The Greatest Escape Artist – Harry Houdini

It’s October, kiddies and we all know what that means: Halloween! Ghost, Goblins and spooky stories are the theme for the month of October. One of the most famous Halloween stories is the tale of Harry Houdini and the yearly séance on October 31st to call his spirit over from the Other Side. Not exactly sure who Harry Houdini was and what his claim to fame was? Gather ‘round and let me tell you a story of magic and mystery.

Harry Houdini was born on March 12, 1874 in Budpest, Hungary, with the name of Ehrich Weisz. He was one of six children and the son of Rabbi Mayer Weisz and his second wife, Cecilia Steiner. In 1876, Ehrich’s father immigrated to the United States. He changed his last name to Weiss and found work as a rabbi. Soon after, the rest of his family, including Ehrich, followed him to the United States.  The family moved to Milwaukee when Ehrich was eight years old.

At age 13, Ehrich and his brother Theo began to pursue an interest in magic. As a stage name, Ehrich Weiss became Harry Houdini by adding an ‘I’ to the last name of his idol, French magician Robert Houdin. At 17, Ehrich, now known as Harry Houdini, left his family to pursue his magic career. By the age of twenty, Harry had been performing small acts throughout New York. He soon married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner in 1894.

After marrying Bess, Harry joined a circus where he began to develop and perfect his escape tricks. Bess and Harry worked as The Houdinis for several years before Houdini hit it big as The Handcuff King. But he and Bess continued to occasionally perform their signature trick, Metamorphosis, throughout his career. In this trick, Houdini’s hands would be fastened behind his back as he was placed inside a large bag which was knotted closed. He was then placed inside a large box, which was locked and strapped closed. The box is then placed inside a cabinet. Mrs. Houdini would then draw the curtain closed and clap three times. At the third clap, Houdini himself would draw open the curtain and Mrs. Houdini would be gone. When the box is opened, Mrs. Houdini is found inside the bag with the knots and seals unbroken and her hands secured in exactly the same way as her husband’s. No – the secret of the trick will NOT be given up here! Bess also saw after their menagerie of pets, collected dolls, and made the costumes for Houdini's full evening roadshow. The Houdinis remained childless throughout their marriage. Bess's niece, Marie Blood, said Bess suffered from a medical condition that prevented her from having children.

Through the years, Houdini gained fame after repeatedly escaping from police handcuffs and jails. Harry was even given certificates from various wardens for escaping from their prisons. By 1896 Harry had mastered the straightjacket escape. Soon he was performing his escape while hanging upside down from cranes or high buildings in big cities. After making his name in America, Harry toured Europe, where he expanded his repertoire by escaping from coffins. Eventually, Harry was able to accomplish his dream of having a full show dedicated to his magic.

In the 1920s, Harry became interested in the occult, specifically in debunking mediums and psychics. His training in magic helped him expose frauds that scientists and academics could not. He chronicled his time investigating the occult in his book, A Magician Among the Spirits.

On the afternoon of October 22, 1926, two McGill University students, in Montreal, Canada, visited Houdini’s dressing room. According to reports, Houdini was looking through his mail, when one of the students, J. Gordon Whitehead, asked Harry if he could indeed withstand any blow to the abdomen, as the magician had previously proclaimed. Harry responded that he could, if given time to brace himself, at which point Whitehead hit Houdini four times in the abdomen, under the impression that Houdini had indeed braced himself for the blows. Throughout the evening, Houdini performed in great pain. He was unable to sleep and remained in constant pain for the next two days, though he did not seek medical help. When he finally saw a doctor, Harry was found to have a fever of 102 degrees and acute appendicitis. He was advised to go to the hospital for immediate surgery. However, Harry decided to complete his show as planned that night. By the time Harry arrived on stage, his fever had risen to 104 degrees. He was tired and in pain and his assistants often had to step in and offer help. Audience members reported that Harry missed his cues and seemed in a hurry. By the middle of the third act, Houdini asked his assistant to lower the curtain as he could not go on. When the curtain closed, Harry collapsed where he was standing and had to be carried back to his dressing room. He continued to refuse medical care until the next morning when Bess insisted he go to the hospital. Harry relented and had his appendix removed, however it had already ruptured and doctors did not have much hope for his survival. On October 31, 1926 surrounded by his wife and brother, Harry Houdini died.  

If anyone could return from The Other Side, it certainly would have been Houdini. Houdini desperately wanted to believe that Spiritualism exists, that people can communicate with the spirits. The loss of his mother was devastating to him, and he sought comfort in the advice of the spirit mediums of the day. Unfortunately, many of those mediums were pure frauds, using magic tricks to fool the public into thinking the spirits were speaking through them. Houdini recognized tricks when he saw them, and devoted half of his stage act to duplicating the methods used by the mediums, exposing the frauds to the public. This pitted the famous magician against the popular mediums of the day, including Margery Condon. The exposure of Margery's methods became a large part of Houdini's show, right up until the end of his life.

