Read Online The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush, Larry Sloman - Free Book Online
Authors: William Kalush, Larry Sloman
Ads: Link
home.” She ignored him, so he burst into the theater, carried her out, and “spanked” her. Dividing their savings, he took her to the train station and bought her a ticket to Bridgeport, where her sister lived.
As the train was about to pull out, he handed her their small dog.
“I always keep my word. Good-by, Mrs. Houdini,” he said, mockingly tipping his hat.
Bess was hysterical the whole ride to Bridgeport. When she got to her sister’s, she was fawned over and Houdini was cursed, but she just wanted to beg his forgiveness and go back to him. At two A.M. the doorbell rang and Bess got her chance.
She rushed to the door where Houdini stood and fell into his arms.
“See, darling, I told you I would send you away if you disobeyed, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t fly after you and bring you back.”
The chastened couple returned to the circus and vowed not to let their private disputes impinge on their professional responsibilities again.
With the circus season over, Houdini had managed to save some money, so when Henry Newman, his cousin on his mother’s side, approached him with an opportunity to buy a partnership in a touring burlesque company for which he was doing the advance work, Harry became an entrepreneur, part owner of the American Gaiety Girls.
Although the Houdinis got good notices for their Metamorphosis, the burlesque segments of the show got mixed reviews. They toured the Northeast until the end of January and resumed a swing through New England in March. During the February hiatus, Houdini managed to join up with another burlesque company and perform a turn as “Professor Morat,” a European hypnotist, who put a man in a trance and then demonstrated that he was impervious to pain by allowing the audience to jab pins and needles into the soft parts of the man’s anatomy. Morat also hypnotized several subjects from the audience and had them do ridiculous things under the influence, much to the delight of the rest of the crowd. Back with the Gaiety Girls in March, and desperate to pull in larger box offices, Houdini and his partners even brought in a female wrestler who would wrangle with local male volunteers (up to 122 pounds) in a very surrealistic performance. But by the end of April, the Gaiety Girls came to an ugly end with the manager of the troupe arrested for fraud and the performers stranded in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was a blow to the entrepreneurial dreams of Harry, but, in some ways, it was just as much a blow to his younger brother Leopold, who would routinely escape from his medical school studies to tag along with the traveling troupe until “that illustrious Prof Morat gave him a kick in the pants and sent him home, because he had to go to college and preferred to look at the nice padded shapes of those beautiful burlesquers.”
Desperate for work and with debts to pay off, the Houdinis traveled to Boston at the end of May to work with Marco the Magician for a tour of the Maritime Provinces in Canada. Marco was in reality the mild-mannered Edward J. Dooley, a church organist from Connecticut who had saved for years to take out a large magic show patterned after his idol, Alexander Herrmann, Compars’s younger brother, the most famous living magician at that time. He was, in some ways, the first of a succession of father figures to Harry. Houdini was even introduced to the audience as Marco’s son-in-law and “successor,” and his Metamorphosis with Bess was a showstopper. But business lagged because a performer named “Markos” had traveled this route the previous summer and had ruined the audience with a night of horrid, amateurish magic. By the beginning of July, the Marco show went bust.
The only real memorable thing about this half-year was that, desperate to make his mark in show business, Houdini started to perform handcuff escapes, first as a refinement of Metamorphosis, then as a vehicle to promote the shows, and eventually as the beginning of a pure
As the train was about to pull out, he handed her their small dog.
“I always keep my word. Good-by, Mrs. Houdini,” he said, mockingly tipping his hat.
Bess was hysterical the whole ride to Bridgeport. When she got to her sister’s, she was fawned over and Houdini was cursed, but she just wanted to beg his forgiveness and go back to him. At two A.M. the doorbell rang and Bess got her chance.
She rushed to the door where Houdini stood and fell into his arms.
“See, darling, I told you I would send you away if you disobeyed, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t fly after you and bring you back.”
The chastened couple returned to the circus and vowed not to let their private disputes impinge on their professional responsibilities again.
With the circus season over, Houdini had managed to save some money, so when Henry Newman, his cousin on his mother’s side, approached him with an opportunity to buy a partnership in a touring burlesque company for which he was doing the advance work, Harry became an entrepreneur, part owner of the American Gaiety Girls.
Although the Houdinis got good notices for their Metamorphosis, the burlesque segments of the show got mixed reviews. They toured the Northeast until the end of January and resumed a swing through New England in March. During the February hiatus, Houdini managed to join up with another burlesque company and perform a turn as “Professor Morat,” a European hypnotist, who put a man in a trance and then demonstrated that he was impervious to pain by allowing the audience to jab pins and needles into the soft parts of the man’s anatomy. Morat also hypnotized several subjects from the audience and had them do ridiculous things under the influence, much to the delight of the rest of the crowd. Back with the Gaiety Girls in March, and desperate to pull in larger box offices, Houdini and his partners even brought in a female wrestler who would wrangle with local male volunteers (up to 122 pounds) in a very surrealistic performance. But by the end of April, the Gaiety Girls came to an ugly end with the manager of the troupe arrested for fraud and the performers stranded in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was a blow to the entrepreneurial dreams of Harry, but, in some ways, it was just as much a blow to his younger brother Leopold, who would routinely escape from his medical school studies to tag along with the traveling troupe until “that illustrious Prof Morat gave him a kick in the pants and sent him home, because he had to go to college and preferred to look at the nice padded shapes of those beautiful burlesquers.”
Desperate for work and with debts to pay off, the Houdinis traveled to Boston at the end of May to work with Marco the Magician for a tour of the Maritime Provinces in Canada. Marco was in reality the mild-mannered Edward J. Dooley, a church organist from Connecticut who had saved for years to take out a large magic show patterned after his idol, Alexander Herrmann, Compars’s younger brother, the most famous living magician at that time. He was, in some ways, the first of a succession of father figures to Harry. Houdini was even introduced to the audience as Marco’s son-in-law and “successor,” and his Metamorphosis with Bess was a showstopper. But business lagged because a performer named “Markos” had traveled this route the previous summer and had ruined the audience with a night of horrid, amateurish magic. By the beginning of July, the Marco show went bust.
The only real memorable thing about this half-year was that, desperate to make his mark in show business, Houdini started to perform handcuff escapes, first as a refinement of Metamorphosis, then as a vehicle to promote the shows, and eventually as the beginning of a pure
Similar Books
