This TV special aired when I was 11 years old. Around this time I was very interested in magicians and performing magic. The previous year I remember visiting the Magic Shop at Disneyland and buying the "Siberian Chain" (one of the many packaged Adams magic tricks they sold). My friends and I pretended we were great escape artists and took turns chaining each other's hands up.
The Search for Houdini was very appealing to me because it involved magicians and another one of my interests: Halloween. The special featured many magicians paying tribute to Houdini, including the Amazing Randi, Dean Gunnarson, Steve Shaw, Harry Blackstone, Jr., and The Pendragons. Host William Shatner kept the show lively and provided a lot of humor. Even though the televised séance near the end of the show was pretty anti-climactic, the program remains one of the most unique Halloween specials that I ever remember seeing. It was filmed live in Los Angeles at the Orpheum Theater.
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1 comment:
This is most excellent!
What a blast from the past - I forgot this even existed. I remember being so physched watching this thinking "Oh yeah, he's so going to come back now...why wouldn't he, this is the best time of all to prove there really is life after death."
Hey, I was 17.
Thanks for this great post!
matt d
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