Despite being in pretty poor condition, an original photo of Houdini in shackles sold on eBay today for an impressive $687 (the auction started at $14.99 without a reserve).
Taken in 1904 at the height of his fame as "The Handcuff King", this shot was used to illustrate Houdini's beautiful Europe's Eclipsing Sensation poster. It also appeared on the cover of his pitchbooks, tobacco cards, and continues to be widely used on book covers today. In many ways, it's the quintessential image of the great escape artist. This is probably why it fetched top dollar.
As always, congrats to the winner.
- Home
- Life
- Escapes
- Magic
- Movies
- Houdini's Movies
- Les merveilleux exploits de Houdini à Paris (1909)
- The Master Mystery (1918)
- The Grim Game (1919)
- Terror Island (1920)
- The Man From Beyond (1922)
- Haldane of the Secret Service (1923)
- Velvet Fingers (1925-26)
- Medium Well Done (1937)
- Religious Racketeers (1938)
- Houdini Picture Corp.
- Film Developing Corp.
- Filming locations
- Unmade Movies
- Deconstructing Houdini '53
- Spiritualism
- People
- Beatrice Houdini
- Theo Hardeen
- Cecelia Weiss
- Mayer Samuel Weiss
- Jim Collins
- Franz Kukol
- Martin Beck
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Margery
- J. Gordon Whitehead
- Edward Saint
- Jacob Hyman
- Leopold Weiss
- Carrie Gladys Weiss
- Bernard M.L. Ernst
- Charmian London
- Jess Willard
- H.P. Lovecraft
- Sherlock Holmes
- Assistants
- Imitators
- Other magicians
- Media
- Full Bibliography
- By Houdini
- Biography
- Fiction
- Foreign
- For Kids
- Methods
- Wild About Harry Bookshelf
- Houdini His Life Story (1928)
- Houdini The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1959)
- Houdini The Untold Story (1969)
- The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini (1993)
- Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss (1996)
- The Secret Life of Houdini (2006)
- The Metamorphosis: The Apprenticeship of Harry Houdini (2012)
- The Witch of Lime Street (2015)
- The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini (2019)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow
ReplyDeleteI didn't think the big boys would go for it because it was so trashed. Thought I might be able to grab it for a price. I was wrong. :)
ReplyDeleteI was going to bid but the price was too high based on it poor condition.
ReplyDeletePete
Condition matters, but so does the background. Was there anything to indicate it was from a significant collection?
ReplyDeleteI feel that the buyer could have waited for a better condition photo for that price.
Bruce Thomson
Nope. The auction just said: "From a cache of over 2,000 rare original B&W photos found in an old footlocker."
Delete