The Master Mystery premiered 100 years ago today

It was 100 years ago today that Houdini's The Master Mystery (episode 1) premiered at the St. James Theater in Boston. Houdini attended the premiere with co-star Marguerite Marsh. Below is an opening day ad from The Boston Globe.

The 15 episodes that comprised The Master Mystery would continue to roll out into the the new year. This is why you sometimes see the serial dated as 1919. But I date it from its premiere: November 18, 1918.

A truncated version of The Mastery Mystery was released in VHS in 1998 and later on DVD by Kino (now out of print). Recently I was able to watch the almost complete serial at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. You can read more about that via the top link below.

Related:

• A Master Mystery revelation at UCLA
• A Master Mystery UCLA update
• Houdini's leading ladies: Marguerite Marsh