The word “iconic” gets thrown around pretty loosely these days, but there are some figures who truly earn the descriptor. Micheal Jordan and Mohammed Ali are icons because they truly transcended their sport. In the same way Harry Houdini is bigger than magic. Houdini is easily the best remembered performer in the history of stage magic. Despite his enduring fame his life story remains clouded by myth. Houdini was a professional liar, but he also considered himself to be deeply moral. He took other performers to task for their deceptions, while also cultivating a rich tapestry of legend around his life and career. Was Houdini a hypocrite or is there such a thing as a “moral lie”? Tune-in and find out how raw meat injuries,  bullet-catch catastrophes, and a rabbi-for-hire all play a role in the story. 

Works Cited

Bell, Don. The Man Who Killed Houdini. Vehicule Press, 2004.

Christopher, Milbourne. The Illustrated History of Magic. Thomas Y Cromwell Company, 1973.

Houdini, Harry. The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin. New York Publishing and Printing Co, 1908.

Posnanski, Joe. The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini. Avid Reader/Simon and Shuster, 2020.

Rapaport, Brooke Kamin, and Alan Brinkley. Houdini: Art and Magic. Yale University Press, 2010.

Robert-Houdin, Jean. Memoirs of Robert-Houdin: Ambassador, Author, Conjurer. G.G Evans Publisher, 1858.

Silverman, Kenneth. Houdini!: The Career of Ehrich Weiss: American Self-Liberator, Europe’s Eclipsing Sensation, World’s Handcuff King & Prison Breaker–Nothing on Earth Can Hold Houdini a Prisoner! HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.