Friday, July 14, 2023

Dash and the duplicate Water Torture Cell

We are all familiar with the letters Houdini wrote to his brother Hardeen after his mother's death in 1913. But I had never seen a letter from Hardeen back to Harry. That's why I was so excited to find a handful of such letters at the Harry Ransom Center.

The first thing that struck me was Hardeen starts off his letters with, "My dear brother Ehrich." Dash using Houdini's real name was eye-opening in itself. Then in a letter dated December 28, 1913, I found this intriguing nugget:

  A fellow by the name of Bedwin came to me a week a go and wanted to sell me the U.S.D. trick for $250. I went to see it and this fellow must have gone to see you at every performance as he has the thing built just like yours, BUT he cannot do it upside down, he only has his hands stuck out of the top, but the trick looks great. He has worked around New York a week or so, but is a bad show man and can not get any work. I offered him a hundred dollars for the trick, but he refused to take it.
    Now what do you think about it, I was going to buy it just to take it off his hands, but will wait until I hear from you.

There was no follow-up in the file and I'm not able to find any mention of a magician named Bedwin performing in New York at this time. Maybe someone else wants to run with this? I do wonder what happened to his Torture Cell?

Want more? You can read Dash's full 2-page letter, which includes some interesting personal details, as a "Scholar" member of my Patreon by clicking below.


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8 comments:

  1. Leo HeviaJuly 14, 2023 at 9:53 AM

    Great stuff! Thanks for posting it! Hardeen it seems tried to lowball Bedwin. He wanted $250 for the cell and Dash offered to cough up only a $100. Houdini would have surely destroyed it if Dash had successfully acquired the copy. I'd also love to see that copy.

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    1. John CoxJuly 14, 2023 at 2:42 PM

      "Only" $100 was over 3K back then. I doubt Bedwin spent that much on making the cell.

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    2. Leo HeviaJuly 14, 2023 at 7:36 PM

      Didn't the USD cost Houdini something like $10,000 in 1912 money? According to Hardeen, the copy looked just like the USD. It couldn't have been cheap to build.

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    3. John CoxJuly 14, 2023 at 7:53 PM

      It did. But no way this guy spent money on the type of materials Houdini used. It might have looked like Houdini's cell, but it sure it was more of a knock off. But I don't know this for sure. Maybe you're right.

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    4. Leo HeviaJuly 15, 2023 at 6:06 AM

      Could it have been another Abb Dickson shower stall? ;-)

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    5. John CoxJuly 15, 2023 at 6:21 AM

      Haha. :)

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  2. AnonymousJuly 15, 2023 at 10:21 AM

    Ironically, the modern trend is for so-called "escape artists" on shows like "America's Got Talent" - to be upright in a water-filled container, with just their shackled wrists sticking out from the top. They must "pick" the locks of the (gaffed) handcuffs (or gaffed padlock) to achieve their freedom.

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    1. John CoxJuly 15, 2023 at 11:17 AM

      Indeed. Maybe we should call this hands through the top approach "Bedwin-style." :)

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