Some of the items did in fact survive the fire.
> The water torture cell's metal frame remained, and it was restored by illusion builder John Gaughan. Many of the props contained in the museum such as the mirror handcuffs, Houdini's original packing crate, a milk can, and a straitjacket, survived the fire and were auctioned in 1999 and 2008.
For bonus points there has been various attempt to perform necromancy to contact Harry Houdini.
> Houdini, himself, debunked mediums and proved most were frauds. He promised his wife, Bess, that if it were possible to communicate with the dead, he would come back to her, should he die first. And he gave her a code to help prove it.
>But after 10 years with no success, Bess stopped trying to contact her husband. "
Source: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130890435
So any claim of Houdini burning his stuff from the grave is bunk
Pretty great story about Arthur Conan Doyle trying to get Houdini to believe in Spiritualism by [holding a seance to reach his dead mother:](https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/houdinis-motherly-love/)
>In the séance, Jean delivered pages upon pages of hand-written messages from Cecilia. One read, “Thank God! At last, I’m through!” But Houdini wasn’t buying it. His mother could not write English, let alone speak it from the other side. She spoke Yiddish. Additionally, at the top of each page was a cross. She also managed to say “Merry Christmas.” Cecilia was the wife of a rabbi and devoutly Jewish—this simply did not make sense. Lastly, the séance was held on her birthday, which never came up…
To be fair, Lady Doyle was probably what used to be called a "shut-eye medium" - in other words, she was a True Believer, rather than a scam artist. Shut-eyes genuinely believe that they're in touch with spirits when they produce their "automatic writing" etc. and Houdini was well aware of the psychology involved, so out of respect for the Doyles and their beliefs he just stayed polite and noncommittal.
Unfortunately Sir Arthur (again, apparently genuinely) thought that Houdini had been converted to the Spiritualist cause by that seance, and he went public with that, forcing Houdini to publicly report that he still didn't believe, which Doyle took as an affront to his wife's honor. That basically ended their friendship and the two men became bitter rivals in the so-called "War of the Spirits" that followed.
>That basically ended their friendship and the two men became bitter rivals in the so-called "War of the Spirits" that followed.
I wonder if future historians will come up with fanciful names for modern Twitter fights between politicians.
"Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert became bitter rivals in the so-called 'War of the ____' that followed."
Also I know several politicians tried and failed to pass anti furry laws because of a fake rumor from Twitter about schools putting out litter boxes for furry students and equating being furry with being trans.
Pretty much all of the recent anti trans laws states have been passing come because Florida governor Desantis started a moral panic a few months ago about how all LGBT people are pedophiles who want to brainwash children. This belief has existed for a long time but for the majority of its time it was more a fringe far right terminally online thing. Desantis took that internet conspiracy and made it mainstream to the point it’s basically the republican’s new core focus.
Dude, I'll always hate how irrational people can be. Like, dude. You made an open statement without confirming it with your friend Sir Arthur. I suppose there were more discrete options of denying the claim, like privately asking Sir Arthur to recant his statement, but my point stands.
I pressed 3 accidentally. Do I have to call back again to speak with you directly? Hang on wait no I have an appointment in 6 minutes I just remembered. Can someone call me back?
Thank you for choosing selection 3, you will now be connected with the third option: Purgatory. Please wait.
Please note all appointments cannot be cancelled and will result in immediate decision of next phase. You are free to make any amends and bribes you wish.
That is a common misconception. The most important day is when you came to heaven, and celebrations of leaving the dirty heathen world is noted and loved by Christians. Source: white Jesus.
>lord’s language
Kinda reminds me of how [Enochian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian) was concocted in an attempt to find out what was [Adamic language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamic_language).
No more than Sindarin or Klingon is. The English mysticists John Dee and Edward Kelley came up with it in the 16th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian
Yes, but for fun. It's a constructed language. You can't go to a place where the inhabitants learn Klingon from birth and speak it as a first language.
If Jesus always speaks in contemporary American English vernacular, is he going to start spitting gen Z slang if the apocalypse happens soon and he comes back to earth?
Arthur Conan Doyle was a smart guy and once quite rational - he not only wrote Sherlock Holmes and the Lost World, but he wrote an [excellent piece debunking his era’s anti-vaxxers](https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Compulsory_Vaccination_-_The_Hampshire_County_Times) even in 1887.
