tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81411927011475821222024-02-21T03:22:34.431-05:00THE HOUDINI FILEMagical Arts WeeklyDAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.comBlogger403125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-36216050613568958532019-10-26T00:00:00.000-04:002019-11-22T13:07:44.801-05:00UNDER CONSTRUCTION<span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">We're having some upheavals both in life and online, and need to take a few weeks to get everything back in order. In the meantime, please enjoy browsing our thousands of stories - they're evergreen!</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-28982202275520850412019-10-19T00:00:00.000-04:002019-10-19T10:39:37.861-04:00HOUDINI'S PRODUCT PLACEMENT<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">You might not guess it from the video, but Houdini tells us the secret to rope escapes is not so much getting slack, nor concealing a hook-knife. No, it really depends on what kind of shoes you wear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At least, that's what he wrote in the <i>Ladies Home Journal</i> in June 1918. Escape artists ever since have preferred Congress-Gaitors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They're still available, and their characteristic side-gussets make them not a bad place to secrete the occasional hook-knife.</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-82369648133746255862019-10-12T00:00:00.000-04:002019-10-13T13:12:15.302-04:00HOW TO EDIT YOUR LIFE: WERNER HERZOG & JERRY ANDRUS<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z5di0QiO6WY?start=4215" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the process of cleaning out our files we ran across this video, the </span><span style="font-size: large;">2007 memorial tribute to our old and sorely-missed pal Jerry Andrus.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> As one of the speakers, I revealed to the world that I was making a film about Jerry's life. Reviewing my speech, I was somewhat ashamed to confess that I'm still working on that film. It</span><span style="font-size: large;"> has indeed taken unconscionably long to finish. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I blame Werner Herzog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">For my money, Herzog is the best film-maker alive
today, fiction or nonfiction. If anything his nonfiction work is more artistic,
more poetic, more surreal than his fiction. You’ve got to love an artist whose
motto is: “Always carry bolt-cutters!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had the good fortune of meeting him some years ago in New
York City, where he had come to host a retrospective of his documentaries. He
was highly approachable, delightfully charming, and full of amazingly on-point
advice for a fellow film-maker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I was already working on the Andrus film, and I described Jerry for Herzog - grand master of optical illusions, ruthless honesty and chocolate milkshakes. Herzog was captivated, and allowed as how Jerry was the kind of one-off character he himself might cast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the time Jerry was already quite elderly. I'd been following him around with a camera for twenty years, and I was slowly assembling the sequences. But because he was a deceptively simple man who set forth one day to discover the universe, the film had to be cosmic and down to earth at the same time, just like Jerry. It was not something to be slapped together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I was feeling this tug of yin and yang, and asked Herzog for guidance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“I want to finish my film quickly,” I said to
Herzog. “I’m afraid he’s going to die soon and I want to show him the final cut
before he dies.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Let him die!” Herzog said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After a dramatic pause, in which my inner world rocked, he
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had been thinking like two to three weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Two years!” he said. “Take two years to edit!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He paused again. “And here’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> to edit. Divide all your footage into two parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good footage. And great footage. Then, only
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<span style="font-size: large;">Words to live by! Cut your life like you cut your films! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now Jerry has passed into that Zone Zero in the sky. I've already cut two segments of the film (<a href="https://vimeo.com/65308698" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/70955249" target="_blank">here</a>) and shown them to select and enthralled audiences. But I'm still trying to make a new kind of film out of his unique life. I'm calling it a "haiku documentary." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not that it would be in 17-syllable verse, of course, though Jerry was quite a poet and I've recorded scores of his verses. No, this would be in an ancient, nearly forgotten prose/poetry form, where the protagonist - Jerry - leaves his house to walk the world, unearthing secrets of the universe along the way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Each time he discovers something, he writes a poem - or does a magic trick - to mark the find.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As Jerry's spiritual ancestor Basho put it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> From five to six miles</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In search of you,</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/05/magic-history-made.html" target="_blank">MAGIC HISTORY MADE</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2017/08/have-you-seen-this-before.html" target="_blank">HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BEFORE?</a></span><br />
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<!--EndFragment--><br />DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-55468917138613103202019-10-05T09:45:00.002-04:002019-10-05T09:51:33.069-04:00HOUDINI THE HACKER<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Last week we told you about the <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/09/houdini-cyberwar.html" target="_blank">Houdini Worm</a>, the most evil computer virus out there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today we alert you to the perils of 4G and 5G, the wireless pulses that make it ever so easy for smart slate artists, like Penn & Teller, to hack your computer password and all your vital statistics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For a deep and scary dive into this impending nightmare:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ol3tAxnNccY" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">RELATED:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/09/houdini-cyberwar.html" target="_blank">HOUDINI & CYBERWAR</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/08/magic-strategy-tactics.html" target="_blank">MAGIC STRATEGY & TACTICS</a></span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-13485270418521466132019-09-28T00:00:00.000-04:002019-09-29T16:12:35.094-04:00HOUDINI & CYBERWAR<style type="text/css">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Houdini Disguised as a Worm</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We’ve written previously of Houdini’s <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/06/dangerous-detectives-in-disguise-untold.html" target="_blank">talent for disguise</a>, and of course his ability to worm through keyholes is the stuff of legend (see our own novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/HOUDINI-UNBOUND-Espionage-DAVID-SALTMAN/dp/0998532959/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Houdini+Unbound&qid=1569609050&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">HOUDINI UNBOUND</a>, for some examples).</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well, now the intelligence agencies have Houdini on their screens; like police officials everywhere, they can’t seem to lay a finger on him. <a href="https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/unit42-houdinis-magic-reappearance/" target="_blank">Unit 42</a>, the threat intelligence group of Palo Alto Networks, has identified Houdini as the perpetrator of the world’s trickiest computer virus: the HOUDINI WORM.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Houdini Disguise</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />So far, the cyber-spooks believe the author of the H-worm -- his screen-name is Houdini — is somewhere in Algeria, fluent in French and Arabic. Beyond that, all they really know is that he’s been causing major disruption, running loose in the Cloud since <a href="https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2013/09/now-you-see-me-h-worm-by-houdini.html" target="_blank">we don't know when....</a></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Houdini Worm Running Loose in Cyberspace<br />
