11/20/2023 0 Comments Theodore hardeen![]() His enthusiasm for contacting Houdini has not waned after all these years. Later, Radner would translate his magic skills into exposing crooked gamblers. Radner met Hardeen at a magic conference and eventually became his protege. Radner also owns the largest collection of Houdini artifacts, which were given to him by Houdini's brother, Theodore Hardeen. "Another time, a book fell down off a shelf. "One time the medium asked for Houdini to make his presence known, and a gal standing around, her beads broke and fell on the floor," he says. ![]() Radner describes the seances as a group of eight to 12 people sitting and holding hands while trying to contact Houdini. He died on Januat age 82.Guests try to communicate with Houdini at the 1948 Official Houdini Seance. Geoffrey went on to perform as "Hardeen, Jr." for many years. Legacyĭuring his final show on in Ridgeway, Queens, Hardeen named his chief assistant, Douglas Geoffrey, his official successor. He unexpectedly died of complications while recovering from the procedure. Planning on writing a book about his brother, in 1945 Hardeen went to New York's Doctors Hospital for a simple operation. Later that year, Hardeen burned all of Houdini's personal files in a furnace in his basement. Houdini in his will, requested for all his files to be given to Hardeen and destroyed ("I give, devise and bequeath to my brother, Theodore, Professionally known as "Hardeen" all my theatrical effects, new mysteries and illusions and accompanying paraphernalia, to be burnt and destroyed upon his death.") On AugHardeen's Brooklyn home had been broken into and some of Houdini's apparatus had been damaged. With his friend Julien Proskauer he exposed the fraudulent methods of mediums. ![]() Like his brother, Hardeen was skeptical of the claims of spiritualist mediums. The film was directed by Lloyd French, who directed many of the early Laurel and Hardy shorts. In it, Hardeen played a "hardboiled detective" on the case of a bogus medium. In 1936 Hardeen starred in a Vitaphone short film for Warner Bros. From 1938 to 1941, Hardeen was featured in Olsen and Johnson's Broadway revue, Hellzapoppin, and during World War II he performed for the troops (as his brother had done during World War I). And the general public regard him as a brilliant artiste and a thrilling entertainer.Īfter his brother's death in 1926 Hardeen played the vaudeville circuit, doing many of Houdini's routines. Both the amateurs and the professionals of our number regard him as a friend. Like Houdini, he is willing to expend both time and money freely to further the cause of magic. He is a man of considerable culture and one of the best raconteurs I have ever met. Hardeen, like his more famous brother Harry Houdini is a great favourite in the magical world. The handcuffs but a simple thing compared with those with which he is used to toy. The huge chains in the cartoon are hardly an exaggeration of those from which he breaks loose. I have seen him perform several times, and have marvelled at his achievements. Even if Houdini had not existed to point the way, it is quite likely that Hardeen would have become an escape artiste. But the natural ability was always there. Hardeen learned his business from Houdini, and he learned it well, as no man could have failed to do with such a master. Will Goldston, English stage magician and editor of the Magician Annual, wrote that: While there, Harry met and married Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner. In 1893, Hardeen performed with Houdini at Coney Island as "The Brothers Houdini". He was known as "Deshi" and later "Dash" by his parents. ![]() Hardeen was born as Ferenc Dezső Weisz (also spelled Ferencz Dezso Weisz) in Budapest, Hungary, and went by the name of Theodore Weiss when the family was living in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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