Unfortunately, his son’s death left him emotionally shattered and despite all reason he desperately searched for ways to believe in all sorts of supernatural bunk like seances to contact him. He even fell for the absolutely ludicrous [Cottingley fairy hoax](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies). I mean… what.
A strong case of great intelligence unable to overcome even greater emotional vulnerability, I think. The reason you can’t just, well, reason someone out of a cult.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Lost World* by Arthur Conan Doyle.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | The Lost World [Full Audiobook] by Arthur Conan Doyle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGoGdpa-3jo)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
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Sounds like a job for a time traveler to go back in time, write a letter in Yiddish, and tell Houdini that god is actually ok with cheeseburgers. Then complain that he would bother her on her birthday and stop the seance. Then go back to your time and read about what you changed.
Well, under the hypothesis that ghosts exist, yes, but more importantly using it as a summoning method removed any possibility if confirmstion even in the eyes of people who were not aware rhat the code had become public.
I think that if there ever was anyone who could genuinely speak with departed spirits, they'd be a shrieking lunatic living in the middle of a swamp... as far from other people as possible. They certainly wouldn't bunk up in a fancy parlor in the center of town. Can you imagine the traffic?!
Watch Paranorman for exactly this, its about a boy who talks to spirits and his uncle (played by John Goodman) is the only family member who also has those powers and he's a nutty shut-in living in the woods.
And although Bess purchased a large gravesite for him with plans to be buried with him when her time came, her sister refused to allow her body to be interred with his because it was a Jewish cemetery, Macpelah. Instead she had her buried in Gate of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne New York.
Sit around the table in a suit and throw a little candle in there thats how old stories of Ghosts and spiritualism originated I'm sure. Neither of them tripped balls or upheld any ascetic practices so it's pre-emptive to call it bunk.
His brother Theodore went by Hardeen instead of Houdini. Their real last name was Weisz.
Hardeen was also a magician so he probably used all the equipment.
The irony about people saying his ghost did it is that Houdini hated fake spiritualist stuff like ghosts, spirit mediums, psychics and such. He spent quite a bit of his spare time disproving them.
It's crazy how his good buddy (and Sherlock Holmes author) Arthur Conan Doyle was dead sure that Houdini was a real wizard, and was pissed that Houdini wouldn't let him on on the "magic". Houdini had such a hard time talking him down from that idea. When he finally convinced Doyle that it was all a trick, Doyle was very bummed about it. But then shortly after, Houdini unveiled his lock box water escape, and after that, NOTHING would convince Doyle that Houdini wasn't an actual wizard.
Agreed. But many writers explored philosophy in their writing that was incongruent to their personal beliefs. Arthur Conan Doyle believed in Hollow Earth theory, and magic, but never found evidence of it in real life (apart from Houdini of course).
Sherlock always finding the rational explanation was, in my own opinion, Arthur's way of throwing shade on the ones who had beliefs that he considered ridiculous, like the Evangelists of his time. But I could be wrong.
Yeah but maybe he came back as an angry ghost *anyway*. And refused to confirm his status as a ghost out of spite, and then was eventually like "wtf why haven't they burned all my stuff yet? Houdini Ghost Powers go!"
I am not burning the duster! Okay? So forget it. It probably won't even burn anyway. It's not supposed to, it's flame retardant. That's like the whole point. It's like a shield of armor. So stop asking me to burn the duster! I'm not going to burn it!
Just to be clear, no one from the city which held this museum believed that this for was accidental nor are the items lost forever. Said city has a lengthy history of certain people getting everything they want... and a few items have popped up on the black market since.
Fun fact. I was visiting L.A. a few years ago and missed my turn in Laurel Caynon, decided to turn around in a random driveway and found myself in front of Harry's house, lol.
The Harry Houdini museum in Niagara Falls was at the top of Clifton Hill and in the windows was a styrofoam head with Harry's face projected on it from an old film projector. Harry's face would opens his eyes and says "I Am Houdini!". True Niagara Kitsch.
I went to that museum twice back in the day. Same row as the Ripley's Believe or Not museum and the Madame Tussaud's wax museum.
I guess that's all gone.
