Besides my autographed book, “Houdini’s Schooldays” with limited edition bonus card, I hightly recommend “Magic Babylon, 1,001 Strange Conjuring Facts, Fallacies, and Tales” by Joe Hernandez. There is lots of Houdini in this book.
The author is currently offering these on eBay or you can pick up a copy on Amazon.
Below is the description:
CONJURING EVENTS THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
Everything you need to know about odd, amusing, and little-known incidents of conjuring trivia but have yet to learn is within these pages. Here you will find 1,001 genuinely unpredictable collections of stories, history, and bizarre events that have taken place since the beginning of magic, demonstrating that reality can be stranger than anything we can imagine in a work of fiction. These short, thought provoking and anecdotal stories will pique your interest and have you reconsider much of what you thought was true or false about conjuring.
You will amaze your friends and become known as an undisputed master of conjuring trivia:
· — Bess Houdini falsely claimed in a newspaper interview to have had a daughter.
· — President Abraham Lincoln was an amateur magician.
· — The town of Faucett in Buchanan County, Missouri, is named after magician Faucett Ross’s grandfather.
· — Houdini authored articles for the magic publication, Mahatma, posing as a European correspondent using the pen name of Herr N. Osey.
· — Jimmy Grippo once managed the career of Mario Bettina, the light-heavyweight boxer. Under Grippo’s management, Bettina won the world championship and held the title for five months.
· — The 1908 Famous Tin Pan Alley song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was written by an amateur magician.
Joe Hernandez is the author of Conjurer’s Wisdom Vol 1 & 2 and Phonetastic. He frequently contributed to the magic journal Apocalypse and produced magic shows at the State Theatre in New Jersey. He was a consultant to the yearly NBC show “The World’s Greatest Magic.” Joe has collaborated in producing many magic videos, including DVDs from Rene Lavand, Harry Lorayne, Gene Maze, Mike Gallo, Sol Stone, and Herb Zarrow. He has appeared on numerous public television shows performing close-up magic, including a solo show on WABC. Joe is a member of the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians and a monthly columnist for M-U-M and The Linking Ring magazines.
