Kuda Bux

Kuda Bux (15 October 1905 – 5 February 1981, born Khudah Bukhsh) was an Indian magician and firewalker.

Biography

Khudah Bukhsh was born in Akhnur, Kashmir in 1905, to an ethnic Kashmiri family.<ref name="Revai2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>When he was thirteen, he left home to learn magic from a performer named Professor Moor.

After a few months, he joined a theater group as a magician. Three years later, Kuda went to Hardwar to study with a yogi. He pretended to be religious to be accepted as a disciple. The yogi taught Kuda to train his subconscious mind, which is how he claimed to be able to perform all of his feats.<ref name="Dahl">Dahl, Roald. "The Amazing Eyes of Kuda Bux", Argosy. Volume 335, Issue 1. July 1, 1952. 94.</ref>

In the mid-1930s, he arrived in the United States where he worked steadily as a magician.<ref name="Revai2008"/> He was also known as DareDevil or The Man Who Can See Without His Eyes. In the 1950s, he had a short-lived TV show called Kuda Bux, Hindu Mystic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He eventually lost his eyesight to glaucoma.<ref name="randi" /> Early in her career, Joan Rivers traveled to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré with Kuda to perform as his assistant. They did the Indian basket trick, and Kuda sawed her in half. After Rivers started telling jokes during the illusions, Kuda fired her.<ref name="Rivers">Rivers, Joan. Enter Talking. Delacorte Press, 1986. 166–9.</ref> The Magic Castle gave him a Performing Fellowship in 1970.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In his old age, he was a nightly regular at the Castle where he would play cards with magicians Dai Vernon and Hy Berg.<ref name="Booth">Booth, John Nicholls. Psychic Paradoxes. Prometheus Books, 1986. 45–50.</ref> He died in 1981 in his sleep, aged 75.<ref name="Booth"/>

Career

Kuda Bux was a skilled magician with a seven-decade career. His first job was attracting audiences for Professor Moor by performing the linking rings.<ref name="Dahl"/> Bux was a deft card magician and was described as "a genius with silks".<ref name="Rivers"/><ref>Saltman, David. "Where and How to Put a Little Magic In Your Trip", New York Times. February 6, 1977.</ref> He generated publicity for his performances by seeking the scrutiny of scientists.

Blindfolds

In one of his best known performances he would cover his eyes with soft dough balls, blindfold himself, swath his entire head in strips of cloth, and yet still be able to see.<ref name="randi">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>"The Man With the X Ray Eyes!", British Pathé. September 12, 1938.</ref> While blindfolded he would read the dates on coins which were held in a spectator's hand, read the fine print of a magazine, thread a needle while covered in a wine barrel, duplicate words he had never seen written, shoot a can on children's heads with a pellet gun and many other tricks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bux once cycled with his eyes covered along Broadway in New York City.<ref name="randi" />

Over the years, Bux gave differing accounts about how the trick worked. He told researcher Harry Price that he used his nostrils to see.<ref>Price, Harry. "Walking Through Fire." The Listener, vol. 14, no. 349, 18 Sept. 1935. pp. 225–8. The Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991.

Reprinted in Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter. Putnam, 1936. 318.</ref> He once said any piece of exposed skin was all he needed to perform the trick and read The Life of Samuel Johnson from behind a door with his hand.<ref name="Dahl"/> Fellow magician John Booth wrote that Bux was a dedicated showman who made a point of using reading glasses when he was not onstage. Booth befriended his colleague when he was a regular at the Magic Castle.<ref name="Booth"/>

Roald Dahl wrote a non-fiction story about Bux's blindfold routine for Argosy in 1952. Twenty-five years later, he changed Bux's name to Imhrat Khan and kept the bulk of his Argosy report intact as the framed story in "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Firewalking

In 1935, Bux walked over hot coals in front of an audience of scientists from the University of London Council for Psychical Research and news reporters.<ref>Melton, J. Gordon. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena. Visible Ink. p. 111. Template:ISBN</ref> On September 9, he made a test walk across a 25x3x1-foot trench. Bux felt the trench was too shallow and narrow. Eight days later, the trench was twice as wide but 3 inches shallower. Bux's feet were checked before and after the firewalking demonstration to verify that no protective chemicals, topical creams or herbs were used. It was a very windy day and the surface temperature of the fire was over Template:Convert.<ref>Price, Harry. "Fire-Walking Experiments: Report On Kuda Bux's Demonstration", The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3899 (Sep. 28, 1935), p. 586.

Reprinted in Confessions..., 375.</ref> The September 17th stunt was photographed and filmed.<ref>"Radio News-Reel." The Listener, vol. 14, no. 350, 25 Sept. 1935, pp. 521+. The Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Time reported that Bux wept when he was asked to repeat the walk a third time and refused to do it.<ref>"Science: Feet to Fire", Time. September 30, 1935.</ref>

Bux repeated his firewalk at NBC Radio City Studios in Manhattan on 2 August 1938. A Template:Convert hole was dug in the Radio City parking lot. Wooden logs and bags of charcoal were set on fire in it. Bux took four steps across the pit before exiting halfway across. After Bux walked through the coals, a cameraman who had missed some of the stunt asked for a retake. Bux obliged by repeating the firewalk. Again, his feet were checked before and after the firewalking demonstration. Robert Ripley said, "Kuda Bux's feet were not even warm." There is newsreel footage of this event in the TV biography The Incredible Life and Times of Robert Ripley: Believe It or Not!.<ref>Portnow Richard et al. directors. The Incredible Life and Times of Robert Ripley: Believe It or Not. Turner Home Entertainment 1994.</ref> It was the last time Bux would perform the stunt.<ref name="JSTOR">Miller, Caitlyn Renee. "Kuda Bux: Fire-walking for Fame and Fortune". JSTOR Daily. September 28, 2022.</ref>

Harry Price suggested that the feat was performed by specific placement of the feet.<ref>Samuel, Lawrence R. (2011). Supernatural America: A Cultural History. ABC-CLIO. p. 49. Template:ISBN</ref> Just days after Bux's 1935 walk, Joseph Dunninger gave a more logical explanation to his Universal Council for Psychic Research. He pointed out that charcoal cools rapidly, and it also has a protective layer of ash. By walking quickly on it, one could avoid being burned. Dunniger reminded his audience that firewalking is an old Japanese trick known as "hai-wattari" (火渡).<ref>"Firewalker Trick Bared by Expert", New York Times. September 19, 1935.</ref>

Further reading

• Demonstration of Firewalking. Nature 136, 468 (1935).

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0125499

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• Archives on Kuda Bux in the Harry Price papers
• Template:YouTube, from an episode of You Asked for It