The below clippings from October 26, 1928 report that Sady, who was a well-known New York fashion designer, is one of several women who have applied for passage aboard the Graf Zeppelin. The giant airship was the talk of New York at this time as it had just crossed the Atlantic on its maiden voyage. The return to Germany was a hot ticket. But check out the absolutely bonkers article in which a Zeppelin representative weighs the value of a female passenger against...a bag of mail.
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Turns out Sady did not made the cut. Only two women made the crossing back to Berlin; Mrs. Clara Adams of Tannersville, PA, and Miss Lotta Eckener, daughter of Zeppelin's director, Dr. Hugo Eckener. But one wonders if Sady was even serious about making this trip. Maybe she just saw an opportunity for publicity. A little trick she leaned from her brother-in-law?
Of course, Hugo Eckener's follow-up to the Graf Zeppelin, the Hindenburg, exploded in Lakehurst New Jersey on May 6, 1937, bringing an end to the era of great airships.
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Wow, the revelations just keep on coming. (I find it rather amazing that no prior Houdini biographer has uncovered this much. Was it really just because she altered the spelling of her first name from Sadie to Sady?)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think the spelling is what threw us off her trail!
DeleteIf Houdini had only shown Sady the secret, she could've still secured passage on the Zeppelin by being brought on IN a sack of mail, and then escaping from it(which is no less dignified than being compared to a sack of mail!)
ReplyDeleteHa, ha! Good one T & J!
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