Was Harry Houdini America’s first international super spy?

There is a great deal of recent speculation on the life and times of one of magic’s greatest legends, Harry Houdini.  It seems that new information has come to light on things that governments don’t like to talk about.  Espionage.

Harry Houdini: The Mythbuster of His Age

In my last post Spirits, Levitation and Sherlock Holmes I described Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as one of the leading figures of the spiritualism movement.  I also referenced Harry Houdini but only in passing as one of the great entertainers of that era.

Houdini Handcuff King and Prison Breaker

Spirits, Levitation and Sherlock Holmes.

You wouldn’t know it now but back in the heyday of the 1920’s Winnipeg, the Chicago of the North, was a hotbed of spiritual investigation.

Ectoplasam at a Hamilton seance – Note the image of Doyle suspended in the ectoplasm 2 years after his death. (Photo – June 27,1932)