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<a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/06/dangerous-detectives-in-disguise-untold.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">DANGEROUS DETECTIVES IN DISGUISE</span></a></div>
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<br />DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-42884188444666390452019-08-10T00:00:00.000-04:002019-09-21T15:37:33.948-04:00GONE FISHING<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/175730831" width="640"></iframe></div>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/175730831">Houdini Customer Reel 2016</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/goprocedural">SideFX Houdini</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a><br />
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NEW UPDATE:<br />
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COMPUTER FIXED! BACK THIS WEEK! STAY TUNED!<br />
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UPDATE:<br />
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COMPUTER CRASH! CLOSED FOR REPAIRS! HOPE TO RESUME ASAP!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We're taking some time off, recuperating from some lingering ailments. So we leave you for a bit with this compilation of Houdini brilliancies - maybe not the ones you've become used to but Houdini is ever the great contortionist, the Master of Metamorphosis. His inspiration lives, morphs and grows forever. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Or at least 'til Labor Day, when we'll pick up again. Have a lovely summer!</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-24356113482311273352019-08-03T00:00:00.000-04:002019-08-03T11:04:20.370-04:00BATTLE OF THE MAGICIANS: CLOSE-UP & PERSONAL<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">When magicians perform for other magicians, special rules apply. It's no longer just entertainment - it's war! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/08/magic-strategy-tactics.html" target="_blank">As we've written</a> extensively in these pages, the essence of war is deception.... Let Eric Mead take it from here, as he battles the army known as Penn & Teller.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/08/magic-strategy-tactics.html" target="_blank">MAGIC STRATEGY & TACTICS</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/03/six-days-of-deception.html" target="_blank">SIX DAYS OF DECEPTION</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/08/magicians-at-war-with-russia.html" target="_blank">MAGICIANS AT WAR WITH RUSSIA</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/01/how-magicians-beat-nazis.html" target="_blank">HOW MAGICIANS BEAT THE NAZIS</a></span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-73010787814537226912019-07-27T00:00:00.000-04:002019-07-27T00:00:02.040-04:00THE LEGEND OF LONG TACK SAM<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Om1nHCdljBA" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Houdini was his friend and admirer, then pre-empted his favorite trick.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He was Orson Welles' third main magic teacher, after Houdini and the Bambergs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And he was a legend in his own time. The Legend of Long Tack Sam, told here by his great-granddaughter.</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-15071004160355622662019-07-20T00:00:00.000-04:002019-07-20T00:00:05.007-04:00FOR YOUR SUMMER ENTERTAINMENT....<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OQnEYw_9yqc" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We don't know about you, but we can't get enough of this guy. He's not only a spectacular performer, he's sweet as a butterfly's kiss.</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-53853820963225853012019-07-13T00:00:00.000-04:002019-07-13T09:42:36.827-04:00THE EDUCATION OF ORSON WELLES, MAGICIAN<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qaooTLg2k-M" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A couple of <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/04/houdini-orson-welles.html?q=welles" target="_blank">years ago</a> we unearthed this BBC footage in which Orson Welles makes two remarkable claims: first, that Houdini himself personally taught Welles magic; and second, that Houdini himself told </span><span style="font-size: large;">Welles </span><span style="font-size: large;">the story of how he rang the Kremlin bells for Nicholas and Alexandra, the Emperor and Empress of Russia. (The whole clip is utterly entertaining; the Houdini section begins at 4:00.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you follow our blog you know we've devoted <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/01/orson-welles-houdini-turn.html" target="_blank">considerable effort </a>to proving or disproving both these statements. In our opinion, the jury is still out on the Kremlin bells.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The BBC video resurfaced recently on our friend Kevin Connolly's "Conjuring History" <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/970570579725920/?ref=bookmarks" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>. And again the burning question in Houdiniland is this: did Houdini really teach Welles how to do magic? Or is that just another "F for Fake" moment?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was Orson Welles himself who said "I don't want any description of me to be accurate, I want it to be flattering."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Welles's description of Houdini was both flattering and one hundred percent accurate: "He was the greatest showman of our time!" </span><span style="font-size: large;">When one great showman says that about another, someone somewhere is telling the truth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So back into the breach: once again we've deputized ourselves to find the facts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">First off: know now and forever that Orson Welles was proud to be a magician, and a really good one. He had a profound understanding of the splendors and miseries of the trade. Even mentalism, as he showed in this illuminating lecture </span><span style="font-size: large;">to David Frost </span><span style="font-size: large;">on cold reading:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IjPsnfysrp8" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here's Welles doing his first-class mental act, on a network special:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FlP9pJCS428?start=1188" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Welles told an interviewer in 1975 that he had had three principal teachers of magic, all of them world-famous performers. Who were these teachers? Was Houdini really among them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">First stop in our inquiry: <i>Citizen Welles</i>, a comprehensive biography written by Frank Brady, who knew Welles personally and has done good bios of difficult characters like Aristotle Onassis, Barbra Streisand and </span><span style="font-size: large;">Bobby Fischer</span><span style="font-size: large;">. (It's a testament to Brady that he survived the Fischer bio unscathed enough to be elected president of the Marshall Chess Club in New York.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Brady reports that young Orson, a child prodigy, was already practicing cartooning, puppetry and magic by age five. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Orson's father, Richard Welles, known as Daddy, and his surrogate father, Dr. Maurice Bernstein, known as Dadda (it's complicated), were theater buffs and had taken Orson to see Thurston and Okito when they played Chicago. The Okitos, both Theo and David Bamberg, lived in Chicago for a time and, according to biographer Patrick McGilligan, gave young Orson extensive magic lessons and schooled him in magic history. