Ricky Jay is the reigning godfather in the world of magic history. It’s exceptionally difficult to find a subject that he doesn’t know cold or one in which he hasn’t done original research. He promptly responded to every one of our frantic phone calls and worried e-mails; his replies were always infused with his own acute insight and arcane knowledge.
David Copperfield is the most successful magician who has ever lived. His International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts has more Houdini apparatus and personal effects than nearly all the other collections combined. If Houdini were to come back from the grave he could go to Mr. Copperfield’s museum and resume his show. We thank him for allowing us unlimited and unprecedented access to this unbelievable collection. Chris Kenner, one of the world’s finest sleight-of-hand men, spent many days helping us uncover all sorts of wonderful new details about Houdini. He is Mr. Copperfield’s right hand and he knows his collection like the back of it.
A big thank you to David Blaine—a great friend and inspiration to us both. We think Houdini would be proud to pass his mantle on to him. He was happy to make his one-of-a-kind Houdini memorabilia available to us for our research.
The magic world is full of people who know all about Houdini. Some know a little and some a lot. We believe that Patrick Culliton might be the most knowledgeable of them all. Patrick was eager to reply to every e-mail that was peppered with strange questions and he took the time to send us thousands upon thousands of pages from his great Houdini files. He is also the only Houdini scholar to have ever played the role of Franz Kukol in a movie.
Jim Steinmeyer is one of the great minds and historians in magic. We were lucky to have access to both his collection and his astute counsel.
Little did we know that when we met Anna Thurlow at Sid Radner’s annual Houdini séance, she would provide one of the major keys to unlocking some of Houdini’s mysteries. The charming great-granddaughter of the celebrated medium Margery invited us to her house, plied us with food and drink, and then unveiled what would become one of the centerpieces of our research—the Libbet Crandon de Malamud Collection. Anna’s mother, Libbet, was an academic who had faithfully preserved every last scrap of paper in Dr. L. R. G. Crandon’s archive of Margery material. She had wanted to incorporate this information into a work about Margery before her untimely demise. We hope that this book will, in some small way, fulfill that wish.
Andrew Cook is one of the world’s leading experts on British espionage. Not only did he give us access to his personal collection but he also acted as a sounding board for our theories.
John McLaughlin took time from his unimaginably busy schedule to read our manuscript and write the preface. We’re also grateful to him for helping us check for material in the MI-5 archives.
Bill Liles is one of the world’s leading experts on Houdini. He helped us immeasurably in delving into the minutiae of Houdini’s history and methods. His insights were inspiring.
John Gaughan is one of the great geniuses of our time. He can build, rebuild, or restore anything. As magic historians we are truly lucky to have him among us. His knowledge of Houdini is vast, and, specifically, his comprehension of the mysteries of Houdini’s Water Torture Cell is perfect. He restored it once and then, when it mysteriously burned, he built it again. Only John could have done this next-to-impossible feat. Thank you, John, for your help with this project and allowing us access to your archives.
When we tracked down Thomas Tietze, he was expanding his wonderful 1973 book on Margery. He made his files available to us, and he was thrilled to talk about Margery for hours on end. His enthusiasm was absolutely contagious.
We had a hunch when we started this project that we would uncover previously unknown Houdini collectors. Dr. Bruce Averbook is one of those people. He made his awe-inspiring Houdini collection available to us and went to great trouble to provide us with many rare and unique photos.
George and Sandy Daily own and maintain an enormous collection of Houdiniana. We thank them for their generosity in sharing it with us and allowing us to use so many of the great images from their collection. George has gone above and beyond on so many occasions and selflessly helped us countless times.
Roger Dreyer, the CEO of Fantasma Magic, is one of the great Houdini collectors. We’re grateful for his generosity in providing us with both images and printed material for the book.
Many of the great images throughout the book have come from Kenneth M. Trombly’s excellent collection. After a hard day’s research at the Library of Congress, Kenneth entertained us in his home and we talked Houdini over wonderful burritos from Chipotle.
We are indebted to Kevin Connolly, a great Houdini collector, who went out of his way to answer each of our frantic phone calls for images by scanning items from his personal archives.
Mike Caveney, the curator of Egyptian Hall Museum, one of the great magic collections in the world, went to great lengths to address our questions and to make his material available.
On our way to do research in Appleton, Wisconsin, Houdini’s hometown, we ran into Tom and Renee Boldt. The Boldts have one of the largest private collections of Houdini letters and personal papers in existence. They were extremely hospitable and generous. Special thanks for the great photo of Houdini’s father.