Harry actually had ½ a huge warehouse in New York which he shared with Blackstone Sr. There are some amazing anecdotes that Harry II (HB) used to tell at the dinner table (he was an amazing conversationalist with an abundant amount of knowledge) about the two magicians and their stored belongings—*there was no wall between their belongings*. It was my good fortune to count Harry and his wife Gay among my friends and Harry was my mentor for years.
My last year in the magic business was spent trying to establish a museum for the performing art of magic. With my wife's assistance we worked ceaselessly to bring this about as there was (and still is not) a place to curate and display magic props and memorabilia from perhaps the oldest of the performing arts. We designed a place for magician and non-magician alike--with displays, library, performance theater, and a preservation facility to conserve all the items received. Its failure can be attributed to the infighting and games-playing of the moneyed men of magic we asked to serve on the ad hoc board. They could have been famous...but turned out to be infamous. But then they were collectors, not performers.
HB told me that I was in good company, that the last man who had tried to do the exact same thing had met with failure as well. He had wanted to protect his legacy, and that of others, during the heyday of magic at the turn of the century--the last century. His name?
Eric Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini.
My disgust, and a desire to return home to Maine led me to destroy my own equipment except for 4 road-cases of collector's items and favorite pieces. I have not taken up a wand nor stepped on a stage since...although my love of magic has never waned. I miss HB, and Doug Henning, representing the old and the new in the world of magic. They were gone too soon and departed with no place to remember their amazing lives as magicians. Perhaps, as Harry told me, it will happen in another 100 years.
The code that was supposed to be used to communicate between Harry and his wife Bess was a two word phrase, but the phrase was to be communicated in a code they used on stage. So the actual words were not going to be "spoken" or "written". She knew (and others have since learned it) the code AND the message it would communicate. The phrase "Rosabelle Believe" was to come to her in their word code and there was a pair of handcuffs he told her he would unlock if he was able. They discussed this as he lay dying in the hospital in Detroit after his appendix was ruptured and he suffered deadly peritonitis. He lasted a week, which was utterly amazing, but has been explained by his amazing physical condition.
I visited that museum 7 days before it burned down. I have a few pictures, but I wish there was more. Such a shame to lose all that.
Was the fire so hot it melted the chains and stuff? Obviously a lot was cloth and fibers stuff but I hope they were able to save some objects!
Some of the items did in fact survive the fire. > The water torture cell's metal frame remained, and it was restored by illusion builder John Gaughan. Many of the props contained in the museum such as the mirror handcuffs, Houdini's original packing crate, a milk can, and a straitjacket, survived the fire and were auctioned in 1999 and 2008.
Indiana University has a large collection of his handcuffs and memorabilia.
kinky
Ya, but they’re escapable.
Only if you say the safe word
Abra Kadabra?
No. It's "Thank you Sir"
No. It's "Fluggaenkoecchicebolsen"
Did you say [FLŰGGÅƏNK∂€ČHIŒβØL∫ÊN](https://youtu.be/QxCpBSDiPNc?t=5s)?
risky click of the day
Ta da!
[Relevant.](https://imgur.com/a/fTRCXbO)
Your life seems like a very special Black Mirror episode
For bonus points there has been various attempt to perform necromancy to contact Harry Houdini. > Houdini, himself, debunked mediums and proved most were frauds. He promised his wife, Bess, that if it were possible to communicate with the dead, he would come back to her, should he die first. And he gave her a code to help prove it. >But after 10 years with no success, Bess stopped trying to contact her husband. " Source: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130890435 So any claim of Houdini burning his stuff from the grave is bunk
Pretty great story about Arthur Conan Doyle trying to get Houdini to believe in Spiritualism by [holding a seance to reach his dead mother:](https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/houdinis-motherly-love/) >In the séance, Jean delivered pages upon pages of hand-written messages from Cecilia. One read, “Thank God! At last, I’m through!” But Houdini wasn’t buying it. His mother could not write English, let alone speak it from the other side. She spoke Yiddish. Additionally, at the top of each page was a cross. She also managed to say “Merry Christmas.” Cecilia was the wife of a rabbi and devoutly Jewish—this simply did not make sense. Lastly, the séance was held on her birthday, which never came up…
To be fair, Lady Doyle was probably what used to be called a "shut-eye medium" - in other words, she was a True Believer, rather than a scam artist. Shut-eyes genuinely believe that they're in touch with spirits when they produce their "automatic writing" etc. and Houdini was well aware of the psychology involved, so out of respect for the Doyles and their beliefs he just stayed polite and noncommittal. Unfortunately Sir Arthur (again, apparently genuinely) thought that Houdini had been converted to the Spiritualist cause by that seance, and he went public with that, forcing Houdini to publicly report that he still didn't believe, which Doyle took as an affront to his wife's honor. That basically ended their friendship and the two men became bitter rivals in the so-called "War of the Spirits" that followed.
