Houdini Chronicles

To the best of what's left of my memory, Houdini rolled into town sometime in the early to mid seventies. He was dead broke. With no job and no place to live he was drifting around on his 1950 FLH panhead. I think that he was trying to score house painting jobs whenever he could. Maybe he had just come in from Meridian, Miss. or even Baton Rouge, La. Anyway, he shows up in Pensacola, Florida. Back then there was this biker bar called "Cacks". Formerly known as "Jan's" the place had been bought by a guy that everyone knew as Cack. It was on the west side of town and had become pretty well known in the biker world as a place to party hard and have some very wild times. The locals were a tight knit group. You just didn't go waltzing into the place and expect to have the red carpet rolled out for you. Houdini ran into a guy named Jerry that he had known in Meridian. Jerry was in Pensacola working for the local wrench... a guy called the Rootman. Root and Cack were buddies so Houdini got to know everybody. When Cack found out that Houdini was an artist, he hired Houdini to paint a bar length mural in "Cack's". Houdini was paid in beer and those pre-packaged cheese sandwhiches. As he's working, Houdini meets a guy called Mikey ( remember that old cereal commercial? ) Mikey checks out Houdini's work and asks Houdini if he could build him a sho' nuff show winning scoot... maybe good enough to win at the Rat's Hole show in Daytona. Houdini said that he could. So that's how they got started on the bike which was about a "59 pan ( told you my memory was going ). Back in that time most chops were stretched with 3 foot sissy bars, king & queen seats and 12 over wide glides. Houdini got started on a low slung rigid with a low solo seat, flipped front fender on the rear and triangular frame legs. The taillight was recessed and the gas tank was a modified galaxy style. The front end was a Durfee girder that was only about 6 over and a nude 21 rolled up front. It was painted black with red pinstripes and murals front to back. During the time that the bike was being built, Houdini lived with Mikey and also Hammer, the big-hearted bartender form Cack's. Houdini crashed on her couch... more cheese sandwhiches. A lot of the finish work on the bike was done at a small custom shop called "Fantascene" which was owned by Reed Stephens. Reed didn't ride but he loved customs and especially good custom paint... and Houdini could paint! Let me add something here. When Mikey asked if Houdini could build the show winner and Houdini said yes, Mikey said "If you can do that then you'll be a Houdini!" After the bike was built Houdini's name stuck. That's the way it was. You were named by your friends. You didn't just make up some cool biker "handle" to call yourself. Names like Pockets, Big Charlie, Lucky, Fat Bob, Bitchin' and Fig were all bestowed on those guys. So if you made up your own name, and you know if you did, then get a life. Anyway,so Mikey gets his show bike, Houdini gets his cheese sandwhiches and life is groovy until that day when Mikey shows up at Houdini's door ( he had his own place by then ) all covered in blood and smelling like gasoline. Houdini looks at him for a few minutes and then asks " So just how bad is it?" Mikey says that it's pretty bad and wants to know if it could be rebuilt before the Daytona Rat's Hole show. Houdini said yeah and it was... but that's another story