This is a photo that has long vexed Houdini buffs. It appears on page 179 of Kenneth Silverman's Notes to Houdini!!! and shows Houdini flagging a race car. Most intriguingly, the photo is captioned:
Inscribed on the back by N.J. Weiss, Houdini’s sister-in-law: “Worcester, Mass, King, driver, last picture of Harry, 1926″.
Was this photo really taken in Worcester? Could it really be the last photo of Houdini? And why is he flagging what appears to be an auto race?
Well, I think I found all the answers in the below clipping from the October 2, 1926, Worcester Evening Gazette.
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| Worcester Evening Gazette, Oct. 2, 1926. |
Visitors to the New England Fair yesterday were given an opportunity to see Houdini perform in a new role which was not listed as one of the attractions of the day. Houdini acted as chief timer of the auto races, being assisted by four local automobile dealers who are shown with him timing the attempt to break the track record. The attempt was successful, the time in 32 seconds flat, which establishes a new record for the track. In the picture, left to right, are: Frederick Churchill, Buick; H.B. Chase, Dodge Brothers; Houdini; M.E. Tuller, Nash, and J.F. Timmy, Studebaker.
This was the final day of the 10th Annual New England Fair in Worcester. The fair had featured horse racing, but on this last day auto racing was featured on the dirt track. The clipping below offers a bit more about the race and racers. It even mentions a driver named "King" and the car he was driving, a Frontenac.
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| Worcester Evening Gazette, Oct. 1, 1926. |
As to the checkered flag photo itself, because it was taken on October 1st, we now know it's not the last photo of Houdini. That honor currently belongs to a photo of him taken at a Montreal police station on October 18, 1926 (seen here). The article doesn't say anything about Houdini flagging the race, and as the photographer would be standing out on the track itself, it's likely this was just a photo op.
It's worth noting Houdini was playing his "3 Shows on One" in Worcester this week, featuring his new "The Mystery of the Sphinx" (aka Buried Alive) and "Slicing a Girl."
So there we go! The checkered flag photo is a mystery no more. Ironically, I found this clipping exactly 97 years to the day that it appeared. What a nice way to start October. 🎃
What a great article. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael. I live for discoveries like this! :)
DeleteNicely done!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteThis is incredible! Unbelievable! The sister in law wasn't far off. She didn't know about the radio, and police station photos. This is the third to the last photo of HH.
ReplyDeleteAnother entry for the Chronology! I hope the checkered flag photo is included. John is the Big Kahuna of all things Houdini. Joe Notaro is runner up, and Patrick is the Godfather.
ReplyDeleteI have the event in the Chronology for sure. No reason to mention the photo, especially as we can see other photos were taken that day.
DeleteThe Richmond Times Dispatch for Sep 2 1926 lists the entrants for the automobile race to be held on Labor Day, the following Monday (9/6), at the state fair grounds. One of the entrants was "H. H. Campbell, Suffolk, Va., the Shenandoah Special, No. 28." I suspect that this was the driver pictured in the photo.
ReplyDeleteNice. I bet you're right.
DeleteAccording to David Charvet (who knows cars as well as he knows magic), the car in the pic is a Frontenac, which is the car the clipping says King was driving. Maybe they swapped cars!
DeleteFantastic! The two leading Houdini “unfinished stories” in my mind are:
ReplyDelete1). The “Tatler” handcuff. Was it THE Mirror cuff that was used by Houdini in 1904? Where is that Handcuff today?
2). The photo of Houdini which was inscribed as the last photo of Houdini. Is that a dead (body on way to NY?) or alive (performing his final outdoor stunt) Houdini within that glass topped box?
Do we have any further information regarding these?
Perry from NJ.
Joe Notaro has written the definitive articles on the Tatler Cuffs on his website Houdini Circumstantial Evidence. What we know is that Bess gave the Tatler Cuffs to W.W. Durbin around the late 1920s. Durbin was a wealthy magic collector who started the Egyptian Hall magic theater, and collection at his home in Kenton, Ohio. He died in 1937, and his widow sold off items from his collection to two brothers. The rest she sold to David Price, who became the owner of the Egyptian Hall collection. The Tatler Cuffs did not ride along in the Egyptian Hall collection to Price. They may have been purchased by those two brothers, and the trail goes cold from there. Durbin's descendants don't have the cuffs.
DeleteAn interesting article on W.W. Durbin and Egyptian Hall:
Deletehttp://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=W._W._Durbin
I've not been able to draw any conclusions about the body in the casket photo. Maybe one day something will come along that explains it.
DeleteOne thing I'd like to know is who owns this photo today. I've not encountered it in any of the collections I've seen.
ReplyDeleteJohn:
DeleteAlthough their are some weird “issues” with the photo, the way Houdini seems to be dressed and what looks like string/elastic holding his hands together, I conclude this is Houdini performing his last stunt in front of a Furniture store in Worcester. I came to this conclusion for three reasons:
I could not envision that they would display Houdinis dead body in this manner.
The glass front casket appears to be lifted on one end for display as one would expect for such a stunt.
You can see a reflection in the glass that there is a small group of people positioned a short distance in front of the casket. Houdini did not draw much of a crowd that day!
Perry from NJ.
Oh, I wasn't talking about the casket photo. The photo I haven't seen in a collection is the checkered flag photo. I'd like to read that inscription on the back for myself. But that is a good theory about the casket photo. A photo from the Summerfield store test might confirm it. But I've never been able to find one.
Delete