I did not care for how the author presented the information. It even encouraged me to look up some clips on youtube featuring some of his escapes. The pictures in this book are plentiful and fascinating. He made sure he was never far from the limelight which is why he stays there even today, 90 years after his death. People know his name because he was constantly putting himself out there- on posters, in movies, and in the newspapers. What surprised me was his shameless self-promotion- which, ironically, is what made him the legend his is today. I think I might be a little full of myself too. He outdid any other magician of his era, time and time again. I suppose it makes sense that he was full of himself. There were several things I didn't realize going into this biography- one, that he was such a narcissistic, egotistical man, and two, that he seemed to have massive ADD- swapping his obsessions regularly. I knew Harry Houdini's basic story- that the name that gave him such recognition wasn't his birth name, most of his stage tricks, and his death. One can hardly breathe the word 'magician' without referencing the escape artist. My father always spoke of Houdini with reverence- as if he had known the man or witnessed one of his death-defying escapes. Here, too, are rare photographs never before seen by the general reader! Here are the stories of how a knockabout kid named Ehrich Weiss, the son of an impoverished rabbi, presto-changoed himself into the legendary Harry Houdini. Did Houdini really pick the jailhouse lock to let a fellow circus performer escape? Were his secrets really buried with him? Was he a bum magician, as some rivals claimed? How did he manage to be born in two cities, in two countries, on two continents at the same instant? In this fresh, witty biography of the most famous bamboozler since Merlin, Sid Fleischman, a former professional magician, enriches his warm homage with insider information and unmaskings.
No jail cell or straitjacket could hold him! He shucked off handcuffs as easily as gloves. Who was this man who could walk through brick walls and, with a snap of his fingers, vanish elephants? In these pages you will meet the astonishing Houdini-magician, ghost chaser, daredevil, pioneer aviator, and king of escape artists.
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