The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush & Larry Sloman

Author:William Kalush & Larry Sloman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2006-01-09T07:00:00+00:00

The Weiss siblings (l to r): Nat, William, Harry, Dash, Leopold, Gladys. From the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook

While he held her in his arms, she looked at him peculiarly.

“Ehrich, perhaps I won’t be here when you return,” she said.

She had expressed that morbid sentiment at his other departures and he tried to cheer her up, but he felt depressed himself because the “servant girl” who took care of his mother had just quit.

Finally he kissed her one more time.

Houdini’s last view of his beloved mother. From the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook

“Get along, in God’s name,” she shooed him away.

“Look, ladies and gentlemen,” he appealed to the crowd on the pier. “My mother is pushing me away from her.”

“No, that’s not so,” she said, embarrassed.

He finally boarded and the gangplank was rolled away. As he stood on the deck, waving to his mother and mother-in-law and his brother, Cecilia asked him to bring her back a pair of warm, woolen house slippers. “Don’t forget, size six,” she said. Houdini and Bess started throwing long streamers to the folks back on the pier. Houdini’s aim was impeccable, and Cecilia grabbed a few of the streamers he threw.

As the ship steamed away, Bess and he yelled, “Mama, hold them, Mama.” And Mama Weiss held the streamers until the force of her son’s sailing away split the paper in two.

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