Houdini performed in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and he rests in peace today in Queens. Staten Island was the only one of the five New York boroughs without a known Houdini connection. But thanks to a recent upload of the Staten Island Advance to newspapers.com, that has now changed!
I've discovered that Houdini's The Man From Beyond played three days at the Liberty Theatre on Beach Street in Stapleton, Staten Island, starting September 7, 1922. Not only did the theater play the movie, but it featured a full bill of vaudeville and "The Houdini Wonder Show."
On the evening of September 8, Houdini himself appeared on stage at the Liberty, marking his first (known) appearance on Staten Island.
After playing three days at the Liberty, The Man From Beyond and the Wonder Show moved on to the Roosevelt Theater in West Hoboken, New Jersey.
The Liberty Theatre opened in 1918. It had a seating capacity of 1,500 and was said to be the first modern theatre on Staten Island. It ceased operating as a theater in 1953 and later became a bowling alley and a discotheque called Park Villa II. The building still stands today. It's currently being used as a church.
But that's not all. Houdini made a second appearance on Staten Island on February 19, 1925, as part of a benefit staged by the Augustinian Fathers of Grymes Hill. Houdini discussed spiritualism and gave demonstrations. The benefit was held at the Stapleton Club Rooms at the corner of Prospect and Van Duzer Streets.
The Stapleton Club Room opened in 1874 as the German Clubrooms. Renamed during World War I, it was a popular venue for entertainment and political rallies. It burned down in 1932. Today the site is a parking lot.
Want more? I've uploaded my Houdini in Staten Island research for Scholar members of my Patreon.
Joe Notaro and Arthur Moses have the honor of being the first to publish a new Houdini book in 2026. Their third volume, reprinting the Kinema Comic series The Amazing Exploits of Houdini, was released on January 15. Details below.
The British Boys weekly “The Kinema Comic” ran a serial “The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI” (“Written by Houdini Himself” – or so it says) from April 24, 1920 to November 27, 1926.
In these yarns, which no one should miss, the Master of Mystery chronicles his most amazing exploits.
Surviving copies are almost impossible to come by these days. Joe M. Notaro and Arthur Moses have been tracking down these rare issues and are making them available to you in a book series by year (and months).
In this newest offering, they have compiled the 1922 (Jul – Dec) weekly serials (27 issues) of “The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI” into a single book (with original illustrations).
You can purchase Kinema Comic 1922 (Jul-Dec) The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in hardcover or paperback.
Our good friend Dr. Eric Colleary, Cline Curator of Theatre and Performing Arts at the Harry Ransom Center, recently spoke at the prestigious Club of Odd Volumes in Boston on the topic of "Houdini's Library." Eric is organizing a major 2026 exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center on the subject and writing a companion book.
Before Eric's address, members enjoyed a special Houdini-themed dinner, with Chicken Paprikash as the main course, of course! Bread pudding with Houdini's favorite cherries was for dessert.
What made this talk extra special is that Houdini himself addressed The Club of Odd Volumes on the topic of his library in 1922. Eric recently uncovered some interesting material related to that talk at David Copperfield's International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts in Las Vegas and shared it with club members for the first time.
For more details on Houdini's Library, visit the Harry Ransom Center website. You can also pre-order Eric's book Houdini's Library: Inside the Spellbinding Collections of the Great Illusionist at Amazon.com and Amazom.co.uk.
Houdini made more than a dozen radio broadcasts from 1922-1926, debunking spiritualism and giving magic lessons. I have long believed that there must be a recording of Houdini's voice from this time. Now our friend Joe Notaro of Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence has discovered evidence of such a recording, and I'm losing my mind!
The listing below from the Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) at the University of California Santa Barbara, shows that Houdini recorded a "monologue" on Spiritualism to a 10-inch record in New York on December 16, 1922. This doesn't appear to have been a radio broadcast per se, but a direct recording made for the Victor company.
Before we get too excited (as I did when I first saw this), know this is just evidence that a recording was made, not that a recording survives. I confirmed this with the DAHR, who said, "The record was made but was never published (that we know). It's possible a test pressing exists."
This is still tremendously exciting. Perhaps a copy survives in the Victor archives. Or perhaps this 10-inch record exists unlabeled in some Houdini collection, just waiting to be played.