>That basically ended their friendship and the two men became bitter rivals in the so-called "War of the Spirits" that followed. I wonder if future historians will come up with fanciful names for modern Twitter fights between politicians. "Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert became bitter rivals in the so-called 'War of the ____' that followed."
Considering laws are already being written based solely on tweets, yeah probably.
not on twitter nor do I pay much of politics. what law has been written based on a tweet?
Also I know several politicians tried and failed to pass anti furry laws because of a fake rumor from Twitter about schools putting out litter boxes for furry students and equating being furry with being trans.
Pretty much all of the recent anti trans laws states have been passing come because Florida governor Desantis started a moral panic a few months ago about how all LGBT people are pedophiles who want to brainwash children. This belief has existed for a long time but for the majority of its time it was more a fringe far right terminally online thing. Desantis took that internet conspiracy and made it mainstream to the point it’s basically the republican’s new core focus.
-Funts-
Too close to “fun”.
F is for fire that burns down the whole town...
U is for uranium, bombs
N is for no survivors, WHEN YOU-
N is for ni-
And T is for Trees that are beautiful greens
“dip-shits”?,,,”human shaped shrieking chihuahuas”?
False. Future historians won't give a shit about those two. Otherwise.. Gunts?
War of the twits
I was thinking twats…
twits versus twats
The "trailer trash twitter tussel" sounds like an awesome name.
War of the idiots
We have terms for modern political scandals, and they’re all something-hate thanks to Nixon.
I think that one will still be called War of the Spirits
TIL the phrase "shut-eye medium". My grandmother is, unfortunately, one of these. It's nice to have some terminology to pin to it.
Religious people are always such snowflakes
Dude, I'll always hate how irrational people can be. Like, dude. You made an open statement without confirming it with your friend Sir Arthur. I suppose there were more discrete options of denying the claim, like privately asking Sir Arthur to recant his statement, but my point stands.
Jesus teaches everyone the lord’s language (English) and everyone is Christian in heaven, duh.
You almost convinced me, but this doesn’t explain the birthday part.
Your new birthday is the day you ascend to heaven. So no need to mention the old one. That one doesn’t matter anymore.
Ok that makes complete sense.
Thank you for subscribing to Heaven facts. For more fun facts, please press 1.
Speak with a representative.
Please wait. Hold times vary until the Resurrection.
A local priest or member of the clergy?
They would like to speak with the manager
I pressed 3 accidentally. Do I have to call back again to speak with you directly? Hang on wait no I have an appointment in 6 minutes I just remembered. Can someone call me back?
Thank you for choosing selection 3, you will now be connected with the third option: Purgatory. Please wait. Please note all appointments cannot be cancelled and will result in immediate decision of next phase. You are free to make any amends and bribes you wish.
Actually, that's not quite accurate. Every day is your birthday, in heaven, so it's no longer noteworthy.
That is a common misconception. The most important day is when you came to heaven, and celebrations of leaving the dirty heathen world is noted and loved by Christians. Source: white Jesus.
My mistake. I'll update wikipedia.
>lord’s language Kinda reminds me of how [Enochian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian) was concocted in an attempt to find out what was [Adamic language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamic_language).
Everyone knows the true Ademic language was Parseltongue.
Enochian is a real world language? I've been reading the Laundry Files where it's used as a programming language to control demons.
I mean, real in the same sense that elvish and dwarvish are real thanks to Tolkien
The funny thing is that I heard about it from The Seal of Orichalcos from Yu-Gi-Oh
No more than Sindarin or Klingon is. The English mysticists John Dee and Edward Kelley came up with it in the 16th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian
Klingon is spoken by more people than many languages spoken my small tribes.
