Houdini and Edwin Booth's hair

Our friend Eric Colleary, who is currently organizing an exhibit and penning a book devoted to Houdini's Library, alerted me to this post by The Player's Foundation on Facebook. I never knew about this! Eric pointed out that the Harry Ransom Center has the receipt for this donation, an image of which is shared in the comments. The only mistake here is the year is 1917, not 1911.

Collecting someone's hair? What a weirdo. Oh, wait...

Thank you, Eric!

Related:

• Find of the century?
• Houdini’s Library coming to the HRC in Fall 2026
• Houdini’s Library will also be a book!

Photos from 'Houdini Odyseia Magiczna'

Here's a nice collection of photos from the play Houdini Odyseia Magiczna (Houdini A Magical Odyssey), which played at the Senatorska 35 in Warsaw, Poland, last summer. The play was written and directed by Michał Walczak. Multiple actors played Harry and Bess at different times in their lives and, based on these images, sometimes at the same time. Looks very stylish and interesting.

These photos come from the website Teatr Zydowski, where you can get more information about the play and flip through the show program.

Related:

• Houdini Plays
• 'Houdini A Magical Odyssey' in Warsaw
• Houdini A Circus Opera (1977)

Houdini (1953) production stills sell at auction

A remarkable set of 150 production photos from Paramount's Houdini (1953) sold last week at Bonhams "Gone With The Wind: The Walter O'Conner Collection" auction for $3,072 (including buyer premium). This blew away the auction estimate of $300-$500. Lot description is below.

A Houdini Group of Set Stills Paramount Pictures, 1953 

Comprising approximately 150 silver gelatin photographs, all 8 x 10 in., many date stamped (Oct. 1952) to verso, featuring various scene setups including the honeymoon room, the island bridge, the machine shop, Coney Island, the Virginia Theatre, the Houdini home, the Alhambra dressing room and theatre, and many more, most with the scene identification chalkboards indicating the production number and director George Marshall's name and other details, a few featuring the stars of the film including Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Please note that there may be some duplication of photographs.

Congratulations to the winner of this important Houdini (1953) history. I would love to get a look at these someday.

Related:

• Houdini rises at Paramount
• Houdini (1953) Confidential
• LIFE photos reveals cut wing walking scene from Houdini (1953)

Deconstructing Houdini '53: Under the Ice

It was 49 years ago today that I first saw Houdini (1953), and it changed my life. What better day to continue my scene-by-scene dissection of the movie. Last time, Harry became an American sensation. But has he gone too far...

Chapter 18: Under the Ice

The following three scenes are linked as one sequence, so I will treat them all in one post. This is arguably the most memorable sequence in the entire movie. It's certainly the most harrowing! But did any of it ever happen? Let's dive in.

We open with a procession of bellboys delivering buckets of ice to Houdini's hotel room. A strategically placed sign informs us this is Halloween Eve. The bellboys go into Houdini's bathroom and empty their buckets into the tub where Houdini lies in freezing water under a mound of ice. Otto tells the curious bell captain (Mike Mahoney) that Houdini is "going to jump into the Detroit River tomorrow."

Detroit? Halloween? This is starting to sound ominous.

Houdini in a tub of ice is a strange sight but a perfectly accurate one. Houdini did take extremely cold ice baths to prepare himself for his outdoor water escapes. However, Houdini did them at home under the watch of his doctor brother (Leopold) instead of in a hotel room. It's also unlikely that Houdini's baths had this much ice, but it's a great visual.

A flustered Bess enters and is taken aback by the entire scene. Notice Bess is dressed in all black -- a widow before the fact. She pulls Harry from the tub (or, rather, she tells Otto to pull him from the tub) and tells him the Detroit River is frozen over and he will have to cancel the stunt. Harry looks to Otto, who says casually, "We'll cut a hole in the ice."

Once again, we see Otto as a dark enabler, finding ways for Houdini to push into the higher realms of magic and death defiance. Bess is mortified by the idea, but Harry is delighted and even jokes about it. "If I had you with me under that ice, I bet we could set a new record." But then Bess cautions him that tomorrow is Halloween. "That's not your day." Houdini steels himself and says, "To me, it's just another Thursday."

This is a significant moment and a big change in Houdini's character. In his youth, Harry recognized the role fate played in his life, telling Bess, "Something strange always happens to me on Halloween." Now Bess is warning him that fate may be trying to send him a message. But Harry ignores them both. 

Is his skepticism due to hubris, or has he simply outgrown his youthful beliefs? The real reason may be expressed in his line, "The theater has advertised it for weeks; I can't back out now." He doesn't want to disappoint his audience. But we can't help but feel Houdini is entering into a stunt that is reckless in more ways than one.

We now dissolve to a beautiful shot (or rather, a beautiful matte painting by Jan Domela) showing the frozen Detroit River and what is, presumably, the Belle Island Bridge. Despite Otta saying Houdini would "jump" into the river, we see he's being manacled and locked into a steel box. Technical advisor Dunninger provided this box and claimed it was used by Houdini himself. However, there is no record of Houdini ever using a steel case for his overboard box escapes. (This box survives and is today displayed at the Laurel Canyon Houdini Estate.)