But what is this exactly? Here's some speculation.
This was during the first year of Houdini's radio broadcasts on Spiritualism (March is the first broadcast I'm aware of). Maybe he's making a private recording just to hear what his address sounds like? Not unlike how he recorded his Water Torture Cell patter on wax cylinders years earlier. Or maybe he's making a recording for use by radio stations. Pre-recorded material was in use at this time. This means some of the known Houdini broadcasts might have been this recording.
But here's another theory that's a little wild. 1922 was the year of the famous seance in which Lady Conan Doyle claimed to make contact with Houdini's mother. On December 19, just three days after making this recording, Houdini had a written statement notarized entitled, "The Truth Regarding Spiritualistic Seance Given to Houdini by Lady Conan Doyle."
Could this be a recording of Houdini speaking this same statement? He certainly thought it was important, and I could see him making a recording of it, if only for his own files.
Okay, audio historians, we have the date, we have the place, we have the label. Who wants to get their name into the Houdini history books by tracking down this recording?
Thanks to Joe Notaro at HHCE and David at the DAHR.
The second volume in Joe Notaro and Arthur Moses's reprints of the Kinema Comic series The Amazing Exploits of Houdini has now been released. Details below.
From April 24, 1920 to November 27,1926, The Kinema Comic in England published a serial called "The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI, Written by Houdini Himself." In these yarns, the Master of Mystery chronicles his most amazing exploits. Surviving copies of these issues are almost impossible to come by these days.
Now, Joe M. Notaro and Arthur Moses are tracking down these rare stories and making them available in book form for the very first time!
This second volume compiles the stories that ran from January to June 1922 (25 issues) along with all the original illustrations.
You can purchase Kinema Comic 1922 (Jan-Jun) The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in hardcover or paperback.
There was a fair amount of Houdini excitement over the holidays, but nothing more exciting than this. If you watched the PBS series Lucy Worsley's Holmes vs. Doyle, you saw rare footage of Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the 18th Annual S.A.M. banquet at the McAlpin Hotel in New York on June 2, 1922. I knew footage was shot at this banquet and hoped it would one day surface. Now it has!
Not only did we get to see Houdini, Bess, Sir Arthur, and Lady Doyle at their dinner table, but there's also footage of Howard Thurston, Horace Goldin, Max Malini, Carl Rosini, and Houdini on-stage magically producing their wives from a large cloth. Wow!
It's likely the production acquired this footage from a stock footage house. There are several listed in the credits. However, a search of their websites turned up nothing. It's also possible this came from the Doyle estate. Whichever the case, there may be more than what we see here!
I ran a moving picture, taken at the banquet, and if you desire a copy, I shall be pleased to let you have one. It is a remarkably good picture of Lady Doyle, and you have a very amused expression on your face as if you were in a good humor—and I hope you were!
- Houdini to Conan Doyle, June 1922.
If you missed the series, you can watch it for a limited time on the PBS website. The Houdini footage appears in S1 E3: Shadows and Sleuths. You can also buy the series on Amazon. For those in the UK, you can watch the series on the BBC iPlayer under the title Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on the Case of Conan Doyle.
You can also view the footage and read MUM's report on the banquet as a member of my Patreon. Just click below.
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!
Recently, magician Murray Sawchuck has been posting magic exposure videos on his social media. Scott Wells posted an
interview with Murray in which he defends his actions. Scott also posted an interview with David Sandy, Bill Smith, and Mark Holstein explaining why magicians should protect magic secrets. I thought this was a good time to update this post from 2012 about when Houdini found himself embroiled in his own magic exposure scandal.
The Magician's Code is no joke. Houdini once said that exposing tricks is "taking bread and butter from honest hard working ambitious magicians." But even Houdini once found himself in the hot-seat for exposing secrets. In fact, the scandal is partially why there is a formal Magician's Code today.
The problem erupted when Houdini published an article in the October 1922 issue of Popular Radio exposing The Talking Tea Kettle. This is an effect in which one can ask a question and hear the answer via a ghostly voice inside a tea kettle. Houdini claimed it was a tool used by dishonest mediums "for getting money from their credulous followers," and he exposed it as he did with other spiritualistic trickery "as a public duty."