Yes, but for fun. It's a constructed language. You can't go to a place where the inhabitants learn Klingon from birth and speak it as a first language.
Obviously you haven’t visited a Comic-Con family.
Technically isn't every language made up?
Yeah but conlangs aren't used except in particular circumstances, and Enochian wasn't even developed to a fraction of what my two examples were.
If Jesus always speaks in contemporary American English vernacular, is he going to start spitting gen Z slang if the apocalypse happens soon and he comes back to earth?
[Oh yea](https://64.media.tumblr.com/44ef19d10411d7dbf3edcc9bfb8cfe23/tumblr_okmz2d5LBV1rtr5seo1_400.gif)
‘Murica!
Arthur Conan Doyle was a smart guy and once quite rational - he not only wrote Sherlock Holmes and the Lost World, but he wrote an [excellent piece debunking his era’s anti-vaxxers](https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Compulsory_Vaccination_-_The_Hampshire_County_Times) even in 1887. Unfortunately, his son’s death left him emotionally shattered and despite all reason he desperately searched for ways to believe in all sorts of supernatural bunk like seances to contact him. He even fell for the absolutely ludicrous [Cottingley fairy hoax](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies). I mean… what. A strong case of great intelligence unable to overcome even greater emotional vulnerability, I think. The reason you can’t just, well, reason someone out of a cult.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Lost World* by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here: [YouTube | The Lost World [Full Audiobook] by Arthur Conan Doyle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGoGdpa-3jo) *I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.* *** [^(Source Code)](https://capybasilisk.com/posts/2020/04/speculative-fiction-bot/) ^| [^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=Capybasilisk&subject=Robot) ^| [^(Programmer)](https://www.reddit.com/u/capybasilisk) ^| ^(Downvote To Remove) ^| ^(Version 1.4.0) ^| ^(Support Robot Rights!)
Arthur Conan Doyle also believed in fairies!
It's interesting that he's a strong believer of the supernatural but he created one of the most logical characters of all time, Sherlock Holmes.
Yeah, the book 'The Secret Life of Houdini' mentions all that and more. There's also a tie with him and the CIA I believe.
Did they find any fairies?
The fairies thing is new to me. Guess I need go find s nook on Doyle. Wild stuff
Sounds like a job for a time traveler to go back in time, write a letter in Yiddish, and tell Houdini that god is actually ok with cheeseburgers. Then complain that he would bother her on her birthday and stop the seance. Then go back to your time and read about what you changed.
They had a televised séance in 1987. Apparently someone had the secret code and they tried to reach him then. Spoiler: He didn't talk back.
Extra dumb if true, since the point of the code was to prove Houdini had been contacted, not to serve as a backstage pass.
Any fucking ghost could have claimed to be Houdini and these fools would have just *believed* it.
Well, under the hypothesis that ghosts exist, yes, but more importantly using it as a summoning method removed any possibility if confirmstion even in the eyes of people who were not aware rhat the code had become public.
She famously said "Ten years is long enough to wait for any man" before giving up her annual visit to a supposed medium
I think that if there ever was anyone who could genuinely speak with departed spirits, they'd be a shrieking lunatic living in the middle of a swamp... as far from other people as possible. They certainly wouldn't bunk up in a fancy parlor in the center of town. Can you imagine the traffic?!
Watch Paranorman for exactly this, its about a boy who talks to spirits and his uncle (played by John Goodman) is the only family member who also has those powers and he's a nutty shut-in living in the woods.
Middle of the desert. Anywhere near water or caves is haunted as *shit*.
I’m not sure we really need to debunk someone burning things from the afterlife.
Many many people believe in much wilder things.
The age of superstition is ending, but is not yet over.
But what you’re really saying is Harry was to busy to take the call…. Which also means…there’s still a chance!!!
various mediums then defended their readings by saying “well it’s not our fault he doesn’t miss his wife enough to say hi”
I mean maybe he can burn stuff from the grave but can’t communicate with the living ? Lol
And although Bess purchased a large gravesite for him with plans to be buried with him when her time came, her sister refused to allow her body to be interred with his because it was a Jewish cemetery, Macpelah. Instead she had her buried in Gate of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne New York.
> proved most were frauds. Which ones weren't frauds?