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Orson thought Thurston was the best magician he'd ever seen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"I idolized him," he said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He copied - and some would say improved! - nearly all Thurston's big illusions from "The Wonder Show of the Universe." And he lifted Thurston's signature line "I wouldn't fool you for the world!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">These artifacts of his lifetime of magic all appeared in a TV pilot called <i>The Magic Show</i>, but alas the networks cringed and the project was lost ... until it was pieced together by a German foundation. Here's what remains - including the supercharged Thurston and Bamberg routines:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7TdKiH4_xhs" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But what about Houdini? At age ten</span><span style="font-size: large;">, Brady and McGilligan both say, Welles did indeed meet Houdini backstage, impressed him with his knowledge of magic history and learned from him the two-handed pass and a clever sleight with a red silk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But there's a problem, as in so many unprofessional dives into Houdini's depths. Both biographers say this meeting happened at the Hippodrome in New York.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Indeed, Welles himself has said it happened at the Hippodrome. But today we're declaring that the man of many theaters just made a forgivable mistake. It was in 1926 that Orson Welles met Harry Houdini - twice. He did indeed learn the two-handed pass, and more. But it was in Chicago, not New York. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5_UpTOvpsQs" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our source on this is the indefatigable Barton Whaley, who, among other masterpieces, produced a 600-page e-book biography of Welles the magician. He confirms that Houdini was indeed Orson Welles' first live teacher of magic:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><i>... [In March 1926 during a break from school] Orson was taken one afternoon by Dadda to see Harry Houdini perform early during the master's recordbreaking eight-week stay at Chicago's Princess Theater on South Clark Street. With 13 assistants and an executive staff of three this was the master's first big all-Houdini show, which he'd been trouping through the Eastern and Central states since the previous fall.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><i>The two-and-a-half hour performance watched by the blue-eyed boy had three acts. The first, lasting 45 to 60 minutes, featured Houdini's magic. This segment included The Miser's Dream where Houdini produces a small fortune in silver dollars from his bare hands and the Orange Tree that visibly grows real oranges. The second act was devoted to his three most famous effects: the opener was the Substitution Trunk (with wife-assistant Bess), followed by the Needle Swallowing Trick, and closed by the death-defying upside-down Water Torture Cell escape. The final act was his lecture-exposé of the methods used by fraudulent psychics. Except for the Miser's Dream and the Water Torture Cell, Orson would eventually perform all these famous feats, including at least one private psychic exposé.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><i>After the show, Dadda took the boy backstage to meet the 51-year old star. Impressed by the tall, round-faced lad's grasp of magic history, Houdini taught him the Pass, that basic sleight-of-hand move for cutting a deck of cards.... Accompanying the great showman to his dressing room, Orson did this sleight. Houdini, annoyed, commanded, "Never perform any trick until you have practiced it a thousand times." Orson so took to heart this advice from his admired master that he spent the next few weeks practicing the Pass.</i></span></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: large;">Next month</span> <span style="font-size: large;">Orson met Houdini for the second and last time and presumably was anxious to show his teacher the results of long practice. On this occasion he was brought by his father. During their backstage visit after the matinee show, Carl Brema, the famous German-born maker of fine quality conjuring apparatus, arrived from his shop in Philadelphia with an imported Conradi Vanishing Lamp. Young Orson was dumbfounded when Houdini on accepting the prop, said "Fine, I'll put it in the show tonight!" Orson didn't know that Houdini had already been doing the Vanishing Lamp for at least four months. So Brema's must have been either a repair job or a replacement for the gimmicked prop required for the effect. Despite Orson's misunderstanding this encounter served as a useful lesson in "great disillusionment," as he called it, about advice from one's elders.</span></span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Whaley notes that the dates of Houdini's stay at the Princess are established thanks to Frank Koval and Ken Silverman, by a notice in <i>The Sphinx</i> (May 1926) and letters by Houdini to Frank Ducrot and Dr. A.M.Wilson. Orson says, in the BBC video, that he first met Houdini at the Hippodrome in New York. But to be true that would have to have been in 1918 when Houdini featured the Vanishing Elephant and Orson would have been only three. It's Orson's recollection of the Vanishing Lamp that pinpoints the meeting with Houdini to the 1925-1926 tour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There's more to the story: watch this space.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2014/11/the-queens-necklace-houdini-cagliostro.html?q=diamond+necklace" style="color: #1900b8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank"><br /></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/04/houdini-orson-welles.html" style="color: #1900b8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank">HOUDINI & ORSON WELLES</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-3234348456365669022019-07-06T00:00:00.000-04:002019-07-06T00:00:00.515-04:00ORSON WELLES, DOUBLE AGENT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxCKwTarLaTCfxZFNDFvGOOf9_QbEmB-flVObAYENQZo6kSKXzfdDLp0UxBZVJm4akqVaDchJ7JN060tPYedmf64Ccpr9d3qE204sQ6tJqLl0DybpmmpRSof9YPT0fLbhhoIe0qk-YbIv/s1600/Orson+Welles+w+cigar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="414" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxCKwTarLaTCfxZFNDFvGOOf9_QbEmB-flVObAYENQZo6kSKXzfdDLp0UxBZVJm4akqVaDchJ7JN060tPYedmf64Ccpr9d3qE204sQ6tJqLl0DybpmmpRSof9YPT0fLbhhoIe0qk-YbIv/s640/Orson+Welles+w+cigar.png" width="482" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On June 19, the anniversary of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaooTLg2k-M&feature=youtu.be&t=3m59s" target="_blank">this charming BBC broadcast</a>, </span><span style="font-size: large;">in the rarefied upcountry of Houdiniland there arose some tart questioning of the relationship between the world's most unforgettable magician and the world's most notorious fabricator.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4hfzTTh5eP3OTijCSe7Vxt35RXUmCJdQKpESdqF_Ur6btFa9OolCQse15bjSNdq-h5us-HAj0fj-QHtvkJ_JCnXpYAEQ6tE0FjKmtW0zTxVAxSmGrw5T1yWhgPasVzrs6Y1BAUaaQgCY/s1600/Welles+sketch+sharpened.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="360" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4hfzTTh5eP3OTijCSe7Vxt35RXUmCJdQKpESdqF_Ur6btFa9OolCQse15bjSNdq-h5us-HAj0fj-QHtvkJ_JCnXpYAEQ6tE0FjKmtW0zTxVAxSmGrw5T1yWhgPasVzrs6Y1BAUaaQgCY/s640/Welles+sketch+sharpened.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Houdini portrait by Orson Welles</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We hope to bring new insight to this issue next week, after you've all recovered from your holiday overindulgences. Today, we set the stage by presenting a little-known vignette in the life of Welles that is a clear double-lift from his friend Harry's <i>Metamorphosis</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Welles story has the authority of that incomparable historian of both magic and spycraft, Barton Whaley. Whaley sets the scene in his masterpiece, <i>Turnabout & Deception</i>:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7v7KDGPpDRdT82jYwpQEZgoi10j7tFc2FvN3xMN0SLj_FUS8AJyP-mFqGhM-iffKa2Gr0rlfeDpCOegYN_C_OldmYoLfsP4vxFeeRzMygcjUSE9qljF2UJTmAgbwcLDcMUXwGfPmaL0yJ/s1600/Orson+Welles+double+exch+explainer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1158" data-original-width="710" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7v7KDGPpDRdT82jYwpQEZgoi10j7tFc2FvN3xMN0SLj_FUS8AJyP-mFqGhM-iffKa2Gr0rlfeDpCOegYN_C_OldmYoLfsP4vxFeeRzMygcjUSE9qljF2UJTmAgbwcLDcMUXwGfPmaL0yJ/s640/Orson+Welles+double+exch+explainer.png" width="390" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then, he reveals the method used by Welles:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKEubvyx_Q_HLtPGrP9Xers-KzfSPXRdQAfSoP713OxT6j80E2e_vdIR5qZDxBMGIkM72pG8Unp68Sq03UJvN299haEZr9fo4JHycTrGVT_1WbCQ1QTZvU0S76TjO6nlEaz6wy2_61rAZy/s1600/Orson+Welles+double+exchange.