Legend has promised that a box containing the secrets of Houdini would be opened by a lawyer on the 100th anniversary of the magician’s birth, which just passed. (Houdini celebrated April 6, but he was actually born on March 24.) The story has been printed many times.

Alas, no lawyer has come forward. In fact, Houdini’s lawyer, B.M.L. Ernst, died in 1938, and Milbourne Christopher, author of “Houdini: The Untold Story,” said the other day that Mr. Ernst had told him before he died that he never found any such box.

Another Houdini expert, Manuel Weltman of Los Angeles, called the story a “fanciful tale.”

As Mr. Christopher put it: “A hundred years after his birth the great magician is still delighting and deceiving the public.”

LEE DEMBART

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