While contemporary accounts reported that he'd been training for the ministry when he decided upon magic, biographer Jim Steinmeyer says that the young Thurston was a near-criminal who escaped institutionalization by saying he had found religion. 'Thurston-that's what it was.'īorn in Ohio, in 1869, Thurston had a rough childhood that included some time riding the rails. 'It's sort of like the hype of everybody that wanted to see Hamilton,' says Rory Feldman, a magician with a Thurston collection of more than 65,000 pieces. Today, he's all but forgotten, eclipsed in history by his contemporary Harry Houdini, even though Houdini was more of an escape artist than a magician. In the 20th century's first decades, Howard Thurston thrilled people with his own brand of stage magic, a giant production requiring 40 tons of equipment.

Dale Carnegie included Thurston in his famed self-help book How to Win Friends and Influence People, because Thurston had told Carnegie that before every show, he stood behind the curtain, saying over and over, 'I love my audience.' Through it all, the audience felt Thurston's affection. At the magician Howard Thurston's show, the world flouted nature. A horse and rider vanished, floating away as if in a dream, spangles sparkling in audiences' eyes. Cards hovered, and a box of candy became a rabbit.

Dutton & Co., New York, 1922 edition.A woman rose in mid-air. The final part presents several challenging paper puzzles based on geometric forms.Įxplore this side of Houdini that you never knew, and learn some great magic at the same time! The first section reveals the secrets behind such magic tricks as 'The Dancing Sailor' and 'The Spirit Communication.' Subsequent sections offer guides to folding a bird, a bullfrog, a hat, and other traditional origami models, as well as carefully tearing paper to produce a ladder, a five-pointed star, a string of dancing skeletons, and other intricate figures. The manual consists of four parts: paper tricks, paper folding, paper tearing, and paper puzzles. Houdini's easy-to-follow directions, many of them accompanied by illustrations, are accessible to readers of all ages and skill levels. The master sleight-of-hand artist explains how to use the simplest of props ? sheets of paper ? to completely captivate audiences. Aspiring illusionists can learn from one of the world's greatest magicians with this facsimile of a 1922 book by Harry Houdini.

Houdini magic tricks