Have you read Red Magic?

We have one last centennial to celebrate this year. This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the launch of Houdini's "Red Magic." The syndicated newspaper supplements debuted in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, November 16, 1924, and continued until at least 1929. They were published in red ink, hence the name. Papers that elected not to use red ink rebranded it as "Home Magic." Below is the ad that appeared in The New York World announcing the series 100 years ago today.

McCord-Stewart Museum Collection

Red Magic was basically a collection of puzzles and simple magic tricks using home objects. Houdini did take a little heat for publishing "exposures," but this seems silly when viewing what these actually contained. Each issue featured a banner crediting Houdini as the editor. The style of the banner and photo of Houdini could be different from paper to paper. I've included a selection below. After Houdini's death, "Edited by" was changed to "Founded by."

I would love it if someone published a complete facsimile collection of Red Magic, ideally from the New York Sunday World, which appears to have published the most complete issues. I think that would make a terrific Houdini/magic book.

Want more? I've collected several issues of Red Magic into a PDF "sampler pack" that I'm offering as this month's free Patreon member reward. Lucky patrons!

  

Related:

• Ernie Bushmiller and Houdini
• Mystifier, First Quarter 2001
• Houdini now partying in Russia