Thursday, September 30, 2021

Opening up 'Houdini's Lost Diaries'


The BBC produced Houdini's Lost Diaries appears to have been very popular with those who caught its debut on History's Greatest Mysteries last Tuesday. (Thanks to everyone who sent me kind words about my own small part.) If you're a cord-cutter like me and missed that initial airing, know you can now stream the episode free for one week at the HISTORY website. You can also buy the episode on Amazon Prime, which is exactly what I did last night.

Even though I'm not a fan of the quick-cut, sound-clipy style of HISTORY shows (and that bombastic music), I thought this documentary was cut above in every other aspect. It really does feel we get something new here. There are several photos I've never seen before. They eschew all the easy mythology and work to get their facts right. I especially liked how they characterize Ehrich Weiss as making a conscious effort to transform into the mythic HOUDINI. It's a well told story.

The line-up of talking head experts is also impressive. But it's Teller who steals the show by not only speaking on-screen for the first time in a Houdini documentary, but tearing up twice. It's also a joy to see the great Patrick Culliton, "Houdini's Ghost", back in front of the camera talking Houdini.


So what about the diaries? While offering no real bombshell revelations, there is still gold. The fact that Houdini paid some challengers isn't new, but I love that he apparently coded these payments in the diaries as "be quick." The diaries are really used more to provide the kind of deep character insight that you don't get in other Houdini documentaries. Many pages are shown on-screen, and you can bet I'll be doing some pausing! Bill Kalush, who also gives a rare on-screen interview, is described as "the custodian of the diaries."


I was a little surprised by the sparse use of film footage. Instead they relied heavily, maybe too heavily, on reenactment photographs. And where the heck is Bess!? They also fall into the familiar narrative trap of jumping from Mama's death to spiritualism, ignoring Houdini's war work and movie career. However, they do not conflate his mother's death with spiritualism and correctly root it in his relationship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Spiritualism comes in for the harshest treatment of any Houdini documentary, with Penn Jillett taking off the gloves and likening it to organized crime. Sounds right.


In the end, they do amp up the sensationalism around Houdini's death and hint at possible murder, which I guess is just de rigeur for anything that airs on HISTORY. But they ultimately come down on the side of reason and discount any conspiracy.

Houdini's Lost Diaries is definitely one to watch. The option to stream free or buy on Amazon Prime appears to only be available to U.S. viewers at the moment. But as this was made by the BBC, I expect it will be getting a UK airing sooner than later. Below is an extended preview.

31 comments:

  1. Sadly, we can't watch your link in Canada. We get a message stating: Geographic Restriction - This content is not available in your location.

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    1. Yeah, sorry, that how they do these things I guess. But I'm sure it will play and become available in Canada and the UK soon. I'm kinda of hoping when it airs in the UK, presumably on the BBC, it will do so under its original title, The Houdini Diaries.

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  2. I wondered if we were looking at the actual diaries and according to John that's what it was. With photos glued in it looked like a scrapbook. Kalush is the custodian of the diaries, but what does that mean?

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    1. Well, yes and no. Simon the director told me they couldn't go in and film the actual diaries because of Covid. But we were clearly seeing real pages. My guess is Bill has high res scans and they printed these and made mock-ups. They did that throughout. You'll notice they used a mocked-up edition of The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin as well. (Not sure why they wouldn't have been able to secure a copy of that?) They shot all this during Covid and they had to be creative. When I shot my interview the director was in London directing everyone remotely.

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    2. I see. We're looking at a high quality scanned reproduction of the actual diaries. The documentary was good, but the diary revelations were too few and far between. The bio aspect ate up the clock. Frustrating for Houdini scholars who wanted more info from the diary. Nonetheless, we still have our Bible to continue clutching.

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    3. The filmmakers told me that they actually found the diaries somewhat underwhelming as far as revelations were concerned. They said a lot of the diaries are just notations about which hotel he's staying at or how much he spent on a cab. Of course, that stuff is GOLD to me and my chronology! :)

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    4. THAT is interesting. The diaries have serious value for your Chronology book project. Have you approached the Ernst family to allow you to study the diaries? At the point, you're on the vanguard on all things Houdini. The Big Guy. At least here in the U.S. Talk to them. There's no time like the present.

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    5. Thanks Leo. I'm hoping to finally get out into the world next year and do some hardcore research. Getting a chance to read these diaries would be amazing.

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    6. You're welcome! You earned pole position, and I'm sure it was fun all the way. But just to be safe, carry a small tape or digital recorder with you to quickly read diary entries if you're only given limited time to page thru them.

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  3. What a fantastic production. Might not be new material for those steeped in HH details but I watched with “regular” folk and they were captivated! John you looked and presented very well… and what a treat to see Houdini’s Ghost! Now I have to recreate that HH wall in my sanctum…

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    1. Thank you Tim! Yes, that wall now give us all something to aspire to. :p

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  4. I actually was a bit put off by the experts hammering on spiritualists. Years ago I was host of a radio show and discussed Houdini and his battle against “spiritualists.” After the show a woman called me and advised that spiritualism is a religion and just as bonifide as other religions. She suggested that in the future I should say that Houdini battled fraudulent mediums and not spiritualists per se. I took her advice and have described his battle this way since.

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    1. Hopefully I wasn't one of those experts. I'm re-watching tonight so I will watch for that. As a habit I always try to say "fraudulent mediums" because that is what Houdini himself would say. And he was always careful to say he wasn't attacking the religion of spiritualism. But, yeah, this one was sharper than any doc I've seen before.

