"Why people even said Dr. Crandon committed illegal operations on little children and murdered them."On April 29, 1911, Houdini debuted his famed Chinese Water Torture Cell escape in Southampton, England, though he had perfected and copyrighted the act well over a year earlier. The inherently dangerous stunt caused quite a sensation: "Just the sight of the apparatus was enough to give you shivers and make you believe, as one critic noted, that you were about to witness a ritual sacrifice."
Mina/Margery Crandon
Around that same time, Houdini was, for reasons unknown, busily buying mothballed electric chairs at auctions across the country.
In 1913, Houdini's beloved mother passed away, which apparently resulted in Harry learning some deep family secret. Following her death, Houdini sent the following cryptic note to one of his brothers: "Time heals all wounds, but a long time will have to pass before it will heal the terrible blow which Mother tried to save me from knowing." The meaning of this rather provocative note remains a mystery. Houdini, by the way, was in Denmark when his mother died, and he requested a delay of her funeral to allow himself time to return to the States. Despite strict prohibitions in Jewish law, the entertainer's request was, of course, granted.
In December 1914, just a few months after the staged provocation that allegedly triggered World War I, Houdini was summoned to the nation's capitol for a private audience with then-President Woodrow Wilson. It is anyone's guess what business the two men discussed, but it probably had little to do with stage tricks.
A year-and-a-half later, on that most notorious of dates, April 20, an estimated 100,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. to watch Houdini perform a straightjacket escape. Other than for a presidential inauguration, it was said to be the largest crowd ever assembled in downtown Washington. One year later, in April 1917, the US declared war on Germany.
For the duration of the United States' involvement in the war, Houdini spent a considerable amount of time aiding the war effort, both through fundraising and by frequently visiting the front lines, where he ostensibly went from camp to camp providing entertainment for the troops.
Houdini's Hollywood career also began just as the US was entering the war. It has often been said that one of his first credits was as a special-effects consultant on the Mysteries of Myra cliffhanger serial, though others have claimed that Houdini had no involvement in the production. Curiously, the real consultant for the project is said to have been occultist/intelligence asset Aleister Crowley.
Comment: So, maybe larger amounts of debris are entering this 'area of space', rather than the other way around?
There has indeed been an incredible number of fireballs lately, of which the three over eastern Norway are just a few...
9 March, Fireball Spotted Over North Georgia
4 March: Meteor Shower Dazzles Victorians Lucky Enough to See It
4 March: Thousands Witness Spectacular Fireball Streak Over UK
2 March: Fireball seen from southern Norway and Sweden
2 March: Green Fireball Seen All Over Southeastern Canada
1 March: Green Object Reported in the Sky Over Newfoundland
29 February: What Was The Bright Flash In The Sky Tuesday Night?
22 February: "Huge fireball" streaks through Edmonton sky
22 February: Meteor Rain in China
14 February: Exploding UFO Wakes Thousands in South Carolina
12 February: Exploding Fireball recorded over Okayama, Japan
5 February: Fireball with huge tail seen over Western Australia
5 February: Fireball Photographed Over Corfu, Greece
4 February: East coast of US lights up as another enormous fireball streaks through sky
2 February: Huge Fireball Over Tokyo, 2 February 2012
1 February: Wednesday night's Texas meteor so bright it was seen in Kansas
1 February: Halifax 'fireball' probably a meteor