Nestled in a large apartment in New York is another great Houdini collection. We thank Maurine Christopher, a gracious southern belle, for generously allowing us unfettered access to the enormous archives built by her late, great magician husband, Milbourne.
Sidney Radner helped us all along the way. He invited us to his Houdini séance and then entertained us in the Massachusetts home that he shares with his lovely wife, Helen. He has so much Houdini material that he couldn’t even find all of it.
The groundbreaking research into the men who delivered those fateful blows to Houdini’s midsection was done by the late Don Bell, a Montreal journalist and bohemian bon vivant. Two of Don’s children, Daniel and Valerie Bell, welcomed us to their city and helped us schlep boxes and boxes of their father’s archives to a local copy center. We wish Don was still around to see the fruits of his earlier labor.
We were privileged to meet the only surviving member of Houdini’s troupe. Dorothy Young invited us to her New Jersey seaside home and regaled us with tales of working with the Master Mystifier. Her appreciation and devotion to the man and not the myth was revelatory and enlightening to us.
French film producer Christian Fechner is one of the greatest magic scholars of our time. His collection is one of the best in the world and he has graciously shared it with us and others many times.
Volker Huber is one of the preeminent magic historians and collectors in the world. We are indebted to him for unearthing many interesting documents relating to Houdini’s birth.
Magic Christian is Vienna’s most prominent magician and historian. We’re grateful to him for finding obscure Houdini clippings from old Austrian papers.
In addition to the above, many other people contributed in some fashion during the creation of this project. Some opened their archives, some gave their counsel, and some answered our never-ending stream of questions. We are grateful for the assistance of Jim Alfredson, Dr. Michael Baden, Eric Baker, Steve Baker, Siri Baruc, Gordon Bean, David Ben, Norman Bigelow, Thomas Boghardt, Vanni Bossi, Gordon Bruce, Dr. Peter Bruno, Cliff Callahan, Christopher Cannon, John Cannon, Mark Cannon, Mario Carrandi, Dr. Gar Chan, Diane Coulson of Fate magazine, John Cox, Pat Croce, Frank and Barbara Cuiffo, Edwin Dawes, Trevor Dawson, Simon Dardick of Vehicule Press, Anthony DePalma, Mark De Souza, Diego Domingo, Jason Draper, Michael Edwards, Bob Farmer, Tim Felix, Jules Fisher, Sid Fleischman, the late Jack Flosso, Stephen Forrester, Steve Forte, Kiva Renee Foster, Gary Frank, Phyllis Galde of Fate magazine, Gary Garland, John Gaughan, Dr. Louis Goldfrank, Chris Gower, Gabriel Grayson, Lennart Green, Andy Gregit, Jim Hagy, Mick Hanzlik, George Hardeen, Paul Harris, Richard Hatch, Mrs. Ron Hilgert, Ed Hill, John Hinson, Jim and Carolyn Hougan, Dere
k Hughes, Gary Hunt, Penn Jillette, Roy Johnson, David Kahn, Todd Karr, Ken Klosterman, Peter Lamont, Peter Lane, Dean Richard Lariviere, Brian Lead, Robert Legault, Tina Lennert, Jim Lesar, the late Robert and Elaine Lund, Stuart Lutz, Bill Malone, the late Jay Marshall, Eric Martin, Dr. Gene Matsuura, Max Maven, Pierre Mayer, John McCulloch, Bill McIlhany, David McNaught, Janet Merrill, Austin Metze, Richard Milner, Stephen Minch, Mark Mitton, Gale Molovinsky, Arthur Moses, Andrew Muir, Norm and Lupe Nielson, Mrs. George O’Toole, Stanley Palm, Diana Parikian, Mark Pilkington, Fred Pitella, James Randi, Rev. William Rauscher, the late Bob Read, Charles and Regina Reynolds, Bernard Rosenthal, David Roth, George Schindler, Gary and Margot Schmidt, Mark Setteducati, Kenneth Silverman, David Singmaster, Christy Smith, Stephen Sparks, Richard Spence, Manny Sperling, Denise Stineman, Juan Tamariz, Fred A. Thomas, Philip Varricchio, Byron Walker, Tad Ware, Christoph Wasshuber, Bill Weber, David Williamson, Carolyn Withstandley, Roger Woods, Tim Wright, Harry Zarrow, Herb Zarrow, Phyllis Zarrow, and Josh “Chunk” Stern, Vicky Maude Derf, Pfc. Kate Rush.