But just because Houdini was skeptical did not mean that he was a complete disbeliever. Despite his skepticism, Houdini and Bess promised each other that whoever died first would try to contact the other "from the other side". After Houdini died, Bess began the tradition of holding a séance on the death anniversary to see whether Houdini could really escape from death.

Harry and Bess had devised a secret message, a code phrase that would be used. The phrase was one they had used years before in their vaudeville mindreading act. In early 1929, a very ill Bess was approached by "Rev." Arthur Ford, a young and eager medium. Within weeks, Ford triumphantly announced that he had successfully delivered the correct message to Houdini's widow. It did not take long for the press to discover that Ford's claim was a hoax; and that Bess had inadvertently revealed the message to several reporters a full year before. The message was, "Rosabelle- answer- tell-pray, answer- look- tell- answer, answer- tell". Bess' wedding band bore the inscription "Rosabelle", the name of the song she sang in her act when they first met. The other words correspond to a secret spelling code used to pass information between a magician and his assistant during a mindreading act. Each word or word pair equals a letter. The word "answer" stood for the letter "B", for example."Answer, answer" stood for the letter "V". Thus, the Houdinis' secret phrase spelled out the word "BELIEVE".

In 1937, the Final Séance was held on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles. Ten years was enough, and Bess admitted that she had never received the message from Houdini. But that was not the actual final séance. The magic fraternity quickly took on the task of conducting the annual séances, with numerous notable magicians heading the table, including Walter Gibson, Houdini's ghostwriter. Despite all of the effort, attention and interest, Houdini has apparently not spoken to anyone since he breathed his last earthly words to his brother on the night he died 1926.

So now October 31st is rapidly approaching, once again. And once again, just like every year after his death, Harry Houdini’s greatest escape is being discussed. Who will be the one to hear from Harry from the Other Side? Dare to give it a try?

Running Towards the Future

Greg Decker is far from home, but never far from the thing he loves: running. And when I say running…I mean long distance running. I recently had the opportunity to sit down and have a nice chat with Greg and his running partner Omarco ‘Carlos’ Robinson.

Greg, who is twenty two years old, originally hails from Washington DC and came to St. Maarten to study at the medical school – AUC. His specific area of study: Sports Medicine. He has a very easy going open personality and is quick to smile. Carlos, who originally comes from Jamaica, has been living in St. Maarten for over six years. Carlos has a reserved nature that seems to almost border on shy and a quiet determination about him. These seemingly polar opposites met as participants in the Marigot 6.5k in September of 2O1O and have been competing together ever since.

Greg and Carlos have become something of a sensation on St. Maarten. Haven’t heard of them? Where’ve you been? This running duo has managed to place first and second, respectively, in every race they’ve participated in the last year.

“Well, I actually placed 4^th in the triathlon,” Greg admitted with a grin. “But it was the first time I ever attempted one.”

“I don’t like to swim, so I stay with running,” Carlos added with a quiet chuckle.

These two athletes are impressive, to say the least. They compete together, each race almost a private affair between the two, a personal competition to see who will come first, regardless of the other participants. When asked who has more wins they both pause. Greg answers first while Carlos seems to be counting the races in his head.

“I think I have the most wins,” Greg offered while Carlos smiled knowingly, obviously still tallying the races in his head. Greg returned Carlos’ grin and shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter.” Carlos nodded in agreement. It doesn’t matter because they both love to run. Both took up running at a young age.

“I started running in 1998,” the now twenty nine year old Carlos explained.

“I started when I was in 9^th grade,” Greg told me. “I originally was trying out for soccer. I was twelve years old. My mom is also a runner.” Greg ran throughout High School and college.

When I asked Greg why he chose long distance running instead of the short sprint he answered, “Well, I’m not naturally fast.” So, endurance it is. As for Carlos, he’s more of a sprinter. He’s participated in other areas of track, not just long distance.

“I do enjoy the shorter distances, like the 8OO meter and 15OO meter. The longest I ever ran was a 15k which is considered half a marathon and it wasn’t easy.”

Both runners are under the watchful eye and expert guidance of their trainer, John Gibbs. Gibbs is a former competitive runner before an injury to his Achilles Heal sidelined him from the sport.

“I do miss competing,” John admitted. “But those who can no longer do, teach. Greg and Carlos have a lot of potential. They can both go really far in this sport.”

John isn’t the only one to notice Greg and Carlos’ potential. The duo have recently landed a sponsorship from Fatum Insurance.

