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' Strange Happenings At Houdini's Mansion Analysis

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Strange Happenings at Houdini’s Mansion A Party and a Lover’s Quarrel Sitting high atop the rugged hillside in the Hollywood Hills is the Gothic mansion where once the famous magician Harry Houdini lived. Unusual happenings occurred here on a full moon night in 1918. This mansion had been built by the wealthy owner of one of Hollywood’s largest furniture stores. He sold expensive furniture to actors and directors during the golden days of the movie industry. On this particular night at the mansion in Laurel Canyon guests in costumes had arrived for a Halloween party and to celebrate the 40th birthday of the host’s son. Everyone was making merry and unnoticed the son snuck off to the back of the house. There on one of the balconies that overlooked Laurel Canyon he was planning to meet his lover. Something that he had to do in secret because his lover was also a he and the two gay men couldn’t risk being exposed. It was particularly important to the heir of the furniture empire. Unfortunately lover’s quarrel started between the two men and when the orchestra paused for intermission a blood curdling scream could be heard. In a fit of rage the birthday boy had pushed his young lover off of the balcony and now his …show more content…

The venture was launched by his friend Arnold de Biere and Houdini starred in many of the company’s own productions. Houdini’s role in the films was that of an escape artist with a flair for the supernatural. There were such films as “The Man from Beyond”, “Terror Island”, “The Master Mystery” and some short serials. These films can be seen on YouTube. However the film never became popular so there was no real profit and the one film that was a real disaster was “Haldane of the Secret Service”. Houdini lost most of his investment, had a bitter argument with de Biere and the two never spoke to each other

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On 1975, Jimmy Hoffa was vanished after he went to Machus Red Fox, for an important meeting with Frank Sheeran, Anthony Provenzano, and Tony Giacalone. He was never seen by anyone after that day. His last phone call was with his wife saying nobody was there to do a meeting. Later, Sheeran and others came and told the place of meeting was changed. Hoffa immediately got in the car and he was taken to a house in north west detroit.

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It was not until after he started performing wondrous escape acts with handcuffs, that he became a big deal and married Bess, his loving wife and stage partner (Biography.com Editors). Being an escape artist was not Houdini's only passion, he loved to expose fraudulent mediums. After his mother's passing in 1913, Houdini sought out mediums for comfort and out of genuine curiosity since spiritualism was on the rise after World War 1. Many others did the same, they were “...seeking comfort in bereavement…” (Richard and Adato) in a way that seemed helpful, and if not, amusing.

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Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” is an enthralling memoir about a young girl’s peculiar childhood, which involved her family’s funeral business, infatuating trips, family turmoil, solitude, and her befuddling relationship with her masterful artificer of a father; in which similarities ranged from obsessive compulsive disorders and literature to sexuality. The most profound being homosexuality. Bechdel utilized duo-specific, speech bubbles, as well as, subject-to-subject paneling to illustrate the complex father-daughter relationship where Alison and Bruce Bechdel perpetually attempted to compensate for each other’s eccentric gender behaviors. Initially, both Bechdals yearned for different genders, imposing expected behaviors upon the other.

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