We have spent the last two years visiting institutional collections all over the world. We are indebted to the following people for their assistance in gaining access to rich Houdini material: Clark Evans, Margaret Keickhefer, Mark Dimunation, and, especially, Joan Higbee at the Library of Congress, Helen Adair, Richard Workman, Pat Fox, Leslie DeLassus and Rick Watson at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Matthew Carpenter and Kim Louagie of the Houdini Historical Center at the Outagamie Historical Society, Betty Falsey, and Tom Ford of the Harvard University Houghton Library, Matthew Skidmore of the Harry Price Collection at the University of London’s Library, Nick Scheetz and Heidi Rubenstein at the Georgetown University Library, Wayne DeCesare at the National Archives Research Administration, Mike Sampson and George Rogers of the United States Secret Service, Nelda Webb and David Strader at the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Dorothy Lickteig of the Anderson County Historical Society, Kristin Nute and Elena Tsvetkova from Blitz Research, Jamie Andrews of the British Library, Alan McCormick of Scotland Yard, Patrick Baird of the Birmingham Local Studies and History service, Professor Ellen Belcher of the John Jay College Special Collections, Rosemary Cullen of the John Hay Library at Brown University, Lynda Hammes of the Council on Foreign Relations, Sue Hodson and Gayle Richardson at the Huntington Library, Jennifer King at the George Washington University Library, Jennifer Lee of Columbia University, Ros Westwood of the Buxton Museum, Jozsef Berkes and Dorottya Szabo of the National Archives of Hungary, Ed Chichirichi of the Historical Society of Delaware, David Hibbert of the Magic Circle Library, Mike Keely of the Social Sciences Library, Manchester, Jim Klodzen of the American Museum of Magic, Anders Liljegren of the Archives for UFO Research, Louise Martzinek of the New York Public Library, Vern Morrison of the Cleveland State University Library, Christopher Morrison at the State Department, Susan Perkins of the Herkimer County Historical Society, Tuja van den Berg of the Theater Institutt Nederland, the American Museum of Natural History Research Library, Sotheby’s Auction House, Museum of the City of New York, the American Jewish Historical Society, Princetown University, the Montreal Public Library, the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, Brooklyn Public Library, Chicago City Archives, the Family History Center of Brooklyn, New York, Kathryn J. Hodson and Jacque L. Roethler of the Redpath Chautauqua Bureau Collection, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa; Judah Magnes Center in Berkeley, California, the Milwaukee County Historical Society, the New York City Municipal Archives, New York University, Bobst Library, the Philadelphia City Archives, U.C. Irvine ASAP Information Services.
We were lucky to have such a wonderful team working with us, all of whom made vital contributions to the book. Steve Cuiffo, who is becoming very well known in New York as one of its finest young actors, is also one of its finest magicians. A gifted sleight-of-hand artist, Steve has proven to be a gifted researcher as well. He quickly mastered the myriad and complex new tools of the digital age and has been an enormous asset to our team. He diligently combed through millions of pages of records looking for our needles in the binary haystack. Whatever the job was, Steve would do it. He traveled with us around the globe and made numerous important contacts and discoveries. Without Steve this would have been a different book.
Our quirky “girl on the street” was Sarah Galvin, a 4.0 NYU grad who quickly proved to us that she could find anything anywhere. For the first several months she never even came into the office. She would text message or phone in for her assignments and then go about her mysterious sleuthing and later deliver the fruits of her research. She was so thorough at her work that she once found a critical heretofore-undiscovered article from a Detroit newspaper and then uncovered an important detail that had been published in the morning edition had been redacted in the afternoon edition. Sarah found documents that were never intended to be found. She also enlivened our in-house electronic forum with her witty and off-color posts.
Xenia Viray, Carrie Schulz, Dr. Lori Pieper, Sara Butler-Dockery, Kennlynne Rini, Jennifer Butler, Gary Au, Janie Brookshire-Kipp, and Maria Yakovenko, all of the Conjuring Arts Research Center, went above and beyond the call of duty. Jill Matheson and Carrie Schulz handled all of our transcribing duties. Pavel Goldin not only found photos we couldn’t but he also magically transformed some unusable photographs using his genius computer skills and made them sparkle with new life.