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  5. Great to see the world's foremost Houdiniphiles all in one place: Culliton, Kalush, Cox, Caveney, Penn & Teller. The show itself, OK, pretty good, but they did not know what treasures they had. Some ignorant gaffes, like the "Minerva" story, and some poor judges of character like Ruth Brandon, who, in my view, is one of the worst of all Houdini biographers. The reconstructed photos were obvious frauds, which, given the trashing of fraudulent mediums, makes you wonder what's going on at the BBC these days.... Loved Penn's joke at the end!

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    1. What did they get wrong about Minerva? I was just happy they didn't include the acid in the barrel story, because I know they had it!

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    2. They implied that Houdini destroyed Minerva via Wanda Timm, when she just faded out in her own right, according to Silverman. Wanda Timm proved much more important in the Houdini v. Undina story, which they should have told instead (IMHO).

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    3. Ah, right, true.

      I was very excited to see this diary entry as I had no idea HH first recruited Wanda Timm in 1908 and that she was a Circus Busch girl. Like you, I always associated her with the USD/Undina take down. But then they showed me another diary entry from 1913 (unused) in which Houdini says "Miss Alice Baker" is doing the USD. So did Silverman get his female escapists confused? Or is this yet another one?

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    4. I can't find Minerva in the Silverman bio. She's not in the index. Did Silverman discuss her in his other book Notes to Houdini? Is it possible HH destroyed Minerva in his mind and jotted it down in his diary? One thing I learned from this documentary is that HH was writing fictional entries. One would think that diary entries are transparent about the author's thoughts. Then we see the fake birthplace and being carried back to the hotel with the Mussolini like speech from the balcony.

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    5. That was just Mike saying he doesn't believe the diary entry about him being carried to his hotel. But I do. I don't think HH made up stories like this whole cloth. But he did embellish. So it might have just been two drunks carrying him. But he was carried.

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    6. HH wasn't honest with himself in his own diaries. It isn't far fetched to suspect other entries like the crowd carrying him to his hotel.

      I found Minerva online and on this blog, but not in the Silverman bio. Did HH have acid put in the water of her Milk Can to burn her skin? She married Guy Jarrett as her second husband and he claimed it happened. Could this be the diary entry "...destroyed Minerva" that referred to the acid sabotage?

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    7. The diary didn't say anything about destroying or harming Minerva. All it said was: "I’m going to make a rival act for "Minerva" so have advertised for good swimmer females."

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    8. Yes, nothing about destroying her. It did say something like "Minerva a failure." I conflated that with destroyed since I heard that from the speakers.

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    9. They were very keen to make this beat ALL about his reaction to Minerva, and there's Ruth Brandon once again putting thoughts in Houdini's head saying he couldn't abide the idea of a woman doing his feats (so why would he then create another female escapist?).

      But I see a larger context here. Houdini has just made a VERY lucrative deal franchising Leonard Hicks as a "Houdini Act" in America. So creating new escapists was good business and very much on his mind at this time. A female escape artist was a great idea. Minerva proved that. So why not spin off a new female escape act that he could profit from? And Minerva's husband/manager Guy Jarrett was the person Houdini had the real problem with. I don't think he was as fixated on Minerva herself as people like to portray.

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    10. I also thought it was sketchy that HH wasn't keen on the idea of a female escape artist. It was implied that he believed it would undermine the illusion of the required super human strength to accomplish his escapes.

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  6. Well done John! You came off looking and sounding great! I'm guessing there's gold left on the cutting room floor. But how did Bill Kalush get to be "custodian" of the diary and what exactly does that mean? Who owns the diaries and how did the owner(s)acquire them? Those are the questions I'm left with.
    --Dale from Cleveland

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    1. Thank you Dale! As far as I know the diaries themselves are still owned by the Ernst family. Houdini's lawyer Bernard Ernst presumably acquired them from Bess. A few years back Bill did a lecture on the diaries, so it sounds like he has a relationship with the family. I think "custodian" means just that. They've entrusted him look after the use of the diaries. That's good news.

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  7. I enjoyed the documentary and found it very entertaining. You looked great, John (I loved the way all of you were filmed, too; really nice lighting) and you sounded great -- you always come across as having a unique point of view about Houdini, or perhaps it's simply a deeper and more carefully considered insight about him. Also really enjoyed the other experts on the show. I was fascinated by the "scene recreations" from Houdini's life since they showed an obvious amount of care and thought, from the "stains" to the peeling wallpaper, etc. I've gotten used to the way documentaries portray Houdini, so sensationalizing and romanticizing, etc., now pretty much roll off my back; but I do welcome a fresh approach and this one definitely had that for me. Looking forward to watching it again!

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    1. Thank you Tom. Appreciate the compliments. The camera set-up was wild. I've never done anything in which I was looking directly into the lens (the director, Simon, who was in England, was reflected in there). Yes, I also felt like it provided a fresh approach.

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  8. Looking at the second clip again I suddenly realized it was unwarranted to say "Houdini lied" about his birthplace in his diary. It is clear the entry about his birthdate was written at a different time from the words "Appleton, Wisc." And I believe the picture from 1878 was taken in Appleton, so "Appleton, Wisc" could simply be the picture's location, not connected to the birthdate. In other words, it does not explicitly state that he was born in Appleton. (I'm aware that there are other instances of this alleged lying, which have been addressed at length in The Houdini File.)

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    1. And it isn't even an entry. Looks like he just wrote it in the front of one of the diaries in the exact same way he signed books and photos with his adopted birthdate and birthplace. And, yeah, it was at a later time. They made a bit too much of that, I think. But it is telling that it's there at all. He knew eyes besides his own would one day be looking at these.

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    2. It's also telling he didn't write Budapest, Hungary as an entry. He must have known he was born there.

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