Friday, December 10, 2010

"The reformed Handcuff Expert"

Let's end the week with one from my own collection. Here's a beautiful original portrait shot of Houdini with a nice bold signature. But I admit I don't understand what he means when he calls himself "the reformed Handcuff Expert." As this was signed at the height of his movie career -- this is one of his Hollywood "headshots"-- maybe he's using the word here to mean "retired"? Or maybe it's a message that would only be understood by the recipient, whose name has unfortunately been cut away. (If you have another theory, please feel free to post it in our Comments section below.)

Whatever he meant, it's still a great shot. Enjoy.

John Cox Collection

6 comments:

  1. Great photo John. Thanks for sharing the photos from your personal collection. You know I love them! :)

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  2. My guess is that he used the word "reformed" in a joking way -- joking because in real life getting out of handcuffs is something a criminal would want to do.

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  3. great HH autograph, thanks for sharing...

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  4. He looks very youthful in this shot, given the lateness of it. Nice one, John.

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  5. He was having a good day -- maybe something about the California sunshine. This was taken at the same time of the familiar full front smiling shot, which is another great image. I also own a signed copy of that photo, but the detail is not nearly as good as this one.

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