Three original glass negatives featuring rare images of Houdini sold yesterday on eBay. A photo showing him being bound by two young boys (identified on the slide as Stephen Ligorotis and John Tallitsch) sold for $1,059. A shot of Houdini with trumpet medium Annie Benninghofen holding a giant spirit trumpet brought in $670. A third slide showing Houdini doing cards tricks for Chicago detectives ("Chief Shoemaker & dicks") sold for $847. This last image is the only one that has appeared in print.
The Benninghofen photo is of particular interest as it recalls Houdini's own giant spirit trumpet now in the Fred Pittella collection (seen in
this post). This does not appear to be the same trumpet (dang it), but it establishes that giant spirit trumpets were a thing!
These all came from the Chicago
Herald Examiner collection and from the same seller who offered several other Houdini negatives last year. I'm holding my breath to see if more might appear!
Related:
I love these photos! The two boys are sticking it to Harry with their knees to get the most torque out of the rope. Reminds me of the photo of those two WWI soldiers strapping him in a straitjacket and throwing their knees. I love the look on Harry's face when he sees the giant spirit trumpet.
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