Pages from houdini s book of magic and party pastimes

Book of riatfic And Party Pastimes

I

T was the intention of Mr. Houdini to write a foreword for this book but the famous magician broke his last shackles before he had the opportunity to do so. Therefore, it is fitting to present in its place a brief story of his extraordinary life.

Harry Houdini, the Handcuff King, started out on the career that was to make him the foremost magician in the world, when he was only seven years old. He was born on April 6, 1873, in Appleton, Wis. One day a traveling circus came to this little town and Harry, together with all the other children for miles around, was lost in wonder and admiration over a tight-rope walker. In his own backyard, with a clothesline for a rope, Harry tried very hard to imitate the feat. The acrobat had another stunt, too—that of hanging from the rope by his teeth. Young Houdini practiced both tricks till he had lost five teeth, but he was determined to succeed.

Not many years later he had grown so proficient that he was able to run off with another show that came to town and he was billed as a contortionist and trapezist. Gradually he added new stunts to his repertoire.

He learned how to wriggle out of rope-ties and chains and began to study magic. One day a sheriff, seeing him work himself loose from many complicated knots, shook a pair of handcuffs in his face and announced that Harry Hotidini here was something that would hold him. Houdini had been interested in mechanics and practiced with locks for some time. He let the sheriff put the handcuffs in place and surprised everybody, including himself, by getting them off without a key. After that he didn't bother any more with ropes, but turned to intricate shackles and chains.

After leaving the circus he traveled around with a couple of men who pretended to be mediums, learned all their ways of fooling the public and began to invent new tricks himself. He found, if he tried patiently, that no trick was too difficult to master. For the last twenty years of his life, he risked it almost daily, escaping from iron boxes, padded cells, burglar proof safes and anything else in which he happened to be locked. During all this time, he kept making up new stunts that mystified countless audiences. In one of his most "magical" tricks he made an elephant and his trainer disappear from the stage and even the elephant, according to Houdini, didn't know where he went!

So successful did he become that his name became part of the English language and is even to be found in at least one dictionary—Houdini came to mean the same thing as escape. Never, throughout his career, did the great man fail to fulfill whatever he promised and no man-made locks ever held him fast.

What were the outstanding qualities of this great magician? Patience, quickness, keen-sightedness.

None of these have to be born in the would-be magician; they are qualities that can be acquired with practice. Houdini's own life is an example of what simple, persevering practice can do.

This book is a real beginners' book of magic. None of the tricks given here are difficult, but they are all mystifying and highly entertaining. Once learned, they will prove a most attractive part of any party program, and at the same time, the young people who master them will be taking a big step forward in the art of real conjuring. Those who want to become conjurors will find material for study in the tricks collected in this book, and for those who want to learn a little "magic" just for the fun of it, the following pages supply sufficient fresh material to make the dullest party a merry success.

THE PUBLISHERS

G6MERAL

HOUDINI'S BOOK OF MAGIC AND PARTY PASTIMES Fascinating Puzzles, Tricks and Mysterious Stunts SELECTED BY

STOLL & EDWARDS CO., INC. Publishers NEW YORK, N. Y. Printed in U. S. A.

Copyright 1927, by Beatrice Houdini, Executrix of the Estate of Harry Houdini

THE DISAPPEARING COIN

THE BALANCED QUARTER

Put a coin in your hand (1). Close your fist (2); open it (3)— presto! the coin has vanished. The large sketch shows how it is done. A bit of soft soap on the fingernail makes the coin stick to the finger when the hand is opened, and it cannot be seen from the front.

Place a strip of paper on the edge of a tumbler and balance a quarter on it, as shown at top. State that you can get the paper out without disturbing the quarter. Hold the strip as in the next drawing. Give it a sharp slap, and the quarter will be left on the tumbler.

A GOOD TRICK WITH GLASSES

TRY THIS ON YOUR FRIENDS

Place an inverted tumbler over another one filled with water, as illustrated. Then tell the victims of the hoax that you can drink the water from the glass without touehing either glass with your hands. Undoubtedly they will express disbelief, whereupon you take hold firmly of the top glass, using your chin and collar bone, and leaning over, drink the water from the bottom glass, thus proving that you can drink the water without the use of your hands.

Put a hat on the table; make a small hole in a piece of paper and announce to your friends: "I am going to push the hat through the hole." When they claim it is an impossibility, take the paper as in Fig. 2, and "push" the hat through the paper with a pencil or other stick. You have fulfilled your promise and pushed the hat through the hole.