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Scranton houdini museum7/31/2023 ![]() Once she stopped, the tradition was passed on to others. In recounting the history of the Houdini seance, Scranton museum co-director Dick Brookz explains that for 10 years after Houdini’s death, the magician’s wife, Bess, would hold a seance on Oct. “Houdini said that if he can’t escape from the other side, then no one can,” said Dietrich, who is known for having duplicated many of Houdini’s famous escapes. “At 1:26 p.m., the time when Houdini died, a group will sit around a table and join hands,” said Dietrich, who will function as the medium at a seance run by the Harry Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pa., where she is co-director.Īt the given moment, Dietrich will begin the seance by saying, “Houdini, if you are here, give us a sign.” The Jewish Museum also will be presenting a panel discussion titled “Conjuring Houdini in the Popular Imagination.” Dorothy Dietrich, a magician who has appeared on stage and TV, will be among the panelists.ĭietrich’s Houdini-related expectations for Oct. “You’ll be the first one to know,” the curator quipped. 31, Rapaport doesn’t expect anything unusual to happen. Included, too, are everyday objects like those used in the East India Needle Threading Trick, where Houdini would swallow needles and thread before slowly pulling the line from his mouth with the needles threaded on it.Īs for Oct. He was a savvy marketer,” said Rapaport while taking a short break from installing the more than 160 objects, including advertising posters and broadsides that Houdini used to promote his shows.Īlso on display will be works by artists influenced by Houdini and magic apparatus he made famous: handcuffs, shackles, a straitjacket, a milk can and a packing trunk, as well as a re-creation of the famous Water Torture Cell. “He really was involved with the new media of this time. 31, 1926, probably as a result of appendicitis compounded by a blow to the stomach. Generally considered among the most famous magicians ever, Houdini died on Oct. “I never was ashamed to acknowledge that I was a Jew, and never will be,” Houdini is quoted as writing to a friend in the show’s sepia-toned and well-documented catalog.Īccording to the exhibition wall text written by Rapaport, his escapes “had particular resonance for those who sought liberation from political, ethnic, or religious persecution.” “Coming to America, Houdini’s family faced a lot of the same issues that other Jewish immigrants faced, including anti-Semitism,” said Rapaport.
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