on Harry Houdini's 137th birthday
He began reading books about the Great Houdini
pausing at photographs of handcuffs and leg irons.
He spent hours with newspaper clippings
of the Chinese Water Torture Cell
and made dozens of drawings
of intricate trapdoor mechanisms
carefully labeling each in the upper right corner.
It mattered little that he lacked the stage presence
or showmanship. He knew what he had to do.
It would take time, but it was all there
in the notebooks and journals of Erik Weisz
the boy - and this too he believed
having read it somewhere - who, while standing on his head,
could pick up needles with his eyelashes.
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| The Great Houdini |