Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-born American stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice as Handcuff Harry, on a tour of Europe, where he would sensationally challenge different police-forces to try to keep him locked up. This revealed a talent for gimmickry and for audience involvement that would characterise all his work. Soon he was extending his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to hold his breath inside a sealed milk-can.
In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from a special handcuff commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were fabricated, it is ironic that Houdini was meanwhile presenting himself as the scourge of fake magicians and spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists who gave practitioners a bad name. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his own escape-stunts.
Plot
Harry is the greatest magician there has ever been, if you believe the hype. He certainly believes it himself. He's also a man on a mission - to test the claims of mediums across the world. He desperately wants to believe them, too...but he knows every trick in the book. He should be good at spotting a fake. After all... He used to be one. Fuelled by guilt and grief, Harry launches a moral crusade which tears his friendships apart, threatens to destroy his marriage and sees death threats rain down on him from his enemies in this world - and in the world beyond. Little Earthquake lifts the lid on this milk churn of mysteries, as the King of Showmen takes to the stage for the biggest reveal of his life. Who will you believe? The Medium? Or the Magician?
If you could speak to the spirits of the dead, what would you ask them? If the spirits of the dead could speak, what would they say?
Plot
During Harry Houdini's tour of Britain in 1926, the master escapologist enters into a passionate affair with a Scottish psychic. The psychic and her daughter attempt to con Houdini during a highly publicized séance to contact his mother whose death has haunted him for many years. However all does not go to plan...
Keywords: 1920s, angel, appendix, asking-for-forgiveness, assault, backstage, bagpipes, balcony, bathroom, blindfold
There is no escape.
Love is inescapable.
Magic Is Inescapable
Get me the Wright Brothers!
Plot
Based on factual accounts, this is the story of two young girls that, somehow, have the ability to take pictures of winged beings... which certainly causes quite a stir throughout England during the time of the first World War. Everyone, except the girls who think it's quite normal, are excited about this "photographic proof" that fairies exist... even the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini pay the girls a visit.
Keywords: 1910s, africa, angel, backstage, based-on-true-story, bath, betting, billiards, bluebells, boy
Believe.
Harry Houdini: Anything can be faked by anyone.
Harry Houdini: Never try to fool children. They expect nothing and therefore see everything.
Harry Houdini: Cover your ass!::Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Cover my what?
Polly Wright: I don't know which frightens me more, that the children are lying or that they are telling the truth.
Polly Wright: Frances, I've been down the beck a hundred times. Why haven't I ever seen any of them?::Frances Griffiths: Grownups don't know how to believe.
Edward Gardner: The photographs... they're genuine, then?::Harold Snelling: As the King's beard.
Edward Gardner: The girls will be herding the fairies back this way. I'm certain both girls are clairvoyant, and perhaps mediums as well. Together, they create an etheric field which allows the fairies to metabolize subtle amounts of ectoplasm into their bodies. That's how they're able to capture them on film. Do you see? No. Well, uhm... Well I don't expect you to understand.
Polly Wright: Thank you.::Elsie Wright: For what?::Polly Wright: For the photographs.
Judith: Is it true all Africans are cannibals?::Frances Griffiths: I've never met one. Do you have anymore stupid questions?
Frances Griffiths: I think I know what it means when they say that my Daddy's missing.::Elsie Wright: It means they don't know where he is.
Plot
The amazing career of master magician Harry Houdini is presented from his beginnings with a carnival "wild man" act to his emergence as an internationally-acclaimed illusionist, From his dramatic escape from a locked safe under the frozen Detroit River to an even more improbable one from a locked cell in Scotland Yard, he never failed to please and astound his audiences. Although Houdini's tricks are achieved through his marvelous physical dexterity and innate sleight-of-hand, he courted death with the hazardous illusions he performed and his compulsive quest to make contact with the spirit world.
Keywords: 1920s, barker, based-on-book, berlin-germany, brooklyn-new-york-city, buzzsaw, carnival, character-name-in-title, charlatan, coney-island
Harry Houdini: I hadn't prepared anything for tonight, but perhaps I have something that will amuse you. So if you'll get a couple of broomsticks, I'll get my wife - and we'll see what we can do.
Bess Houdini: [to Houdini] Audiences are never satisfied. They love you for th moment you please them.
Harry Houdini: It'll be the most dangerous thing I've ever done.::Bess Houdini: And the most dangerous!::Harry Houdini: Bess, people aren't going to stand in line and watch me pull rabbits out of a hat.::Bess Houdini: Why? Why must every act you do be flirting with death?::Harry Houdini: Because it's the only act that'll hold an audience spellbound. People fall asleep at the opera, but they stay wide awake at the bullfights because ther's one man defying death down in that arena. You take this out of my act and I'm nothing!::Bess Houdini: You keep it in and we're both nothing!
Have you ever heard of Harry Houdini?
Well he wasn't like today's magicians who are only
interested in television ratings. He was an artist. He
could make an elephant disappear in the middle of a
theater filled with people, and do you know how he did
that? Misdirection.
What the fuck are you talking about?
Misdirection. What the eyes see and the ears hear, the
Kon Kan
Arts in D Mirror/Harry Houdini
I wanna be like Harry Houdini
And be the one to make the great escape
I wanna be where no one'll see me
You've gotta learn a lesson give and take.
I wanna be where lovin' is easy
If I could go it wouldn't be a dare
Cause when you look in my eyes
How can you not realize
That I could go and couldn't give a care.
I wanna be like Harry Houdini
Where there ain't nothin' that'll keep me in
I wanna be where no one'll see me
Can't find a way to say I can't begin.
And when I'm gone I know how you'll miss me
How could there ever really be a doubt
Cause when you look in my eyes
How can you not realize
That you could never really be without.
How much more can I believe in
The things they say
I'm past the point, I'm leavin'
I gotta get away.
(uh...uh...uh)
(I wanna be just like Harry Houdini)
(ohohoh)
I wan... I wan... I wan...
I wanna be like Harry Houdini
And be the one to make the great escape
I wanna be where no one'll see me
You've gotta learn a lesson give and take.
I wanna be where lovin' is easy
If I could go it wouldn't be a dare
Cause when you look in my eyes
How can you not realize
That I could go and couldn't give a care.
Why should you try to change me
You never will
My past comes back to chase me
I won't be happy till
I wanna be (I'm gonna be)
I gotta be (I oughta be)
Just like Harry Houdini
repeating 'till end...