By Dustin Brown
After a succession of disappearing acts from a Glendale cemetery, the decades-old bust of legendary magician Harry Houdini rematerialized Friday at a New Hyde Park home in a surprising turn that rivaled the dynamism of its model.
Nassau County police arrested Stephen Chotowicky, 43, of 1007 First Ave. in New Hyde Park Friday after his son-in-law told them the 2-1/2-foot tall bust of Houdini was hidden in his home, police said.
Chotowicky had originally summoned the cops himself with a claim that his son-in-law had stolen his tools, an allegation that was ultimately disproved, police said.
The bust had been stolen from Houdini’s family plot at the Machpelah Cemetery in Glendale on Aug. 14, 1983, an act of vandalism that was documented in newspaper articles also recovered in Chotowicky’s home, according to police.
The bust’s discovery was greeted with enthusiasm by the loyal magicians who annually mark the anniversary of Houdini’s death with a simple wand-breaking ceremony at the grave site, symbolizing the end of a magician’s power.
“Welcome back, Harry,” said John Bohannon, a former president of the Society of American Magicians’ Houdini Committee, which pays the cemetery for the upkeep of the grave site. “I was overjoyed, because that bust stolen from the cemetery, from Harry’s grave site, was desecration, really.”
Houdini had bought the cemetery plot in 1913 upon the death of his mother, who is buried there with him, his father, grandmother and six siblings. Although Houdini did not actually die until Oct. 31 of 1926, the original bust was mounted on the elaborate monument in 191, where it remained until the 1983 theft. That statue is the original white-marble copy of a bronze bust Houdini made in 1914, which is now in the possession of the Museum of New York.
“He wanted it there because that’s Houdini,” Bohannon said. “He wanted it to dominate the family plot, which it did.”
Even two copies of the bust that replaced the original were subjected to vandalism — one disappeared entirely, while the other was smashed with a sledgehammer.
But the original appears to have survived, albeit with dents and minor damage.
“To suddenly appear like this under somewhat bizarre circumstances was surprising,” Bohannon said.
Still, he had always expected the bust to emerge somehow or another.
“I always thought that it was in somebody’s basement or somebody’s hall closet or something,” Bohannon said. “I’m glad it’s back and I hope we can get it back to put in our archives where it belongs.”
The magicians now cart their own copy — which is now actually “a copy of a copy of a copy,” according to Bohannon — to and from the cemetery whenever they visit.
The site was restored with the financial help of illusionist David Copperfield in the mid-1990s after two benches alongside the site were severely damaged by vandals.
“One reason that his grave site is attacked is simply because of who he is,” Bohannon said. “Houdini has always had a mystique about him, and there are people who to this day believe he had some kind of supernatural powers.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