A construction crane hoists the box up and out over the bridge. But as it is being lowered, the chain breaks and the box plunges through the hole in the ice with no safety line attached. This was all staged in the water tank on the Paramount backlot, and it's sensational!

While panic ensues on the surface, we see the steel box land on the river bottom. After a moment's beat, Houdini emerges from behind it. This is similar to footage of the real Houdini escaping from an underwater box in The Master Mystery and Terror Island. This isn't by accident. The filmmakers had access to a print of Terror Island in the Paramount archives and studied it. Houdini producer George Pal even showed the scenes back to back on the television show You Asked For It.

Houdini swims to the surface only to find that he has been swept downstream under the ice sheet. He can not find the exit. He is trapped under the ice! He swims with growing panic until he finds a pocket of air. He takes a few merciful breaths, then plunges down and continues his search for the hole. This is every bit as frightening as it sounds!

Meanwhile, on the surface, Bess tells Otto, "I know he's in trouble. He should have been out by now." Otto orders hooks to be dropped into the water. The hooks snag the box and haul it to the surface. But when the box is opened, Houdini is not inside. Bess faints as Otto orders the lines dropped back into the water in the hopes that "he might see them."

We dissolve to several minutes later when it is clear Houdini has not been found. Reporters are leaving the scene with one saying forlornly, "Guess we got a headline." Another dissolve takes us to Otto, now standing alone by the hole in the ice, waiting for a miracle as the cold wind blows his coat. A magnificent shot.

Okay, a quick fact check. Houdini did jump handcuffed from the Belle Island Bridge in Detroit in very cold temperatures in November 1906. But the river wasn't frozen. Houdini himself created the myth of being trapped under the ice. When Houdini (1953) was made, the story was believed to be true. It's in the Harold Kellock book, Houdini: His Life Story, on which this movie is based. It wasn't until 1959 that the true facts of the Belle Island Bridge jump came to light. So we can't fault the filmmakers for including this and embedding it into people's minds to this day. It's just so dang powerful!

We now dissolve to Bess back in the hotel room, still dressed in black with the lights low. She hears newsboys calling on the street: "Houdini lost in Detroit River!" This atmospheric addition to the story was the creation of Bess herself. It first appears in the Kellock book:

    Back in the hotel Mrs. Houdini was lying uneasily in bed when she heard newsboys crying in the street.

    "Quick, open the window wide," she said to her attendant, and suddenly the cries became clear: "Extree! Extree! Houdini dead!" "Extree! Houdini drowned in river."

That's when the hotel door opens. Bess turns to see a darkened silhouette of Houdini standing there. Is it a ghost? No, it's Houdini in the flesh, accompanied by Otto. He is risen! (At this point, the ten-year-old me decided I needed to devote my life to Houdini.)

Harry and Bess embrace. He explains that the current swept him downstream. He feared he'd "never find the opening," but then he heard his mother's voice calling to him. He swam toward the sound of her voice and found the opening in the ice. (Presumably, with Otto still standing vigil.) Bess cries as Harry assures her, "I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you."

The phone rings. Harry takes the call, and darkness descends over his features. "What time did she die?" he asks. When he hangs up, he tells Bess that his mother died at the same time he heard her calling to him. Houdini collapses into Bess's arms and we fade to black.

Standing ovation!!!

Okay, more fact-checking. The addition of Houdini's mother's death and guiding voice is pure invention. Here, divine intervention saves Houdini from his Halloween fate (this time). But Houdini's own "true" version of the story has none of this. In fact, he goes out of his way to say that he searched and found no "greater" or "guiding light" to rescue him. In his own version of events, Houdini saves himself.

It's also interesting to note that because the filmmakers chose to stage this on Halloween, it means his mother also died on Halloween. A bad day indeed! Houdini's mother actually died on July 17, 1913, and Houdini learned of her death during a press conference in Copenhagen. But the movie is correct in showing that Houdini was not present for his mother's death, and the news came as a great shock to him. Such a shock that it will change the course of his life and career.

But we'll save that for next time.

Want more? You can read past installments of Deconstructing Houdini '53 as a Scholar member of my Patreon.

Related:

• Trapped under the ice with Houdini
• Houdini freezes the Detroit river in 1912
• Punching a new hole in the ice story
• November 16, 1975

Have you read Red Magic?

We have one last centennial to celebrate this year. This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the launch of Houdini's "Red Magic." The syndicated newspaper supplements debuted in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, November 16, 1924, and continued until at least 1929. They were published in red ink, hence the name. Papers that elected not to use red ink rebranded it as "Home Magic." Below is the ad that appeared in The New York World announcing the series 100 years ago today.

McCord-Stewart Museum Collection

Red Magic was basically a collection of puzzles and simple magic tricks using home objects. Houdini did take a little heat for publishing "exposures," but this seems silly when viewing what these actually contained. Each issue featured a banner crediting Houdini as the editor. The style of the banner and photo of Houdini could be different from paper to paper. I've included a selection below. After Houdini's death, "Edited by" was changed to "Founded by."

