Letters From The Time Traveler: What Houdini in 1926 Taught Us About Life in the 2020s

Dearest Edith,

You know of my love of magic and all things not of this world. While in the early 1900s, I had the great pleasure of seeing Houdini perform his disappearing elephant act.

For most of his career, Houdini was a headline act in vaudeville. For many years, he was the highest-paid performer in American vaudeville. One of Houdini’s most notable non-escape stage illusions was performed at the New York Hippodrome, when he vanished a full-grown elephant from the stage.[38] He had purchased this trick from the magician Charles Morritt.[39][40] In 1923, Houdini became president of Martinka & Co., America’s oldest magic company. The business is still in operation today.

I have mentioned him before, being the pro at illusion and trickery. His life and death were an inspiration to magicians around the world. His death, however, was a sad testament to his own delusions of grandeur.

Witnesses to an incident at Houdini’s dressing room in the Princess Theatre in Montreal speculated that Houdini’s death was caused by Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead (1895–1954), who repeatedly struck Houdini’s abdomen.[118]

The accounts of the witnesses, students named Jacques Price and Sam Smilovitz (sometimes called Jack…