Beer defeats Houdini
Behold the power of beer, on this interesting page about Houdini. Seems the non-drinking Houdini tried one of his standard tricks, getting locked in a milk can filled with water, and used beer instead.
He had to be rescued.
Mrs. Shears and I just watched Houdini last night, the innaccurate but-touches-on-all-the-main-points, less-than-completely-engaging movie about the performer’s life starring Jamie Lee Curtis’s mom and dad. A movie bio that had to be made. It could easily be made again.
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By Ralph Pope, May 30, 2011 @ 4:16 am
One of the few and last times Houdini did a beer escape was in Scranton, PA. in 1915 when challenged by the Standard Brewing Company. The Challenge and newspaper story is on view at the Houdini Museum, Tour & Magic Show in Scranton, PA.
Houdini continues to conjure the public. People continue to flock to Scranton, PA., home for 23 years of the Houdini Museum, Tour & Magic Show. The only building in the world totally devoted to Houdini, & is the longest running and largest public exhibit in the world dedicated to Houdini. It’s headed up by well known magicians Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz. Ms. Dietrich has starred on a Home Box Office Special about escapes & Houdini called “The World’s Greatest Escapes”, & countless other national TV shows. She is considered the leading female magician and escape artist in the world. She is the only woman to have accomplished the jinxed Bullet Catch, “The stunt that scared Houdini”. Dick Brookz is currently starring in Psychic Theater’s “Haunted! Mysteries of THE Beyond!”, now running 7 years at the museum theater. More info at http://Houdini.org
The Travel Channel crew for Mysteries At The Museum just filmed at the Houdini Museum a segment about one of Houdini’s most famous and publicized escapes. Can’t wait to see it sometime in October-November! Some of the best minds in magic and escapes were used for input for the story including many who are on the Honorary Board of Directors of the Houdini Museum including Jeff Blood, Dick Brookz, John Bushey, Milbourne Christopher, Patrick Culliton, Walter B. Gibson, Chris Gower, Mick Hanzlik, Bill Liles, Ian McColl, Steve Moore, Fred Pittella, Ken Silverman, Steven Sparks.
Our Houdini Road Show, the largest and only continuing traveling exhibit on Houdini, has finally all come back and is being unpacked. It was on exhibit at the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino in West Palm Beach for much of this past winter. http://HoudiniDisplays.com
So many people come to the City of Scranton to visit the museum that the City has just awarded the Houdini Museum a $30,000 matching grant to fix the facade of the museum. Help is needed to raise the matching $30,000.
There are currently 3 motion pictures in the works about Houdini, so one can expect to hear a lot more about Houdini in the coming months. Movie director Francis Lawrence, (Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, Water for Elephants) has been chosen to direct a biopic of the great magician Harry Houdini, along with screenwriter Scott Frank (Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report for and Marley & Me). The plot currently revolves around Mina “Margery” Crandon, a beguiling spiritualist medium from the 1920’s that Houdini fought to expose as a fraud and prevented her from winning a cash prize put up by Scientific American Magazine. The plot revolves around him falling for her before coming to his senses. Some of this concept was already covered in a previous movie with Sally Struthers. The two other Houdini films in the works are Summit Entertainment’s (Twilight franchise, The Beaver) “The Secret Life of Houdini”, Houdini as a James Bond type British government spy, and writer J. Michael Straczynski, ( Thor, Changeling, Underworld: New Dawn), is working on “Voices From the Dead”, that will feature Arthur Conan Doyle and Houdini who were friends and enemies in real life. The apparently brilliant author of Sherlock Holmes was a true believer, and Houdini was, for his time,the ultimate skeptic.