Houdini goes high-def!

Bruce Cardozo's amazing restoration of Houdini's The Man From Beyond has been released on Blu-ray, giving it the distinction of being the first silent movie released on the high-def format.

This version of The Man From Beyond offers the best quality and the most complete print of this movie ever presented (see full review here). At 80 minutes, it is also the longest of all the other versions out there.

Bonus material, which includes the almost complete screenplay for The Master Mystery, comes on a second CD-ROM disc.

Purchase The Man From Beyond Blu-ray at Amazon.com.

'The Amazing Harry Houdini' by Tanya Savory

This one slipped right past me, but in September Townsend Press released a new Houdini paperback biography for young readers, The Amazing Harry Houdini by Tanya Savory.

Harry Houdini escaped from prison cells, swallowed needles, and made elephants disappear. How did he do such amazing tricks? Some people believed he was actually a wizard with secret powers. But Houdini knew his only “secret powers” were hard work and imagination. This is the story of the poor boy who grew up to be the most famous magician in the world. He was fearless and determined to amaze his audiences, and there seemed to be no limit to the risks that The Great Houdini would take.

You can order The Amazing Harry Houdini from Amazon.com.

For more information about Townsend Press visit their official website.

"Houdini" aided in Obama victory

No doubt you’ve heard that last night Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. But did you know Houdini had a hand in his historic victory?

In an online preview of a special Newsweek post election issue, we find a revelation about “Project Houdini.”

The Obama campaign’s New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.

Read the article at Newsweek.

LINK: Houdini's Final Trick, a Tidy Grave

Check out this article and video in the New York Times about Houdini’s grave in Queens. Some interesting information here, including the fact that Houdini paid for perpetual care of his family plot. The comments are also worth a read. Click on the headline to go.

Official Houdini Seance held at the Dorothy Young Center

The Official Houdini Seance was held last night in the Black Box Theatre of the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts in Madison, New Jersey. The 101-year-old Young, who worked as an assistant to Houdini during his 1925 tour, participated in the seance alongside organizer Sidney Radner.

“It's still an honest attempt to see if we can contact Houdini,” said Radner, who brought a pair of Houdini's handcuffs which Houdini said he would open, if he could, from beyond the grave. Radner noted. “We would be satisfied right now if it was put on a table and then he comes back in a physical way, he moved it across the table and it fell on the floor, or something like that.”

Last night’s seance was conducted by psychic Jane Doherty of South Plainfield, who investigated the Massachusetts home of accused ax murderer Lizzie Borden and said her stomach expands by several inches when spirits are present.

“I think now, the point of doing it is really to honor (Houdini's) memory,” said Barbara Parker, who is the granddaughter of Dorothy Young. “(Dorothy) talks about the Houdinis as being her second parents during that period of her life.”

Source: The Star-Ledger

Photo from The Official Houdini Seance website. This post originally appeared on Houdini-Lives.com.