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="650" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKEubvyx_Q_HLtPGrP9Xers-KzfSPXRdQAfSoP713OxT6j80E2e_vdIR5qZDxBMGIkM72pG8Unp68Sq03UJvN299haEZr9fo4JHycTrGVT_1WbCQ1QTZvU0S76TjO6nlEaz6wy2_61rAZy/s640/Orson+Welles+double+exchange.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next week: newly uncovered evidence about the real relationship between Welles and Houdini.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">RELATED:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/04/houdini-orson-welles.html" target="_blank">HOUDINI & ORSON WELLES</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/11/harrys-heroes-cagliostro.html?q=diamond+necklace" target="_blank">HARRY'S HEROES: CAGLIOSTRO</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2014/10/houdini-in-paris-cagliostro-orson-welles.html?q=diamond+necklace" target="_blank">HOUDINI IN PARIS CAGLIOSTRO & ORSON WELLES</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2014/11/the-queens-necklace-houdini-cagliostro.html?q=diamond+necklace" target="_blank">THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE: HOUDINI, CAGLIOSTRO & ORSON WELLES IN PARIS</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2014/11/the-queens-necklace-french-revolution.html?q=diamond+necklace" target="_blank">THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & HOUDINI</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/01/orson-welles-houdini-turn.html" target="_blank">ORSON WELLES' HOUDINI TURN</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-24130365275756151692019-06-29T00:00:00.000-04:002019-07-01T13:24:00.135-04:00THE TRICK THAT FOOLED EINSTEIN<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiac6t-6DLbyr6zxE7d5u58a8yq0kxqlWsSN3lqP6RpqPafNliqAimPYSc-alUt81RqXNVpZgv_XTEvxAAi0OrPZxf6JcitKTugbUZoRymvhrlfgq2gyJ-uP89RkHEr_BIHEz6wWCWBG-6A/s1600/Einstein.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="484" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiac6t-6DLbyr6zxE7d5u58a8yq0kxqlWsSN3lqP6RpqPafNliqAimPYSc-alUt81RqXNVpZgv_XTEvxAAi0OrPZxf6JcitKTugbUZoRymvhrlfgq2gyJ-uP89RkHEr_BIHEz6wWCWBG-6A/s640/Einstein.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The earliest mention we can find of this marvelous little gag indicates it appeared one hundred years ago, circa 1919 -- the year a solar eclipse confirmed Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Sir Arthur Eddington convinced the world Einstein was right, but it was Gene Dennis, "The Wonder Girl," who convinced Einstein she was able to predict how much change he had in his pocket. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Einstein, his wife Elsa and Gene Dennis</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Einstein's endorsement made the newspapers, and made Gene Dennis' reputation as a psychic wizard - "the girl who amazed Einstein."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff3db; color: #29303b; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">"She told me things no one could possibly know, things on which I have been working, and she demonstrated she has the power to do things I cannot explain.... It was miraculous indeed.”</span></span></blockquote>
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-- A. Einstein, Chicago <i>Herald Examiner, </i>Jan 13, 1932 </blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, it proves two things we've always believed:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. Ph. D's are easier to fool than eight year old kids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. Einstein as a kid flunked basic math.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here's the original version of the effect, which was later picked up, along with the modified slogan "the trick that fooled Einstein," by famed mentalist Al Koran and others. It can be done with coins, cards, matchsticks, Junior Mints, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">[The video states it was Al Koran who fooled Einstein, but top <a href="http://cardopolis.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-trick-that-fooled-einstein.html" target="_blank">magic sleuths</a> have determined that when making that claim Mr. Koran had apparently imbibed a bit too much wiffle dust.]</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-76774504736464041402019-06-22T11:26:00.000-04:002019-06-22T11:53:46.280-04:00THE FINE ART OF DISGUISE<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinVjoSkeo6vWBqb1z5ANQB7VNIkQjDvYxuaIhlP2ZKXdGmjXLX9zNp8eqPRMVjvJTzp-83_kTfgKnmI3sqRnrQi7s6VBnEmpNdjOZO1g1Rhyphenhyphen_vumzIBnE-SwnmhZBtoA-yooGTkDcyeS_E/s1600/Randi+head+shot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="1049" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinVjoSkeo6vWBqb1z5ANQB7VNIkQjDvYxuaIhlP2ZKXdGmjXLX9zNp8eqPRMVjvJTzp-83_kTfgKnmI3sqRnrQi7s6VBnEmpNdjOZO1g1Rhyphenhyphen_vumzIBnE-SwnmhZBtoA-yooGTkDcyeS_E/s640/Randi+head+shot.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/06/dangerous-detectives-in-disguise-untold.html" target="_blank">Last week</a> we told you about the brilliant and highly effective detective squads mobilized first by Houdini and then by his spiritual son, James "The Amazing" Randi, seen here camouflaging his cherubic face behind a bushy beard. Both Houdini and Randi employed their secret services to expose fake spiritualist healers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Randi and his team of clandestine warriors are all adepts at disguise, as we noted in our <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/06/dangerous-detectives-in-disguise-untold.html" target="_blank">detailed account</a> of his ingenious effort to defenestrate Peter Popoff, the television evangelist known for telling people to get up out of their wheelchairs and walk!</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Popoff Book</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What we left out of last week's case study was this: Randi's heroic efforts to neutralize Popoff ultimately failed. Dramatically and publicly exposed, the preacher-man was knocked off TV for a while, but came bouncing back and is still on today, doing his same act. Randi, sorry to report, appears close to retirement and has also retired his famous, Houdini-inspired, <a href="https://web.randi.org/the-million-dollar-challenge.html" target="_blank">Million Dollar Challenge</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We wonder if it all came down to a few fine details of disguise. Perhaps they needed some pointers from Joanna Mendez, for whom disguise is showbiz, but is mainly a matter of life and death.</span><br />
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-86767964624439936922019-06-15T11:37:00.000-04:002019-06-15T12:07:03.393-04:00DANGEROUS DETECTIVES IN DISGUISE: THE UNTOLD STORY<div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVBDp8rGxv1rxpI24c84ljipF8f4njFvYKwlpUNUMe0pCVrD7rOIlQxXKEXTFKYmCyVvxFhKHg_a1CCK-MFcItgRHureOtX_EsF-1IxHTpQnJoxWaidS8P8ZKW15FOSOQQLcP1ewzR7UWH/s1600/hh+in+disguise+ex+apl+dot+org.jpg.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="601" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVBDp8rGxv1rxpI24c84ljipF8f4njFvYKwlpUNUMe0pCVrD7rOIlQxXKEXTFKYmCyVvxFhKHg_a1CCK-MFcItgRHureOtX_EsF-1IxHTpQnJoxWaidS8P8ZKW15FOSOQQLcP1ewzR7UWH/s640/hh+in+disguise+ex+apl+dot+org.jpg.tiff" width="504" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Houdini in one of his favorite disguises.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Houdini, master of disguise, actually employed an entire detective squad, about 20 men and women, whom he called "my secret service." Rose Mackenberg, a professional investigator, seen here in eight different disguises, became his star sleuth. Her main job was to bust fraudulent psychics.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDRPMwkSFa1goP0nTNAPnNmwe5B8utpWAJs1E-wimw7kK2QcJFmmHXdy23Os4v6MWmEI34xfvd1ZPoIEfdY3NxKIK6i5lx76xoYrycRTP4rCvj1Ndj90KkXlW0Fmv6g7SiwZjS166RZX0/s1600/Rose+in+disguise+2s.