Houdini(31)

Houdini was buried in the elaborate coffin that he had commissioned for his Buried Alive stunt, in which he was to escape the locked coffin submerged in the vault filled with sand. His body was shipped from Detroit to New York City, covered in flowers, and taken to a funeral home.



Houdini was buried on November 4, 1926 in the plot where he had frequently visited his mother. His elaborate instructions for his funeral were followed, including the inclusion of his mother’s letters to him in a bag as a cushion under his head in his coffin. Bess and Houdini’s siblings attended the funeral, as did two thousand mourners, with two thousand more crowding the streets outside. The Society of American Magicians executed a special rite, breaking a wooden wand on the coffin.





Some of Houdini’s secrets he explained during his lifetime, and some have since been discovered by others. But many went to the grave with him, leaving the world to wonder how he accomplished his marvelous feats. The people who knew, Dash and Bess, never revealed their knowledge to the public.





In Houdini’s Words




After reading about Houdini and his obsession with work and fame, it should come as no surprise that he died, so to speak, in the saddle. His drive to be greater and greater is best expressed in his own words. He wrote a little of this drive in Miracle Mongers and Their Methods.



My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the every-day commonplaces of my business. But I have never been without some seeming marvel to pique my curiosity and challenge my investigation.



It is pleasant to think of him working until the end not because he had to, but because some “seeming marvel” had “piqued his curiosity.”





XV. After Houdini’s Death





Read It and Know It




After reading this chapter, you will know more about



Dr. Saint: After Houdini’s death, Bess possibly married her employee.



Communication from the dead: Despite many attempts, Houdini never appeared at a séance to speak the agreed-upon words to Bess.



Bess’s death: The former performer died in 1943 of a heart attack.



Dash: The magician Hardeen continued to perform in “The Houdini Show.”





Bess, who upon Houdini’s death announced that the world would never know what she had lost, continued to wait for a sign from Houdini. She and Houdini had made a pact that if either of them passed away, the other would await a secret, pre-agreed-upon code word to be communicated. For two years after Houdini’s passing, Bess held open a $10,000 reward to any medium who could help her communicate with her husband. She waited and listened for the secret words, but found that all the mediums were full of were lies and deceit. She canceled her offer, sold 278, and moved to California. There she met Charles David Myers, who called himself Dr. Edward Saint. She hired Dr. Saint to take over her business affairs, and he devoted himself to preserving Houdini’s legend. Bess and Dr. Saint were very close and it was speculated that they married, but no one knows for sure.



On Halloween night of 1936, the ten-year anniversary of Houdini’s death, Dr. Saint presided over a séance on top of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, California. Bess and over two hundred magicians were in attendance. The séance table was laid out with locked handcuffs, a gun, and a slate, for Houdini to use to impart to Bess the secret code word. After intense pleadings for Houdini to appear, nothing happened. Bess gave up. She announced that spirits did not exist and that she would not try anymore to reach Houdini. Reportedly, immediately after her declaration, a clap of thunder and a cloudburst broke the night sky.



Bess died of a heart attack in 1943, while on a train in California. Prior to her death she had announced that she would not be returning from the dead or communicating by any means with the living. She was fed up with believing such things were possible. She revealed that the secret words that Houdini and she had agreed upon to share if able to communicate as spirits were “Rosabell,” the name of an old song, and the word “believe” spelled out in a special magician’s code. According to her sister, who was traveling with Bess at the time of her heart attack, Bess re-converted to Catholicism during her last hours, and she was buried not next to Houdini as he had surely wished, but in a separate Catholic cemetery.



Hardeen returned to the stage after Houdini’s death, performing many of his brother’s famous tricks in a performance called “The Houdini Show.” Hardeen lived until 1945.