection did Houdini consider his crowning achievement?

  a. His drama collection

  b. His English literature collection

  c. His stamp collection

  d. His magic literature collection

  2. Houdini claimed he spent how much time working every year?

  a. Around the clock

  b. Never

  c. Five months

  d. Five weeks

  3. Where did Alfred Becks work before he began working for Houdini?

  a. Yale

  b. Stanford

  c. Harvard

  d. Cornell

  4. Where is Houdini’s magic library today?

  a. Bess has it

  b. The Library of Congress

  c. His children have it

  d. Lost

  XI. Houdini, the Crusader against Spiritualism

  1. What was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s take on Spiritualism?

  a. He was skeptical and critical

  b. He was skeptical but willing to have his mind changed

  c. He was a cautious believer

  d. He was a wholehearted believer

  2. Why did Houdini’s take down of Spiritualism get him in trouble with the SAM?

  a. He exposed trade secrets

  b. They all loved Spiritualism

  c. It didn’t

  d. Houdini wanted all the glory for himself

  3. Who was Nino Pecoraro?

  a. Houdini’s mentor

  b. A medium exposed by Houdini

  c. Houdini’s sidekick

  d. A rival magician

  4. What was “Margery’s” take on Houdini’s exposure of her fraudulent practices?

  a. She hated him for it

  b. She fell in love with him after

  c. She respected him for it

  d. She did not really care

  XII. Houdini, the Developer and the Patriot

  1. What clubs did Houdini belong to?

  a. The Masons

  b. The SAM

  c. The London Magicians Club

  d. All of these

  2. Why was Houdini not drafted in
World War I?

  a. He was too old

  b. They didn’t trust him

  c. He was not a U.S. citizen

  d. He never signed up

  3. Which of the following was part Houdini’s effort to aid the war?

  a. He stopped performing magic

  b. He helped the army enlist more magicians

  c. He entertained the troops

  d. He donated money to the troops

  4. What dangerous trick did Keller prevent Houdini from performing?

  a. The Upside Down

  b. Staying underwater for an hour

  c. Trying to free himself while riding a bull

  d. Catching a bullet from a gun

  XIII. Houdini, the Proud

  1. What word best describes the perception of Houdini amongst his peers?

  a. Humble

  b. Boring

  c. Educated

  d. Egotistical

  2. What was Houdini’s reaction to imitators?

  a. Tolerant

  b. Aggressive

  c. Passive

  d. Disinterested

  3. When heavyweight champion Jess Willard refused to participate in his act, Houdini

  a. Tried to convince him but gave up

  b. Did not try to convince him

  c. Pushed Willard until Willard punched him