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1070" data-original-width="964" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDRPMwkSFa1goP0nTNAPnNmwe5B8utpWAJs1E-wimw7kK2QcJFmmHXdy23Os4v6MWmEI34xfvd1ZPoIEfdY3NxKIK6i5lx76xoYrycRTP4rCvj1Ndj90KkXlW0Fmv6g7SiwZjS166RZX0/s640/Rose+in+disguise+2s.png" width="572" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkhe9HtaL4eamYsU3u4hgnCRoMrfEo3ydeGYMmUu0N5SxvzEL2DDa0FMC6D4tuaDNrdS80v149bTiT-FgUl77u7ovatz-v6ks89jjY3RJwQdHwm8vGlviJXkbDY3l7kGRDN86u1lOb-5B/s1600/Rose+in+disguise+3s+tipsy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="1297" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkhe9HtaL4eamYsU3u4hgnCRoMrfEo3ydeGYMmUu0N5SxvzEL2DDa0FMC6D4tuaDNrdS80v149bTiT-FgUl77u7ovatz-v6ks89jjY3RJwQdHwm8vGlviJXkbDY3l7kGRDN86u1lOb-5B/s640/Rose+in+disguise+3s+tipsy.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxG8il9fOWik8rJ3mtmyMdR5Fn7CDgTgCj7g-qU77uYUUrY_5PTNXK8yAj2UauTn6YU_Ji2VLSqSUqclwc0ZhC3MC-hb6j56p5U90QbhI_P3XW-K2iK8IS2rBx-Ps4Gml7E5oYKvM_vJWh/s1600/Rose+in+disguise+3s.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1019" data-original-width="1310" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxG8il9fOWik8rJ3mtmyMdR5Fn7CDgTgCj7g-qU77uYUUrY_5PTNXK8yAj2UauTn6YU_Ji2VLSqSUqclwc0ZhC3MC-hb6j56p5U90QbhI_P3XW-K2iK8IS2rBx-Ps4Gml7E5oYKvM_vJWh/s640/Rose+in+disguise+3s.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Houdini's biographer and spiritual heir, our friend James Randi, adopted the Old Master's undercover tactics during his own legendary exposures of fake spiritual mediums. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Randi's takedown of </span><span style="font-size: large;">TV evangelist Peter Popoff was televised. Like Houdini, he hired detectives and employed disguises to penetrate Popoff's defenses. Like Houdini, Randi could not debunk in person because he had become too recognizable. Sometimes, while his secret agents were at work, Randi sat quietly in the audience and did nothing - the perfect misdirection. Randi told a highly condensed version of the Popoff story on film, beginning with his own shill, the talented mentalist known as Banachek:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's the short version. The whole story has never come out in its entirety until now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Randi had another team of shills in the audience: Don Henvick, master of disguise, who was, on this occasion, posing as a woman named Bernice Manicoff.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizA5OBR1lEi6G9PpBtrgpShu4gWCCMOtiNdBwzAJ4VOWN2NG-HoQLMAANiq5NakXTv2D3HohhdT8Q01beFdz0BTQ4jx71QTUP6TaX6fU8aiJC9Pisi86DlamWFC-9wlsHTbiDJqUZmi9en/s1600/Henvick+as+self+and+Bernice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="670" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizA5OBR1lEi6G9PpBtrgpShu4gWCCMOtiNdBwzAJ4VOWN2NG-HoQLMAANiq5NakXTv2D3HohhdT8Q01beFdz0BTQ4jx71QTUP6TaX6fU8aiJC9Pisi86DlamWFC-9wlsHTbiDJqUZmi9en/s640/Henvick+as+self+and+Bernice.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henvick as himself & Bernice Manicoff</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Bernice," accompanied by her "son," played by writer Scot Morris, walked slowly into the hall with the aid of a walker. Popoff's assistants approached "her" and asked if she wouldn't be more comfortable in a wheelchair. If so, they said, they'd seat her in the front row, where she'd be right up there with Popoff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Randi's stooges readily agreed - they had scoped out Popoff extensively and knew this was one of his most potent secrets, to enable people who could already walk to sit up front in wheelchairs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Popoff's assistants politely inquired what sort of healing Bernice was seeking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Uterine cancer," Henvick replied. He had just shaved off his mustache that morning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here's an eyewitness account of what happened next:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The suspense grew during the show as the healing progressed until finally Popoff stood five feet in front of Don and called his alias, "Bernice Manicoff." He promised to burn the cancer out of her body. He laid hands on "Bernice" and Don gave his his most ladylike shriek as he was shocked by the power of the Holy Ghost. Popoff then commanded "Bernice" to rise out of the wheelchair and walk! Don staggered to his feet and walked back and forth across the stage to the loud cheers of the crowd.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The crowd, too, rose to its feet and gave both Bernice and Popoff a standing ovation!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, Bernice's "son," remembering he was supposed to be writing this up for <i>Penthouse</i> magazine, began taking dozens of pictures. When he began taking crowd shots and closeups of Popoff, the security guards got disturbed and managed to "accidentally" open up his pre-digital camera and expose the film. Randi smelled trouble and, using his own prearranged signals, ordered his team to evacuate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bernice had already returned to her wheelchair and was sitting in it again when Randi's order came. At that moment, Popoff's stooges spotted her for a fake and, on their walkie-talkies, identified Randi as the mastermind. "Bernice" stood up with alacrity, abandoned the wheelchair entirely and ran full-speed out of the hall, followed by Randi and his teammates. The audience, once again, came to its feet and gave her a second thunderous ovation!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next week: Principles of Disguise from the CIA's Top Expert.</span></div>
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[Popoff Pictures & text from <a href="http://casa.colorado.edu/~dduncan/pseudoscience/PeterPopoff.htm" target="_blank">Science & the Paranormal</a>]</div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-76372857666236879502019-06-08T00:00:00.000-04:002019-06-08T17:39:35.014-04:00KILLER SERIALS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYKAyrPXFQg_QaWI0c6_Nmj1V90vc58MFHGJN133T3Fbbu5P13AtBO0UFk46puJGigQJr_IikirbuRGWa7em-fBF4Kk8fjRitXgW058C6kgC0seGb_SDh1qTly5iGJ5Tr-oiPrkC3nYB8T/s1600/Fu+Manchu+Drumssof+poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="469" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYKAyrPXFQg_QaWI0c6_Nmj1V90vc58MFHGJN133T3Fbbu5P13AtBO0UFk46puJGigQJr_IikirbuRGWa7em-fBF4Kk8fjRitXgW058C6kgC0seGb_SDh1qTly5iGJ5Tr-oiPrkC3nYB8T/s640/Fu+Manchu+Drumssof+poster.png" width="454" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A little more than one hundred years ago Houdini made his first movie, the 15-part serial <i>The Master Mystery</i>. It was a hit and Harry's film career was launched. That same year saw the publication of Sax Rohmer's first novel, <i>The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/09/houdini-in-fiction-real-life.htmlhttp://www.houdinifile.com/2012/09/houdini-in-fiction-real-life.html" target="_blank">We've written</a> at length about the connection between Harry and Sax, who became great friends. Houdini's film career fizzled eventually, but Rohmer's - or rather Fu Manchu's - took off like one of the evil doctor's trained killer falcons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was 80 years ago that Rohmer got credit for the best film serial of all time, which was also then the most expensive movie ever made: <i>Drums of Fu Manchu</i>. It really is entertaining, even today, and the star, Henry Brandon, is remarkable. Here are the first two episodes, for your air-conditioned summer enjoyment:</span><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZCeIaJY-gQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/09/houdini-in-fiction-real-life.html" target="_blank">HOUDINI IN FICTION & REAL LIFE</a></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-59714177384982566412019-06-01T00:00:00.000-04:002019-06-01T00:00:05.040-04:00MERWIN THE MAGICIAN<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merwin's Garden in Haiku</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXdTWIWzZwUysaOzVEPVQA53tGggEqkjrY0AErpkauKwRIiGmMUChtYyY749u97tBhOzJwdH30aKL2ahifHBOi9wLoeFVkr-3H23dwG9C6EIFLgA8MurzWoTomHaa0Gc_kgMKNFFa7YpD/s1600/Merwin+escape+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="551" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXdTWIWzZwUysaOzVEPVQA53tGggEqkjrY0AErpkauKwRIiGmMUChtYyY749u97tBhOzJwdH30aKL2ahifHBOi9wLoeFVkr-3H23dwG9C6EIFLgA8MurzWoTomHaa0Gc_kgMKNFFa7YpD/s640/Merwin+escape+1.png" width="354" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_h5u2ecbZzXHbUqira21ZmLWpGMkolfAeJjvCe8RDGheOPC604h3l1TOi-d-ab8CuDW3OixmUM4qe1Wbv-cTQpKxu_sEUIlc-eHZtcNFerqUht6mKtLBqXQQ4-b0VMcP23EHwk8w7X97M/s1600/Merwin+escape+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="475" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_h5u2ecbZzXHbUqira21ZmLWpGMkolfAeJjvCe8RDGheOPC604h3l1TOi-d-ab8CuDW3OixmUM4qe1Wbv-cTQpKxu_sEUIlc-eHZtcNFerqUht6mKtLBqXQQ4-b0VMcP23EHwk8w7X97M/s320/Merwin+escape+2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Now, all my teachers are dead, except silence."