The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Magicians stage effort to restore Houdini’s grave
NEW YORK — Nestled next to the late Lewins, Blums and Levys in a spooky old cemetery in New York City lies the final resting place of America’s most legendary magician, interred under a granite monument that bears his stage name in bold letters: Houdini.
It is an impressive tribute to the man who grew up as Ehrich Weiss and died on Halloween of 1926 of complications from appendicitis. Over the years, the site has been venerated, vandalized, thieved and forsaken, but a group of magicians now wants to officially end the mystery of who will care for the grave.
“Houdini was a visionary. He was an inventor, an escape artist, and he gave back to society in so many ways,” said Dorothy Dietrich, a magician who runs a Houdini museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “It’s the least we can do to give back in some small way for all he’s given to us.”
Dietrich serves on a national Society of American Magicians committee working to raise money to restore Houdini’s gravesite and allow for the permanent care of the monument at Machpelah Cemetery in Queens. It will cost about $1,200 annually to maintain the grounds, plus thousands more for restoration.
Houdini, the son of a rabbi, was at the height of his fame when he purchased 24 plots at the 6-acre graveyard located in a swath of open space crowded with cemeteries.
His parents and siblings are buried there and his grandmother was exhumed in Hungary and brought to New York. The only person not beside him is his wife, Bess — Machpelah is a Jewish cemetery, and she was buried at a Catholic graveyard in Westchester.
The gravesite features an undulating bench known as an exedra, plus a Houdini bust, a vase, two benches and markers for each person buried.
A mosaic emblem of the magician society adorns the site; Houdini was president when he died. Cemetery managers say thanks to a steady stream of gawkers, the grave is usually stuffed with wands and other trinkets — plus refuse.
They have done their part over the years to keep up the gravesite, but it’s their job to look out for all the dead — not just the famous dead.
“I must respect all of the families there,” said manager David Jacobson. “It’s a sacred place for everyone there.”
Most of Houdini’s relatives have long since died and those left don’t have extra money to fund the upkeep, Dietrich said.
The plot has been cared for over the years by fans like Dietrich, who used her own money to mold and replace a broken bust and who travels to the cemetery to prune and clean.
Dietrich took up the mantle after the local magician society chapter had a dispute with the cemetery and stopped paying annual fees.
Depending on who tells it, spiteful cemetery managers were unwilling to work with Houdini fans and shuttered the site on the anniversary of his death. Or, magicians drumming up publicity for an annual Halloween gravesite ritual known as a “broken wand” ceremony also unwittingly brought vandals who trashed the site until Machpelah managers started locking the gates on Oct. 31 somewhere in the mid-1990s. Over the years, the bust was smashed or stolen at least twice.
Benches at the plot perimeter were broken and markers for Houdini’s siblings Leopold and Gladys were damaged.
The bad blood was captured in articles where cemetery managers were falsely accused of grave robbing and magicians were falsely accused of pilfering funds donated by David Copperfield to fix the gravesite benches.
But that’s all over now, says David Bowers, head of the Houdini gravesite restoration committee. He said the national magician society — not the local chapter — is working with Dietrich and the cemetery to pay for the upkeep and plans to clean and recaulk the granite, give the mosaic a face lift and fix the damaged markers. He doesn’t have a cost estimate yet but says repairs will take two years.
Anyone interested in donating can go to the society’s website to learn more, said Bowers of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, who will become the society’s next president in July.
After the group raises funds for Houdini’s grave, it will move on to other dearly departed magicians whose eternal resting places may need some sprucing.
“I’m very passionate about what we’re doing with Houdini’s grave site,” he said. “There are so many misstatements about Houdini’s life and death. I think it’s important that we get out the truth.”
Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014
On this day in 1782, the Treaty of Paris was drafted to bring an end to the American Revolutionary War. Peace is the theme today, as well, with a lunar trine involving Saturn followed by a hazy, void-of-course moon. The cosmic consensus: Fighting is pointless because it will accomplish nothing but destruction on both sides.
ARIES (March 21-April 19).
You walk a balancing act with your interactions today as you strive to highlight enough similarities that they feel comfortable around you and enough differences to interest them.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20).
You don’t stop loving someone just because you reach the point in the relationship at which love hurts. Beyond that point is a deeper understanding of love’s true nature.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21).
When all you want is all you need, you’ve arrived at a level of maturity reserved for old souls of all ages. Contentment is a rich spiritual evolution that some will not know in this lifetime.
CANCER (June 22-July 22).
You don’t always have to go through the bad to get to the good, but until you have known the bad, you won’t fully understand the good. The main thing is to be courageous and open to the full spectrum of life.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22).
What you do socially today is the equivalent of asking the new kid over to the lunch table. You care about people in general, and you have terrific instincts about how to show it.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).
At the end of the day, you won’t remember all the clean fun you had because it’s the messes that make an impression. So don’t be afraid to make a mess. As long as the mess doesn’t hurt anyone, you can always clean it up later.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).
Go to extra lengths to communicate with people. Make no assumptions about what they already know. Trouble will be avoided when you carefully describe your needs, plans and expectations.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).
Smell is the most sensitive of the five human senses and the one most tied to emotional recollection. You’ll smell something that brings you back to a happy time of life. Re-create this more often!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21).
The benefits to having such a curious mind will be readily apparent today. You don’t have to look for new interests, because your original ones always lead you down ever more interesting paths.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19).
There’s something about a good meal that brings about stellar conversation. If you get the chance to share a bite with a friend, you won’t be sorry you said “yes.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18).
A Chinese proverb suggests that the time to dig a well is before you are thirsty. The most important moments of the day will be the ones in which you anticipate what you’re going to need next and make a plan.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20).
Write down what happened to you recently so that you’ll remember it later. You just may find that the act of writing helps you experience things differently now, too. Life feels more profound when you document it well.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Nov. 30).
You’ll perform transforma- tional magic. Yours is the right attitude to flip unsatisfactory circumstances into a desired outcome next month. A relationship improves because you take back the power in January. Your high emotional intelligence opens doors in March. This leads to financial wins in June and September. Aries and Taurus people adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 40, 7, 16, 33 and 42.
FORECAST FOR THE WEEK AHEAD:
Since October 26, Mars has been powering through Capricorn with the kind of ambitious agenda that would make Superman look like an underachiever. That all comes to a screeching halt on December 4, when the warrior planet suddenly loses interest in fighting. The realm of Aquarius is about alternative solutions, the likes of which probably don’t involve expansion or dominion. Aquarius energy is intellectual, technological and humanitarian. Individual accomplishment will suddenly seem like a low aim. If it’s not good for the group, it’s not good for anyone. Mars in Aquarius (which lasts until Jan. 12, 2015) will focus on giving to those in need, giving back to those who have helped us in the past and nurturing potential forces of future good.