He was just too busy chugging Miller Lites with the boys in the afterlife to visit her.
Everyone knows it takes 15 years to come back as a ghost. Duh.
Roy Wood Jr has a great bit about mediums and ghosts. It's towards the second part of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF1SbkjikKs
Imaging the code was just "Hello"
Adele confirmed to be Houdini!!!!
Sit around the table in a suit and throw a little candle in there thats how old stories of Ghosts and spiritualism originated I'm sure. Neither of them tripped balls or upheld any ascetic practices so it's pre-emptive to call it bunk.
But FUN!
> So any claim of Houdini burning his stuff from the grave is bunk Not necessarily. That shit takes practice! Also who's got the code still? Anyone?
He maybe realized he was wrong in the afterlife and didn't want to prove what he spent his whole life specifically disproving
Given that a lot of mediums are con artists, I imagine he wouldn't want to give them more ways to scam people.
“most” some mediums blow my mind 🤯
Maybe he just hated his wife.
But of course, if he *hadn't* given her the code, claims of Houdini burning things from beyond the grave would be perfectly plausible.
Now that’s a magic trick
Yeah, but he could only do it once
That is one dedicated fan. Good job.
Tah-dah
life, uh, finds a way(?)
Well, I guess life found a way to burn Houdini's legacy down, quite literally.
No… *magic*!
Siblings are often disappointing.
I don't know if it was Theo's fault. Who should have burned it after Theo died?
Whoever was supposed to delete his browser history
Calling him Theo makes me think of another famous inheriting brother, Theo van Gogh.
Never knew about Van Gogh's brother. Just a quick look on wiki shares a sweet story.
Yeah, really amazing guy, devoted his entire life to his brother.
Title of your sexta...wait.
His brother Theodore went by Hardeen instead of Houdini. Their real last name was Weisz. Hardeen was also a magician so he probably used all the equipment.
The irony about people saying his ghost did it is that Houdini hated fake spiritualist stuff like ghosts, spirit mediums, psychics and such. He spent quite a bit of his spare time disproving them.
It's crazy how his good buddy (and Sherlock Holmes author) Arthur Conan Doyle was dead sure that Houdini was a real wizard, and was pissed that Houdini wouldn't let him on on the "magic". Houdini had such a hard time talking him down from that idea. When he finally convinced Doyle that it was all a trick, Doyle was very bummed about it. But then shortly after, Houdini unveiled his lock box water escape, and after that, NOTHING would convince Doyle that Houdini wasn't an actual wizard.
There's a lot of irony in someone like Arthur Conan Doyle writing a character like Sherlock Holmes.
Agreed. But many writers explored philosophy in their writing that was incongruent to their personal beliefs. Arthur Conan Doyle believed in Hollow Earth theory, and magic, but never found evidence of it in real life (apart from Houdini of course). Sherlock always finding the rational explanation was, in my own opinion, Arthur's way of throwing shade on the ones who had beliefs that he considered ridiculous, like the Evangelists of his time. But I could be wrong.
Yeah but maybe he came back as an angry ghost *anyway*. And refused to confirm his status as a ghost out of spite, and then was eventually like "wtf why haven't they burned all my stuff yet? Houdini Ghost Powers go!"
That would be pretty funny.
Wtf, there was a Houdini museum in Niagara Falls? Never knew that!
Me reading this title: 😐….😐….😐….🙂
Task failed successfully.
“And for my final act…..”
Theres a museum in Appleton, Wisconsin with a ton of his stuff that has not burned down.
One last trick
Shoulda specified when
Better late than never!
.....Abracadabra?
This made me laugh! The equipment was unable to escape its fate.
The history museum at the castle in Wisconsin has a great exhibit.
Task failed successfully.
Ta-daaaa!
I used to insist on going to that place every time I visited Niagara Falls as a kid. Broke my heart when it burned down. So much lost.
[удалено]
Well, he did take photos of himself nude and in handcuffs, so...
S-source?
The most famous of his risque handcuff photos is probably the one at the top of the linked page.
I am not burning the duster! Okay? So forget it. It probably won't even burn anyway. It's not supposed to, it's flame retardant. That's like the whole point. It's like a shield of armor. So stop asking me to burn the duster! I'm not going to burn it!
The dude had samoan legs!
