HOUDINI: The Untold Story

by Milbourne Christopher ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1969

The subtitle is almost as assertive as the man -- certainly Houdini's story has not been untold although Mr. Christopher, also a magician and a lifelong devotee, has retold the story in perhaps greater detail than ever before. Houdini, who could squeeze through the keyhole of a lock, spirit away a 10,000 pound elephant, emerge au natural from a padlocked water can, held a captive audience with his escape artistry. Probably not a very nice man (the personal elements do not come across as clearly as all his public performances) but a figure of prodigious energy and self-confidence, Houdini began at 17 with an act which did not really go over for seven years until Martin Beck booked him and put him over as King of the Handcuffs: His own publicist as well, Houdini managed for many years to dominate European and American audiences and spent the last ones in belligerent exposes of seers, frauds, and mediums, among them Margery. Her spirit voice Walter forecast that her worst enemy would be dead in a year; it took two until Houdini, although gravely ill, insisted that the show go on and collapsed in the wings....A respectable reincarnation of the man who walked through walls and leapt from bridges, but William Lindsay Gresham's version of ten years ago, still actively reprinted, while no better written reads more easily. Christopher is no doubt the superior scholar, Gresham the superior showman.

Pub Date: March 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION