Word: houdini
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sampson's noticeable lack of Houdini jargon and techniques emphasize his desire to take the occult out of this mysterious art. "Hypnosis goes by a variety of different names; it is a coin phrase. For me, hypnosis is nothing more than the accentuation of concentration while in a state of relaxation, and generally speaking this is what I help people to do, to better utilize their existing potential," he says...
Political Houdini. To his critics, he was not so much pragmatist as opportunist, a kind of political Houdini ready to do contortions on any issue to get out of a tight situation. British entry into the Common Market was the prime example. Wilson was for it when he was Prime Minister in 1969, then vigorously opposed it two years later when he was out of office and polls showed Market membership to be unpopular, then reversed himself again in 1975. But his deft handling that year of the referents dum ratifying Market membership ended a long, divisive domestic debate...
...fumble-thumbs straight man. But the star of NBC's Dec. 26 special will be Doug Henning, 28, Canadian-born escape artist, magician and current Broadway star of The Magic Show. For his debut as host of a live TV special (The World of Magic), Henning will attempt Houdini's famous water-torture escape trick, a piece of submerged wizardry last performed by the master himself in the 1920s. With hands manacled and feet padlocked in stocks, Henning will descend headfirst into a tank of water. To break Houdini's record, he must escape within two minutes...
...Houdini...
...Harry Houdini, an immigrant on the way up, doesn't have such a sure footed trek. He is a hero to the working classes, and it is only they who are impressed when he strips, is strait-jacketed and dumped into the sea, or locked into the most impossible jail to emerge fully clothed, even respectably dressed. It takes Houdini some time to realize that his gift is only a theatrical exercise in feeding false hopes--that he can't communicate with the people he is performing...