Sunday, April 26, 2020

"The Amazing Exploits of Houdini"

Last year Joe Notaro at Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence traveled to the McCord Museum in Montreal where he was able to examine a file of "The Amazing Exploits of Houdini, The Master of Mystery written by Houdini himself" (but actually ghostwritten by Herbert Allingham until 1923, and then taken over by an unknown writer). This was a series of fictional adventures published in the British weekly The Kinema Comic from April 24, 1920 to November 27, 1926. Yes, Houdini's life as a hero of fiction started this early!

Joe took on the task of summarizing and sharing each adventure from the McCord file (April 24, 1920 v1 n1 to June 5th 1920 v1 n7) along with some of the illustrations by R.B. Ogle. Today he completed the series, so I thought this was the perfect time to share links to all his posts. Enjoy Houdini's amazing exploits and Joe's hard work.


The Bride and the Orangutan (April 24, 1920)
The Jewel Thieves (May 1, 1920)
"Stop Thief!" (May 8, 1920)
The Gold Melters (May 15, 1920)
In the Dead of Night (May 29, 1920) 
Out of the Sky (June 5, 1920)

For a complete list of all issues of The Kinema Comic that contain "The Amazing Exploits of Houdini" see Houdini Periodical Bibliography References From 1898 - 2015 by Arthur Moses.

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6 comments:

  1. Arthur E MosesApril 26, 2020 at 2:48 PM

    The Oct 27, 1923 v4 n184 issue is the only one from the run that DOES NOT contain the series

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  2. Sean DoranApril 27, 2020 at 8:16 AM

    These are great, such a fun read! Thanks Joe and John.

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  3. Tom and JohanApril 27, 2020 at 2:50 PM

    Thanks for sharing these, Joe! And thanks for the post, John. I just read "The Bride and the Orangutan"! One can certainly see the graphic, not to mention filmic possibilities. (I hope the orangutan wasn't supposed to be at the wedding!)

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  4. John CoxApril 2, 2023 at 11:26 AM

    Found a nice detail about this in a Kellar letter in the Copperfield Collection. Houdini made this deal around March 29, 1920. Not only would he get royalties, but he retained the film rights.

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  5. AnonymousApril 8, 2024 at 7:07 PM

    We gotta find all of them and get them published somehow. This is too cool!

    ReplyDelete