As I said, I don't recall where I got this and I don't know who owns this painting today. So if this belongs to you and you want credit or prefer it not be shared on WAH, just shoot me an email and I'll make it disappear!
Related:
Where Houdini Lives
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Boston Globe, March 31, 1906. |
BLACK HISTORY & MAGIC
— The Magic Castle® (@MagicCastle_AMA) February 21, 2021
Wilmont A. Barclay (aka "Professor Maharajah") was a professional mind reader, hypnotist, and magician. He allegedly used the term "escape artist" prior to Houdini and taught Harry his first handcuff escapes in 1895.
(Magicpedia/Image: Boston Post, 1901.) pic.twitter.com/I9hv95sdZU
About HoudiniEight or ten years ago, says Burns Mantle, Harry Houdini, who was seen on the local stage a week or two ago, was a poor unknown, doing twelve shows a day in a cheap western museum. His specialty was to release himself from handcuffs and other manacles.The same eight or ten years ago Martin Beck was a rising vaudeville manager with about a third of the prestige and a sixth of the fortune that he now draws checks on. Beck saw Houdini, and Houdini talked with Beck. I believe it was Beck who gave Houdini his stage name, though the lad was born in Budapest and may have come honestly by it.Beck signed a contract with the handcuff breaker which was extended over a period of several years, and Houdini was taken away from the museum and put into vaudeville proper. At the shrewd manager's dictation he visited police stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where he invited the officers to hold him with their manacles. He was not a confident performer in those days. Every time he was manacled he was frightened to death for fear he would not be able to get away and that his "act" would be ruined.He made his first big sensation in San Francisco, after a committee of policemen had put four pairs of handcuffs, an Oregon boot, and a few balls and chains on him, and then fastened them all together. Just to make certain that he did not have a key concealed in his mouth with which he might unlock the cuffs, they sealed his lips with court plaster. Then they put him in the center of the "third degree" room and locked the door.Houdini told me seven years ago, before he was as famous as he is now, that as soon as the door was closed he began his struggle to free himself and was working as though the devil was after him when he heard the labored breathing of some one. He glanced around the room. There was nothing that could conceal a man. Again he started to release his hands. Again he was certain he heard the breathing. And as he looked up quickly he saw a large oil painting on the wall quiver slightly. Slits had been cut in the canvas and he was being watched from that point of vantage.The boy was clever enough to outwit the trickster, however. He edged his way slowly to the corner of the room farthest from the picture, turned his back on the spy, and in something like twenty-seven minutes was free. The feat was exploited in all the coast papers, and the "Handcuff King" was started on his career.No one has been able to explain Houdini's system up to date. Every one is inclined to gasp, sniff and then declare him to be a fakir. Perhaps he is. But he is certainly one of the cleverest that ever lived, for he has fooled thousands of experts.
Altonaer Nachrichten, December 1, 1909 |
In this famous trick, Houdini swallows a number of needles along with yards of thread and brings them all up threaded. The needles passed from Bess to Houdini's niece Ruth Kavanaugh. Houdini collector Larry Weeks acquired the packets directly from the family in the 1960's. This fact has been confirmed by Houdini's Great Nephew John Hinson who was also a benefactor of needles given to him by his Aunt Ruth. The lot includes Houdini's needles ONLY.
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The Buffalo Sunday Morning News, Sept. 10, 1893. |
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The Buffalo Commercial, Sept. 12, 1893. |
"When the curtain went up, the barrel of ale was on a gantry and four brewers' men were on the stage. To a lively tune by the orchestra, they tapped the barrel and filled a jug. They poured out a glass and handed it to Mrs. Houdini and she put it to her lips but did not drink any. Then Houdini pretended to take a drink. Then the brewers' men had a glass each. After that, they filled up a tin (which was something like the milk churns you see on the railway) with beer.Houdini, who in bathing costume, kissed his wife, and went head first into the tin. Immediately, half-a-dozen men, who were are on the stage as a committee, fastened the lid on with padlocks all around the lid, the padlocks being locked to staples that were on a collar on which the lid fitted. The can was then lifted into a cabinet and the curtains closed. In a very short period, one of the attendants went into the cabinet and almost immediately opened the curtains and Houdini walked out. The tin was then brought out and the padlocks were still fastened.Although I met Houdini many times, I never heard of him being stupefied by the beer as his biographer says. And, by the way, a few nights after the beer episode, he did the trick in the can filled with milk."