Houdini!!! by Kenneth Silverman

Details: In the most comprehensive biography written about the great illusionist yet, author Ken Silverman, who has won both a Pulitzer and a Bancroft prize, draws on never-before-used scrapbooks, personal diaries, court transcripts and hundreds of unpublished notes and letters collected from around the world to reveal a far richer, more personal view of Houdini than ever before.

While Silverman focuses on the magic and miraculous escapes that made Houdini a legend and the most celebrated, highest-paid performer of his day, he also delves deeply into Houdini’s fascinating personal life. He explores Houdini’s many friendships with politicians and celebrities like Jack Dempsey, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Jack London, the Astors and others. He looks into his traumatic encounters with anti-Semitism; his close-knit family; his strange and troubled relationship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and his bitter war against spiritualism. He also uncovers new revelations about Houdini’s secret affair with the widow of a famous American writer.

Contents (from book):

3 METAMORPHOSES

3 One 1874-1898: Mayer Samuel Weiss and His Son, Ehrich Weiss; The Houdinis – Metamorphosis; The American Gaiety Girls – the Marco Company; the California
Concert Company; the Welsh Brothers Circus; The School of Magic

22 Two 1899: Martin Beck; Needle Swallowing; the Straitjacket Escape; the Jail Escape; Success; At Odds with Beck

36 Historical Note: The Matrix of Performance

47 HANDCUFF KING

47 Three 1900-1905: The Alhambra Debut; The Packing Case Escape; the Hodgson Escape; the Mirror Cuffs; Imitators, Rivals. Managers; Social, Domestic, and Literary Life

79 Four 1900-1904: Germany – The Berlin Polizeipräsidium; The Cologne Slander Trial; Around Germany; Houdini on Germany – Heinberger and Frikell; Paris, Blois, Merveilleux Exploits du Célèbre Houdini; Russia

107 Five 1905-1909: Return to the United States; 278; The Milk-Can Escape; the Manacled Bridge Jump; Houdini vs. Hardeen; The Open Challenges; Conjurers
Monthly; The Unmasking

137 Six January – June 1919: The Malwa; Diggers Rest; Rosehill

156 Seven 1910-1913: The Underwater Box Escape; The Crazy-Crib and Wet Sheet Escapes; New Challenges; Torture Escapes and Chinese Water Torture Cell; The Magician’s Club; The Weiss Family; Ira Davenport; Aviation in America; More Strain, New Assistants

178 Eight 1913-1915: Death of Cecilia Weiss; The Grand Magical Rview; Theodore Rooselvelt; Walking Through a Brick Wall; The Suspended Straightjacket Escape; Jack and Charmian London; Jess Willard

202 Nine 1916-1917: Houdini in 1916; The FDC; Drama Collecting; Good Works; The SAM; The exedra; The Weiss Family in 1916; Houdini and Bess; War; Harry Kellar; the Vanishing Elephant

226 Ten: 1918-1919: Cheer Up; Charmain London; The Master Mystery; Young Abe; More on the FDC; Los Angeles; The Grime Game; Martinka’s; Terror Island

249 A MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS

249 Eleven 1920-1922: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Spiritualism in the 1920’s; Meeting With Doyle; Eva C.; Performances in England; The Man From Beyond; The Weehawken Street Corporation; Death of Kellar; 278; Alfred Becks; Sawing Through a Woman

272 Twelve Spring 1992 – Spring 1923: Doyle’s Carnegie Hall Lectures; Spirit Photography; The Atlantic City Séance; The Talking Tea Kettle; Thurston and Blackstone; Haldane of the Secret Service; Doyle-Houdini Correspondence; Bert Reese; Doyle’s Western Tour

298 Thirteen January 1923 – Spring 1924: Houdini’s Spiritualism Lecture; Argamasilla; the Lippmann Reading; A Magician Among the Spirits; H. R Lovecraft; the Burgess Affair. The Scientific American Committee; Carrington, Bird. Prince; the Valentine and Pecoraro Séances

322 Fourteen Summer 1924: The Crandons; the July Sittings; Walter Franklin Prince; the August Sittings

341 Fifteen August 1924 — February 1925: The Committee Deliberations; The Symphony Hall Exposé; The Margery Verdict

359 Sixteen Fall 1924 – Spring 1926: The Anti-Spiritualist Crusade; Rose Mackenberg; Offstage and at Home; Margery Again and at Last

387 PALIGENESIA

387 Seventeen January – August 1926: HOUDINI; Chicago Raids and Lawsuits; the Congressional Hearings; The Shelton Pool Miracle

404 Eighteen August – November 1926: The Summer of 1926; Albany and Montreal; Grace Hospital; Reaction; Houdini’s Funeral

421 APPENDIX AND SOURCE GUIDE

421 Appendix: Recollections of Harry and Bess Houdini by their niece Marie H. Blood; Recollection of Hardeen by the Houdini collector Sidney H. Radner
435 Source Guide
445 Index

• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Pages: 465
• Location: USA
• Dimensions: 6″x9″
• Date: 1996
• Binding: hardbound

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