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W. S. Merwin wrote that in Haiku, the name of his chosen village on the island of Maui. The former Poet Laureate, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, died there on the Ides of March. <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-s-merwin" target="_blank">His poetry</a> speaks for itself, and will continue speaking to those with ears for a thousand years. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Especially for us, his fellow magicians, he has also left his secret training exercise. It must be practiced diligently:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6Pt3sDZ3oo0rzSPhWHQVGNhFGQQoeUlpQexEzpejhAcK1INexrMEXU7W9mSpAM5ApsJsSNhchso5s6Czs96ybUrBa7jAVubU5-5DTTVAwI1SpoNfR7_QfRZKnw78Fwaw6E803b0Mgxf3/s1600/Merwin+Exercise.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="512" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6Pt3sDZ3oo0rzSPhWHQVGNhFGQQoeUlpQexEzpejhAcK1INexrMEXU7W9mSpAM5ApsJsSNhchso5s6Czs96ybUrBa7jAVubU5-5DTTVAwI1SpoNfR7_QfRZKnw78Fwaw6E803b0Mgxf3/s640/Merwin+Exercise.png" width="270" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-gdXrYl77OvLfMVJI0CdfTKgnEIhqv6bNnbzNSdxwuZoaNkmEPHcONuVL75fCZfYmxUGlb-I2qAoJ7VOn97be70OObKLuSS6P9DaWJNuUEe8IuuSSbCfVFJ7qE4FNr4ORV-nkJRO5C7zk/s1600/MERWIN+death+poem+pic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="1102" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-gdXrYl77OvLfMVJI0CdfTKgnEIhqv6bNnbzNSdxwuZoaNkmEPHcONuVL75fCZfYmxUGlb-I2qAoJ7VOn97be70OObKLuSS6P9DaWJNuUEe8IuuSSbCfVFJ7qE4FNr4ORV-nkJRO5C7zk/s640/MERWIN+death+poem+pic.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-3749061570297377932019-05-25T00:00:00.000-04:002019-05-28T11:46:10.954-04:00RICKY JAY'S LAST ACT<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fu4N65knk1U" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's been <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/11/rip-ricky-jay.html" target="_blank">six months</a> since our friend Ricky Jay pulled that vanishing act from which there is no reappearance. But magicians and civilians alike can rejoice that he left us something good to watch: his last act, a role handmade for his "hands like two shovels" in the Amazon hit series <i>Sneaky Pete</i>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxyODlF6VSNWYamb5eHwybU7fnt0M65EZ2opu-Txnb-fbb5OAUCQHqyRUB1AJHMC5hKMXQeT1EVxwCGVSJVKvbpaN_vH8DAc3Mqb7j5BcqmDa8A-0YfrGJhqDPxhNKcq31OWlbCqv2hyphenhypheno6/s1600/Empire+Dental+coverage%253A.pdf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="541" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxyODlF6VSNWYamb5eHwybU7fnt0M65EZ2opu-Txnb-fbb5OAUCQHqyRUB1AJHMC5hKMXQeT1EVxwCGVSJVKvbpaN_vH8DAc3Mqb7j5BcqmDa8A-0YfrGJhqDPxhNKcq31OWlbCqv2hyphenhypheno6/s640/Empire+Dental+coverage%253A.pdf.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can't help missing Ricky. But don't miss <i>Sneaky Pete</i>!</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-14800909401840099042019-05-18T00:00:00.000-04:002019-05-18T10:00:40.972-04:00HOUDINI WOULD LOVE THIS<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/12x3uvDi4c4" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a sensationally beautiful act, as Penn & Teller vouch. We're certain Houdini would have loved it - it echoes Dr. Lynn, Silent Mora and many other of the masters responsible for our being here today.</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-58639002650572974652019-05-11T13:43:00.000-04:002019-05-11T13:43:06.173-04:00HOUDINI, SILVERMAN, "THE PERFECT MAN" & "THE PERFECT WOMAN"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Last week we compared Houdini to Leonardo da Vinci; this week it's Tarzan and, woke as we are, Pocahontas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We're putting the burden of proof on our late friend and benefactor Ken Silverman. He can handle it: he won the Pulitzer Prize, and he did the ultimate vanishing act two years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The great thing about writing is that the writer can speak to you from beyond the grave. We ran across this delightful piece of Ken's from 18 years ago, when white maleness was already a thing, but not yet a constitutional crisis:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Houdini wanted to be taken seriously. He protested his identification in Who's Who as ''magician,'' asking to be listed instead as ''actor, inventor and author.'' Starting out in grubby sideshows and 10-cent circuses -- as the self he ruefully called ''Dime Museum Houdini'' -- he wanted to be known for what he became: pioneer aviator and film producer; university lecturer and historian of magic; man of the theater, starring on Broadway beside Lunt and Fontanne.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">John F. Kasson and Adam Phillips take Houdini seriously indeed, although not in the way he wanted. For Kasson, a professor of American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Houdini was ideological cousin to the Prussian strongman Eugen Sandow and to Tarzan of the Apes. He stood only about 5 feet 5 inches tall, but he cultivated his little-Hercules physique and performed as a ''magus of manliness.'' His muscular escapes spoke to American males standardized at work by corporate life, intimidated in public by the all-powerful state and challenged at home by the New Woman. His 30-year career helped counter their fears of the emasculating effects of modern culture and to inspire in them an ideal of revitalized manhood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Houdini himself subscribed to this philosophy. He expressed it in his admiration for Theodore Roosevelt, author of the best-seller <i>The Strenuous Life</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Col. Roosevelt and I have been friends for many years," Houdini wrote.</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">[Theodore Roosevelt] came to believe that modern urban life was a threat to white middle
class specifically and the nation generally.... Roosevelt believed that nations, races,
and civilizations did not remain always young. Roosevelt ascribed to a theory of stages of
development ... which he applied to races, nations, and civilizations.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">First
was savagism, a state of disorganized chaos. Barbarism was the next stage when military virtues
were developed. The third stage, civilized, was one of “social efficiency,” where military virtues
were combined with a love for order and race fecundity. However, the final stages were marked
by diminished virile virtues, a love of ease, softness, willful sterility, a contemplative life, and
material possessions. At the end of the evolutionary continuum, lamented Roosevelt, lay the
specter of racial and national decadence....</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">The fate of those that lost the primary virtues was clear for Roosevelt. Greed, luxury,
materialism, and sensuality ate like acids into the fiber of the upper class. Perhaps most
important to Roosevelt, decadence occurred when the average citizen lost the fighting edge.
Roosevelt feared that entire peoples, including Americans, lusted after ease and luxury, sought
refinement, desired culture, and generally risked losing the rugged, virile virtues.... In particular, they thought the demands of urban life drained the individual’s supply of
“nerve force” or “nervous energy,” resulting in “nervelessness,” nervousness, or neurasthenia.
As explained by George Beard in 1881, “The chief and primary cause of this development and
very rapid increase of nervousness is modern civilization.”</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Those who exhibited worry,
melancholia, nervous exhaustion, irritability, and a paralysis of the will were diagnosed as
neurasthenics, who, according to Gail Bederman, “were highly evolved white middle-class who
had overtaxed their vital energies by over stimulating themselves with civilization.” For the
neurasthenic, illness was caused by civilization itself. </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> Not only was neurasthenia associated with the stresses of urbanization and competitive
business environment, critics also held writers the likes of Sarah Hale, Lydia Sigourney,
Catherine Beecher, Harriet Stowe and Louisa May Alcott accountable for producing a
romanticized, over-civilized Protestant culture that endangered middle class American character.
