Houdini's Birthday

March 24 is Harry Houdini’s birthday.

To honor Houdini and celebrate the day, Stretch and Tiny have been toying with some magic acts of their own this morning.

While they were playing, I did some research on Houdini and I found this item from the New York Times dated January 13, 1918:

“Whatever the trick or tricks by which Harry Houdini has been deceiving the world at large for the last thirty-five years, his career stamps him as one of the greatest showmen of modern times.  .  . Some of his feats of extrication, of course, are attributable to the fact that he is a contortionist and an acrobat, and these naturally can be duplicated by others of equal physical dexterity. His more subtle effects, however, are known only to himself.

His trick of vanishing an elephant, which he performed at the Hippodrome for the first time last Monday, he declares to be based on an entirely new principle, and not merely an enlargement of the familiar “cabinet trick.” The management of the Hippodrome has no idea how the trick worked; even the stagehands who draw out the cabinet have so far failed to get a clue.  . . Not even the keeper who disappears with the elephant, declares Houdini, knows how it is done.”

I have to admit I scoffed. I don’t mean to disparage the great Houdini, but I can make two animals disappear from sight in seconds without using any props. Just watch.

“Hey Stretch, Tiny, the charge card bill from last month just arrived!”

Presto! Vanished! 

On a serious note, I hope on this anniversary of Houdini’s birth you are successful in making whatever problems are troubling you vanish. And check back with us tomorrow to see how Stretch pulled an even bigger rabbit out of his hat this past weekend.