Difference between revisions of "MagicPedia Main Page"

Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls

William Lindsay Gresham (b.1909-d.1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly regarded among readers of noir. His best-known work is Nightmare Alley (1946) and a biography of Houdini, Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1959)

Biography

Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but moved to New York with his family as a child, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island. Upon graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Gresham drifted from job to job. In 1937, Gresham served as a volunteer medic for the Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. There, he befriended a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, and their long conversations inspired much of his work, particularly Gresham's two books about the American carnival, the nonfiction Monster Midway and the fictional Nightmare Alley.

Gresham developed a deep interest in Spiritualism, having already exposed many of the fraudulent techniques of popular spiritualists in his two sideshow-themed books and having authored a book about Houdini with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi.

Read more about William Lindsay Gresham…

From MagicPedia's random pages:

Denny Haney

• … The Update was managed by Bill Whittington?
• … Lin Searles created Cannibal Cards?
• … Talon was edited and published by David Britland and Stephen Tucker?
• … George Weisensel was inspired to take up escapes and magic after seeing Houdini?
• … Denny Haney was a graduate of the Chavez Studio of Magic?

See also Recent changes.

Use the Discussion tab at the top of an article to add comments or make a suggestion.

Send News Items and Upcoming Events here.

If the front page content is out of date purge the cache

Subscribe to MagicPedia updates

• MagicPedia RSS feed for new articles
• MagicPedia RSS feed for latest changes
• Follow @MagicPedia on Twitter

Bruce Cervon

• 1906 - Balabrega dies.
• 1913 - Mac Ronay born in France.
• 1941 - Bruce Cervon born.
• 1948 - First Ed Sullivan Show originally titled Toast of the Town.
• 1973 - Charles Joseph Jones, better known as Colta, passes away.

Magic Castle

• Vanishing Inc. burns, but undaunted.
• Eminem discusses Houdini with Blaine.
• Good review for the floating castle.

Recent deaths: | |Darwin Ortiz| |David Berglas| |Tom Craven| |Leo Behnke| |Micky Hades|

• 2024

• • IBM Convention July 10 - 13 Tacoma, Washimgton
  • Abbott's Get Together July 31st - August 3rd Colon, Michigan

• Selecting a Random page and reviewing it.
• Making an article from the Wanted Page list.
• Adding public domain pictures to articles.

All you need to do is join (free) and click "Edit"