DUNNINGER, THE MENTALIST - Old Time Radio - 1 mp3 CD-ROM - 7 Shows. Total Playtime: 3:25:07

About this book

Variously promoting himself as "The Master Mentalist," "The Amazing Dunninger," and "The Master Mind of Modern Mystery" over his sixty-year career, Joseph Dunninger initially launched himself in 1907 as an escape artist, much in the mold of the Great Houdini. Lithe, slim and capable of extraordinary contortions, Dunninger combined his extraordinary flexibility with years of early training picking all manner of locks and locking devices. By 1910, Dunninger began specializing in mind-reading feats of legerdemain. Eschewing the more widely employed use of 'assistants' to help in his mind-reading demonstrations, his reputation began to exponentially expand. So secure was he in his talents, he launched several "$10,000 Challenges" over the course of his $10,000 cash to anyone that could prove that he used confederates or assistants of any kind in demonstrating his mind-reading $10,000 cash to anyone "who, with the aid of 'the spirit world.'could disclose the translation to secret coded messages entrusted to him by Harry Houdini and Thomas Edison" $10,000 cash to anyone who could introduce him to a real ghost Needless to say, no one ever collected on any of Dunninger's 'challenges--not publicly in any case. Touring both back and forth across America and around the world, Dunninger's fame--as well as his growing association with Magic legend, Harry Houdini--expanded his international fame to a level approaching that of Houdini himself. When Houdini died in 1926, Dunninger quickly subsumed the mantle of 'world's greatest mentalist,' along with many other contenders of the era--Howard Thurston and Harry Blackstone among them. When Howard Thurston himself passed away in 1936, Dunninger continued his brilliantly self-promoting ascension to levels rarely attained by 'mentalists' and magicians of the era. Text From Digital Deli Too Website