Where The Grim Game took flight

Today marks the anniversary of Houdini's The Grim Game opening at B.S. Moss' Broadway Theater in New York City on August 25, 1919. The movie played an exclusive two-week run with Houdini appearing in person at every performance. Our friend Joe Notaro has shared an original program on his blog, Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence. I encourage you to check that out.

What I want to focus on is the theater itself. The Broadway Theater opened in 1888 at the southwest corner of Broadway and 41st Street. It sat around 1,700. It was the seventh theater to bear the "Broadway" name. In 1908, it was purchased by B.S. Moss and played a mix of movies and vaudeville. As for the theater's decor, this comes from the excellent Cinema Treasures website:

The Broadway Theatre featured a somewhat generic facade on Broadway, in a five-story red brick office building with little indication of was inside, until a vertical marquee was added in the 1910’s. The elegantly decorated auditorium, with its large proscenium arch, six sets of boxes and twin balconies, featured such touches as antique copper chandeliers, gilded plasterwork around the proscenium, the box and balcony fronts and murals on the ceiling and balcony walls.

Here's something I never knew until today. On the same day as The Grim Game's opening, Howard Thurston opened at the Globe Theater on Broadway and 46th Street. Sorry, Howard, I'm seeing Harry! (But I might sneak over to the Globe the next day.)

B.S. Moss' Broadway Theater closed on January 2, 1929, and was demolished later that year. Below, you can see the site of the theater today. Where The Grim Game first took flight!

Want more? I've shared a nice selection of newspaper advertisements and reviews for The Grim Game at B.S. Moss' Broadway Theater (and a few Thurston ads) on my Patreon below.

Theater photos from Cinema Treasures.

Related:

• The Grim Game turns 100
• Grim Game plane wreck lobby display
• Houdini conquers Hollywood (at last) in The Grim Game

LINK: Houdini monkeys with a buzz saw

The photo below has long been somewhat of a mystery. But now our friend Joe Notaro has discovered an issue of Motion-Play Magazine for May 25, 1919, which describes Houdini's encounter with the buzz saw. Click to read at Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence.

This article also answers the question of what "trick" Houdini is showing DeMille in this photo.

Thanks Joe!

Related:

• Deconstructing Houdini '53: Buzz Saw
• Houdini gets tricky with DeMille
• Extreme Houdini

Houdini gives Lila Lee a thrill

It's a shame none of the actors who worked with Houdini in his movies were ever properly interviewed (to my knowledge). Many of these actors lived long lives. A good case in point is Lila Lee, Houdini's co-star in Terror Island, who died in 1973. One wonders if biographers like Milbourne Christopher ever attempted to track her down. So much could have been learned.

Today the best we have is something like the below. Here Lila Lee remembers an incident on the Terror Island shoot as her "biggest thrill."

Morning World Herald, Nov. 19, 1922.

Terror Island's underwater action was filmed at the La Elliotta Springs Plunge in Riverside, California in November 1919. It seems incredible that Lila would actually be in the safe underwater. In the existing film, it's unclear if it's the actress, a stuntman, or even a dummy that Houdini pulls from the safe. So maybe this is just the work of a publicist. Again, if only we could have asked her!

Related:

• Houdini's leading ladies: Lila Lee
• Juvenile star and a Yankee inventor
• Terror at the Hot Springs

Hobnobbing in Hollywood

I love finding new shots of Houdini hobnobbing with Hollywood royalty. Here's a photo of him with director Cecil B. DeMille and star Wallace Reid. This would have been taken at the time of his arrival in Hollywood to start work on The Grim Game in 1919.

Picturegoer, Sept. 25, 1920

Here's another DeMille morsel. The photo below is from the documentary The Lost City of Cecil B. Demille and shows the director with the submarine model that appears in Houdini's Terror Island. This raises the question of which came first. The model or the movie?

Below are some more Houdini-DeMille-Reid connections.

 

Related:

• Houdini gets tricky with DeMille
• Houdini cameo in The Lottery Man?
• Bessie visits Paramount (and so do I)

Blackstone can't escape virtual Houdini

I recently discovered this intriguing advertisement in The Sandusky Register for March 27, 1919. An unknown suspended straitjacket escape, perhaps?

The Sandusky Register, March 27, 1919.

Turns out this was not the real Houdini but what appears to have been a free screening of The Master Mystery. The serial opened at Sandusky's Plaza Theater that week.

The Sandusky Register, April 3, 1919.

Below is the Hotel Rieger as it would have appeared at this time. The building survives today as a home for the elderly. Now, exactly how they pulled off an outdoor screening with the projection equipment that existed in 1919 is something I don't know!

But that's not the end of the story. On the same page that ran the free screening ad, you can see another magician opening in Sandusky on that very same day.

The Sandusky Register, March 27, 1919.

One wonders how Harry Blackstone felt about having to compete with a free screening of the Houdini serial on his opening night. But he went on to do well and was even held over for three extra days. The Houdini movie may have whetted the citizens' appetite for escapes, as Blackstone offered up a straitjacket and packing case escape on these extra days.

The Sandusky Register, March 30, 1919.

Blackstone then moved on to Emerson, Ohio, where he once again found himself competing with a virtual Houdini at the American Theater.

Evening Review, April 16, 1919.

This time, Blackstone did an overboard box escape from the Emerson Showboat, as you can see below.

Evening Review, April 16, 1919.

This is actually the earliest Harry Blackstone overboard box escape that I've been able to find. Some claim Blackstone did this escape first. But I've found no evidence to support that, and 1919 is a long time after Houdini's first overboard box escape in 1912. Keep trying, Blackie!

Photo from Houdini: A Pictorial Life by Milbourne Christopher.

Related:

• Hanco scoops Houdini (or perhaps Blackstone)
• Houdini muscles in on Blackstone auction
• Blackstone produces a Houdini birthplace puzzle

Did Houdini do at least part of The Grim Game airplane stunt?

When The Grim Game was released in 1919, the publicity focused heavily on the famous caught-on-film plane crash that climaxes the film. What was kept secret was the fact that Houdini was being doubled by Robert Kennedy at the time at of the accident. Kennedy's involvement wasn't revealed until 1969's Houdini The Untold Story.

Today it's well-known that Kennedy was the man in the air while Houdini's shot all his plane scenes safely on the ground. However, while watching The Grim Game on the big screen a while back, there's one shot that now makes me question the totality of this conventional wisdom.

The shot is when Harvey Hanford (Houdini) transfers out of the cockpit and scoots along the wing to the first strut. It's an extended shot that gives us a good look at the "stuntman." I've gotten pretty good at recognizing Houdini from a distance as well as his movements, and everything about this person tells me it may be Houdini himself! 

This also makes sense. While a plane to plane transfer was too dangerous and required a stuntman with that specific skill (although, as it turned out, Kennedy did not have that skill), I think Houdini would have been perfectly comfortable sitting on a wing in flight. And the whole point of this shot appears to be trying to show us that it's Houdini himself on the wing. But the camera plane can only get so close.

When the shot changes to an extreme long shot of the plane to plane transfer, the man on the wing is not only in a different position, but also appears taller and somewhat lanky, just as Robert Kennedy was. You can see his legs are clearly hanging further below the wing than the man in the preceding shot.

So what do we think? Did Houdini himself go up in the air to shoot the first part of the stunt and then Kennedy went up and completed it? There are photos of Houdini in costume with the camera plane as well the pilots, so he was there. The irony is Houdini could never take credit for the part he did as he had to claim credit for entire thing.

Food for thought!

Houdini (left) and Robert Kennedy (right)?

Related:

• 100 years ago over Santa Monica
• What caused The Grim Game plane crash?
• Steve Canyon's Grim Game

Anniversary gift

To mark Harry and Bess's 128th wedding anniversary today, here's a rarity from the McCord Museum. As I've noted in a few posts, the McCord is celebrating their own 100th anniversary by offering images from their collection free of use.

The below is from their Houdini holdings and might seem innocuous at first. I don't even think this is Houdini's handwriting. But the date tells us this is something very special.

McCord Museum

This appears to be a tag that accompanied flowers or some other gift from Houdini to Bess on their Silver Anniversary on June 22, 1919. The Houdinis celebrated the day with a gala dinner at the Hotel Alexandra in Los Angeles. The hotel and ballroom still exist. I had a visit in 2019.

Here's wishing Harry and Bess a happy 128th. I'm not sure what metal that would be, but it would need to be a rare one!

Related:

• Visiting the site of the Houdinis Silver Wedding Anniversary
• Did the Houdinis secretly marry in 1901?
• Coney Island: Where Harry met Bessie

The mystery of "Scotch May"

In the 1969 biography Houdini The Untold Story, author Milbourne Christopher relates a curious story from the Houdinis home life. He writes:

    The star of The Master Mystery was confronted by a minor mys­tery in his own home. When Houdini was in Scotland, Bess had hired a maid, Bethel May Dove, and brought her back with them to New York. Bethel May was a conscientious worker and seemed to enjoy her work in the Houdini household. She was twenty-one and almost a part of the family. One night Bess went to Bethel May’s room to give the girl her instructions for the next day. Ten minutes later Bess passed the door again and noticed that it was open. She walked back, looked in. Miss Dove was gone; so were her clothes and her wardrobe trunk. Harry told the police he thought she might have run away to marry a soldier. He knew exactly how his elephant disappeared, but the vanishing Dove baffled him.

I don't know Christopher's source for this [see UPDATE], but Houdini confirmed the maid's existence in a letter he wrote in June 1919 to a Mr. DeVega in Glasgow. The letter is in the collection of Edwin A. Dawes and in it Houdini writes:

    Our Glasgow maid ran away with a soldier, and hope she has been lucky in her choice.

    You know we took a scotch girl along to America. Such is life.

The missing maid doesn't get much of a mention in any other biography and she has pretty much slipped into obscurity. "Such is life" indeed. But now the case may be reopened as we might have finally found the missing maid...and more!

The current issue of Marco Pusterla's Ye Olde Magic Mag contains a fascinating article about a Scottish woman named Evelyn Kaye who claimed the Houdinis were her guardians for seven and a half years. The source is an undated article from a Glasgow newspaper (Marco speculates it was probably from around 1950). The article makes quite a few mistakes, such as saying Houdini died in 1934, but Evelyn's tale is intriguing. Here's an excerpt:

    Mrs. Kaye comes of a theatrical family. Her mother, known as Jessie Crawford, was an actress in old-time melodramas at the Princess's Theater in the days of Richard Walden.  

    When Houdini first came to Glasgow to perform at the Coliseum music hall in 1912, he and his wife and secretary lodged with the family in Abbotsford Place.

    They became great friends. Two years later when the Houdinis were going to America it was agreed that they should take Jessie Crawford's delicate 12-year-old daughter with them for her health's sake.

    A year later her mother died and the child was left under the guardianship of Houdini who later made her his dresser and co-assistant with Mrs. Houdini in a number of his illusions. They always called her "Scotch May."

The article goes on to say that the one-time "Scotch May" knew the methods of Houdini's Vanishing Elephant and Walking Through a Brick Wall, but that she would never reveal Houdini's secrets. It also says she married a Glasgow optician, but was now widowed. Interestingly, she had reached out to magician Robert Harbin, who was performing at Glasgow's Pavilion Theater, and knowing Houdini had a magician brother named Hardeen, asked Harbin if he was also related to Houdini. Harbin introduced her to a newspaper reporter and that is how this article came to be.

It was our friend and long time reader Leo Hevia who made the connection to the story in Christopher. So could Evelyn Kaye be the missing maid?

There are some discrepancies. Houdini was not in Scotland in 1912. But he was there in 1913. The two women have different names, but "May" is common between them and Kaye is likely a married name. We see in the DeVega letter that she came from Glasgow, but the letter can also be read as if Houdini is talking about two different women. And the math doesn't quite work as Christopher says the maid was 21, but the newspaper account would make her closer to 18-19 at the time of her vanishing act. But none of this is fatal to the case and more fits together than not, so I think it's very likely Bethel May, Evelyn Kaye and "Scotch May" are the same person.

This opens the door to a few possibilities. On occasion, Bess would talk about having a daughter. I've always thought that was bizarre, but perhaps Bess is talking about May who is, essentially, an adopted daughter. It also may be time to re-check post 1914 photos and see if we can catch a glimpse of Scotch May herself.

Finally, if we've discovered a new member of Houdini's household, is she able to provide any fresh insight? Well, she does, and it's a bit of a bombshell! Regarding Houdini as a person, the original article reads.

    He didn't drink or smoke, Mrs. Kaye tells me, and he worked indefatigably, often taking two years to perfect a single illusion. He taught himself 12 languages, and towards the end of his life was going blind, like his mother, his sister and his brother, an X-ray research doctor.

So here we have yet another mention of Houdini's faulty eyesight. But going blind? And his mother blind??? This is first time I've ever heard that. But the mention of his sister and brother's blindness is correct. Also, this article ran while Leopold was still alive, so knowledge of his blindness, which came on later in his life, just bolsters Evelyn's insider credentials. 

