Bernard M. L. Ernst

Bernard Morris Leon Ernst (March 17, 1879 – November 28, 1938) most well known as Bernard M. L. Ernst was an American lawyer, magician and associate of Harry Houdini.

Career

Ernst was born in Uniontown, Alabama. He received his LL.B from Columbia University in 1905. He began working as a lawyer for a firm in Boston in 1909, he also worked on the legal counsel for the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway. In the 1930s he was a council member of the Metropolitan League of Jewish Community Associations in New York City. Ernst was Jewish. He was a member of many organizations including the American Bar Association, New York County Lawyers' Association, Phi Delta Theta, National Vaudeville Artists Association, American Society for Psychical Research and the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Magic

Ernst took interest in magic and became the personal attorney for the magician Harry Houdini and the legal representative of his estate. Houdini's Magic (with Walter Brown Gibson) (1932) Preface to Royal Vale Heath Mathemagic: Magic, Puzzles and Games with Numbers (1933)