Saturday, May 19, returned to Catalina for the special screening of Terror Island at the Art Deco Avalon Casino theater. My wife Kristina accompanied me on this trip.

We met fellow Houdini Nuts, Mark Willoughby, Joe Fox, John Cox, Jim Bentley and Stacey Zimmerman at Catalina Island Express.

After a little over an hour boat ride, we arrived in Avalon, where we were met by fellow Houdini Nuts, Lisa Cousins and Julie Perlin Lee (Executive Director at Catalina Island Museum).

Kristina and I dropped our luggage off at the museum while the others went on ahead to the Casino theater.

Our amazing tour guide Jessica then gave us a golf cart ride from the museum to the Casino Theatre, where we were greeted by more of the amazing museum staff (Gail, Kevin, Lydia).

We then found our reserved seats in the theater before going to a special VIP room at the Casino for brunch, mimosa’s and music (by my buddy “Scout”).

Returned to the theater for the VIP pre-screening performance by Magician and actor Jim Bentley.

Jim has portrayed Houdini on stage and television; and has performed many of Houdini’s death defying escapes and signature magic effects.

Jim brought his acclaimed comedy and magic act to the “Magic Isle”. He was funny and entertaining from start to finish and featured Houdini’s Siberian Chain Escape and ended with Houdini’s famous straitjacket escape.

After a brief intermission, we left the theater before returning with our tickets for the movie.

Everyone got an amazing 36 page program featuring Houdini that is definitely going to be a collectors item.

Julie Perlin Lee then welcomed everyone to the Magic Isle before the movie started.

Seeing Terror Island in a beautiful theater in a large screen accompanied by an orchestra was a truly amazing experience I will never forget. Michael Mortilla & The Accompanists are musical geniuses. Bravo!

After the movie was over, took a photo with Houdini Nut, Stacey Zimmeran dressed as Harry Harper from Terror Island.

Kristina went back to Hotel, while Houdini Nuts, Fox, John, Lisa, Mark, Stacey and myself went to find the pool from the Hotel St. Catherine where Houdini stayed.

After checking out the pool, part of the group went to see where Houdini attempted a rescue of a wayward boat in Avalon Bay.

We then joined the rest of the group and walked back to the Museum, to see the Houdini Exhibit,  that John and I had been raving about.

Everyone loved the exhibit and really appreciated the effort that everyone put into making it truly something special.

Julie and Jessica from the museum, then joined the Houdini Nut group and said they had a couple surprises to share with us.

Jessica shared the first surprise which was a 2/26/76 recorded Oral History interview that Chuck Liddell did of Stephen “Duke” Squirrel” D’Arcy, one of the men responsible for the rescue of the boat in Avalon Bay on November 28., 1919.

According to the interview: “On that day, they [Director Cruz and Assistant Director Vernon Keys) were shooting [Terror Island] scenes out in front of the St. Catherine and [Captain] McAfee almost lost his boat. Squirrel tells the interviewer that he went out there, got that boat and got his story in the paper.

And Julie shared the second surprise, which was a scrapbook that belonged to the other rescuer, Tinch Moricich, which not only had an original clipping from the Catalina Island paper with the story of the rescue, but it had two original clippings from the Los Angeles Examiner that had a picture of Houdini and boat tossed by high waves.

After my mouth dropped to the floor, it was time to see if we could get the museums newly installed Houdini Pinball machine to trigger the Houdini movies parts of the game, in particular, “Terror Island”.

After some pinball magic, we were finally successful.

It was past closing time at the museum, and most of the Houdini nuts had to catch a boat soon, so we called it a day; An Amazing Day and one I will remember for the rest of my life.

The next day, Kristina went shopping for an hour. And I went to the museum. After playing pinball and checking out the Houdini exhibit, Jessica let me listen to the interview again, and Julie let me look thru the scrapbook in detail. What a treat. It was now time to catch a boat, so we said our good-byes until next time.