Magic Babylon

CONJURING EVENTS THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Everything you need to know about odd, amusing, and little-known incidents of conjuring trivia but have yet to learn is within these pages. Here you will find 1,001 genuinely unpredictable collections of stories, history, and bizarre events that have taken place since the beginning of magic, demonstrating that reality can be stranger than anything we can imagine in a work of fiction. These short, thought-provoking stories will pique your interest and make you reconsider what you thought was true or false about conjuring.

You will amaze your friends and become known as an undisputed master of conjuring trivia:

• Bess Houdini falsely claimed in a newspaper interview to have had a daughter.
• President Abraham Lincoln was an amateur magician.
• The town of Faucett in Buchanan County, Missouri, is named after magician Faucett Ross's grandfather.
• Houdini authored articles for the magic publication, Mahatma, posing as a European correspondent using the pen name of Herr N. Osey.
• Jimmy Grippo once managed the career of Mario Bettina, the light-heavyweight boxer. Under Grippo's management, Bettina won the world championship and held the title for five months.
• The 1908 Famous Tin Pan Alley song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was written by an amateur magician.