John Kasson talks about his book, Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America, with Mike O’Malley
Note: The audio clips from the interview are in QuickTime format. If your machine will not play them you can download the player here.
Conversations with Historians:
John Kasson: Houdini
Houdini
Houdini began in dime store museums and carnivals, which occupied a very limited niche in American culture. How did he escape that genre and reach his extraordinary fame?
How did this background help him?
What was the core of his act?
Was there ever another magician with such a strong emphasis on the body, on physical development?
How did his act foreground the physical body?
In discussing Sandow, you commented on the rise of statistcal measurement and the increasing standardization of everyday life. Was there any similar aspect to Houdini’s work?
Didn’t Houdini sometimes cooperate with the police or legal
authorities?
The other major figures in your book—Sandow, Burroughs’s Tarzan—made explicit racial appeals, and as we know there was a very strong interest is racial “science” at the time. How did Houdini negotiate that?
In discussing Sandow, you commented on the rise of statistcal measurement and the increasing standardization of everyday life. Was there any similar aspect to Houdini’s work?
Didn’t Houdini sometimes cooperate with the police or legal 