LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Harry Houdini: Audiences
built 675 days ago
When America entered the First World War in 1917, Houdini tried to enlist in the army, but was rejected as being too old at age 43. Unable to fight, Houdini preformed free shows for service men, during which he would produce five dollar gold pieces from the air and toss them to the audience. He claimed to have distributed $7,000 in that manner. Houdini ... organized shows in support of Liberty Bonds to help finance the war.
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Elizabeth MacLeod has done an excellent job researching and writing about Harry Houdini's life for a younger audience. Each two-page spread focuses on a different time or aspect of his life, from his early life as the son of an immigrant rabbi, to his success on stages across the U.S., Europe and Australia. The colourful pictures, illustrations and informative sidebars all add to the text. A timeline of Harry's life, an index and the table of contents are included.
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Houdini gestured and a veiled cabinet was wheeled to the centre of the stage by uniformed attendants. A committee of approximately twenty men came from the audience, walked up some stairs and joined Houdini on stage. Members of this committee, bound Houdini’s hands tightly behind his back. Houdini was still wearing his suit coat as they did so. The escapologist then walked behind the curtained cabinet and in seconds the coat was thrown out in front of it. The mystifier then re emerged. His hands were still securely fastened behind his back.
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On Monday 29th May 1911, Houdini was to attempt an escape from Whitegate canal lock at Siddal. This was considered the only suitable place with sufficient depth of water. Towards six in the evening a large crowd gathered on the hillside and the employees of Shaw lodge Mills gazed out of the windows to see Houdini. Once again the audience was astounded by Houdini's escape.
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Throughout his life Houdini was haunted by the subject and world of spiritualism. It is reported this was due to his need to communicate with his beloved late mother. For years he solicited the help of mediums often in an unproductive effort to communicate with her and exposing the psychics he encountered as tricksters and frauds. An avid book collector and expert on the subject of magic, mysticism and sorcery, he read widely and deeply on spiritualism. Performing himself acts of spiritualism to audiences, he would challenge mediums, encourage scepticism and expose them for what he thought they were; cheats and frauds. Houdini was, it seemed possessed with the idea of discovering the reality of spiritualism; seeking "the other side". In this journey, during 1908, Houdini wrote his book "The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, a sweeping history of the art of magic" where he heavily referred to spiritualism.
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From 1904 and throughout the 1910s, Houdini performed with great success in the United States. He would free himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in plain sight of street audiences. and he's gone again. And now, the Amazing Gloria
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