Interesting facts

When it comes to theatrical productions, we, writers always dramatize every story to make it even bigger than life. Although d’ILLUSION: The Houdini Musical is inspired by the worldwide famous Harry Houdini and his life, we added some extra flavors to the narrative and allowed ourselves to bend history a bit.

Here are some interesting facts:

 

• Houdini’s mother didn’t speak English at all. She spoke 5 languages, however: German, Italian, French, Spanish and Hungarian. Houdini spoke in German with his mother.  

• Although Houdini was a Hungarian born immigrant in the United States, he didn’t speak Hungarian and he never went to Hungary. 

• Houdini's association with the bullet catch is well known. In 1918, Houdini announced that he would do the infamous trick. The bullet catch is generally considered the most dangerous trick in magic. After his friend and fellow magician Chung Ling Soo (William E. Robinson) was tragically killed onstage while performing it in England, Houdini cancelled the performance. It is uncertain he ever performed the Bullet Catch or not. 

• Gordon Crowe is our fictional character who works closely with Mina Crandon, the infamous spiritualist. J Gordon Whitehead, however, punched Houdini in his punched Houdini in his dressing room at the Princess Theater in Montreal on October 22, 1926. Whitehead's blows either started, contributed, or covered-up the appendicitis that would take Houdini's life nine  days later.

• The "21 grams" in the Finale refers to a scientific study published in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts. MacDougall hypothesized that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body.

 

If you’re interested in Houdini’s life with a vast amount of mind-blowing details, we recommend you visit www.wildabouthoudini.com