Are there any Houdini buffs (like me) out here who watched Part 1 of History Channel's "Houdini" last night? If so read this.

Just like most of Hollywood's so-called "true stories", unfortunately it appears this one is mostly all bullshit too.

After one night, HISTORY's Houdini miniseries starring Adrien Brody is on track to be the least accurate Houdini biopic ever made, and that's saying something. Nicholas Meyer's screenplay freely jettisons fundamental facts to make room for complete fictions. (More on that in my review on Wednesday.) Unfortunately, people believe what they see on TV -- especially when the network is called HISTORY -- so here are some points of clarification:

http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2014/09/fact-checking-historys-houdini-night-one.html

Despite the alteration of facts and fiction Harry Houdini was a fascinating person to me. Perhaps so in my case because as a lad I was befriended by a local magician whose ambition was to perform as many of H.H. illusions as possible and he was largely successful. He was buried alive for 12 hours at the county fair and also matched H.H. feat of being placed in a strait jacket, handcuffed, placed inside a postal bag which was then placed into a chest locked with shackles and dumped into the local lake. He escaped and came to the surface within maybe two minutes! At basketball games he would hang from the center beams of the gymnasium after being hoisted handcuffed hanging upside down high above the gym floor and the rope he was hanging from would then be set ablaze and his objective was to escape and capture the safety line before the rope burned through . . . pretty cool to me. I clearly recall him him doing the 'bullet catch' during a baseball on a hot summer night and it was very very dramatic I must say. Others, like the metamorphosis, were my favorites but his love of illusion would sometimes bring him to my mother's table during holidays and afterwards he would entertain everyone endlessly with his sleight of hand marvels. . . . . he was just so much fun to watch because he loved it so much.
So yes Bob I appreciate you posting the thread about H.H. and while the film makers stretch the truth he was nevertheless one heck of an entertainer with a lot of creativity . . . .

I couldn't agree more, knothead. He was one of the most amazing entertainers in history and what he created was unique.
Of all the real people who hollywood wants to exaggerate and fictionalize, Houdini needs none of that. His actual story is more than enough by itself.