But the greater good of protecting the public from scams warranted an exception, Houdini argued. This was a bit of a touchy business, given that Houdini served as president of the American Society of Magicians, an organization that had a cardinal rule to never expose magic tricks. The audience was first treated to magic, then to some amazing escapes, and finally, to a séance where the methods commonly used by mediums were exposed.
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Harry began to give lectures on the fraudulent methods used by mediums and introduced an expose of psychics into his full evening show.
A livid Houdini now saw his beloved art being used to defraud vulnerable people of their money and resolved to unmask the charlatans. Levitations and apparitions are classic magic effects and are produced by perfectly explicable scientific means. He knew exactly what was going on, for the simple reason that he had performed similar effects on the stage himself. While many sitters were amazed by these phenomena, Houdini was greatly angered. Tables moved, trumpets floated in the air and bells mysteriously rang, supposedly signaling the presence of spirits. Instead of finding solace in the darkness of the séance room, though, Houdini found rampant fraud. A distraught Houdini began to seek out mediums who claimed to be able to contact the dead. But desperate people do desperate things.
“A shock,” he sighed, “from which I think recovery is not possible.” Although he was the son of a rabbi, Houdini had no religious convictions and had never expressed any belief in an afterlife. The magician had been extremely close to his mother and was utterly devastated when he received the telegram informing him of her death. It was his mother’s death in 1913 that launched Harry on a second career that would intertwine with his magical performances right up to his premature death from peritonitis at age 52. My interest in Houdini actually stems more from his tireless efforts to foster critical thinking than from his magic or his incredible escapes. Magicians from around the world, led by David Copperfield and James Randi, raised the money needed for its restoration. Indeed, Houdini’s grave has been desecrated several times, and was severely damaged in 1993.
Machpelah will be closed on Halloween because the operators of the cemetery have sadly discovered through experience that the holiday invites acts of vandalism. I wish I could tell you that the “Ritual of the Broken Wand” will be performed tomorrow as tradition dictates, but alas, that will not happen. His exploits spawned numerous books, movies and plays and inspired countless youngsters to take up the engaging hobby of prestidigitation. They came to pay homage to Harry Houdini, performer extraordinaire, who passed away on Halloween in 1926, but never really left us. For many years members of the American Society of Magicians gathered on October 31 at Machpelah Cemetery in New York to break a magic wand over the grave of the man whose name is synonymous with magic.
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