The Magician's Guild was an organization founded by Theodore Hardeen. [1]
Erik Weisz, known as Harry Houdini, was a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts.
Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks, and other perils, often in combination.
Richard Valentine Pitchford was a master magician under the name Cardini, whose career spanned almost half a century. Born in Britain, he worked chiefly in the United States of America.
Milbourne Christopher was a prominent American illusionist, magic historian, and author.
Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, known professionally as Criss Angel, is an American magician, illusionist and musician. He is often referred to as one of the world's most successful illusionists, generating in excess of $150 million in tourism revenue for Las Vegas in one year.
The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and to maintain and improve ethical standards in the field of magic." To promote these endeavors the S.A.M. presents awards and fellowships in recognition of outstanding achievement in the Art of Magic.
Ferenc Dezső Weisz, known as Theodore "Dash" Hardeen, was a Hungarian-American magician and escape artist who was the younger brother of Harry Houdini. Hardeen, who usually billed himself as the "brother of Houdini", was the founder of the Magician's Guild. Hardeen was the first magician to conceive escaping from a straitjacket in full view of the audience, rather than behind a curtain.
Randall Steward Pitchford II is an American businessman. He co-founded the video game development studio Gearbox Software in 1999 and was president and CEO for the company until 2021, upon which he became CEO and president of Gearbox's parent company, The Gearbox Entertainment Company. In 2016, Pitchford became the owner of the Academy of Magical Arts publication Genii magazine. Pitchford purchased the Hollywood Magic Castle in April 2022.
The Chinese Water Torture Cell is a predicament escape made famous by Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini. The illusion consists of three parts: first, the magician's feet are locked in stocks; next, he is suspended in mid-air from his ankles with a restraint brace; finally, he is lowered into a glass tank overflowing with water and the restraint is locked to the top of the cell.
The Houdini Museum is located at Scranton, Pennsylvania. Harry Houdini appeared in Scranton and did several special challenges there. His brother, Hardeen, also appeared in Scranton and in its sister city, Wilkes-Barre. The longest engagement of Houdini's career was in this area of northeast Pennsylvania when he spent two full seasons with the Welsh Brothers Circus. Documents and letters attesting to this are on display in the museum's renovated 125-year-old building and on its website. Houdini performed at Sylvester Z. Poli's theater for in Scranton, which was part of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit at the time. This would later become the RKO Pictures circuit.
Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Houdini was an American stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini.
William Walter Larsen Jr. known as Bill Larsen was an American magician and president of the Academy of Magical Arts. He was born in Pasadena, California to attorney William Larsen Sr. and TV host Geraldine Jaffe Larsen. His younger brother was Milt Larsen. After their father's death in 1953, the brothers took over publication of Genii magazine, leased the Hollywood Victorian home "Holly Chateau" and with his future wife Irene Larsen built it into the private performance venue and restaurant now called the Magic Castle where the Academy of Magical Arts is headquartered. Larsen served as president of the academy until his death in 1993. Bill and brother Milt share a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Death Defying Acts is a British-Australian 2007 supernatural romance film, directed by Gillian Armstrong, and starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones. It concerns an episode in the life of Hungarian-American escapologist Harry Houdini at the height of his career in the 1920s. It was screened in a special presentation at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
Sidney Hollis Radner was a rug salesman from Holyoke, Massachusetts, who owned one of the world's largest and most valuable collections of Harry Houdini artifacts. Radner was a 1937 graduate of Worcester Academy and matriculated to Yale College.
Machpelah Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located within the Cemetery Belt in Glendale, Queens, in the U.S. state of New York. It was established around 1855. In addition to managing the 6-acre (2.4 ha) cemetery, the former Machpelah Cemetery Association also managed the adjacent Union Field Cemetery, New Union Field Cemetery and Hungarian Union Field Cemetery. Machpelah Cemetery was abandoned by the late 1980s. The deteriorating entrance building was demolished in 2013.
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.
Doctors Hospital was a hospital located at 170 East End Avenue, between 87th and 88th Streets opposite Gracie Mansion in the Yorkville neighborhood of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It served as the primary maternity hospital for uptown Manhattan births. It was also known as a "fashionable treatment center for the well-to-do."
The Magic Castle is a performance venue, restaurant, and clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts for magicians and magic enthusiasts in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. The Academy was started in 1952 by William Larsen Sr., who founded Genii magazine in 1936. The Castle was opened on January 2, 1963 by brothers Bill and Milt Larsen, sons of William Sr and Bill's wife Irene Larsen. Once a private residence, the Castle was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1989.
George Schindler is an American stage magician, magic consultant, comedian, actor, ventriloquist and writer based in New York. In addition to creating noteworthy illusions and publishing many books on magic, Schindler has performed at venues around the world and is currently "lifetime dean" of the Society of American Magicians, having previous tenure in the "S.A.M. Hall of Fame" as well as president and spokesperson. From the 1950s to the 1960s, he had also been a frequent contributor to Billboard Magazine's comedy, magic and vaudeville columns.
Theodore Hardeen, a brother of the late Harry Houdini, illusionist and a prominent magician in his own right, died yesterday in the Doctors Hospital. His age was 69.
Richard V. Pitchford, who as Cardini was a prominent sleight-of-hand artist and was president of the Magicians Guild in 1945, died today in Kingston Hospital. He was 79 years old and lived in Gardiner.
As a television star, George Jason makes frequent appearances on NBC, CBS and GE at Schenectady. Active in the Professional Magicians Guild of America, he has served as president for two years. He is a member of the Musicians Union and a prominent member of the Lambs Club