Скачать или смотреть The Tragic Death of Harry Houdini (on this day 31 October 1926)

With deliberate preparation and planning, the American magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini had undergone many rigorous physical challenges in his career, his performances imitating his apparent escape from death. However, one night, as he was sitting in his dressing room reading his mail, an amateur boxer, Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead, came to visit the magician and asked if Houdini could really withstand the heaviest blow to his midriff, as he claimed. Without looking up Houdini said that he could, whereupon the boxer landed three brutal blows to Houdini’s abdomen without warning. Houdini winced at each blow and complained that he had no opportunity to prepare himself against the attack. That night he went on to perform in great pain. Unable to sleep, he remained in constant pain for the next two days but did not seek medical help. Within a day he was feverish and collapsed during his act. A ruptured appendix and peritonitis killed him within a week, on October 31, 1926. “I'm tired of fighting," his last words were, "guess this is going to get me.”
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Richard Zimmerman --"The Ragtime Dance" (1902)
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