Mayer Samuel Weiss (1829–1892)

Jim Bentley as Harry Houdini (photo courtesy of Alan London)

It’s the fourth of November, 1926, in Detroit, where Harry Houdini died only four days earlier.

Behind the Garrick Theater, 11-year-old George scrambles to find a hiding place. He’s way too young to be running from a gun-toting thug, but that’s what he gets for conning him with the old three-shell game.

“You can’t hide from me, twerp!” says the thug. “When I get my hands on ya…”

Just then, the backstage entrance door George is leaning on opens up just enough for him to slip into the theater as the door swings closed and locks behind him.

In the dark silence, a voice calls out. George soon discovers it’s the ghost of Houdini, whose final challenge is to inspire the boy to live a more honest life. It’s the only way the great escape artist can be reunited with his beloved mother, Cecelia, who died thirteen years earlier.

To achieve this, Houdini takes George on a journey that spans the escapologist’s life—from his early childhood struggles, to performing in vaudeville, to meeting his wife, Bess, all the way up to his final performance at the Garrick.

Jim Bentley as Harry Houdini

That’s the story line of The Great Houdini, a two-act play that ran at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood from April 22 through May 30, 1999. Alan London, coauthor and executive producer of the play, recently announced he’s selling an e-book of the full script, available for Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook e-book readers.

The story, “comprised of far more fact than fiction,” according to London, is based on more than 12 years of research. And magician and actor Jim Bentley, who played Houdini, really looked the part and apparently did a fantastic job, along with the rest of the cast, including Raphael Goldstein (George), Kim Lores (Bess), Elizabeth Ince (Cecelia), and magician Whit “Pop” Haydn (the thug), among others.

“The entire cast performs with gusto,” wrote reviewer Ed Thomas in the August 1999 issue of M-U-M, the official publication of the Society of American Magicians. “Production values are top notch. Altogether an enjoyable evening of theatre and magic.”

Jim Bentley as Harry Houdini

As for the script itself, an uncredited reviewer in the April 3, 1999, issue of Goodliffe’s Abracadabra wrote that it “made fascinating reading, with a twist in the tail [sic] those seeing the play are asked not to divulge.” And Paul Gross writes in his May 14, 2010, blog that The Great Houdini “was written much like a feature film rather than [a] play . . .”

Even illusionists Siegfried & Roy enjoyed reading the script three years before the play’s opening at the Stella Adler. “We offer Congratulations to you on a very well-written work,” they wrote in 1996 in a personal letter to London. “We feel that because of the manner in which you tell the story, it would have a broad appeal . . .”

To purchase The Great Houdini e-book script, click on the cover thumbnail below or visit one of the following web pages:

• Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Houdini-ebook/dp/B00CLUM4CE
• Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1115237658?ean=9781626757301

To read about some of the show’s props, built at Warner Bros. Studio, and to see pictures of the props and show posters, visit Gross’s blog at http://hocuspoc.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/.

To see a 2009 video of Jim Bentley performing a Houdini-like upside-down straitjacket escape at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, visit the following YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKmQnnEJXfY&feature=youtu.be

Click to buy on Amazon

Pete Fecteau in front of the mosaic of my optical illusion

Have you heard of Brain Games? It’s an excellent, semi-new show that airs on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The National Geographic Channel.

Already into its second season, the show, hosted by Jason Silva, is “chock full of interactive games and experiments designed to mess with your mind and reveal the inner-workings of your brain,” as touted on the show’s website.

Optical illusion compared with Fecteau’s mosaic

As part of its promotion for the April 22 Season 2 premier, National Geographic commissioned artist Pete Fecteau to create a large mosaic—composed of 3,612 Rubik’s Cubes—using my Houdini optical illusion.

The mosaic, constructed in a high-traffic New York City storefront a few blocks south of Times Square, took Fecteau 26 hours over the course of two weeks to finish. Intended to be a temporary installation, the mosaic was on display for only two weeks.

Brain Games host Jason Silva in front of the mosaic of my Houdini illusion

Below is a time-lapse video of Fecteau creating the mosaic. To see some still shots, browse the WireImage gallery. And if you haven’t seen Brain Games, you can watch some teasers on National Geographic’s YouTube channel or full episodes on Amazon Instant Video for between two and three bucks each.

Photos of Peter Fecteau and Jason Silva courtesy of Getty Images/WireImage.

Guy Pearce upside down in the Upside Down in Death Defying Acts (2007)

Ever wonder what happened to the Water Torture Cell in the 2007 feature film Death Defying Acts? Well, wonder no more, Houdini fans. According to an article in the Norfolk Eastern Daily Press, Davenport’s Magic Kingdom—an exciting new magic museum to open in Norfolk, England, on May 25—will exhibit the Torture Cell built just for the film starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The museum, which, according to its owners, will house the largest collection of magic and allied arts memorabilia in Europe, will be run by the Davenport family, proprietors of Davenports Magic, opened in 1898 in the East End of London as L. Davenport & Co.

In addition to the Water Torture Cell repro, Davenport’s will apparently feature other information about Houdini. The web page describing the museum’s Timeline Exhibition invites visitors to “Discover the stories of some of the world’s most famous magicians, including the Maskelyne family, David Devant, Robert Harbin, Harry Houdini and Chung Ling Soo.” I sent an email to the museum for more information. I’ll update this blog after they respond.

In the mean time, you can see the Torture Cell in action in the movie trailer embedded below (YouTube link: http://youtu.be/7uBZmziFSIU).

(Photoshopped image)

Robert DaPonte as Harry Houdini (photo by Ian Paul Guzzone)

The last time Harry Houdini was in Philadelphia, he played a three-week engagement at the Chestnut Street Opera House. That was in 1926. Eighty-seven years later and only a mile from where the opera house once stood, Houdini will again make an appearance. Well, sort of.

Philadelphia actor Robert DaPonte is not a legendary magician and escapologist, but he plays one on the stage. In his latest gig, DaPonte stars as the lead character in EgoPo theater company’s The Life (and Death) of Harry Houdini, a play opening this Friday night at Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place.

“[Houdini] was the most famous stage magician of all time, a man perceived to have super heroic abilities by his scores of fans,” says DaPonte. “But it is Houdini as fallible human being which interests me. His doubts about the prospect of an afterlife mirror our own.”

Created and directed by EgoPo’s Brenna Geffers, Houdini, a 75-minute production previewing this Wednesday and Thursday, “venture[s] behind the curtain of Houdini’s final performance,” according to the play’s web page. “A mysterious magician’s assistant prepares the absinthe, the shackles, and a séance. Houdini gasps for breath as his life flashes before his eyes. An invisible crowd applauds. You are the audience for this magic show of life, death, and the beyond. After a lifetime of death defying escapes, Houdini is ready for his final curtain call. You will be there to distinguish reality from fiction—if you can.”

In addition to DaPonte, the cast includes Lee Minora (Bess, Houdini’s wife), Griffin Stanton-Ameisen (The Stagehand), Maryruth Stine (The Assistant), and Tyler Horn (Manager/Doyle/Rabbi).

Houdini, part of the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), runs through April 7. Tickets cost between $25 and $32; however, EgoPo will give a $5 discount to readers of this blog and to other magic or Houdini enthusiasts who present the promotional code “magic” when purchasing tickets online, over the phone (267-273-1414), or at the door.

To learn more about Houdini, its cast and crew, group rates, and more, visit www.egopo.org.