So maybe she revealed a Houdini secret after-all?

Houdini going blind?

A big thank you to Leo Hevia for his research. To Marco Pusterla of Ye Olde Magic Mag for permission to quote the original article. And to Edwin A. Dawes for showing me the original Houdini maid letter.

UPDATE: Our friend Marco Pusterla has discovered that Milbourne Christopher's source for the maid story was the November 15, 1918 issue of The Sphinx. This puts the disappearance around that time. The article also confirms that Bethel May came with the Houdinis from Scotland "six years ago", which also generally matches Evelyn's account. So just more evidence that Evelyn and Bethel are one in the same. Thanks Marco!

Related:

• Houdini's poor eyesight?
• Did the Houdinis have a daughter?
• Ye Olde Magic Mag offers "Unseen Houdini"

Locating Houdini's lion

Below is a photo that I think most people are familiar with as it appears in the book The Secrets of Houdini (although I don't recall it appearing anywhere else). It shows Houdini doing a headstand atop a stone lion. Because why not!?

Of course, when I see something like this I want to know the where, when, and why of it. The Secrets of Houdini identifies this as Houdini "practicing a handstand at the Lasky Studio, Hollywood." But I have a different idea about where this was taken.

Last year I did a post in which I was able to identify (with the help of John Bengtson) the famous photos of Houdini hanging from a large wall as being the retaining wall that fronted the old County Court House in downtown Los Angeles. Here he's dressed the same, he's doing yet another piece of public acrobatics, and that appears to be his Grim Game co-star, Ann Forrest, who is also present in the wall photos. So I had another look at the photo of the old Court House and, sure enough, it had two stone lions out front!

Below is a better photo of one of the court house lions. Sure looks the same to me!

I would say it's almost certain one of these court house statues is "Houdini's lion". I guess we won't know which one unless another photo surfaces. But as the statues and the court house are now long gone, this is a photo op that can only roar in the past.

Related:

• Houdini's great wall
• When Houdini played human fly
• The Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd (and Houdini) Alley video

Houdini's great wall

While browsing photos at the online archive IMAGO, I spotted this shot of Houdini in Los Angeles that I've never seen before. 

You may recognize this as Houdini atop a large wall that appears in several stills from The Grim Game. The wall does not appear in the movie itself, so it's unclear if this was a cut scene or if the wall was just used to stage these "action" shots.

You'll notice Houdini is having his feet tied in this new image (is that Jim Collins doing the tying?). I'm wondering if this is how he pulled off the shot that shows him holding co-star Ann Forrest.

In 2015 the great Los Angeles locations sleuth John Bengtson identified this as being the retaining wall that fronted the old County Court House on what was then New High Street in downtown L.A. If there was any doubt about this, this new pic confirms it as you can see the court house behind Harry.

The old court house is long gone, but John did point out that some people believe part of the retaining wall remains on current corner of Temple and Spring. You can see that below. Thinking back on those times I've done jury duty in this building, I never knew I was passing in front of Houdini's great wall!

Thanks to John Bengtson.

UPDATE: Another photo mystery solved at this same site. Check out Locating Houdini's lion.

Related:

• John Bengtson uncovers Grim Game filming locations
• More Grim Game locations identified by John Bengtson
• Unpublished Houdini: Harry at work

Houdini cameo in The Lottery Man?

Here's a nice bit of Houdini Hollywood trivia. If I am reading this item correctly from the September 6, 1919 issue of Motion Picture News, Houdini made a cameo in the 1919 movie The Lottery Man starring Wallace Reid. Or at least he was there on Hollywood Blvd the day of this shoot. Whether he is visible in the movie we may never know as The Lottery Man is now a lost film.

Why would Houdini do this? The Lottery Man was produced by Jesse L. Lasky who made Houdini's two Hollywood productions. This would have been around the time Houdini returned to Hollywood to begin work on his second feature, Terror Island, with Lottery Man director James Cruze. So it was all in the Famous Players family!

Check out the links below for more Houdini in Hollywood.

Related:

• A gathering at Famous Players-Lasky
• Houdini meets DeMille
• Houdini's madcap Hollywood lunch

LINK: Watch Houdini's high flying stunt

Today's excerpt from High Lights in the Strenuous Career of Harry Houdini shows Houdini in high flying action. But as this footage is from The Grim Game, this is really one for the great Joe Notaro at Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence to share and comment on. So click the headline and check it out at HHCE!

