travsd

“The Great Houdini” Starring Paul Michael Glaser

Okay, as I only yesterday started a dedicated Houdini section of Travalanche in honor of Houdini’s birthday, and today is Paul Michael Glaser’s birthday it seemed especially appropriate to give a quick shout to the 1976 bio-pic The Great Houdini. 

I was already a fan of the Tony Curtis Houdini bio-pic from watching it on television. Imagine my excitement when they announced this new made-for-tv verison starring Paul Michael Glaser at the full height of Starsky and Hutch mania! Being all of 11, I ate it up at the time, but in retrospect it seems to me Glaser played it too broadly comical (Houdini was a VERY serious fellow) and (as so many do when they play Houdini) too smart-mouthed Brooklyn. (Houdini was the son of a strict rabbi who grew up in Wisconsin). But it has an all star cast! With Sally Struthers from All in the Family as Houdini’s wife Bess, Ruth Gordon as the famously Oedipal Houdini’s mom, Vivian Vance as her nurse, and Peter Cushing as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Written and directed by Mel Shavelson! 

A memorable tv experience for this show biz loving lad. Watch it for yourself here. 

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.