Thursday, March 4, 2021

"Don't do anything without declaring me in."

Here are a few treats to celebrate Hardeen's birthday today. Dash was born Ferenc Dezso Weisz on March 4, 1876 in Budapest, Hungary. But like his famous brother, he always claimed Appleton as his birthplace and adopted February 29 as his birthday (showing he had a sense of humor about all this).

Let's start with one of my all time favorite posters for either brother. If Houdini ever created a poster depicting a bridge jump, I've not see it. But it would be tough to do better than this one. This appeared on the back of the July 1945 Conjurers Magazine "Hardeen Memorial Issue". How I would love to see this in its original color.


Next is a terrific trade ad from the July 7, 1907 issue of Variety announcing Hardeen's return to America. There's a lot to love here, including a nice mention of trailblazing agent Jenie Jacobs. But I especially enjoy those lines at the bottom.

Click to enlarge.

Finally, I couldn't resist running Hardeen through the MyHeritage AI app which is all the rage at the moment. What little film of Hardeen that exists comes from much later in his life, so here we see him come to life in his early Handcuff Kings days.


Happy birthday Dash!
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6 comments:

  1. Leo HeviaMarch 4, 2021 at 3:18 PM

    Houdini scholars and magic historians owe Hardeen a debt of gratitude. He did not destroy his brother's collection as was stipulated in HH's will and instead chose to pass it down to Radner and his protege Douglas Geoffrey.

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  2. Tony ChapparoMarch 4, 2021 at 9:42 PM

    I agree. Thank you Theo! Although I'm sure he faced Houdini's rath in the afterlife.

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