Non-Fiction

The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero

My favourite quote: (paraphrased from memory) “If anyone wishes to take up what I do let him begin by bending over backwards and picking up a pin with his teeth. That was my first trick. — Harry Houdini”

It is a shame that this book wasn’t read by the makers of the last Houdini movie “Death Defying Acts”. I was the secretary of the Australian Society of Magicians when “Death Defying Acts” was in production and received a call from the movie’s research team to see if I would act as their consultant. I declined because I knew I didn’t have enough knowledge about Houdini at the time. I referred them to another magician who has been in the business many many years, but I don’t think they got very far in setting up a meeting. Either way I find it strange that the makers of a movie would not try a little harder to get their facts straight. That kind of research should have been a lot earlier in the game.

The book The Secret Life of Houdini (pub. 2006) is one of the best researched books on Houdini, if not the best. The authors scanned and converted to searchable text all the available news articles, and they were also able to get their hands on Houdini’s personal letters of which there were thousands and thousands. This book is so well researched and the authors’ Larry Ratso Sloman and William Kalush detective work in piecing together the story of Houdini’s projects and motives make for a very satisfying read. But it is not surprising to hear that this book has raised controversy. To me, this is the mark of courage on the part of the authors, who wrote it all down in spite of the possibility of having some people disagree. I find their conclusions very logical and the whole book an absolute masterpiece.

Houdini’s life, though cut short at the age of 52, was truly a life filled with adventure and drama.

I suspect if Houdini’s life was made into an accurate biographical movie it would include too many events that would end up being dismissed by viewers as fictitious, ridiculous, not possible to have happened, not in one person’s lifetime.

This book is a must read for every magician.

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