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© New content 1999 PBS Online

Few performers have ever captured the public imagination like Harry Houdini. From his breakthrough in 1899 to his death in 1926, Houdini was one of the world's most popular entertainers, a true star of stage and screen. Time and again, his escapes from seemingly impossible predicaments thrilled audiences, who found in him a metaphor for their own lives, an affirmation of the human capacity to overcome adversity. Escapism in both senses of the word. But while nearly everyone is familiar with Houdini's stage persona, his little-known personal life is equally revealing. Taken as a whole, the public and private views make "The Elusive American" a uniquely powerful window on his times.

His love of America was such that he always claimed Appleton, Wisconsin, as his birthplace. But the man known as Houdini was actually born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary. He would not arrive in Wisconsin until four years later, when he, his mother Cecelia, and four brothers joined his father, who had become rabbi of a small Reform congregation there. Although an educated man, Herman Mayer Weiss (Weisz was changed to Weiss courtesy of immigration officials) was not destined for success in America. His life-long struggle to provide for his family would make a lasting impression on his son "Ehrie," who was forced to work from an early age to help make ends meet. Still, the boy was drawn to performing, making his debut in a neighborhood circus as the nine year old trapeze artist, "Ehrich, The Prince of the Air."

In 1887, after a series of failed rabbinic appointments in the Midwest, Herman Mayer Weiss brought young Ehrich with him to New York, where they lived in a boardinghouse and found what work they could. When he wasn't working, Ehrich excelled in sports, particularly swimming, boxing, and running, developing the natural athletic gifts which would be vital to his future act. He also rediscovered a childhood interest in magic, and in 1891 teamed up with a friend named Jacob Hyman in an act they called "The Brothers Houdini." After his hard-luck father died in 1892, eighteen year old Ehrich left his mother and brothers in New York and took to the road...

Copyright © 1998 - 2006 by G. Richardson

Despite having died over four decades ago George Adamski still remains one of the most discussed personalities ever to have been involved in Ufology. Always a controversial figure, Adamski came to be regarded by some as a “prophet” whilst others described him as a total fraud. Adamski first saw the light of day on April 17th, 1891 in Poland. His parents decided that the U.S.A. offered far more opportunity and the whole family immigrated to Dunkirk, New York State when George was two years of age. Adamski was not particularly well educated as a child but overcame this with self-education.

In 1912 he joined the U.S. Army and served on the Mexican Border with the U.S. Cavalry until 1916 when he returned to civilian life working at Yellowstone National Park. He is also known to have been employed as a flour mill worker and a concrete contractor in Los Angeles.Adamski displayed his capable and lively intellect when, in the 1930s, he founded an organization called “The Royal Order of Tibet” which provided a platform for him to expound his own philosophies of “Universal Law”. Quickly, Adamski became known as “the professor” despite the fact that he had received very little in the form of a formal education. He then established a monastery at Laguna Beach, California, obtain a license from the authorities to make wine for sacramental and religious purposes (Prohibition was still the law of the land, at this time).  Adamski was later quoted as saying: “I made enough wine for all of Southern California!”. Adamski was quite successful lecturing his own brand of philosophy but all good things must come to an end, which is what happened when prohibition was repealed and his wine was not in demand. Always resourceful Adamski and his wife Mary opened a café at Palomar Gardens on the slopes of Mount Palomar in north San Diego County, California, on which the famous Mount Palomar Observatory had been established.

by Lance S. Owens

You don't know me--you never will. You never knew my heart. No man knows my history. I cannot tell it; I shall never undertake it. I don't blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself. --Joseph Smith, April 7, 1844.

IF THERE IS A RELIGION uniquely and intrinsically American--a religion worked from its soil, and cast in the ardent furnace of its primal dreams--that religion must be Mormonism. Founded in 1830 by the then twenty-four year old Joseph Smith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (as it is formally named) has emerged from relative insularity during the mid-twentieth century to become a world-wide movement now numbering nine million members. Patriotic, conservative, influential, and vastly wealthy: modern Mormonism is a bastion of American culture.

Despite its success and respectability, however, a fundamental crisis looms before Joseph Smith's church--and the crux of the predicament is Joseph Smith. Late twentieth-century Mormonism is being forced into an uncomfortable confrontation with its early nineteenth-century origins--an inevitable encounter given the preeminent import of the founding prophet to his religion. From the start, Joseph Smith has been cast by his church as a man more enlightened than any mortal to walk the earth since the passing of the last biblical apostles. No historical life could be granted a more mythological tenor than has his. To Mormons, Joseph Smith is, simply, "The Prophet". He bares the imago Christi. He alone stands as doorkeeper to the last dispensation of time; to him angels came and restored God's necessary priestly "keys" and powers; he built the Temple and taught the ancient rituals which therein make of men and women, gods.

But now, one hundred and fifty years after his death, Smith's place in Western religious history is undergoing an important and creative reevaluation. Historians and religious critics alike are examining him anew. And in his history's newest reading, themes unrecognized by its orthodox interpreters are quickly moving to stage center. Quite simply put, modern Mormonism--guardian of the Prophet's story--has no idea what to do with the rediscovered, historical, and rather occult Joseph Smith...

Erich von Daniken (born April 14, 1935 in Zofingen, Switzerland) is a controversial Swiss author who is best known for authoring works about extraterrestrial influence on human culture since prehistoric times. He is one of the figures responsible for popularizing the paleocontact and ancient astronaut theories.

Currently von Daniken is a prominent member of the Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association (AAS RA), of which he is a co-founder. Von Daniken has developed a theme park called Mystery Park, based in Interlaken, Switzerland. It opened May 23, 2003. A new science fiction television series based upon his books is under production.

Building on the earlier works of many others, von Daniken reiterated the theory (already discussed by previous authors) that if intelligent extraterrestrial life exists and has entered the local Solar System in the past, there is the possibility of finding traces of their visits on Earth, on the neighboring planets, or elsewhere in space.

He has also reiterated the theory that human evolution may have been manipulated by means of genetic engineering by extraterrestrial beings.

His 26 books have been translated into more than 20 languages, selling more than 60 million copies worldwide, and his documentary TV-shows have been viewed in Germany and the United States. His influence can also be seen in science fiction, the New Age culture and some modern religions.

The evidence von Daniken has put forward to support the paleo-contact theories can be categorised as follows:

• Artifacts have been found which represent higher technological knowledge than is presumed to have existed at times when they were manufactured. Von Daniken maintains that these artifacts have been manufactured either by extraterrestrial visitors or by humans who learned the necessary knowledge from them. Such artifacts include Stonehenge, the head statues of Easter Island and the Antikythera mechanism.

• In ancient art throughout the world themes can be observed which can be interpreted to illustrate astronauts, air and space vehicles, non-human but intelligent creatures, and artifacts of high technology. Von Daniken also points out details that are similar in art of unrelated cultures.

• Origins of religions as reaction to a contact of primitive humans with an alien race. The humans considered the technology of the aliens to be supernatural and the aliens themselves to be gods. According to von Daniken the oral and literal traditions of most religions contain references to visitors from 'stars' and vehicles travelling through air and space. These, he says, should be interpreted as literal descriptions which have changed during the passage of time and become more obscure, rather than symbolic or mythical fiction. One such is Ezekiel's revelation in Old Testament, which he interprets as a detailed description of a landing spacecraft.....