Alexander (www.askalexander.org) saved our lives on a daily basis. Without this amazing research tool, we couldn’t have written this book. For many years building something like Alexander had been a fantasy but with the collection of the Conjuring Arts Research Center and the diligent scanning of Sara Butler-Dockery, it became closer to reality. But when Gary Au wrangled the computer genius Mike Friedman, the dream was realized. Mike built the search engine in record time and then diligently kept improving it. It’s been many a late night that Mike received a frantic e-mail asking him to do some minor fix, and Mike always came through.
It was a pleasure to work with such consummate professionals at Atria Books. Working under severe time constraints so that the book could be published on the eightieth anniversary of Houdini’s death, everyone went the extra mile to ensure a smooth delivery. In an age when some publishing houses have become monolithic paper factories, it was refreshing to work with a core group of people who really care about the end result. Judith Curr, our publisher, was always supportive of our ideas and, on the few occasions that we disagreed, our interchange was enlightening and the end result was invariably an improvement. Greer Hendricks and Hannah Morrill encouraged us every step of the way and helped us meet every deadline (almost). Vivian Gomez assembled a crack team of copy editors and proofreaders. Linda Dingler and Suet Chong shepherded the book through the production process with dexterity. A very special thank you goes out to Peter Guzzardi, who under incredible time constraints worked around the clock in North Carolina and masterfully honed a massive draft into the final manuscript.
We are indebted to our agent David Vigliano for finding this book a home at Atria Books. David’s associates Elisa Petrini, Michael Harriot, Kirsten Neuhaus, Celeste Fine, and Kirby Kim were diligent in representing our interests.
We sent an early draft of the book to the following people and we are very appreciative for the time and effort they took to read it and send us their comments: Bruce Averbook, Jack Bramson, Patrick Culliton, George Daily, Richard Hatch, Paul Harris, Robin Harvey, Ricky Jay, John McLaughlin, Arthur Moses, Marianne Santo, Michael Simmons, Jim Steranko, Kenneth M. Trombly, Madeline Zero, and Harry Zimmerman.
Each of us has personal debts to repay incurred during this book.
William Kalush would like to thank:
My late father, Edward T. Kalush, who regaled me with stories about Houdini vanishing an elephant. My sister, Trudy Kalush, followed his lead, giving me gifts of handcuffs and my first and only straitjacket.
My mother, Jean Kalush, and my aunt Flossie Finningsdorf facilitated my strange preoccupation by driving me to my first job (nonpaying) at Sorcerer’s Apprentice magic shop, where Brian DiPietro, Carl Jarboe, and Chuck King liberally augmented my education. Along the way I’ve become indebted to many great men, many of whom helped with this book. Some, like the late Carl Mainfort, taught me sleight of hand. Others, like the late Robert Lund, taught me to love the history of the art, and the late Jay Marshall taught me to love the people who made that history. Once the Houdini project started, I’ve relied on friends for all types of support, without which I couldn’t have done this work. Thanks to Lindsay Smith for all her support and help. Thanks as well to my friends Melissa Fazio, Catherine Hickland, and Mark Silverstein, who’ve helped me retain a modicum of sanity. A special thank you to Marianne Santo, who has helped me in some fashion on every day of this project. And also to the little monster Munito, always the center of attention and always a welcome distraction.
Larry Sloman would like to thank:
David Blaine, who introduced me to both the world of magic and my co-author on this wonderful journey to the heart of Harry. Kinky Friedman, who took time out from his Texas gubernatorial race to help facilitate our Texas research. Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, and Antony and the Johnsons, who provided the soundtrack to the writing of the book. Leonard Cohen for encouraging me to do this project, then cautioned, “Please don’t talk bad about Houdini—he loved his mother.” Jaromir Jagr and his teammates, who made a noble run for the Cup. Louie and Sal DiPalo of DiPalo’s, who fueled the furnace with their incredible Italian cuisine, along with J.D., who sent us wonderful pizza from Totonno’s. Jeff Lieberman, who put our Shallow Entertainment ventures on hold. John Alpert, who drove me to our hockey games and listened to more Houdini stories than he wanted to. Rick Rubin, who provided an air of mystery. Anthony Kiedis for the midday tea and diversion during the writing process. George Barkin, who checked in on me for a pulse periodically. Rachel Tadeo for brightening a grueling period by giving birth to a beautiful baby boy. Jade Bush for her understanding and for lowering the ring tones of her cell phone. And finally, special heartfelt thanks to my wife, Christy Smith-Sloman, and our dog, Lucy, who welcomed back the stranger who reentered their lives after the book was finally completed.
The Secret Life of Houdini Page 63