Houdini story: Houdini had Sir Arthur Conan Doyle walk away several blocks and write something down. Doyle went away, wrote ‘Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin’ down, while convinced that he was quite alone. Came back, and houdini had some magic rolling balls reproduce the words on a slate.
Okay, I think that Houdini merely lifted the paper and got it back into Doyle’s pocket. The rest was easy, for a stage magician. Does anybody else have some insight on this trick? I’m thinking about the getting the phrase correct, not about the rest of it.
Thanks,
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I don’t know either Harry. I was fascinated with Houdini in my youth and that was one of my favorite tricks. I would have also liked to have known how he made the balls work.
My favorite bit is where Houdini gets Doyle to examine all the props, carefully checking them, then asks Doyle to just step outside for ten minutes, leaving the props with Houdini (in Houdini’s house). Of course, I’m pretty sure Houdini could and did substitute the balls right in front of Doyle and didn’t need to do anything nefarious while Doyle was out. But it’s still a great bit of manipulation.
In general, I’m always truly amazed that the creator of Sherlock Holmes could be so credulous.
I’d think the easiest way to do the substitution would be to have the trick cork ball already in the bottle of ink.
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Obviously, Sir Arthur did not view paranormal abilities as impossible, and nothing could shake him from that notion.