Thanks to Rick Maisel. A playlist of these clips can be found on the WILD ABOUT HARRY YouTube Channel.

Related:

• Watch the COMPLETE Houdini-Kellar rope tie film
• Watch a Houdini underwater rope escape
• Watch Houdini's L.A. Examiner straitjacket escape

FLASHBACK: Houdini's madcap Hollywood lunch

During my summer slowdown I thought I'd offer up some relevant "flashback" posts to scratch that Houdini history itch. Today we head to Hollywood.

On July 27, 1919, Houdini visited the set of the movie Back Stage at the Comique Studio in Edendale, CA. Relive his "madcap" encounter with some of the top movie comedians of the day in THIS POST from 2018.

Sling shot

Here's another unpublished (reproduction) photograph I recently acquired. This one shows Houdini with co-star Ann Forrest and director Irvin Willat on the set of The Grim Game in 1919. But what makes this image special is it shows Houdini with his arm in a sling. This is only the second shot I've ever seen that captures Houdini in his sling.

Houdini had broken his wrist while making the movie in late June and wore a cast for a number of weeks. In most photos taken at that time he is careful to remove the sling and cover up his cast. But not this time. Maybe that's why he doesn't look happy. Ann Forrest, on the other hand, looks lovely.

Related:

• Houdini's broken wrist and the San Diego connection
• Seeing double on The Grim Game set
• Houdini breaks his wrist (the first time)

Selling The Master Mystery in the UK

Today marks the 101st anniversary of the release of Houdini's The Mastery Mystery in the United Kingdom. As in the U.S., the serial was aggressively marketed to exhibitors via trade magazines. Below are several ads from The Bioscope pushing the serial. Did you know The Master Mystery was "The Greatest Money-Maker Ever Produced"? Now you do. I especially like how the trade screenings were promoted as "Houdini Days." Enjoy.

Houdini had originally planned to be touring the UK while the serial rolled out across the country. But he changed his plans when it was decided to film his second Lasky feature, Terror Island, that Fall. When Houdini finally arrived in the UK in early 1920, The Master Mystery had done its work and England was ready to see Houdini (Himself).

Related:

• The Great Houdini will mop up for you! (or not)
• Master Mystery sell sheets sell on eBay
• The Houdini Herald

Houdini and the New Britain mystery stunt (update)

Recently reader Brittany Hart reached out to see if I has any information on a stunt Houdini is said to have performed in her hometown of New Britain, Connecticut. While she could find no information in the local newspaper archives, she points out there's a plaque on the historic Andrews Building commemorating the feat. She was kind enough to send over this image.

It certainly sounds like what Houdini did here was a suspended straitjacket escape. However, I can find no record of an outdoor stunt in New Britain. In fact, the only appearance I have for Houdini in New Britain is a two day stint with the American Gaiety Girls in early March 1896. This was long before Houdini was famous and well before his suspended straitjacket days (not to mention before the Andrews was built). But he did do a handcuff escape at the local New Britain police station.

Houdini performed in nearby Hartford in 1906 and 1926. He also gave charity performances in Westport in 1917 and Southport in 1924. But it doesn't make much sense for him to promote these appearance in New Britain.

However, I did discover that Houdini's The Master Mystery played at the Lyceum Theater in New Britain in December of 1918. This was among the first theaters to show the serial and this was during a time Houdini was on the road making personal appearances. Is it possible he promoted the movie with a suspended straitjacket escape from New Britain's famous 5-story landmark?

Hartford Courant, Dec. 22, 1918

I'm afraid this one has me stumped, so I'm throwing it out there. Can anyone help crack the case of Houdini and the New Britain mystery stunt?

UPDATE: Thanks to our friends Jim Klodzen and Joe Fox, it appears the mystery may be solved, and it's not good news for New Britain nor the Andrews Building.

In 1919 an escape artist calling himself "The Great Luther" toured New England in the wake of Houdini's The Master Mystery, playing theaters that had shown or were showing the serial. Luther advertised himself as a "former assistant to Houdini," but Houdini told Billboard that he had never heard of him.

In February, Luther appeared at the Lyceum Theater in New Britain, which had just played The Master Mystery. On February 23, 1919, he performed a suspended straitjacket escape from the New Britain National Bank Building at 272 Main Street. This is not the same as the Andrews Building which stands at 132 Main Street. But they are on the same block with the Lyceum between them, and as Luther seemed to be doing all he could to be confused with Houdini, it not hard to believe that over time Luther became Houdini in the minds of the citizens of New Britain. At least I think this is the best explanation that we have so far.

