{"id":278,"date":"2016-08-22T13:48:48","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/?p=278"},"modified":"2016-08-22T13:48:48","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:48:48","slug":"robert-houdin-father-of-modern-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/en\/harry-houdini\/robert-houdin-father-of-modern-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert-Houdin \u2013 Father of Modern Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the outstanding items in the House of Houdini\u2019s collection is a first English edition volume of Jean-Eug\u00e8ne Robert-Houdin\u2019s The Secrets Of Conjuring & Magic, or How to Become a Wizard.<\/em> Published by George Routledge and Sons (London & New York) in 1878, an image of this influential volume is shown below.<\/p>\n

\"Houdin_1000\"<\/p>\n

Considered the father of modern magic, Jean-Eug\u00e9ne Robert was a French watchmaker and a passionate conjuror.<\/p>\n

The Secrets Of Conjuring & Magic<\/em> is an amusing, illustrated handbook of magic.<\/p>\n

As the story goes, the young Erik Weisz read this book and felt such an enthusiasm for the author that he decided to take \u201cHoudini\u201d as a stage name \u2013 modifying the famous conjurer\u2019s name by adding an \u201ci\u201d to the end.<\/p>\n

This volume is still considered the \u201cbible of magic.\u201d Besides revealing basic tricks, the author explains in detail the fine points of stage performance \u2013 how to impress the audience.<\/p>\n

His most important statement is taken from the 43rd page of the book:<\/p>\n

\"Houdin<\/p>\n

\u201eA conjuror is not a juggler; he is an actor playing the part of a magician;\u201d<\/p>\n

This single sentence changed the world of conjuring forever \u2013 the way the conjuror acts on stage and his personality are just as important as his tricks!<\/p>\n

One more interesting fact: born as Jean-Eug\u00e8ne Robert, he changed his surname to Robert-Houdin after marrying C\u00e9cile Houdin, the daughter of a French watchmaker.<\/p>\n

This was a very unusual step for that time – adding her name to his.<\/p>\n

It may even surprise longtime Houdini fans to learn that this most famous name comes directly from a woman!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 B.K.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cherchez la femme! – An interesting detail about Houdini’s stage name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harry-houdini","tag-robert-houdin-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}