I would love it if someone published a complete facsimile collection of Red Magic, ideally from the New York Sunday World, which appears to have published the most complete issues. I think that would make a terrific Houdini/magic book.

Want more? I've collected several issues of Red Magic into a PDF "sampler pack" that I'm offering as this month's free Patreon member reward. Lucky patrons!

  

Related:

• Ernie Bushmiller and Houdini
• Mystifier, First Quarter 2001
• Houdini now partying in Russia

Thank you Mr Piffles

I'm sad to learn today of the loss of Mr. Piffles, the companion and performing partner of Piff the Magic Dragon. Watching this beautiful tribute video, I cannot help but be reminded of the eulogy Houdini penned for his own dog, Bobby, "The Only Handcuff King Dog in the World," in 1918. R.I.P. Mr. Piffles.

You read more about the life of Mr. Piffles at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Related:

• Charlie lost!
• Houdini and Don the Talking Dog
• Guest Blog: The Bobby Handcuffs come home

Breaking the ice in 1959

On the eve of the publication of Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls, this article appeared in the Detroit Free Press. I think we can classify this as the first public debunking of the famed trapped under the ice story. I like that the article credits the man who did the research for Gresham, the great Robert Lund (above), best known for his American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan.

Detroit Free Press, Aug. 2, 1959.

Ironically, this article ends with a new myth about how Houdini may have escaped from the Mirror Handcuffs. It's Houdini myth whack-a-mole!

Of course, the best depiction of the under-the-ice myth is in the 1953 Houdini biopic starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Coincidently, that sequence is the topic of the next "Deconstructing Houdini '53," which I will be posting this Saturday.

Related:

• Houdini freezes the Detroit river in 1912
• Punching a new hole in the ice story
• The first great Houdini biography

The Golden Years from Houdini (1953)

We all know a movie's box office can be boosted if the film contains a hit song. This is true today, and it was true in the 1950s. For Paramount's 1953 Houdini, the attempt at a hit appears to have been "The Golden Years." While the melody plays several times during the film, this recording by Clyde Rogers with Russ Morgan and His Orchestra includes the words.

Was it a hit? I don't know, but I doubt it. It's a bit dreary. But what I like is that it keyed into the nostalgia for the early 1900s that was part of the appeal of Houdini (1953) for the older crowd. The young had Tony and Janet!

Below is sheet music for "The Golden Years."

Related:

• LINK: A bit of Houdini music
• 'Houdini March Two-Step' sheet music (update)
• Houdini '53 at 70: Star power

Who needs a drink?

Our friend Richard Hatch sent over this photo of a bottle of "Freakshow" Cabernet Sauvignon from the Michael David Winery in Lodi, California. Can you spot the Houdini reference?

Click here if you need a clue.

Thank you, Richard.

Related:

• Escape your troubles with a cold Houdini
• The Houdini-blue-tini
• The Handcuff King's blog: Freaks of Octoberfest

Inside The Official Houdini Séance 2024

The 2024 Official Houdini Séance was held in Houdini's hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, at the Trout Museum of Art in Houdini Plaza. Among the honored inner circle attendees this year included Debbie Hardeen-Bloom and Meg Hoppe, the great-granddaughter of Gustav Keller. Kellar was a friend of Houdini's who corresponded with him about his Appleton memories and exploits. Entertainment was provided by magicians Daryl Rogers and James David. Mike Schroeder, current president of IBM Ring 398, did a straitjacket escape. The seance was conducted by Cheryl Burch of DePere, Wisconsin.

Appleton's own Tom Boldt organized this year's seance. Items from his incredible collection were on display. The seance was by invitation only. Someone must have forgotten to send Houdini's invite because, for the 98th year in a row, he was a no-show. But the seance was once again a terrific tribute to Houdini and everyone appears to have had a great time.

Here are some photos from the event courtesy of New Normal Studios.

Seance table and program.

The Inner Circle

Medium Cheryl Burch leads the attempt.

Are you here, Harry?

The seance handcuffs remained locked.

Debbie Hardeen-Bloom

Magician Daryl Rogers

Magician James David

Escapist Mike Schroeder

Rarities from the Tom Boldt Collection.

Perfect day for a seance.

The seance received some nice press this year. Below is a report from WLUK-TV.

Want more? I've posted video of Bill Radner showing Houdini's modified Bean Giant handcuffs and the famed "Séance Cuffs" at the start of the seance on my Patreon. 

Thanks to Tom Boldt, Bill Radner, Bruce Averbook, and  New Normal Studios for the info and pics. 

Past Official Houdini Séances:

• The Official Houdini Séance 2023 (Charleston)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2022 (Providence)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2021 (Chicago)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2020 (Online)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2019 (Niagara Falls)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2018 (Baltimore)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2017 (Cleveland)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2016 (Milwaukee)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2015 (San Francisco)
• The Official Houdini Seance 2014 (Danvers)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2013 (Halifax)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2012 (Fort Worth)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2011 (Holyoke)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2010 (New York)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2009 (Melrose)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2008 (Madison)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2007 (New York)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2006 (New York)
• The Official Houdini Séance 2005 (Boston)