This is the headline on Yahoo news today:
Houdini kin wants body exhumed, tested
Fascinating. I fully expect that the casket will be empty. I've always been a sucker for the Houdini story ever since I watched the Paul Michael Glaser TV movie. Of course, there's a Detroit connection. His last show, the one where they smash the glass on the water trick, was in Detroit. Two days later, on Halloween, at old Grace Hospital, he died.
So, as a kid I read all the books. I wasn't too interested in magic, just in his life and the times he lived in. I was also deeply buried in books about vaudeville, the Marx Brothers, and the earliest films. Somehow, I still managed to fall for one of the most popular urban myths in Detroit. The Majestic Theater, now a Night Club/Concert Venue, on Woodward, is often claimed as the theater where he died. I bought it. Even went to watch a much hyped Halloween seance one time. It was a few years later that I reread a biography and noted that it was the Garrick Theater and not the Majestic. I'd been tricked. How appropriate.
Now, the story about dying from the sucker punch by a college student is discredited enough so that an heir wants an autopsy. Add to that a new book claiming Houdini was, in fact, a spy for both Scottland Yard and the U.S and now I feel I know less about him than ever. And that is real illusion- no face chomping white lions required.
Go in Peace
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