![]() Planning on writing a book about his brother, in 1945 Hardeen went to Manhattan's Doctors Hospital for a simple operation. Later that year, Hardeen burned all of Houdini's personal files in a furnace in his basement. Houdini, in his will, requested that all his files be given to Hardeen and destroyed ("I give, devise and bequeath to my brother, Theodore, Professionally known as "Hardeen" all my theatrical effects, new mysteries and illusions and accompanying paraphernalia, to be burnt and destroyed upon his death.") On August 15, 1927, Hardeen's Brooklyn home was broken into and some of Houdini's apparatus were damaged. With his friend Julien Proskauer he exposed the fraudulent methods of mediums. Like his brother, Hardeen was skeptical of the claims of spiritualist mediums. The film was directed by Lloyd French, who directed many of the early Laurel and Hardy shorts. In it, Hardeen played a "hardboiled detective" on the case of a bogus medium. In 1936, Hardeen starred in a Vitaphone short film for Warner Bros. During World War II, he performed for the troops (as his brother had done during World War I). From 1938 to 1941, he was featured in Olsen and Johnson's Broadway revue, Hellzapoppin. And the general public regard him as a brilliant artiste and a thrilling entertainer."Īfter his brother's death in 1926, Hardeen played the vaudeville circuit, doing many of his late brother's routines. Both the amateurs and the professionals of our number regard him as a friend. Like Houdini, he is willing to expend both time and money freely to further the cause of magic. He is a man of considerable culture and one of the best raconteurs I have ever met. Hardeen, like his more famous brother Harry Houdini is a great favourite in the magical world. The handcuffs but a simple thing compared with those with which he is used to toy. The huge chains in the cartoon are hardly an exaggeration of those from which he breaks loose. I have seen him perform several times, and have marvelled at his achievements. ![]() Even if Houdini had not existed to point the way, it is quite likely that Hardeen would have become an escape artiste. But the natural ability was always there. "Hardeen learned his business from Houdini, and he learned it well, as no man could have failed to do with such a master. Will Goldston, English stage magician and editor of the Magician Annual, wrote that: Hardeen with his brother, Houdini (seated left) c.
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