Erstellt am: 26. 8. 2016 - 12:46 Uhr
Today's Webtip: Houdini's Last Trick
Have you ever thought about the word legendary?
It tends to get tossed around a lot, frequently in useless PR situations. The problem with the word is, it is impossible to tell if something really is legendary until well after the lifetimes of most people who might be legendary.
Harry Houdini is one of those people who appears to have earned the word. The fact that people still know his name and at least some aspects of what he has accomplished even ninety years after his death would suggest that he might have achieved a form of fame that very few people will ever achieve.
But what was behind his work? Was he just a skilled trickster? Someone who mastered the art of slight of hand, misdirection and cunning tricks? Or was there something more...
Many of his feats actually relied on nothing more than an iron will and hard physical and mental preparation. One of those tricks, performed just a few months before he died, involved just this sort of preparation.
The story of how he managed to remain underwater in an airtight coffin for ninety minutes is told at mentalfloss.com and you can read his own account of the process he went through to build up to that final feat at www.lettersofnote.com