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HOUDINI IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

1910–1924 | 1925–1926 | 1927–1930 | 1931–1943 | MORE RECENT

THE NEW YORK TIMES January 12, 1929 Page 16, Column 6

LA VIE PARISIENNE

Unless the temperament of the people of Paris has changed of late, the most popular man in town must be m. paul heuze, amateur magician and working newspaper reporter. He has been engaged steadily in a diverting battle of wits with tahra Bey, an East Indian fakir appearing at the Cirque d’Hiver, and continually upsetting the performer’s best feats.

Americans will remember the manner in which The Scientific American undertook to disprove the claims of mediums in this country, and how the late harry houdini made it his business to show that all seemingly supernatural demonstrations were tricks. houdini offered to duplicate anything done by one who claimed occult powers. m. heuze is doing the same thing, according to pierre vanpaassen in The Evening World, but he is doing it in a Parisian way.

His method is to be in the audience and, just after tahra Bey with a claim of occultism has performed a feat, to walk calmly to the stage of Cirque d’Hiver and duplicate it. This has naturally aroused all fakirs, and the Paris mediums are annoyed with m. heuze because he recently tore a sheet off the ghost of one of louis Quatorze’s courtiers and disclosed an ordinary living human being.

tahra Bey has offered to submit to crucifixion (with very thin nails) in the Place de la Concorde to prove his supernatural powers, to which challenge m. heuze has repeated his willingness to do by a trick anything tahra Bey offers as a miracle. But the Prefet will not loan the Place de la Concorde for the purpose, and Paris is laughing over the discomfiture of the fakirs and mediums. The honors rest with m. heuze.

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