Houdini reappears - News and Comment - on U.S. postage stamp - Brief Article

Harry Houdini (1874-1926)-world-famous magician, escape artist, and paranormal investigator--has received a long-overdue accolade: his portrait is featured on a new U.S. commemorative postage stamp.

Born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, he changed his name as a tribute to the great French conjurer, Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, and went on to become one of the greatest magical showmen of all times. He performed mystifying illusions and daredevil escapes, flew the first airplane over Australia, produced and starred in feature films, and became the twentieth century's premier ghost-buster--no armchair theoretician he!

The stamp belatedly honoring him was issued on July 3 in New York City, coinciding with the one-hundredth anniversary of the Society of American Magicians, over which Houdini presided for the last nine years of his life. The stamp was previously unveiled on Halloween 2001, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the great showman's death.

Depicting a confident Houdini at the peak of his career, the stamp is based on a 1911 lithographed poster. It also encodes a hidden image that seemingly enwraps Houdini in chains--an effect visible through the U.S. Postal Service's official Stamp Decoder.

The magical effect is especially appropriate for one who exposed and replicated many bogus "spirit" pictures. Houdini used his knowledge of magic to rout many fake paranormal claimants--not only spiritualist mediums but others like "the Spaniard with X-ray Eyes" and an "Egyptian Miracle Man."

Today's skeptical investigators follow in his footsteps. CSICOP even features an annual Halloween seance at which--although Houdini invariably fails to appear--his great life is honored.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group