The Complete Houdini Story

[Mike Mendelson <MJM@ZYLAB.MHS.CompuServe.COM>]

Since this is being discussed again, I thought I'd repost
the Houdini exegesis I pieced together for a friend a while back.
I love this song.  

-mjm
---------
The entire song is from the point of view of Houdini's wife.


                    Houdini
                    _______

                     I wait at the table,
                     And hold hands with weeping strangers,
                     Wait for you
                     To join the group.

Mrs. H is sitting at a table with some charlatan
who claims he can contact her dead hubby.

                     The tambourine jingle-jangles.
                     The medium roams and rambles.
                     Not taken in,
                     I break the circle.

Alas, he cannot pull the wool over her eyes, so she cuts the seance 
short...

                     I want this man
                     To go away now.

...and expresses loathing for the guy who's in charge.
(Or, perhaps "this man" actually refers to Houdini...)

                          With a kiss
                          I'd pass the key
                          And feel your tongue
                          Teasing and receiving.
                          With your spit
                          Still on my lip--
                          You hit the water.

Here a little reminiscence about her husband's exploits...
the way she would slip him the key before he enterred
the locked trunk about to be submerged in shark-infested
ice cold water etc. etc. ("Teasing and receiving" --
isn't that brilliant?)  It is this image that the album
(The Dreaming) cover depicts.

                     Him and I in the room
                     To prove you are with us too.

Now, presumably she's referring to the medium called Ford,
who supposedly succeeded in uncovering the correct code
Houdini and his wife agreed on before his departure:
"Rosabel believe."

                     He's using code that only you and I know.
                     This is no trick of his.
                     This is your magic.

But it's really Houdini who is pulling the strings...

                     I'd catch the cues,

This is a double-entendre on cues/queues (i.e. lines of people).

                     Watching you,
                     Hoping you'd do something wrong.

This verse on the simplest (queues) level is about the people who came to 

see Houdini perform his magic, and Mrs. H. is referring to how many of
them were secretly excited by the idea of Houdini screwing up somehow and
getting hurt.  After all, if you go to see Houdini do his thing, a lot of 

the excitement is in wondering whether he can actually pull it off.  

                     Everybody thinks you'll never make it,
                     But every time,
                     You escape!

                     Rosabel believe,
                     Not even eternity
                     Can hold Houdini!

Ford uttering "Rosabel believe", the mantra that
proves he has contacted H, shows that no one can hold H back.

                               "Rosabel, believe!"

                          Through the glass
                          I'd watch you breathe.
                          Bound and drowned,
                          And paler than you've ever been.

                          With your life
                          The only thing in my mind--
                          We pull you from the water!

Again, Mrs. Houdini can't help but be affected by the possibility 
of a mistake or an accident. She knows that PROBABLY everything will be 
all right, but the small element of uncertainty is quite troublesome to 
her.

This might *also* describe how Houdini died. Houdini was always 
"performing"
and one afternoon, after a show at the Princess Theater in Montreal,
he invited someone to punch him in the stomach.
The fellow who hit him was a college boxing star at McGill University.
Two days later (and after his last show and right before his death)
doctors operated on Houdini and removed a ruptured appendix.

                     Houdini!

                     You
                     And I
                     And Rosabel believe.

You = Mr. Houdini
I   = Mrs. Houdini
"Rosabel believe" = the code

The phrase "Rosabel believe" was the code phrase that 
Houdini worked out with his wife to send to her from the 
afterlife.  Though Houdini's wife tried a myriad of mediums, 
none had the correct message.  Until Ford came along and appeared
to know the correct message.

According to a documentary, "Rosabel Believe" is the name of a song that
the Houdini's loved.  An excerpt of the actual song plays at the point 
where the voice-over is talking about them setting up the code.

	"...Rosabel, sweet Rosabel, I love you more than I could tell..."

Houdini's Mother = Cecilia Weiss
Houdini's Father = Mayer Samuel Weiss

Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss.
Harry's wife was Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, but everybody
called her Bess.  Harry met her while he and his brother were
doing their magic act at Coney Island.  Ten days later, Harry
married her, and she replaced Harry's brother in the act.
Harry and Bess used to sing the song "Rosabel Believe" at
Coney Island when Bess & Harry started their magic act together.

Apparently, after Houdini's death, Mrs. Houdini once fell down 
a flight of stairs and blacked out; BUT she had mumbled 
"something" while she was "unconcious" that her nurse heard. As the story 

goes, it was the nurse who told the psychic, Ford, the code because 
that's
the "something" that Mrs. Houdini mumbled.

And finally, a postscript to somewhat dampen the festivities:
The song itself works just fine, lyrically and
musically, but Kate herself came off looking just a bit silly in
interviews after the album came out, when talking about that song.
In reality, Ford never broke the code through supernatural
means. Mrs. Houdini thought he did, at first (and there's the song)
but later found out that he obtained the code through earthly means.
She eventually stated that there was no way of communicating with the
dearly departed. I don't know where Kate heard the story that turned
into "Houdini" but she didn't do any homework on the real story. I
cringe when listening to some of those interviews, because the way
she talks, she actually *believes* that Mrs H made contact with Mr H.
I hope someone told her, and I hope she doesn't still believe that.

-fromthemjmarchives