Word: houdini
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...world's greatest escape artist, of course, was Harry Houdini. He died 51 years ago today--on Halloween in 1926. It was only fitting that the Mysteriarch, as he was known, chose All Hallows Eve to escape from this life: dying on this day was Houdini's last publicity stunt, and one of his best. Always exit with a flourish, as the show biz types...
...fact, one might almost expect Houdini's specter to pop up somewhere on Halloween, among the trick or treaters. For certainly, Houdini was not a man who could easily be forgotten. No jail cell could hold him, no locks or chains could confine him. Houdini released himself thousands of times from every known physical restraint, often purposely putting his life in danger to dramatize the escapes. He was certainly no slouch: why escapes from a strait jacket standing upright when you can do it hanging by your ankles from a flagpole, 100 feet above a New York street, with thousands...
...course, escaping was Houdini's business. The publicity stunts and the spectacular escapes he performed were designed to keep his name before the public, and to keep the vaudeville audiences flocking to see him. And the tactics worked: Houdini set attendance records wherever he played, and attracted constant public attention. His name even became a word, coined by Funk and Wagnall's dictionary in 1920: "Houdinize: to release or extricate oneself from, as by wriggling...
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...