The Houdini Ring, Part 1: His-story

My great-aunt Mabel died in the mid-1980's. When she passed, I was given a ring that had been in her possession. It's an opal stone set on a silver ring. Supposedly, if you hold the ring up to the light just right, you are able to see the face of Jesus Christ in the prism. However, the opal is quite tarnished and you can see only a few spots of color now. There is no inscription of any kind on the inside of the ring.

Auntie Mabel (as I always knew her) was my mother's aunt; she was the sister of my mom's father. She had married a man named William, who died in the 1940's. Mom only met him once or twice, but as she had been very young she really didn't remember him. In fact, the clearest thing Mom remembers is that Auntie Mabel came to live with Mom and her family for a brief time after Uncle Bill passed away. Mom remembers Auntie Mabel "crying all the time." We have no pictures of Uncle Bill.

Below is the story my father told me when I received the ring:

Uncle Bill was known as a "floater". He could be put into a pool of water and he would not sink at all. However you tried to sink him, he would always rise to the surface. He would just float there, cool as all get-out. He took this 'talent' on the vaudeville circuit and performed in shows and spent many years in Minnesota. He passed away in West Viriginia in 1944. The ring had been his.

How he came to own the ring is unclear. One version of the story has it that the magician/escape artist Harry Houdini came to see Uncle Bill early in his career and the ring was a gift. Another is that Houdini only heard of Uncle Bill and sent him the ring. My father has changed the story each time I've asked him about it. The likely truth is that Houdini and the ring are not at all related and who knows if there ever was any connection between my great-uncle and Houdini.

Still, it makes a good story and I like to refer to it as the Houdini Ring.

Next entry: What happened when I was inspired to do some research.