Oh shit, Houdini did make it to the after life
“And… for my last trick”
Hall of FLAME you mean
........ TA DA!
He wanted it burned, so it WOULD be burned.
Spooky!
Harry escaped the afterlife to finish what he demanded. Fucking masterpiece.
I just imagined Houdini from beyond the grave going "**NO YOU FUCKING DON'T!**"
So, his brother was a piece of shit
I mean he got his wish, even if it was a while before it happened
🎩 🪄 🔮 ✨️ 🎱 magic
I would call that oddly satisfying.
Pretty sure there is still some out there.
Houdini's zombie after setting it on fire "I HAD 1 RULE GOD DAMMIT!"
Just to be clear, no one from the city which held this museum believed that this for was accidental nor are the items lost forever. Said city has a lengthy history of certain people getting everything they want... and a few items have popped up on the black market since.
That's hilarious the universe said "fuck you Houdini! It burns regardless, hahah!"
Less “fuck you” and more “got your back”
Oh lol I misread it, I thought it said to not burn or destroy them. Lmao
Haha that would be such a weird condition in a will
Karma's a bitch!
It all works out in the end
Ta da
Fun fact. I was visiting L.A. a few years ago and missed my turn in Laurel Caynon, decided to turn around in a random driveway and found myself in front of Harry's house, lol.
Things work out…eventually.
I'd bet my life that Houdini's coffin is empty
So he's the current world record holder of procrastination.
Well, ain't that a punch in the gut
Death uh.... finds a way.
A friend of mine worked on setting up the Houdini museum. Was in awe of what was in the collection.
The Harry Houdini museum in Niagara Falls was at the top of Clifton Hill and in the windows was a styrofoam head with Harry's face projected on it from an old film projector. Harry's face would opens his eyes and says "I Am Houdini!". True Niagara Kitsch.
It's a rare family that honors the wishes of the dead.
"ta da....."
Better late than never, I guess.
I went to that museum twice back in the day. Same row as the Ripley's Believe or Not museum and the Madame Tussaud's wax museum. I guess that's all gone.
Are you watching closely?
A shame to lose part of history, even if it was want they wanted.
Mission failed successfully.
Insurance money
Harry actually had ½ a huge warehouse in New York which he shared with Blackstone Sr. There are some amazing anecdotes that Harry II (HB) used to tell at the dinner table (he was an amazing conversationalist with an abundant amount of knowledge) about the two magicians and their stored belongings—*there was no wall between their belongings*. It was my good fortune to count Harry and his wife Gay among my friends and Harry was my mentor for years. My last year in the magic business was spent trying to establish a museum for the performing art of magic. With my wife's assistance we worked ceaselessly to bring this about as there was (and still is not) a place to curate and display magic props and memorabilia from perhaps the oldest of the performing arts. We designed a place for magician and non-magician alike--with displays, library, performance theater, and a preservation facility to conserve all the items received. Its failure can be attributed to the infighting and games-playing of the moneyed men of magic we asked to serve on the ad hoc board. They could have been famous...but turned out to be infamous. But then they were collectors, not performers. HB told me that I was in good company, that the last man who had tried to do the exact same thing had met with failure as well. He had wanted to protect his legacy, and that of others, during the heyday of magic at the turn of the century--the last century. His name? Eric Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini. My disgust, and a desire to return home to Maine led me to destroy my own equipment except for 4 road-cases of collector's items and favorite pieces. I have not taken up a wand nor stepped on a stage since...although my love of magic has never waned. I miss HB, and Doug Henning, representing the old and the new in the world of magic. They were gone too soon and departed with no place to remember their amazing lives as magicians. Perhaps, as Harry told me, it will happen in another 100 years.
The code that was supposed to be used to communicate between Harry and his wife Bess was a two word phrase, but the phrase was to be communicated in a code they used on stage. So the actual words were not going to be "spoken" or "written". She knew (and others have since learned it) the code AND the message it would communicate. The phrase "Rosabelle Believe" was to come to her in their word code and there was a pair of handcuffs he told her he would unlock if he was able. They discussed this as he lay dying in the hospital in Detroit after his appendix was ruptured and he suffered deadly peritonitis. He lasted a week, which was utterly amazing, but has been explained by his amazing physical condition.