Middle class Americans felt themselves ensnared in the paradoxes of their own progress. Caught
between an imagined, fading American past and an uncertain industrial, technological future,
reformers felt a particular responsibility to retrieve that past in order to take a hand in
determining and shaping America’s future. -- from <i>Degeneration, Gender, and American Identity, </i>in<span style="background-color: white;"> </span><em style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research </em><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">from Claremont Graduate University</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The lodestar for ideal womanhood, we learn, was Pocahontas - a great heroine, and herself quite an escape artist, like Houdini. Paging Senator Warren: to be compared to <a href="https://www.biography.com/video/pocahontas-mini-biography-2165763039" target="_blank">Pocahontas</a> is an honor, not an insult.</span></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">The Pocahontas Narrative in American Literature </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> The Pocahontas narrative originates out of the well-known story of Pocahontas, the
daughter of chief Powhatan... John Smith, one of the English settlers who arrived in Virginia in
April 1607, was captured by a hunting party of Powhatan Indians while exploring the
Chickahominy River. Brought into chief Powhatan’s presence at the capital city of
Werowocomoco, Smith was saved from certain death by the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas....</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">In a 1616 letter to Queen Anne, Smith wrote “… at the minute of my execution she [Pocahontas]
hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but also prevailed
with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown.”</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> Smith claims in his <i>Generall
Historie</i> that Pocahontas aided the colonists during that first year. He reports that every “foure
or five dayes, Pocahontas with her attendants, brought him so much provision, that saved many
of their lives, that els for all this had starved with hunger.”</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Later, in 1613, Pocahontas was captured by the English Captain Argall and held in
Henricus for nearly a year as security for English prisoners of war and equipment captured by
Powhatan during the first Anglo-Powhatan war (1610-1614)... During her captivity... Pocahontas met tobacco farmer John Rolfe, whose wife and son had died during the journey to
Virginia. Rolfe applied to Governor Thomas Dale and was granted permission to marry
Pocahontas. They were married April 5, 1614, and lived together for the next two years on
Rolfe’s plantation. She bore Rolfe a son, Thomas, in 1615. Subsequently, Governor Dale sent
the couple with their son to England to publicize the success of Jamestown colony and to
promote investment in the venture.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Arriving in England six weeks after the death of
Shakespeare, the now famous couple, along with perhaps eleven other Powhatans, was
entertained at a variety of social events in and around south and southeast England, including a
presentation to the King of England at Whitehall.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">....The Pocahontas narrative becomes less about portraying a historical
female Indian and more a vehicle for artists and authors to represent idealizes versions of
womanhood, character, and American identity...In this case, as the daughter of a Powhatan chief, the royal lineage of Pocahontas was
stressed over her aboriginal roots. In this way, her aristocratic and noble “disposition” was
transmitted to her descendants, avoiding the possibility of a savage lurking somewhere beneath.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Constructions of the Pocahontas Narrative
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large; text-align: left;">Pocahontas figured prominently in nineteenth-century American literary projects that
attempted to offer American rather than European themes. Narratives, poems, and plays
recreated her character in frontier romances, sang her praises from the pages of literary
magazines, and staged her rescue of John Smith at popular playhouses throughout the nation....</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> In
this way, whenever the heroine is a young native woman who in one way or another acts as a
protector of the male leader of the white race, it is fair to say that Pocahontas would have been
called to mind. In other words, there were many Pocahontas who functioned as saviors in
antebellum romances.... </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> --<i>LUX</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They say history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. In the words of our President, never a Rough Rider: "We'll see."</span><br />
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<br />DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-14828718824683152732019-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:002019-06-08T20:22:28.290-04:00LEONARDO & HOUDINI<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8OTb8tga-yg" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Commemorating the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death, we present a Renaissance special featuring The Two Michaels:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FExponentialMedicine%2Fvideos%2F1732601706810771%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our friend Michael Gelb has been channeling Leonardo for more than 20 years, chronicled in his international best-seller <i>How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci</i>. Michael began as a juggler. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Da Vinci, among all his other skills, was himself a superb juggler. Houdini began magic as a card manipulator - a specialized form of juggling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2fi9Ixt1W80" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Michael Moschen, the world's foremost living master of touch, has transformed an ancient circus skill into a meditation, a work of art, of music, of sublime content. We'll never forget the time we saw him perform in person at the Brooklyn Academy of Music - every famous juggler in the world was in the audience, and a raft of famous magicians!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Does anyone doubt Houdini was a Renaissance man? Artist, scientist, writer, historian, athlete, philanthropist, businessman, magician - of all people in modern times he possessed Leonardo's essential quality of <i>curiositá</i>. And his admiration for deep skill is legendary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why do we still study and admire these men, long after their passing? Because, as the Two Michaels demonstrate, they show us how to live!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-21855678139862638402019-04-27T00:00:00.000-04:002019-05-25T13:34:03.228-04:00GOD, SKEPTICS, TAX AUDITS & HOW TO LIE WITH NUMBERS (INCLUDING ZERO)<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRtIaEEFve2WcF39zkQE07FetxXhNWj9PUd3yZQGtNEpI0XK8lCo50a13xkBlKhnEGeiIs6OH6xXTRx8U6_Uf-sWtRT7M2y4cRY0iTAooUh7A2mYMJlaWW0ZMrYWqzCPoFnYZQcWffjgz/s1600/Aczel+museum+ext.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="640" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRtIaEEFve2WcF39zkQE07FetxXhNWj9PUd3yZQGtNEpI0XK8lCo50a13xkBlKhnEGeiIs6OH6xXTRx8U6_Uf-sWtRT7M2y4cRY0iTAooUh7A2mYMJlaWW0ZMrYWqzCPoFnYZQcWffjgz/s640/Aczel+museum+ext.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Royal Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We're writing this on April 26, a very holy & magical day in certain remote monasteries and sacred temples.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/science/amir-aczel-author-of-scientific-cliffhanger-dies-at-65.html" target="_blank">November 26</a> when our brilliant friend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Aczel" target="_blank">Amir Aczel</a> jumped the quantum. We're quite certain that - in sync with his sunny personality and big heart - on the other side of the membrane, in Jerry Seinfeld's words, "it's gonna be great!"</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-p9brHXXAvvqk4yTW_PzbhHupRl8OwMf_31QLvdBtM6QXOrmV6PoYQKhWhZ0tuybrpwfnW6DRktjTVlJP8LEP6gF0jyHmdnJA27gf_KC4tnEtP9DU9ot3HLgNjWwQbdjEpr5Ke9yNAE4a/s1600/Aczel+head+shot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="299" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-p9brHXXAvvqk4yTW_PzbhHupRl8OwMf_31QLvdBtM6QXOrmV6PoYQKhWhZ0tuybrpwfnW6DRktjTVlJP8LEP6gF0jyHmdnJA27gf_KC4tnEtP9DU9ot3HLgNjWwQbdjEpr5Ke9yNAE4a/s640/Aczel+head+shot.png" width="635" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amir Aczel, the Man who Discovered Zero!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Amir has been on our minds a lot this past month, as he was being honored posthumously at the Royal University of Phnom Penh for ... well, what else can you call it but "the discovery of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/origin-number-zero-180953392/" target="_blank">zero</a>"?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqBqPctt6s6trVROrJzwxNLwhP6lrjwCy-CcgW8XUNhDFFLjTLC5vfEv7YSVS3tzunQUW2LhYJz2RETqRKRfQ1BIJkxIb4we0UeSlrb0z-yR_dDYPA2-AcjfVDXoA7CkHr_kDwEn8Q8UMN/s1600/Aczel+first+zero.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="470" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqBqPctt6s6trVROrJzwxNLwhP6lrjwCy-CcgW8XUNhDFFLjTLC5vfEv7YSVS3tzunQUW2LhYJz2RETqRKRfQ1BIJkxIb4we0UeSlrb0z-yR_dDYPA2-AcjfVDXoA7CkHr_kDwEn8Q8UMN/s640/Aczel+first+zero.