Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin Elephant", that every magician of the 20th century was "haunted" by Robert-Houdin, "…who cast an enormous shadow over their generation." American magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (born Ehrich Weiss) was so impressed by Robert-Houdin that, after reading his autobiography in 1890, Ehrich adopted the stage name of "Houdini" in honour of Robert-Houdin. He incorrectly believed that an "i" on the end of a name meant "like" in French; but Houdini, his own career and reputation established by that time, later lost his youthful respect for Robert-Houdin, believing that he took undue credit for other magicians' innovations, and wrote "The
Stanley A. Weiss as proctologist-turned-ventriloquist Gerry Feigen were among a group of friends who met regularly with Weiss at Trader Vic's. His closest friends were the entrepreneur, Harry Hunt, and attorney Bernard Petrie. Living part of the year in the Swiss village of Gstaad, Weiss also befriended a colorful cast of characters including Galbraith, conservative icon and "National Review" founder William F. Buckley, and provocative "Spectator" columnist Panagiotis Theodoracopulos, better known as Taki. Weiss also developed close friendships in Gstaad with two of the actors who played James Bond – Sean Connery and Roger Moore. He would later befriend a third—Pierce Brosnan –