Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Houdini film print sells on eBay

An 8mm print of Houdini's movie The Man From Beyond sold on eBay today for $50.00. Interesting to see a Houdini movie on actual film. The seller, Fantasma Magic, describes this as "extremely rare" and says the print canisters are labeled: "Drama... Studio Unknown... Man From Beyond... Houdini & Nita Naldi reels 1-6".


Back in the days before video, 8mm was a popular consumer format. An 8mm print would have been the only way most magic buffs could see this Houdini film. In the February 1970 issue of Genii, Houdini collector Manny Weltman ran this advert. I'm wondering if this is one of those Weltman 8mm prints?

Genii, February 1970

Ironically, the film cost more in 1970 than it sold for today. This is a rare case of something Houdini related actually going down in value.

Speaking of good old fashioned celluloid, it's projected that distribution of motion pictures on film will cease in the U.S. by the end of 2013 and worldwide by 2015.

UPDATE: I recently found this ad in the December 1954 issue of Home Movies magazine that offers The Man From Beyond on 8mm "to the public for the first time."

5 comments:

  1. my father had all the move of Houdini, he used to watch them all the time, the fire marshall came in told them to throw them out because highly flamible.

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    1. Yep, that's a story I've heard and it kills me to think what went out in the trash that day. :s

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  2. I can only imagine what a 8MM print of The Grim Game would go for, or complete print of Terror Island or The Master Mystery. We lost a lot that day in the trash but it makes for an interesting story. The search for lost film footage continues.

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  3. I am the happy winning bidder and I'm looking forward to getting it in the Mail. I do believe that even though it is just a print, it will increase in value cross market wise for both the film historians / collectors and the magic / escape collectors.

    Jonathon Bryce

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    1. Yes, I think you could be right about that, Jonathon. Congrats on the buy!

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