I have never heard the full story or the name the T"rick that fooled Houdini". What was the name of the trick? Did Houdini ever find out how it was done?
thanks, Jeff

I believe you're referring to his performance of the Ambitious Card. Use the search feature and type in "Trick That Fooled Houdini," and you will be rewarded with multiple threads to explore. It's a great story.

I the recently published book, The Magician and the Card Sharp, there is an entire chapter devoted to this incident.

So much fuss over a card onenly placed second from the top which seems to be back on top, or is it

The new Vernon book would have the personality stuff in it. The trick itself is not exactly a winner unless you start using the TILT and more gimmicks.

As Jon says, by todays standards the trick would hardly be considered a blockbuster. But in it's time it was apparently very puzzling.

There are several good threads on the Café about it. And here is a little video that dosen't really explain anything. But it's kind of cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeMm9pSr_RU

I think Bruce Cervon is not doing the trick as exactly as Vernon fooled Houdini. Larry Jennings taught me Vernon put the card under the top card, not in the middle of the deck.

Hideo Kato

This was my understanding, as well.

The footage of Cervon and "the hands" may well be an AC routine, but it's not "The Trick That Fooled Houdini" as described by Vernon himself his "The Vernon Touch" column in Genii. That trick used a DB card and required that card to go into the deck in the second position.

Which is not to say that the DB card couldn't have gone into the middle of the deck for the last display, it probably could have as the DB card wasn't needed further if the display was over.

But Houdini kept pestering Vernon to keep showing him the trick so he could try to figure it out. It seems unlikely Vernon would have placed the DB card in the middle of the deck when he knew that Houdini was going to ask him to show him again. (although it would have been a great way to get the gaff away from the top of the deck if he wanted to flash a few of the top cards to Houdini when Vernon himself decided he would end the trick).

I remember reading somewhere that Bess Houdini told Vernon years later that Houdini attempted many times to figure the trick out, only to get angry and frustrated when he couldn't. Bess Houdini was a godmother to one of Vernons kids, and knew Vernon well.

It's worth remembering that DB cards were not known to very many magicians in 1919, and it's likely that Vernon made his own by hand.
Many magicians, and certainly Houdini (who Vernon said many times WASN'T a magician) would have never seen, or even suspected the existance of a DB card.

According to Nicholas Einhorn this not the only trick that fooled Houdini(The Art of Magic and Sleight of Hand p200).The old gambit of taking a coin/glass/watch and covering it with a handkerchief.Then letting the spectators feel under the hanky,to feel if it was still there(and eventually vanishes) also fooled him.
AJ

> Then letting the spectators feel under the hanky,to feel if it was still there(and > eventually vanishes) also fooled him.

Funnily enough the way I heard it, that was one of Houdini's favourite tricks to perform. I think I've even heard a version of it described as "The Houdini Coin Trick"

My favourite Houdini story is I think from the book mentioned above, where Houdini and some other magicians including Vernon are sitting in a Café, and Houdini is showing some card tricks to some people at a nearby table.

His palming was quite poor, and probably visible to the spectators, certainly visible to the other Magicians.

Vernon had a reputation for being excellent at palming cards and did it differently to the ways it had been done to that point. One of the Magicians innocently suggested aftrwards that Houdini allow Vernon to show him how he palms cards.

Houdini lost his head, saw it as a put down that a young upstart magicians might teach him something.

-MM

Vandy Grift,
Thanks for the link.
Great history tutorial.

~John

Its my understanding that Houdini was fooled more than once by different magicians. But Dai Vernon used it to his maximum benefit as the person who fooled Houdini. I can give you one more reference after looking through my books.

As Jon says, by todays standards the trick would hardly be considered a blockbuster. But in it's time it was apparently very puzzling.

Vandy, have you tried this on a laymen?

Mike

Great trick. Simple and easy.

Sorry Mike, I missed your question back in Oct. I have done the trick, as described by Vernon on the revelations series, using DB. It fools people, no doubt. I wasn't knocking the effect. When I said that by todays standards it wouldn't be considered a blockbuster, I meant that only from the magicians perspective. Also, to note that while a lot of people think this may be a simple trick that never could have fooled Houdini, that the principle wasn't as widely known as it is today.

But it's not a bad trick, I'm not knocking the basic effect. I'm sure Penguin could get 10 bucks for a download and a gaffed card, if they got some hot young magi to shoot the demo vid.

I just stumbled across this thread even though it's sort of old and been revived once or twice. Garrett Thomas does a really entertaining version of the trick that fooled Houdini by actually using the original ambitious card handling, and then adding his own ending which is absolutely stunning. It can be found on Volume 1 of Inside the Mind of Garrett Thomas and it's titled "Houdini Card Trick." Garrett's becoming a more and more recognized name so I'm sure many of you have seen this, but if you haven't then you should absolutely check it out.

Of course Houdini must have been fooled many times over the years. No-one enjoys being fooled by good Magic more than a Magician. Can you imagine how boring Magic would be if NOTHING fooled us any more?

The trick that fooled houdinigets explained different ways all the time, but Vernon explains it on the Dai Vernon Revelations Volume 9 DVD.

He used a DB, which was rare in those days. Vernon's “Illusion of Depth" ( later called TILT by Marlo ) was not used. He clearly placed Houdini’s “initialed” card under the top card and the initialed card, with a DL came back on top.