Thanks to Brittany Hart for bringing this to our attention in the first place!

Related:

• Houdini's known suspended straitjacket escapes
• Houdini and The Master Mystery at Clune's
• That pesky Parson's Theater program

The hidden meaning of Houdini's iconic suit

Last night I had the pleasure of joining Mike Caveney and Jonathan Levit "Behind the Bookcase" at the Academy of Magical Arts, where I shared some things I haven't yet posted to the blog. First and foremost was "the secret of Houdini's suit." So today I wanted to share with all and lay out my theory in full. Enjoy!

This is a famous photo of Houdini likely taken in early 1918. Here we see him in a black suit of clothes that appears in many other photos. And I mean many. In fact, I have not seen a photo or film clip of Houdini in everyday life taken between 1914 and 1918 in which he isn't wearing this same black suit. There's even a photo of him wearing it on a golf course!

So what's the story? Was this just a favorite suit? Or is there something else going on? I believe there's something else going on, and I have a theory of what that something might be.

Whenever Houdini does something inexplicable in his personal life, I always consider the possibility that it has something to do with his mother. Because it always does! At first I thought this was maybe a suit she bought for him. Or maybe it was one she simply thought he looked good in. That would probably be enough for Houdini to wear it everyday for four years. But as far as I can find, this suit first appears a few months after his mother's death. And that's the key.

This was a time when Houdini was displaying his grief in any number of ways. He even had new stationary and greeting cards made rimmed in a black boarder. I believe this suit was another part of his formalized grieving. I believe what we've been looking at all these years is Houdini in a mourning suit.

Mourning clothes are typically associated with women, but it was not unheard of for men at this time. Women's fashion dictated veils, etc., but the only real requirement for men was that it should be black. Also, in Jewish tradition, someone in mourning is not allowed to wear new clothes for a year. And that's another aspect of this suit that has always struck me as peculiar even before I landed on this idea. Houdini was fairly modern, even dashing, in his dress leading up this time. (Just look at him here.) But this is a very Victorian suit.

Houdini also had a specific hat that went with this suit with a thick hatband that can be seen in several photos. Turns out hatbands, typically made of crepe, were a feature of Victorian male mourning clothes. And according to The Vintage News, "widows were expected to wear special clothes to indicate that they were in mourning for up to four years after the death." Houdini appears to have worn this suit for, yes, a little over four years.

But I think the most convincing evidence is that he wore this suit to the 1916 dedication ceremony for the exedra he created for his parents at Machpelah cemetery. In a photo from the event we see others dressed formally in tail coats and top hats. But not Houdini. Obviously Houdini would have thought very carefully about how he dressed for such a sacred occasion, and it's unthinkable that he'd wear his old "everyday suit" if it didn't broadcast special meaning. Wearing this suit was making a statement which now seems abundantly clear. He was a man in mourning.

Below are a few choice images of Houdini in the black suit.

In the graveyard (1914).

In California with Jack London (1915).

At the exedra dedication (1916).

On the golf course (undated).

With Harry Kellar (1917).

Traveling to Hollywood (1919).

The last images I've found of Houdini in the suit are from his early days in Los Angeles in April 1919 when he came to work on The Grim Game. It may be telling that a young starlet commented in a fan magazine on the strange suit Houdini was seen wearing around Hollywood. So maybe he decided to it was time to give up the ghost. By May 1919 he is sporting a new suit and a youthful straw hat. This old suit appears to vanish.

But Houdini wore this suit for so long and in so many photos that it has become part of his iconography. It inspired Harvey Keitel's wardrobe in 1998's FairyTale: A True Story. It also appears in the 1976 biopic The Great Houdinis in the scenes following his mother's death. It's telling that the costume designer instinctively associated this look with mourning. The suit is not described in the screenplay, but in the novelization it says: "That coat he's wearing, she thought, that had to be thrown out. And that terrible hat. He looks like an immigrant. One more week without shaving, he'll look just like his father, the Rabbi."

So what do we think? Was this Houdini's mourning suit? Sound off in the comments below.

Related:

• Sady's mourning dress for Bess
• Mama's death and the birth of a myth
• The Houdini-Weiss exedra turns 100