Robert-Houdin’s famous magic performance before the Algerian chieftains occurred in an Algiers theater this night in 1856, and then again on the following evening. Coincidentally, these dates are always included in America’s National Magic Week (the last seven days of October), which was established to commemorate Houdini’s death on October 31. Houdini was, of course, Robert-Houdin’s early disciple and later nemesis.
Accounts of the Algerian show have been exaggerated, but there’s no question that his Algerian visit introduced the role of the “scientific” modern magician who exposes the trickery of less-sophisticated frauds that prey on superstition.
After attempting to expose Algerian fire-eating, Robert-Houdin later offered an exposé of the spiritualists, the Davenport Brothers, when they visited France. Houdini adopted this role of arch-exposer at the end of his career, when he similarly attacked spiritualism.