The resurgence of magic continued this week with the Houdini miniseries that ran on the History Channel this past Monday and Tuesday evenings. This version of Houdini's life stars Academy Award winning actor Adrien Brody as the master showman and arguably the most famous magician in the modern era of magic.

Houdini is one of the few stars who is recognized solely by his stage surname and probably most closely associated with the art of magic, even though his most prolific claims to fame were more escapes and dangerous stunts as well as his relentless attacks on spiritualism.At the time I wrote this column, I had not viewed this latest miniseries, but by the time you read this, I expect my wife and I will have seen it. My first experience with Harry Houdini was in a biography in a library book I read in elementary school.He was a son of Rabbi Mayer Samuel and Cecilia Weiss. Young Ehrich was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, in 1874 where he was one of seven children. His family immigrated to the United States in 1878 and settled in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father served a tabernacle.In 1887, the rabbi moved his family to New York City. Ehrich started performing with a circus at the age of 9 as a trapeze artist and continued to work to support his family. As he got older, Ehrich got interested in magic and became a professional magician.He changed his name to pay homage to his hero, the "Father of Modern Magic," Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. His brother Dash (Theo) told Ehrich that if he added an "I" to the end it would pay homage to his hero, so Weiss changed his name to Houdin-i or simply Houdini.He also Americanized the nickname his friend called him, "Ehrie" or Harry, and became Harry Houdini.He performed throughout his teens first with a friend and then his brother Dash as "The Great Houdinis."It was at this point he invented and used the "Metamorphosis," an effect in which Houdini was tied and put in a box and then his partner got on top and pulled a curtain. Almost instantly, the two magicians traded places and Houdini appeared on the box.Around age 20, Houdini met Bess Rahner, and after a 21-day courtship the two married and went on to become one of the greatest acts in the history of show business.For the next 32 years, the Houdinis traveled the globe and performed for millions of people throughout the course of their careers. Houdini escaped from all types of contraptions and handcuffs. He vanished an elephant, walked through a brick wall and performed so many other fantastic effects, even though escapes were his specialty.There was a program on early on Labor Day which discussed Houdini's career in the context of an auction of some of the many props he used during his career. When the show concluded, the narrator said the pieces sold in the lots that day generated revenue of over $1.1 million.Posters, handbills and props were all parts of the hundreds of lots auctioned during the course of the show. Items depicted sold from $10,000 for some posters to $300,000 for a Chinese water torture cell, a prop identified with Houdini today largely in part due to the Tony Curtis film of the 1950s.That film took great liberties with the story of Houdini's life, not unlike Houdini himself tended to do during his life. I have not seen the movie in years, but I remember the subtext included a series of omens that foreshadowed his eventual demise along with the failed cell effect at the end of the movie implying he died in the water torture cell.The facts are that Houdini was in a dressing room in Montreal before a show in October 1926 when a few college students came to meet him.One of them, J. Gordon Whitehead, asked the magician if it was true he could take a blow to the abdomen. Houdini was absent-mindedly reading mail when he acknowledged that he could, and before he could prepare, Whitehead struck him hard several times in the abdomen.Houdini winced and stopped Whitehead after a few blows, but after they left he was in great pain. It turned out his appendix, which appeared to have been diseased before the encounter, was ruptured by the blows.Houdini performed in a great amount of pain that night but did not seek medical assistance. He finally saw a doctor who told him he was suffering from acute appendicitis, but Houdini ignored his advice and tried to continue his tour. Unfortunately, he collapsed twice that night during the show and ended up in the hospital.Ten days later the master magician was dead, fittingly enough on Halloween 1926.Houdini lived on though thanks to the dedication of his wife, Bess, and the admiration of millions of magicians around the globe in the decades since he was here.For 10 years, she tried to contact Houdini by séance, but she finally conceded he would not return in 1936 and blew out a candle she burned in his memory. There is a legend that when she did so, there was a rumble of thunder heard throughout the city, but this has not been substantiated to my knowledge.If you did not see the miniseries, perhaps you should take a peek at it. Most History Channel shows are rerun on the On Demand section of the cable service, or you might be able to stream it from the History Channel. I'm sure it should be an entertaining film.Till next time …