I knew Houdini was an escape artist, and I knew he died after being punched in the stomach. I didn't know much else about him. Silverman didn't reveal how Houdini did his tricks (in some cases, nobody knows), but he describes the effects. I got a good overview of the entertainment industry in the early 1900s. I also lost a great deal of respect for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a prominent Spiritualist who insisted that he could communicate with the dead in spite of massive evidence to the contrary. Doyle's wife held a seance with Houdini and claimed to receive a message from Houdini's mother. The message was in English and signed with a cross. Houdini's mother was Jewish and only spoke German. When Houdini told Doyle this, Doyle claimed first that the message was translated from the Hebrew (she only spoke German, remember) and later, that his mother's spirit was learning new languages.