Who was Robert-Houdin ?

Who was Robert-Houdin ?

Robert-Houdin felt that every magic program should be arranged so one trick builds upon each other. One surprise should lead to an even bigger surprise. Some of the tricks and illusions Robert-Houdin presented became classics. Here are a few of them.

Second Sight

When Robert-Houdin first opened his theatre, it was sparsely attended. Though his inventions were good, they needed a draw that would bring the public to his little theatre. So he came upon the idea of doing a two person mindreading act. He even concocted a silly story on how his son Emile created a game of hot and cold that resulted into Robert-Houdin utilizing that for the stage.

He took the title that was used by such magicians as John Henry Anderson, but the effect was entirely different. Anderson had a box into which items were inserted. The medium would then describe the contents inside. In Robert-Houdin’s version, he walked into the audience and touched items that the audience held up and his blindfolded assistant, played by his son, described each one in detail. It caused a sensation and brought the throng to see his Soirees.

Eventually Robert-Houdin changed the method so instead of asking his son what was in his hands, he simply rang a bell. This stunned those that suspected a spoken code. He would even set the bell off to the side and remain silent and his son still described every object handed to his father.

Robert-Houdin even made the test difficult. He placed a glass of water into his son’s hands and Emile proceeded to drink from it. He was able to perceive the taste of the liquids that spectators from the audience merely thought of. Even then the audiences weren’t entirely convinced. They tried to trip up Emile by bringing in books written in Greek. He even described odd tools like a thread counter.

The Ethereal Suspension

During Robert-Houdin’s time, all of Paris was enthusiastically talking about the mysterious uses of "ether". He took advantage of this by presenting an illusion that appeared to use the pungent liquid. He told the audience that he discovered a marvelous new property of ether. “If one has a living person inhale this liquid when it is at its highest degree of concentration, the body of the patient for a few moments becomes as light as a balloon,” Robert-Houdin claimed.

He proceeded to prove just that. He placed three stools on a wooden bench. His youngest son Eugène stood on the middle one. With the instructions from his father, he extended his arms. Robert-Houdin placed two canes on top of the stools and positioned them under his son’s arms.

He took a vial of ether and opened. The audience smelled it wafting through the theatre. He placed the vial under his son’s nose who went limp. In reality, the vial was empty. Another son of his Emile poured real ether on a very hot iron shovel. That’s what the audience smelled.

Robert-Houdin took the stool away from his son’s feet and he just hung limp as a rag. He took away one of the canes so he was dangling by one arm and carefully placed his head against his upraised hand. This was startling enough. What he did next was stunning. He lifted his boy upright in a horizontal position by his little finger. Then let go until he was suspended in mid air. Robert-Houdin stepped away to leave his son in that suspended state, balanced only by his right elbow and no other support.

When it was apparent that the drug was wearing off, Robert-Houdin returned his son to his upright position. When he woke up, he seemed no worse for wear. Robert-Houdin built up the surprise of spectators until, “… by gradually heightening it up to the moment when, so to speak, it exploded.”

This brought letters of protest against Robert-Houdin thinking he was putting his son’s health at jeopardy, although the ether had nothing to do with the trick.

The Marvelous Orange Tree

On one of Robert-Houdin’s side table, he has an egg, a lemon, and an orange. He soon displays what he is going to do with them. He goes into the audience and borrows a lady’s handkerchief that was in style then. He rolls it into a ball. He rubs the ball in between his hands and the handkerchief gets smaller and smaller until it disappears passing through to the egg on the table.

Carefully he picks up the egg. The audience expects him to crack it open and produce the spectator’s handkerchief. Instead, he makes that disappear too. He tells the audience that the egg went to the lemon. This is repeated with the lemon and the orange. When he makes the orange disappear, all that is left is a fine powder. This is placed into a silver vial. He soaks this vial with alcohol and sets it on fire.

A small orange tree planted in a wooden box is brought forth by one of his assistants. The audience notices that the tree is barren of any blossoms or fruit. The blue flame from the vial is placed underneath it. The vapors from it causes the leaves to spread and sprout orange blossoms from it. Robert-Houdin then picks up his magic wand and waves it. The flowers disappear and oranges bloom forth.

He plucks the oranges from the tree and tosses them to the audience to prove they are real. He does this until he only has one left. He waves his wand again and the orange splits open into four sections revealing a white material of sorts inside of it. Two clockwork butterflies appear from behind the tree. The butterflies grab the end of the corner of the white cloth and spread it open revealing the spectators handkerchief.

Robert-Houdin’s Portfolio

Robert-Houdin brings on a large portfolio used for holding documents or art work under his arm. The portfolio is only about one and three quarters of an inch thick. Too small or too thin to hold anything but pictures.

He sets it on two thin trestles to hold the case with the spine facing the audience. He removed the expected drawings from it. One of those pictures showed a bareheaded woman. Then he produced two ladies bonnets decorated with flowers; one for winter, the other for summer. He lowers the flap for each production. Then he showed a picture of birds followed by a stuffed bird flat as a pancake. With that he proceeded to produce from the portfolio four live turtle doves.

He showed a picture of a cartoon of two cooks fighting with pots. This was followed by three enormous copper pots. One is filled with beans, another with flames bursting forth, and the third pot is filled with boiling water. As an afterthought, he lifted the top flap of the portfolio.

He walked forward towards the audience with the square cage and they applauded thinking the trick was over. “Nothing here now-neither anything, nor anybody,” as he knocked on the upright flap. For a finale, he closes the portfolio one last time and produces his young son from it.

The Light and Heavy Chest

The amount of tricks he invented for his theatre was extensive, but his most remarkable one was the Light and Heavy Chest. He took advantage of the infancy of the usage of electricity, especially the then novelty of Hans Christian Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism, to his advantage. Robert-Houdin brought on a small wooden box about a foot wide. He said that he had found a way to protect it from thieves. He asked a spectator to lift it, usually a small child. The child lifted it with ease. Then he brought an adult male up from the audience and asked him to lift the same box. Even though he used all of his might, the adult male was unable to lift the box!

What made this trick even more incredible is that Robert-Houdin used this (among others) to help squelch a rebellion.

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