“Fatum picked me up after I won the 1Ok last year,” Greg explained. “And now they’re sponsoring Carlos, too. We’re heading to Curacao in about two weeks to run there. And the Fatum race in St. Maarten is this coming weekend, October 23. It starts at 6:3Oam.”

“It’s a burden off my shoulders,” John smiled proudly. “I don’t have to carry all the costs and worry that the athletes aren’t getting what they need. And they travel to other islands to compete.”  Other islands include Guadalupe and St. Baths. “Greg and Carlos have nothing left to prove here in St. Maarten,” John added.

As far as a training regime, it’s not easy for either runner. Greg has a full class load at AUC and Carlos holds a full time job, working eight hours a day. Still they manage an average of 3O – 4O miles running per week.

“I do most of my running on a treadmill,” Greg informed me. “It’s the easiest thing with my schedule. Plus the roads here aren’t that safe for running. If I do go out for a run I usually run through the lowlands, where a lot of the roads are secluded.”

Carlos gets up at 4am to run the roads. “There’s a lot less traffic and it’s cooler. The heat is hard.”

“The heat,” Greg nodded. “I had a hard time adjusting to the heat when I first came here. If I’m out for a run it’s usually as the sun is going down and things are cooling off.”

Throughout his career Greg has had several injuries, the worst being an injury to his Achilles Heal.

“That was hard. I was sidelined for 3 months. I basically lost the whole season. And I couldn’t do anything. I was really going crazy not being able to run. I spent a lot of time lifting weights at the gym. That’s all I could do.”

And when asked about special foods for training Greg just shook his head with his easy smile. “I basically eat anything I want. The running pushes my metabolism so high that I just burn off anything I eat.”

When I asked about future running goals, John mentioned the 1O,OOO meter race in which the World Record was set by Kenenisa Bekele in 2005. He ran a time of 26:17.53.

“I’d like to be able to run the ten thousand in under thirty minutes,” Greg stated. “I did it in 3O minutes, 3O seconds but that was on an indoor track.” Carlos managed a time of just over 35 minutes on an outside course. Both are extremely impressive times.

“I’d also like to run the Boston Marathon,” Greg divulged.  The Boston Marathon is one of the hardest, if not THE hardest marathon. It’s a grueling 42.195 km of winding roads, including several hills, that make their way through the city of Boston. On April 18, 2011, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya ran the fastest marathon ever in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds. That same year 26,895 people participated in the race. That’s not to say that all participants finished.

Though looking towards the future and, ultimately, a career in Sports Medicine, Greg knows he will still keep running. “It’s fun to me. It’s something I love to do.”

Carlos is also looking forward, aiming for a career in running. “It’s something I want. And I know I can make a career from it.”

As for the present, both athletes readily admit enjoying representing St. Maarten when racing on other islands.

“It’s an honor, really,” Greg says. “I’m proud to represent St. Maarten when I run.”

I found this to be quite impressive as neither runner is from St. Maarten.  John agreed. “They both really enjoy representing St. Maarten and they both do it very well.”

Greg will be leaving the island In May to return to Washington DC and continue his studies. When I asked Carlos how he felt about losing his running partner he was quick to answer. “I’ll miss him. We’ve developed a really good relationship.”

John echoed the same sentiment. “We’ll be sad to see him go, but Carlos and I will continue on. I’m hoping for a one year sponsorship from Fatum and I also hope that other companies will begin showing more support for athletes.”

Greg tells me that even though it was a big adjustment coming to St. Maarten, he’s really enjoyed his time here. “Sure, I miss things about home, but this has been a great experience.”

My parting question had both runners smiling nervously and squirming. I simply asked to know a fact about each that people may find surprising. Carlos answered first as Greg gallantly tried to avoid an answer.

“I love watching cartoons,” Carlos admitted slightly self-conscious. “Tom and Jerry, specifically.”

When I laughed and admitted to being a sucker for Bugs Bunny, Carlos returned my grin with one of his own. I then turned to the still evasive Greg who finally admitted he liked to cook. When I asked him what his best dish was he admitted to having a sweet tooth.

“Desserts. I love desserts , especially anything with chocolate.”

This got another approving chuckle from me. One thing is for sure, what ever direction Greg and Carlos choose to take they will both hit the ground running and continue running towards their future.

The History of Salsa

What is Salsa, you ask? Where does it come from? No, I’m not talking about the tomato based condiment that you dip corn chips into. I’m talking about the seductive and hypnotic dancing style. Salsa is a word that inspires an instant reaction in Latin music lovers everywhere. It is the rhythm, the dance, the musical excitement that sends millions of normally sedate non-Latinos to the dance floor where they meet their Latin neighbors, who are too busy enjoying the music to notice. St Maarten/ St. Martin has recently seen a boom in nightclubs offering ‘Latin Night’ or local bars blasting out Latin music. A common theme is the dancing. And a common dance is salsa, though its origins are anything but ‘common’.

