Houdini Shots

One of Golf Digest's 10 Best Teachers in America (No. 7) helps you master the most difficult short-game shots in golf, just the way Seve Ballesteros did Here's one golf book you should definitely own if you want to improve your game and lower your scores. Top golf instructor Martin Hall, host of Golf Channel's weekly TV show, School of Golf, teaches you how to conquer challenging short-game shots as played by one of the all-time masters of the short game, Seve Ballesteros. By the time you're done with this book you'll have a fresh arsenal of short-game shots to choose from, whether it be running the ball through a bunker or hooking it around a tree, or hitting a super-high, super-soft flop shot that lands on the green like a butterfly with sore feet. You'll uncover the secrets that made Ballesteros the most dominant and respected short-game player of his era?and put them to work to boost your own game. Presents easy-to-follow techniques for improving your short game, with more than fifty shots inspired by five-time major winner Seve Ballesteros Offers valuable insights into the imagination and thought process of Ballesteros, one of golf's greatest innovators, as well as tips for the average golfer on how to escape the most difficult short-game situations Written by Martin Hall, one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and the 2008 PGA Teacher of the Year Draws on Hall's hours of experience watching Ballesteros hit balls and create shots up close while playing on the European PGA Tour Includes never-before published photos of Ballesteros at the peak of his career, hitting many of the shots in the book

Young Nate Fuller is ready for adventure as he boards the Lusitania, the biggest, grandest ocean liner ever to sail the seas. Nate is hoping to sharpen his detective skills with some help from his mentor, Harry Houdini, and to rub elbows with Teddy Roosevelt, as both legendary men are also making the voyage. Everything seems set for a smooth journey to England. Then shots ring out! A cunning would-be killer tries to assassinate the former president. As the waters become choppier, Nate and Houdini must race to find and foil their suspect before he makes a second attempt. With the fast pacing and clever historical detailing that made Danger in the Dark such a "thoroughly enjoyable" read (Kirkus Reviews), Tom Lalicki has created another first-class setting and suspense-filled story line, including revealing details of one of Houdini's famous tricks. Shots at Sea is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Joe Posnanski enters the colorful world of Harry Houdini and his legions of devoted fans to explore the illusionist’s impact on global culture—and why his legacy endures to this day. Nearly a century after Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926, he feels as modern and alive as ever. The name Houdini still leaps to mind whenever we witness a daring escape. The baby who frees herself from her crib? Houdini. The dog who vanishes and reappears in the neighbor’s garden? Houdini. Every generation produces new disciples of the magician, from household names in magic like David Copperfield and David Blaine to countless other followers whose lives have been transformed by the power of Houdini. In rural Pennsylvania, a thirteen-year-old girl finds the courage to leave a violent home after learning that Houdini ran away to join the circus; she eventually becomes the first female magician to saw a man in half on television. In Australia, an eight-year-old boy with a learning impediment feels worthless until he sees an old poster of Houdini advertising “Nothing on earth can hold Houdini prisoner,” and begins his path to becoming that nation’s most popular magician. In California, an actor and Vietnam War veteran finds purpose in his life by uncovering the secrets of his hero. But the unique phenomenon of Houdini was always more than his death-defying stunts or his ability to escape handcuffs and straitjackets. It is also about the power of imagination and self-invention. His incredible transformation from Ehrich Weiss, humble Hungarian immigrant and rabbi’s son, into the self-named Harry Houdini has won him a slice of immortality. No one has withstood the test of time quite like Houdini. Fueled by Posnanski’s personal obsession with the magician—and magic itself—The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini is a poignant odyssey of discovery, blending biography, memoir, and first-person reporting to trace Houdini’s metamorphosis into an iconic figure who has inspired millions.

This work revisits the golden age of theatrical magic and silent film to reveal how professional magicians shaped the early history of cinema. The author treats cinema and stage magic as overlapping practices that together revise our understanding of the origins of motion pictures and cinematic spectacle.

This fascinating biography “brings to life the excitement and thrills” of the master escape artist’s legendary turn-of-century tour in Great Britain (Lancashire Post). Between 1900 and 1920, a century before endurance artist and street magician David Blaine, Hungarian-born Harry Houdini traveled Great Britain, performing in its major villages and cities. He befriended Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, immersed himself in spiritualism and most notably, escaped from jails, survived death-defying leaps into rivers while bound in chains, and executed amazing tricks and illusions. On each stop, he challenged locals to design “inescapable” contraptions. He was always triumphant, and his awesome, crowd-drawing feats made him the highest paid entertainer in the world at the time. Extensively researched, The Great Houdini: His British Tours follows Houdini’s decades-long UK tour through rare archival material, vintage newspaper clippings, photos, and original playbills and ballyhoo advertisements—many of which have not been seen since they were originally published. This “must read . . . cause for celebration . . . packed with new, fascinating facts” delivers a thrilling look into the life and career of history’s greatest escapologist (Wild About Harry).

Immortal Last Words is a fascinating, diverse collection of history's most uplifting, entertaining and thought-provoking dying remarks and final farewells. The 370 entries in this book have been drawn from some of history's greatest statesmen, poets, scientists, novelists and warriors--the eminent men and women who have shaped events over the last four and a half millennia and whose final recorded words have often inspired great deeds or shed light on the nature of the human condition. There are also entries are from less well- known individuals who did not make such an impact on history but whose dying words are equally noteworthy as they encapsulate the spirit of the times or simply reflect the character of the speaker. And finally, the pages of this book contain the last words of some of most ignoble personalities in history--the monsters and maniacs whose final defiant utterances prompt us to reflect on the nature of evil and man's inhumanity to man. Arranged chronologically from antiquity to the present day, each entry is accompanied by contextual information giving a brief biography of the author and an explanation of the circumstances that gave rise to the quotation. Some of the sentiments expressed are unbelievably sad while others are optimistic; some final words have become famous while others have remained obscure, but all reflect the follies and greatness of mankind--its heroes and villains, war and peace and the absolute power of language to change our feelings and challenge our minds.

From the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a debut novel featuring Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is April 1922. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in New York on a spiritualist crusade. To packed houses at Carnegie Hall, he displays photographs of ghosts and spirits; of female mediums bound and gagged, ectoplasmic goo emerging from their bodies. In the newspapers, he defends the powers of the mysterious Margery, one of the most famous mediums of the day. His good friend Harry Houdini is a skeptic, and when Doyle claims Margery's powers are superior to Houdini's, the magician goes on the attack. Into this mix of spirit-chasing celebrities enters Molly Goodman, a young reporter whose job is to cover the heated debate. As she wanders into this world of spooks and spirits, murder and criminal frauds, Molly discovers herself: her true love, her place in the world; even her relationship to her beloved dead brother, Carl.

Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives, Kalush and Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British and Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent. In exchange for his cooperation, the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments, such as his participation in early aerial surveillance and his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information. After the war, Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds, he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics, led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever. Grounded in solid research, but as exciting and dramatic as a good thriller, THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI traces the magician's long and circuitous route from struggling vaudevillian to worldwide legend.