DID YOU KNOW

Before Harry Houdini became known for his death-defying escape acts and illusions, one of his many monikers was The King of Cards. He began his magic career in 1891 appearing in a tent act with strongman Emil Jarrow performing in Dime museums and Sideshows, even doubling as ‘The Wild Man’ at a circus. When he began his career, he initially focused on traditional card tricks.

Early Career Path

Houdini was considered ‘competent’ by his peers (among them Thurston, Vernon, Finley & Horowitz) the latter trio being pioneers in the use of the double-backed card and some but not all, professional magicians regarded him as a competent but not a particularly skilled sleight-of-hand artist, lacking both the grace and finesse needed to achieve excellence in the craft.

The Challenge
Houdini proposed a challenge that if shown any trick three times in a row, he would be able to figure out how it was done. In February 1922, during the Society of American Magicians convention in Chicago, Dai Vernon a young unknown magician took up his challenge. He asked Houdini to pick a card and sign it with his initials. He then ‘lost’ the card in the deck and after the essential abracadabra the card appeared on top. Vernon ‘lost’ the card twice and each time the card ended up on top of the deck. He repeated the trick a third time and at Houdini’s repeated requests did so a further fours times. Seven times in total.

Now known as the “Ambitious Card Trick” it’s believed Houdini would have never figured it out because what he hadn’t realised was Vernon kept changing the method he used to make the card appear on top. Houdini’s assumption was that he was always repeating the same trick.

Vernon goes down in history as ‘the man who fooled Houdini’. Image Credit: Magic poster collection (Library of Congress)/ McManus-Young Collection / New York Hippodrome

OFF the WALL

Dark Horse Digital is a two-person, bootstrapped Start Up. It began in 2013 embodying the trans-Tasman spirit of its founders: of mateship, ingenuity and endurance. Off the Wall are some fair dinkum fascinations shared with our Facebook Followers.

Our BAM! Card Game

RELATED

1. Harry Houdini demonstrates card flourishes in a 1926 Pathe short.