Ok, ok…there is no denying that the word Salsa means "sauce" in Spanish language. Well, more than just sauce. It implies something hot and spicy. Please refrain from rolling your eyes at this point. In all honesty – Salsa is not the easiest style to pin down. Salsa dance history is as contradicting as the history of the music. Salsa is a blend, a fusion of many different dancing styles of Latin and Afro-Caribbean origin. Generally, Salsa is considered to be of a Cuban origin, although many argue that it's more Puerto Rican than Cuban. Its roots can not be easily traced. Salsa is a fusion of many Afro-Caribbean and Latin dances and has evolved significantly over time. One school of thought claims that salsa is just a newer version of older, traditional Afro-Cuban forms and rhythms, so the birthplace must be Cuba. In fact, even today many of the old school Cuban musicians adhere to the belief that there is no such thing as salsa. Tito Puente summed up their general feeling when asked what he thought of salsa by replying: “I’m a musician, not a cook.” But there’s little doubt that if salsa had a passport, the date of birth would be the 1960s and stamped under place of birth would be New York, New York.

First a little island history:

Cuba established its identity by combining the influences of its entire population -- white, black, and mulatto. Music played an important role in the formation of such an identity. The genre that was to succeed in creatively fusing equal amounts of white- and black- derived musical features was the Son, which subsequently came to dominate the culture not only in Cuba, but most of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean as well. The Son originated in eastern Cuba during the first decades of the century. From the start it
represented a   mixture of Spanish-derived and Afro-Cuban elements. The basic two-part formal of the Son has remained the same from the 1920s to the present, and the vast majority of salsa songs, which Cubans call Son or guaracha, also follow this pattern.

From the early 1800s until today, Puerto Ricans have avidly borrowed and mastered various Cuban music styles, including the Cuban danzón, son, guaracha, rumba, and bolero. Indeed, the richness of Puerto Rican musical culture derives in large part from the way it has adopted much of Cuban music, while contributing its own dynamic folk and contemporary popular music. Puerto Rico should not be regarded as simply a miniature Cuba, especially since genres like the seis, bomba,  and plena are distinctly Puerto Rican creations, owing little to Cuban influence in their traditional forms.

Now back to New York, New York. Between 1930 and 1960 there were musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and South America coming to New York to perform. They brought their own native rhythms and musical forms with them, but as they listened to each other and played music together, the musical influences mixed, fused and evolved. This type of musical hybridization gave birth to the 1950s creation of the mambo from son, conjunto and jazz traditions. Continuing musical fusion went on to include what we know today as the cha cha cha, rhumba, conga and, in the 1960s, salsa. Of course, this musical hybridization was not a one-way street. The music went back to Cuba, Puerto Rico and South America and continued to evolve there.

The metamorphosis of salsa to what is heard and danced in clubs today has been a long, slow, and varied process. If you are listening to today's Salsa, you are going to find the base of Son, and you are going to hear Cumbia, and you are going to hear Guaracha. You will also hear some old Merengue, built-in the rhythm of different songs. You will hear many of the old styles somewhere within the modern beats. Over time Salsa has evolved into many different variations. Styles are usually named after the geographic area from which they came. So today we have Cuban Style, Puerto Rican style, New York Style, Los Angeles Style, Miami Style, Colombian style, and others. Styles differ in many characteristics - they might have different step patterns, timings, moves, dress code, and so on. But whatever the style, Salsa is still Salsa - lively and passionate.

The history tells a story of a style of dance that is really a fusion of many different cultures and the dance continues to evolve this way today, with the newer generation mixing in components of hip-hop, belly dancing, and adding lifts and aerial moves from ballroom and swing. Nowadays, Salsa is among the most popular Latin American dances and still remains one of the primary dances in both Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The way to dance salsa varies enormously depending on the dancer’s place of origin and how he or she learned to dance. For example, the salsa danced in the Caribbean and in Latin America is developed like a paseo (walk), which results in a much more circular movement with much slower turns. Similar to those styles are the Cuban and Colombian prototypes. The first dance includes movements that dig more deeply into the floor and the other one requires less contact.. In the U.S., although, the dance’s foundation involved the basic Latin step, many early combinations contained right turns.

Salsa is a terrific dance - exciting, fervent, romantic and incredibly sensuous. If you didn't know it already, it's also a great dance for beginners, because it's probably one of the easiest dances to learn. It’s often said by dance instructors: If you can walk, you can Salsa.