I have a theory. “Ruritania” is the name of the fictional European nation featured in the famous novel The Prisoner of Zenda. A film adaptation of the novel was a hit for MGM during Houdini’s production year. So was using Ruratania (slight change in spelling) an inside joke? Maybe!
However, I was recently reading the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client," and was surprised to read this:
It was simply that among the passengers on the Cunard boat Ruritania, starting from Liverpool on Friday, was the Baron Adelbert Gruner, who had some important financial business to settle in the States.
Another reference to a ship called Ruritania! The story identifies it as a Cunard liner, so I checked the listing of all Cunard's ships, and there is no Ruritania or Ruratania. So I still believe a ship with this name never existed.
"The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" was first published in Collier's magazine in 1924. The Prisoner of Zenda novel was published in 1895 and would have been known to Doyle. So is Doyle making the same inside joke that Houdini makes 29 years later?
It's also possible that both Doyle and the Houdini filmmakers were simply modifying the familiar name of Muratania (a very real ship), and it's just a coincidence that they both landed on Ruritania. OR could Houdini screenwriter Philip Yordan have been a Sherlockian, and the joke in Houdini is actually a nod to "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client,” which in itself is a nod to Zenda? Now my head hurts.
I own the two major annotated volumes of the complete Holmes stories, The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by William S. Baring-Gould and The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Leslie Klinger, and neither makes any reference to Doyle's use of Ruritania.
This might be a case for Sherlock Holmes!
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