Harry Houdini is most often remembered as an escape artist and a magician. During his lifetime, nobody ever managed to figure out how he had escaped. Two minutes later, a panting and dripping Houdini emerged from behind the cabinet. Time ticked away as the audience waited for Harry Houdini to drown. A cabinet was wheeled around the can to hide it from view. Holding his breath, he squeezed his entire body into the water-filled can as the lid was attached and locked from the outside with six padlocks. His blue bathing suit revealed an exceptional physique. His hair was parted down the middle and he wore a grave expression on his face. Houdini was handcuffed with his hands in front of him. The can had already been poked, prodded and turned upside down to prove to the audience that there was no hole beneath the stage. Houdini was about to do something that looked like a really bad idea.

The great master of illusion stepped inside of an over-size milk can, sloshing gallons of water on to the stage. Louis and Harry Houdini was about to debut his first theatrical performance. He fell in love with the landscape and the people, and he never left.It was January 27, 1908, at the Columbia Theater in St. He came to northern Arizona in the early '80s to pursue a career in journalism. 'No matter how related I am to Houdini, my horses don't care and my dogs don't care,' George says.

But that didn't matter to them, because I'm the guy that's got the DNA.'Īnd then the guy with the DNA - who seance attendees say looks an awful lot like Houdini - went home to Tuba City, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation. That was a bit strange for George Hardeen, because admittedly, he knows little about his great-uncle. 'And I think that's the purpose of these seances - to give an opportunity for folks to come back and talk about Houdini,' he says. They would beseech him to just show a sign, move something on the table.'Īfter about half an hour, he says, 'they threw in the towel, and then it was over.' The group went to a really nice bar, drank some scotch and just talked. 'They had a medium, and he was very entertaining, calling upon Houdini in a very dramatic way. They had some articles that belonged to Houdini,' he says.

'The Houdini legacy has taken a new branch,' says Hardeen, 'because my wife is Navajo, and my children are enrolled members of the Navajo Nation.' George Hardeen is shown with his wife, Lena Fowler, and one of his three children, Shonie Fowler Hardeen.

The magic of houdini