Archive for March 3rd, 2008

You have to admit, nothing beats magic like old school magic. Top hats, wooden coffins, and the distinct lack of bad 80s music to kill the atmosphere. Also, showmanship was on a whole other level back then. Sit in an ice cube to get the family jewels frozen? Bah! Try chaining yourself up, locking yourself in a crate, then have said crate chained for maximum effect, then tossed into the local river.

Of course, I refer to one who was both a magician as well as one of the greatest, if not the greatest escape artist of time, Harry Houdini. Stuntman, actor, and sported a nice hairstyle to boot. And no, this isn’t a post dedicated to him, but rather about his somewhat curious interaction with Fiji on his travels around the world.

I came across this story while browsing Google Earth’s pics of Suva, Fiji, which Thrashor of Digital Fiji complained were not updated recently. I noticed that there was a yellow dot indicating a link to a story about the area, and clicking it revealed the following:

Whats this? Harry Houdini came to Fiji? Thats right. The infamous escape artist, who’s name is synonymous with handcuffs and seances, really did drop by our sunny shores, enroute to Vancouver, Canada aboard a cruise liner.

According to the blog Houdini reappears, when the liner arrived in Suva, the locals (thats us! >< ) "put on their usual show of diving for coins and catching them in their mouths." Now, this is where it got tricky. Apparently, Harry realized that the locals (thats us! ><) weren’t catching the coins in their mouths at all, but using their hands. Thats when he issued the smackdown. 1 dive against the best diver, hands in rope, and they'd go for separate coins. So some poor Fijian, probably oblivious to Harry's name and fame, "In the water, the Fijian soon gave up, but Houdini freed one hand and grabbed both coins, popping them in his mouth and resurfacing." Well I'll be damned. Not only did Harry visit Fiji, but he ended up making the local divers (thats us...damnit) look like amateurs at their own gig. To put it into todays standard, think of some random asian guy who manages to not only out-run Sir-revi, but does the infamous goose-step along the way. I’d burn houses if I ever saw that happen.

Nobody likes to be shown their limitations, especially if said victor is not a local. I’m surprised the divers, after being shown a big pote (embarrassed infront of everyone else), didn’t just grab Harry and dump him in the nearest lovo pit. Or maybe they just weren’t hungry. That or they were quickly fired on the spot by whichever boss they were serving at the moment.

Moral of the Story?

Don’t accept challenges from anyone with nice hair. Especially tourists with a name that ends in ‘arry’.

Note: Paul of Houdini reappears, upon request from one of our readers, was kind enough to send two page scans from Harold Keller’s 1928 book “Houdini: His Life Story” which goes into detail about the “diving with Harry Houdini” event.

Also, Harry Houdini was kind enough to mention the local firewalkers in his own book, Miracle Mongers and Their Methods.

Enjoy the light reading.