The MUM and Billboard describe that the idea was a girl walking “through” the pole, and Billboard suggests that it was more like a long log. Holden seems to describe a pole that connects the tables horizontally, as the lady supposedly travels “over it, invisibly.” But the action of the trick isn’t clear. So where does that leave the Walking through the North Pole illusion? This really is an example of two incredible innovators-so very different-who couldn’t understand each other. And, as LeRoy wrote, “His escapes were incomparable.” Houdini was not the finished, classical magician that LeRoy idealized, and he did not share LeRoy’s taste for stage illusions or innovative techniques. Still, LeRoy was wrong about dismissing Houdini’s innovations, for Houdini distinguished himself by inventing an entirely new class of illusions, called escapes. But, like a lot of his contemporaries, he seemed to be frustrated by Houdini. He also writes honestly and insightfully, giving us a look at his taste and understanding of magic. LeRoy was legendary as an artistic illusionist, someone whose performances were perfect and mystifying, and he should be remembered as one of the greatest inventors of illusions in our history. On the other hand, the problems and stunts he was fond of showing in private or semi-privately were perfectly done the whole informality and apparent impromptu performance suited his unusual style."Īs a fan of both LeRoy and Houdini, allow me to make a few observations about this criticism. Both were perfect in their utter weakness. His illusion of the North Pole (shown at the meeting of the Society of American Magicians Annual Banquet, 1926) was an example. Using other men’s ideas, he was unable to improve on the original and was forced to let it go at that, or produce something still weaker. I frequently wondered at the indifference of the one and the perfection of the other, and finally was forced to the conclusion that his want of originality was the answer. As an illusionist he never left the common place his illusions were anything but subtle. His dexterity was out of the ordinary but never reached great heights. “ had a pleasing stage presence but was in no sense a finished magician, although this detail never seemed to trouble him. Writing about his friend and associate Harry Houdini, the great magician, Servais LeRoy, used the North Pole trick as an example of Houdini’s poor judgment with illusions. Notice that Billboard’s reviewer categorized the pole as more of a log.īut the most definitive judgment may have been years later.
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In full view of the audience he somehow managed to transfer a little girl from a table at one end of the log, which represented the North Pole, to a table at the other end.” "Houdini’s latest illusion called * “Walking Thru the North Pole”. " Houdini, presenting his new illusion, ‘Walking through the North Pole.’”Īn article in Billboard described the performance this way: The MUM publication for July 1926 noted the illusion very briefly: Two other reviewers added sparse details. Not everyone was as complimentary as Holden. shows, so presumably Houdini recruited his daughter to help.) (Rubini was a mindreader who had just appeared on the show and impressed the magicians with his feats. Miss Horwitz is the dainty miss, a daughter of my friend Sam. After seeing Rubini, nothing is impossible, and how that dainty miss traveled invisibly through the air over that North Pole is beyond me. A dainty little miss was placed on one table, a screen placed round table likewise a screen was placed around other table, and on screens being removed there was the dainty miss on the other table. "Harry Houdini next presented an illusion with two bare wood tables in the routh, and a piece of pole. Houdini called it Walking Through the North Pole.
In it, he described a trick that, it seems, was Houdini’s last creation, an unusual illusion. In the June 1926 Sphinx, Max Holden described the Banquet of the Society of American Magicians which had been held on June 4, 1926, at the McAlpin Hotel in New York City.
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