Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Breaking the ice in 1959


On the eve of the publication of Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls, this article appeared in the Detroit Free Press. I think we can classify this as the first public debunking of the famed trapped under the ice story. I like that the article credits the man who did the research for Gresham, the great Robert Lund (above), best known for his American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan.

Detroit Free Press, Aug. 2, 1959.

Ironically, this article ends with a new myth about how Houdini may have escaped from the Mirror Handcuffs. It's Houdini myth whack-a-mole!

Of course, the best depiction of the under-the-ice myth is in the 1953 Houdini biopic starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Coincidently, that sequence is the topic of the next "Deconstructing Houdini '53," which I will be posting this Saturday.

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4 comments:

  1. Leo HeviaNovember 12, 2024 at 2:40 PM

    The Gresham book was my first Houdini bio so the ice story never had a chance to get me. This Detroit Free Press article was very well written. Kudos to Mr. O'Shea.

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    1. John CoxNovember 17, 2024 at 1:41 PM

      I remember an episode of the game show The $20000 Pyramid. The answer was Houdini and the contestant's clue was "He went under the ice and died." They didn't win, and after the round they had a little discussion about Houdini's death. "He was punched or something," the host said. This was the '70s or '80s.

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  2. John C. SherwoodNovember 17, 2024 at 12:34 PM

    I got the full explanation firsthand from Bob Lund sometime in the late 1970s. Our mutual interest in magic and journalism led to many discussions about truth, verification and myth making. He always encouraged me to become a “great spoiler,” just like him. Of course, Bob didn’t mind spinning a good yarn, as long as the recipient was warned that it might be nothing more than that.

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