Did Houdini repeat the Mirror Challenge?

The Mirror Handcuffs Challenge is the gift that keeps giving. There are still many mysteries and unanswered questions about this seminal escape during the height of Houdini's Handcuff King days. While the current hot topic is the Tatler cuffs, I recently stumbled on a new curiosity in the December 1947 The Linking Ring.

Below is an excerpt from the article "Royal Aquarium & Egyptian Hall" by Will Stone. As a young man, Stone worked with magician Paul Valadon in England. Stone talks about a hapless Handcuff King named Pongo, whom he had helped with an escape in the presence of Valadon and Albini. He then continues...

It was about this time that Houdini was advertised at the Hippodrome. He would give 500 pounds to any one who could get out of a special set of handcuffs, called "Mirror Handcuffs." The Daily Mirror Newspaper Corporation had these handcuffs made especially to challenge Houdini to get out of them, and Houdini accepted the challenge. At the same time, he passed the challenge along to any one. After a lot of urging, Valadon and Albini persuaded Pongo to compete, telling him that he had a fine chance to win, but warned him never to say a word about Valadon and Albini asking him to compete. In fact, never to mention either of their names.

The evening came when Houdini was to get out of the Mirror Cuffs. It had been advertised all over London. Val gave me tickets for Pongo and myself, with strict orders for me to see that Pongo got to the Hippodrome, and that his seat was right down near the stage. After having helped him in the back yard, he knew I was his friend, and he stuck close by. We got seats in the third row, and I had never seen such a full house before. Every seat was taken. The stage was set for Houdini. On the stage a small tent was erected. In came Houdini. The applause was tremendous. He stated what he was about to do—or try to do. He made a long speech, and he knew what to say and how to say it. He then made the challenge to any one in the audience who would attempt to get out of these handcuffs. Up jumped Pongo. "I accept that challenge," he shouted. Every eye was turned on him. Houdini stopped and stared. Then the audience gave a yell. Pongo grabbed me to go with him on the stage, but I pulled away from him and he went alone. Houdini asked three or four from the audience to come onto the stage to see that everything was fair. Valadon and Albini were among those who responded. Houdini looked Pongo over, and no doubt sized him up correctly. He then made a talk explaining things. He said he would fasten the Mirror cuffs on Pongo, and also an ordinary pair of cuffs. Pongo positively refused the ordinary cuffs; only the Mirror cuffs for him. So Houdini fastened the Mirror cuffs on Pongo and led him to the tent. In Pongo went.

After waiting a half hour, the audience became restless and began to shout. Another half hour passed and Houdini went and spoke to Pongo. Pongo came out, looking as if he had been in a fight. The audience saw him with handcuffs still on. He went down to the footlights with uplifted arms, and the spectators, seeing that he had something to say, quieted down. Pongo shouted: "Give an Englishman a chance!" That got them. The yelling and stamping was deafening. So Pongo went in for another half hour, but finally had to call it a go, and quit. The handcuffs were unlocked by the referee, and Pongo acknowledged his defeat.

Houdini was handcuffed with the Mirror cuffs, then with the ordinary pair of cuffs. He went into the tent, and in about ten minutes, out flew the ordinary cuffs. More yells and shouts, then they quieted down, for about twenty minutes. Houdini came out, still handcuffed. His assistant got a pair of shears and cut his coat up the back. It looked as if the coat was too tight. More yells and shouts and stamping! Houdini went into the tent again, and in about twenty minutes he was out with the cuffs unlocked. Then bedlam prevailed, and we went home.

What do we make of this? No mention of Pongo appears in any other account of the challenge, including the Daily Mirror's own highly detailed report. Stone's memories of the escape are also filled with slight differences, such as Houdini being secured with a second pair of handcuffs and his coat being cut off by an assistant instead of being slashed off by Houdini himself with a pen knife. It also seems highly improbable that a full hour would be given to a random challenger on the day of the highly publicized escape. But my biggest problem with this account is that we know Houdini offered up the Mirror handcuffs to challengers only after his escape on March 17 (read: Houdini's own Mirror Challenge).

However, I believe what Stone describes did happen. But it was not March 17, 1904. This was a performance after the original escape when Houdini accepted challengers, Pongo being one of them. Applying a second pair of handcuffs is a believable detail that makes perfect sense in context. The Mirror handcuffs were non-adjustable, so a second pair of cuffs would prevent the challenger from slipping them off.

But what of Stone's memories of seeing Houdini make the escape with all the on-stage dramatics of the original? Is he conflating memories of what he saw with what he had only read? That could be. But I think he may again be describing precisely what he saw, and Houdini was repeating his escape from Mirror handcuffs. He might have even done this several times during his six-week run at the Hippodrome when all of London was abuzz about the original escape.

What interests me is that Houdini also repeats the original escape's onstage theatrics, such as coming out of the cabinet and shedding his coat. But instead of going through the gymnastics of doing it himself, he had an assistant cut it off. Being locked in a second pair of cuffs and having them fly from the cabinet at the 10-minute mark is actually a nice addition.

All this is suggestive that Houdini came to see the Mirror Challenge and his dramatic struggles onstage as a performance piece. Or maybe it was conceived as such from the start.

Want more? You can read Will Stone's entire article from The Linking Ring as a Scholar member of my Patreon below.

Thanks to Joe Fox and the William Larsen Memorial Library at the Magic Castle.

Related:

• Houdini's own Mirror Challenge
• Guest blog: Houdini Reflected, Part I | Part II
• Joe Notaro is hot on the trail of the "Tatler Cuffs"