Houdini House Party

Yesterday, I hosted a Houdini House Party courtesy of houseparty.com. And we got to watch an advance copy of the first half of The History Channel's Houdini special that is coming on this labor day. It stars Adrien Brody and we enjoyed it quite a bit. I wasn't sure how my friends would react because I'm a huge Houdini fan, but that doesn't mean everyone around me shares my interest. It helped that most of the ladies in the group find Adrien Brody easy on the eyes.

One of the highlights for me was Houdini trivia. The winner got a Houdini martini shaker from House Party and The History Channel. I laid out my Houdini books on the refreshment table and we looked at pictures of him and his wife and his many amazing tricks. My guests had tons of questions about "The Needle Trick" which is pictured in my oldest Houdini book, Houdini: His Life-Story by Harold Kellock, originally published in 1928 just a couple of years after the magician's death.

In preparation for the party, I've been reading my various Houdini books and have reacquainted myself with some of the stranger facts about his life. I'd forgotten than when he was a teenager, he paid to have his picture taken with a chest full of medals he'd won in athletic competitions. Except he'd only won some of them. The rest were borrowed or were fake medals he'd made himself. Even at a young age, the man who would become Houdini was a master of advertising. I'd also forgotten that he was the first person to fly a plane in Australia. How weird is that?

If you're looking for a short read that will make you an expert on Houdini's early life and career, look no further than Houdini: Escape into Legend by Manny Weltman. It's only 51 pages and includes a lot of photos of Houdini and his family, as well as some of his birth certificates and passport documentation which show his attempt to shed his original name (Ehrich Weiss) and change his birthplace from Hungary to the US. The book wasn't listed on Goodreads yet, so I had to enter all the info on their website and create an entry for it. I've done that before for several other obscure books, but there's always some pressure involved since you are responsible for describing the book to the entire Goodreads community. Not something you want to screw up.