HOUDINI, PINETTI & ROBERT-HOUDIN

Pinetti engraving from Paris.

Researching our series “Houdini in Paris,” about Harry’s search for Cagliostro, we tried not to get sidetracked by the constant surprise appearances of two of Harry’s favorite magicians: Robert-Houdin and Pinetti. After finishing the Cagliostro series we went back for a closer look.

Houdini took this photo at Robert-Houdin's tomb.

It's well-known among Houdiniphiles that when Harry first came to Paris he set out immediately to visit all the sites related to his namesake and childhood idol, the French magician Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin. Young Harry had read and thrilled to Robert-Houdin’s memoirs. That book changed his life, just as young Robert-Houdin had read a magic book that changed his. 

One of Harry's first stops was the Theatre Robert-Houdin at 8, Boulevard des Italiens. When Harry walked into the theater, as the story goes, he saw this very scene being rehearsed by the new owner of the theater, stage magician and film pioneer George Méliès.

Méliès and Houdini became fast friends. Méliès was Harry’s entrée into Paris’s sophisticated cultural scene. In rooms rented directly above the theater, Auguste and Louis Lumière were working on a new invention - moving pictures. It was they, legend has it, who shot Houdini’s first semi-documentary film (alas, now mostly lost): “Exploits Mérveilleux du Houdini a Paris.”

A still from Houdini's first semi-documentary film. He's been thrown into prison by the French flics. 1901 or 1909?

When Houdini traveled from Paris to Russia, it was Méliès who referred him to T. Bolin, the pre-eminent set designer and illusion builder, living in Moscow. Bolin was the first magic insider to authoritatively debunk Robert-Houdin, calling him a plagiarist and grandstander. Houdini began his famous attack on his former idol after absorbing what Bolin had to say.

Bolin also set Houdini straight about Pinetti, the Roman professor of mathematics who became court conjuror to both the King of France and the Emperor of Russia. Pinetti - portrayed as a villain by Robert-Houdin - became another of Houdini's heroes. We'll explore this in a future post.

Next: Pinetti & the Battle of the Magicians

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