Still captivated by Houdini's mystique

The internationally renowned showman had many enemies. He never backed down from a challenge, virtually never lost one and had taken, in his later years, to going after spiritualists with every ounce of vigour and cunning. They had a lot to lose financially with this adversary around and everything to gain if he would simply, well, disappear.

On that fateful day, two McGill students, Jacques (Jack) Price and Sam Smilovitz, later to become a Montreal lawyer known as Sam Smiley, were with Houdini. Smilovitz was on hand to sketch the magician. As the story goes, in walked Joscelyn Gordon Whitehead, a Kelowna, B.C. resident in his thirties, who was also registered as a student at the university. The tall, powerfully built Whitehead approached a reclining Houdini and asked if it was true that he could take a punch to the stomach without discomfort. Houdini responded in the affirmative.

Whitehead then landed a flurry of hard punches into Houdini’s abdomen. Houdini cringed, Price shouted at Whitehead, asking him what he was doing, and the magician waved his hand, saying “That’s enough.”

On Oct. 28, in the middle of his final act ever, at Detroit’s Garrick Theatre, Houdini collapsed and was rushed to nearby Grace Hospital. He died there at 1:26 p.m. on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1926, aged 52. Cause of death was listed as peritonitis due to a ruptured appendix. He was buried at Machpelah Cemetery in Queen’s, New York, the service attracting more than 2,000 people.

A Mecca for the magically inclined

Today, it seems, fascination with the man and his legend has increased rather than lessened. A recent visit to his family’s plot at Machpelah proved to be a thrilling pilgrimage, for someone who has always been a Houdini aficionado.

It also showcased his popularity, even in death. Jewish custom is to leave a stone or a few pebbles on a person’s grave when one departs and Houdini’s gravestone was covered with stones, a small silver talisman, a playing card, one withered white rose and even a note from an admirer. This is Mecca for the magically inclined and virtually the entire Weiss family is interred here.

There are many available books and magazine articles on Houdini, but two are especially recommended. In 2006, Atria Books published The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero, by Houdini and magic buffs William Kalush and Larry Sloman. Not only does the book, through a lot of uncovered information, assert that Houdini was a spy for American intelligence, it also lends credence to the real possibility that Whitehead was sent to McGill to assassinate him. If that was the case, he ultimately succeeded.

The Montreal connection

The Man Who Killed Houdini (Vehicule Press, 2004) is another fascinating tome, one that Montreal antiquarian, researcher and author Don Bell spent more than 20 years collecting exhaustive data for.

Bell also postulated that Houdini was done in, likely with premeditated malice by Whitehead, who, Bell learned, was later a resident of the Pickwick Arms apartment building on Sherbrooke Street, right on Westmount's western border. He died in Montreal in 1954. Bell himself passed on in 2003, before the book was published.

There is news, as well, about a second West End production regarding the Houdini mystique. Elan Kunin, the composer and arranger of the 2000 Saidye Bronfman Centre Yiddish Theatre musical The Great Houdini, is at it again. He is the composer and lyricist for the February 2008 English-language musical Houdini, which will play at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts at the Saidye. “If you liked the first one (and I did), you’ll love this one,” Kunin promised.

Interesting footnote: Dr. Neil Cream from McGill's med school, is one of the five possible suspects believed to have been Jack the Ripper… and many specialists consider him THE most likely candidate. The murders occurred in the late 1800s.