Houdini asked various people in the small audience to write down on slips of paper some kind of magic they would like to see done. Without looking, Houdini picked one slip of paper out of the bunch. It read: Make the bells of the Kremlin ring.

At that time, those bells had no ropes and had not rung for over 100 years. But Houdini went to the window, held up his hand, paused dramatically for a moment, and then the bells, in full chorus, started ringing. The audience was amazed, particularly Rasputin.

Years later, at the request of Orson Welles' father, Houdini gave the young Orson his first magic lesson. Since that bell ringing trick would most likely never be done again, Houdini told Orson the secret.

Houdini said, "My wife was standing at a hotel window on the other side of the square and saw my signal. She raised an air-rifle to her shoulder and shot at the bells."

Of course, the original slip of paper with the request was written earlier by Houdini and then 'palmed' for him to read.