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First zero ever recorded.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He first came on our radar in the 1990s, when he published his first non-textbook of 20<a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=aczel&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_1" target="_blank"> books</a>, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>How to Beat the I.R.S. at Its Own Game: Strategies to Avoid and Fight an Audit. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This eminently useful, even life-changing work bore just faint signs of his still-to-be-revealed super powers. But it sure scared the hell out of the Commissioner of the IRS, who complained to me: "He's cracked our code!"</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Indeed, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in addition to being a super guy </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amir was a raving genius. The IRS algorithm for its audits was child's play to the man who had literally written the book on statistics and moreover possessed a supercomputer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Thus began a warm friendship and collaboration, starting with a series of his appearances on CNN, where I produced a repeating feature called "How to Lie with Statistics." He would regularly come on and shred the minds of the man-and-woman-in-the-street. Here was a sample scenario:</span></div>
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</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If your doctor told you that a medical test, guaranteed 99-percent accurate, revealed that you were suffering from a rare but fatal disease, how scared should you be?</span></span> </blockquote>
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</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Terrified!</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">DR. ACZEL, PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS</span></span></div>
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</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wrong! You should be optimistic! Why? Do the math. In a population of 100-thousand, a rare disease would be, let's say, two cases. But a 99-percent accuracy rate means the test is wrong in one thousand cases! So your actual chance of having the disease is two in one-thousand - odds of 500-to-one AGAINST your having it!</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Amir soon became one of America's premier science writers, with a string of popular writings on unlikely topics: Fermat's Last Theorem, The Story of the Compass, a film we co-wrote about Einstein and, above all, his groundbreaking discovery of ... Zero!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of special interest to Houdiniphiles, Amir used his scientific and math skills to calculate the probability of God's existence: just about as close to a sure thing as you can get!</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-69975762260711175802019-04-20T00:00:00.000-04:002019-05-05T13:43:05.341-04:00GETTING AWAY WITH IT!<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UrjEfuuG1cI" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like a witness lying to the court, one of the most potent weapons in the illusionist's arsenal is a sudden loss of memory. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As demonstrated here by Paul Daniels, the self-effacing "where'd I leave that wand?" move lulls the audience into taking a micro-nap right in the middle of our tense little drama. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On stage, with bright red wooden billiard balls, it's one of the most charming theatrical confections in existence. Writ large, on the stage of world politics, it's a hardball cardinal sin - but it works like magic!</span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-37001884721675732812019-04-13T00:00:00.000-04:002019-04-15T11:13:50.354-04:00HOUDINI'S HERRMANNS<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCqWbPMO2ch1Jxqd2WguXpGW8HH8636AVFHBkMYja80JumIscF58kzT96E9SUKSxDBuwAZJ9wgdgwuUflHrWzHVK02gu0ROfNUxlt7o79o7qXOwNFa8Y9fEl6S0alhf6rLm3HSsYvAVqU/s1600/CHerrmann+Eg+Hall.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="1079" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCqWbPMO2ch1Jxqd2WguXpGW8HH8636AVFHBkMYja80JumIscF58kzT96E9SUKSxDBuwAZJ9wgdgwuUflHrWzHVK02gu0ROfNUxlt7o79o7qXOwNFa8Y9fEl6S0alhf6rLm3HSsYvAVqU/s640/CHerrmann+Eg+Hall.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We continue to be fascinated with Houdini's family connection to the Herrmanns, the magic dynasty that both preceded and succeeded Harry's own dominance of the field. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Browsing Houdini's scrapbooks, we came upon his personal collection of posters connected to Compars Herrmann, the world's foremost magician in the 1800s.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwi9WEiGdaQu8enlr67OcQ_l5dLfO9pQjh6BTJ5b5nQBKB_aXZ6S4VZdxEyjG3YOkE-uQBp3xKoknjYn4t9u3hgnvFR7WwoTSkwumABoWANmRwwiDNKuFS51-fGDY1Q6hza2B5_3yC_5lm/s1600/CHerrmann+w+Madame.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="720" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwi9WEiGdaQu8enlr67OcQ_l5dLfO9pQjh6BTJ5b5nQBKB_aXZ6S4VZdxEyjG3YOkE-uQBp3xKoknjYn4t9u3hgnvFR7WwoTSkwumABoWANmRwwiDNKuFS51-fGDY1Q6hza2B5_3yC_5lm/s640/CHerrmann+w+Madame.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As we've <a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2016/12/the-early-years-of-houdinis-father.html?q=herrmann" target="_blank">written previously</a>, Houdini's father, Dr. M.S.Weiss, married a close relative of Compars Herrmann's wife, known to the world as </span><span style="font-size: large;">Rosa Csillag. Herrmann was the world's foremost magician and Csillag was queen of the Vienna State Opera. Together, they were the world's premier couple of the performing arts. When she and he performed together, as billed here, they were one of the biggest draws on earth.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/06/houdinis-father-escapes-budapest.html?q=herrmann" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></a>
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<a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2016/12/the-early-years-of-houdinis-father.html?q=herrmann" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">THE EARLY YEARS OF HOUDINI'S FATHER</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/06/houdinis-father-escapes-budapest.html?q=herrmann" target="_blank">HOUDINI'S FATHER ESCAPES BUDAPEST</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/07/theres-girl-in-show.html?q=herrmann" target="_blank">THERE'S A GIRL IN THE SHOW!</a></span></div>
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[Images: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas]</div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-18228920191358693552019-04-06T00:00:00.000-04:002019-04-08T13:23:55.914-04:00HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY, HOUDINI<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ReT_-NenHg" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today, on Houdini's unbirthday, we find ourselves missing our old friend Jerry Andrus, likewise a magic immortal. We're wistfully showcasing this tiny compilation of his work, including his creation <i>Surprise Color Change</i>, called "the most beautiful move in magic." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jerry was a lovely guy, the straightest arrow in the quiver. He bathed his sweet nature and good humor in chocolate milkshakes, one of which he drank every day. Rest in Peace, and on General Principles, eternal friend.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2018/06/spirit-of-houdini-lives-on.html?q=andrus" target="_blank">SPIRIT OF HOUDINI LIVES ON</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2017/12/illusioninspiration.html?q=andrus" target="_blank">ILLUSION/INSPIRATION</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2017/08/have-you-seen-this-before.html?q=andrus" target="_blank">HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BEFORE?</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2016/05/werner-herzogs-film-lessons-let-him-die.html?q=andrus" target="_blank">WERNER HERZOG'S FILM LESSONS</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2013/07/have-you-seen-this-2.html?q=andrus" target="_blank">"HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?"</a></span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8141192701147582122.post-39095014669956195682019-03-30T00:00:00.000-04:002019-05-18T17:50:26.465-04:00TIMING, MISDIRECTION ... VICTORY!<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qe9E7LuMFSI" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As our national debate of lies, damned lies and statistics ramps up out of control, we delve into history for solace and guidance. Alas, we learn that many great historical moments are actually the outcome of great deceptions. As in stage magic, timing and misdirection lull the enemy, or the public, and victory belongs to the crafty, corrupt and unscrupulous. Well, of course we mean -- the patriotic! The bold!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">[From </span><a href="http://www.unknown5.com/">http://www.unknown5.com/</a>]</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.houdinifile.com/2019/03/six-days-of-deception.html" target="_blank">SIX DAYS OF DECEPTION</a></span></div>
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DAVID SALTMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06270760638995836991noreply@blogger.com0