Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

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Steve A Glaser
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Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Steve A Glaser » August 18th, 2012, 8:22 pm

I'm looking for an article I think was in Genii but may have been elsewhere. I'm not certain if the Houdini Seance was the topic of the piece, but it was discussed in it.

I recall that the person being interviewed was one of our older members with a wealth of historical knowledge and a sharp wit. He was commenting on the fact that a gun owned by Houdini was one of the artifacts at the seance table, and that he believed that Dr Edward Saint, who conducted the seance, would not have allowed it there if he truly believed Houdini would come back, because Houdini would shoot him for sleeping with Bess.

Does anybody recall that piece and know where I should look to excavate it?

Thanks!

Steve

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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Dustin Stinett » August 18th, 2012, 9:14 pm

If you are a subscriber to Genii, you have electronic access to every issue. You just need to do some searching via its search engine.

If you subscribe to Ask Alexander, and depending on your level, you'll have access to a bunch of print material.

Good luck.

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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Steve A Glaser » August 19th, 2012, 1:13 pm

Thanks Dustin. But if I had access to either of those resources (especially Alexander) I wouldn't have needed to post the question here. :)

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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Dustin Stinett » August 19th, 2012, 1:55 pm

So, in other words, you're asking someone else to find it for you. Or you could always subscribe to Genii and get access to 75 years of back issues for a measly $56. ;)

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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Donhdunn » August 19th, 2012, 3:54 pm

There have been numerous Genii articles about the seance -- about Edward Saint pleading, "Harry, manifest yourself. Shoot the gun, ring the bell, unlock the slates,do something" -- but Ask Alexander turns up nothing when the search terms are "sleeping with Bess."

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Joe Pecore
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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Joe Pecore » August 19th, 2012, 4:11 pm

There is a "Note From Your Editor" in September 2006 issue of MUM which includes "Houdini on the Cutting Room Floor By Sid Fleischman" in which Fleischman describes that he left out the following text from this book "Escape!" when discussing the hype of Ed Saint seances and the loaded gun: "She [Bess] knew for certain that Houdini wouldn't show. Hot-tempered Harry would have picked up the pistol and shot Ed Saint, the man who was sleeping with his wife."
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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby JohnCox » August 19th, 2012, 8:48 pm

Joe Pecore wrote:There is a "Note From Your Editor" in September 2006 issue of MUM which includes "Houdini on the Cutting Room Floor By Sid Fleischman" in which Fleischman describes that he left out the following text from this book "Escape!" when discussing the hype of Ed Saint seances and the loaded gun: "She [Bess] knew for certain that Houdini wouldn't show. Hot-tempered Harry would have picked up the pistol and shot Ed Saint, the man who was sleeping with his wife."

Nice find.
Visit my blog Wild About Harry

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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Steve A Glaser » August 19th, 2012, 11:41 pm

YES! That's the line I was looking for! Thanks, Joe! The "Notes From Your Editor" in MUM. No wonder I hadn't been able to find it. I was looking in all the wrong places.

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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Ted M » August 20th, 2012, 1:14 am

Steve, I'll second Dustin's encouragement to subscribe to Genii. And I'm an impartial outsider.

You get the superb magazine, you get the whole searchable Genii archive at AskAlexander, and you support the continued existence of both the magazine and this message board from which you've just received brilliant and satisfying service.

It's the best value in magic.

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Re: Seeking Houdini Seance (?) Article

Postby Steve A Glaser » September 13th, 2012, 2:16 am

I can't argue with you about the value, Ted, and I haven't missed an issue of Genii in years. But I'm going to continue getting a slightly lesser bargain. I buy my copies at my local magic store, because it's as important to me to support the few remaining brick-n-mortar shops as it is to support the magazine.


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