Looking for Mr. Houdini

Check out this screen cap from the 1977 movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar starring Diane Keaton. Does that poster back on the wall look familiar?

The poster is a well-known Houdini lithograph by J. Zier advertising Houdini’s escape from shackles and an Amsterdam jail cell on January 12, 1903. As it is in B&W in the movie, this is most-likely a blow-up from the book 100 Years of Magic Posters (1976).

Kevin Connolly blogging at Houdini Himself

Noted Houdini collector Kevin Connolly has added a blog to his excellent Houdini website: Houdini Himself.com.

Kevin launched the blog on May 17th with the message; “This blog will be about Houdini and maybe a little magic too. Let’s talk about Houdini, past, present and future.”

Kevin has already blown my mind twice in as many days. Yesterday he revealed the existence of a pink variation of Houdini’s popular pitch book, Life History & Handcuff Secrets of Houdini. Today he’s posted a rare die cut program for Houdini’s full evening show that I never even knew existed (right).

Click here to visit Houdini Himself.

Artwork from Bertozzi's Houdini: The Handcuff King on display in L.A.

A sequence of images from Houdini: The Handcuff King by Nick Bertozzi and Jason Lutes are on display as part of the “Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books” show at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

The show is up until August 1, 2010 and then travels to the Eric Carle Museum in Western Massachusetts.

Released in 2007, Houdini: The Handcuff King recently won the 2010 Garden State Teen Book Award “Nonfiction” section. It can be purchased in hardcover and paperback from Amazon.com.

Mystery of the vanishing Vanishing Elephant photos

One of Houdini’s most famous illusions was his Vanishing Elephant. Houdini introduced the effect as part of the Cheer Up review at the New York Hippodrome in 1918. He later revived it with a smaller elephant for live appearances at the Time Square Theater to promote his film, The Man From Beyond.

But for all its fame, precious little is known about exactly how Houdini’s Elephant Vanish looked and worked. While there’s an excellent book devoted in part to the effect, Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer, there is only one known photo of Houdini with his vanishing elephant (Jennie), taken by the White Studio for publicity purposes. But this photo does not reveal the cabinet, which is key to the effect.

But apparently there ARE more photos. Or at least there were...

In his own study, Notes on the Vanishing Elephant, Houdini expert Patrick Culliton says six photos of the illusion were published in the New York World in 1918. Four years earlier the World had featured the only known photo of Houdini’s Walking Through a Brick Wall illusion, in color no less!

Unfortunately, no collector has yet been able to turn up a copy of the World’s Vanishing Elephant issue. In fact, Patrick says this particular issue is the ONLY one missing from the microfilm archives.

Is it possible the photos revealed a little too much and Houdini (or Jimmy Collins) scrubbed the issue from the files?

Let the search commence!

Artist rendering of Vanishing Elephant

Click to enlarge

Check out this dramatic illustration of Houdini performing his Vanishing Elephant illusion, published without a source credit on the blog Mostly Forbidden Zone.

While the dimensions of the box can’t be correct, there are aspects here that this artist gets right. Showing the cabinet on wheels is one. Also note the circle cut out on the back (this is where the audience would observe the “vanish”).

Hard to know if this image is based on the original Hippodrome vanish or the later Time Square Theater version, which used a smaller elephant and cabinet. Nevertheless, this is a nice rendering of one of Houdini’s most famous and still mysterious effects.

Appleton Houdini sculpture to disappear

APPLETON — The ongoing renovation of the Appleton Art Center will uproot the massive metal sculpture that has anchored Houdini Plaza since 1985, reports The Appleton Post-Crescent.

"Metamorphosis," donated to the city by Boldt Development Corp., will be put into storage sometime in the next month for at least a few months as the 1-acre plaza is reworked.

"We don't know specifically when it is going to be moved, but we would like to have it removed by the time the downtown farm market begins in the middle of June," Parks and Recreation Director Bill Lecker said.

"Metamorphosis" sits atop a red-brick platform that resembles a stage. The abstract metal box is balanced on the point of one of its corners and draped with a padlocked chain. The Richard C. Wolter sculpture, a tribute to illusionist Harry Houdini's famous trick in which he escaped from a chain-bound trunk, stands more than 14 feet tall and weighs about 4.5 tons. The plaza marks where Houdini's childhood home once stood.

Lecker said the Parks and Recreation Department is working with Appleton Downtown Inc., a downtown advocacy group that sponsors the farmers market and other events in Houdini Plaza, to discuss a new location for the sculpture.

Plans to move the sculpture began with the announcement that the front entrance of the adjacent Appleton Art Center would be moved from the 100 block of W. College Avenue to the west side of the art center that faces Houdini Plaza, Lecker said.

The new entrance, built on land donated to the art center by The Boldt Co., extends 30 feet into the plaza, and encroaches on space that used to be set aside for the farmers market and other outdoor events.

"We thought there may be a need to offset the loss in property to the art center," Lecker said.
Although the sculpture's future site remains unknown, Lecker said the original renovation plans for Houdini Plaza, drawn up before the art center project was planned, called for the sculpture to remain in the park.

"Right now, we are looking for the best way to move it," Lecker said.

Spotted: Houdini Graphic Biography with new title treatment

Today I spotted an eBay auction for what is described as a “brand new” copy of the HOUDINI Graphic Biography released by Saddelback Education Publishers in 2008.

However, the auction photo shows cover art with a title treatment very different from the ’08 edition. The eBay seller is in Australia so it’s unclear whether this is a region specific design or if this is a new printing from Saddelback also available in the U.S.

Guess a little bookstore investigation is in order.

Saddleback’s HOUDINI Graphic Biography is a reprint of a “pocket biography” first released by Academic Industries in 1984.

Old (left) vs. New (right)