All rights reserved. Please enable it or install a modern browser that support JavaScript.ĬareersPartnersAbout usWhere to watchSupportThis feature is coming soon.We’re currently working on it! Thanks for your patience.About UsOur StoryLeadershipNewsPressCareersBecoming A CitizenResponsibilitiesPerksWhere To WatchSmart TVStreaming DevicesMobile AppDesktop AppWatch on the webAccessibilityPartnersDistributionContent ProvidersAdvertisers© 2023 Pluto Inc. He fell in love with the landscape and the people, and he never left.This website needs JavaScript to work properly. He came to northern Arizona in the early '80s to pursue a career in journalism. The American Museum of Magic in Michigan celebrated the opening of its 35th season earlier this month with the return of one of its most prized objects: the milk can of Harry Houdini. 'No matter how related I am to Houdini, my horses don't care and my dogs don't care,' George says.

But that didn't matter to them, because I'm the guy that's got the DNA.'Īnd then the guy with the DNA - who seance attendees say looks an awful lot like Houdini - went home to Tuba City, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation. Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, March 24, 1874) was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for. That was a bit strange for George Hardeen, because admittedly, he knows little about his great-uncle.

'And I think that's the purpose of these seances - to give an opportunity for folks to come back and talk about Houdini,' he says. They would beseech him to just show a sign, move something on the table.'Īfter about half an hour, he says, 'they threw in the towel, and then it was over.' The group went to a really nice bar, drank some scotch and just talked. 'They had a medium, and he was very entertaining, calling upon Houdini in a very dramatic way.

They had some articles that belonged to Houdini,' he says. 'The Houdini legacy has taken a new branch,' says Hardeen, 'because my wife is Navajo, and my children are enrolled members of the Navajo Nation.' The great magician died in Detroit on Halloween 1926 and was laid to rest in a bronze coffin that had been custom-made for one of his buried alive stunts. George Hardeen is shown with his wife, Lena Fowler, and one of his three children, Shonie Fowler Hardeen.

The magic of houdini