This Halloween marks 100 years since the untimely death of the legendary magician Harry Houdini, and that actually happened right here in Michigan.
To mark this mysterious anniversary, the American Museum of Magic in Marshall plans to try and reach out to Houdini himself,
who's greatest trick might be his lasting legacy.
“I like to think to some extent, somewhat facetiously, that his own drive of publicity has outlived him and that his greatest feat of publicity was dying on Halloween," John Sherwood with the American Museum of Magic told me. "That was just absolutely a stroke of genius on his part.”
To fully understand this story, you first need to go back to a roaring 1926!
Not knowing he had appendicitis, Houdini took a punch to the gut following a show in Montreal.
Probably not his best trick.
“The appendicitis had developed into a full rupture of his appendix, and the surgeons operated, and they could not get rid of the peritonitis that had gone through his system, and so he passed away," said John.
Shuffling off this mortal coil at Grace Hospital in Detroit.
Every Halloween since, people have held seances to try to contact Houdini from beyond the grave. And this year - here at the American Museum of Magic in Marshall – it's no different. Lead by magician Phillip Haggerty, the museum will hold the seance at the American Museum of Magic for a sold-out group of ticket holders.
“The stars might allow you, you know, the, the 100 years and exactly at the time and, and adjusted for daylight savings," said Haggerty.
And don’t think that a room full of magicians can’t be trusted with a task like this.
"If there's going to be a manifestation of some kind, it's going to be Houdini doing it, not, not us, not a magician," Sherwood said. "If we see that there's somebody trying to create something that isn't legit, we'll find them out, and we'll denounce them.”
An approach that is very much in the spirit of Houdini himself.
“He was a skeptic, and I'm afraid so are we, but we want to take that scientific approach and give Houdini every possible chance to amaze us one more time,” Sherwood said.
100 years – in the state he took his final breath – in a cathedral to the art of magic... why not?
And if the stars do align and that portal to the great beyond opens, revealing the specter of Harry Houdini - what question would this room of afterlife adventurers ask?
“How are things, how's it going, Harry?" laughed Phillip.
Maybe this year, he'll get his chance to find out.
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