The trouble was The Talking Tea Kettle was the invention of magician and author David P. Abbott. Abbott created the illusion in 1907 as a "spooky" stage effect, not one for use in the séance room. To many, there was a difference between a spiritualist stage act, like The Davenport Brothers (respected even by Houdini), and one-on-one séance room bunko artists like Margery. With his article, Houdini had clearly exposed a stage effect. What made it worse is Houdini purchased his tea kettle from a magic dealer and not from the estate of a deceased medium as the article claimed.
Abbott suspected this was payback for his support a year earlier of Eugene Dennis, the Omaha "Wonder Girl," who assisted police officers in solving crimes using her alleged psychic abilities. Houdini believed she had informants who fed her the details of crimes. Abbott dismissed the idea, saying, "I don't think [Houdini] ever investigated a medium in his life."
Now he lambasted Houdini's explanation of the Tea Kettle. "Houdini is a publicity seeker," Abbott told the Omaha Daily. "He's talking about something that he knows nothing whatever of, just to get his name in the paper. He borrowed the teakettle that I made for Keller, had his picture taken with it, and drew those wire coils in from his own imagination. I wouldn't mind his guessing the secret if he guessed it right."
Abbott's local S.A.M. assembly in Omaha took up the matter and, according to The Houdini-Price Correspondence by Gabriel Citron, "voted for Houdini's resignation as President of the S.A.M. over the affair." A letter published in The Sphinx pointed out that Houdini had once forced a member to resign for exposing his Milk Can effect. It's incredible to think that even Harry Houdini could be run out of a magic fraternity for violating the Magician's Code.
Houdini argued that he did not expose the method of the kettle in his original article. The magazine added the explanation to his text and the photographs without his consent. In MUM, Houdini reproduced correspondence between himself and the magazine editor, Kendall Banning, that proved this was the case. Nevertheless, even the title of Houdini's article, "Ghosts that Talk by Radio," could be considered an exposure.
Houdini remained president of the S.A.M. and went out of his way to personally patch things up with Abbott. However, the controversy only died down when the S.A.M. formed a committee to decide on a formal code of conduct that would govern the exposure of secrets. They determined what was allowed and what was not (devoting a special section to spiritualist trickery) and also laid out punishment for those who broke the rules. A version of those rules stands to this day.
David Abbott revealed the secret of the Talking Tea Kettle in his book, David P. Abbott's Book of Mysteries. The book showed that Houdini had indeed gotten the method wrong. Abbott's Tea Kettle was far more subtle and clever.
I'd tell you what the real method was, but...
Want more? I've uploaded the original "Ghosts that Talk by Radio" article from Popular Radio for Scholar members of my Patreon below.
Thanks to Joseph Pecore for providing me with the pages in MUM that show the Houdini-Banning correspondence.
The original spirit message from Houdini's mother delivered via "automatic writing" by Lady Doyle during the famous Atlantic City seance has been unearthed in David Copperfield's International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts. The 17-page message survives complete, along with a cover page written by Houdini. While never lost, the message has remained largely unseen, and its existence was not generally known.
As detailed in this post, the Doyles believed Houdini had been wholly convinced by the message. But Houdini was troubled by the lack of specifics and that the pages were written in English. He and his mother only communicated in German. He eventually told the Doyles that he did not believe the message had come from his mother.
Nevertheless, Houdini appears to have kept the message for the rest of his life. The first two pages were reproduced in the 1932 book Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of Strange Friendship by Bernard M.L. Ernst and Hereward Carrington. But after that, the original message seemed to vanish and only transcriptions survived.
I now think it's possible these pages passed from Bernard Ernst to magician and collector John Mulholland. David Copperfield acquired the Mulholland Collection in 1991, which seeded the magnificent museum he has today. So Mama has been home the entire time!
Thanks to Bruce Averbook for making this find and David Copperfield for allowing me to share. You can watch video of the discovery on my Patreon.
In November 1908, four Chinese men challenged Houdini to escape from a "Sangnau" (alternately spelled Sanguaw or Sangaw) at the Oxford Music Hall in London. The device was characterized as an ancient Chinese torture device and was a one-off escape. Or was it?
This challenge is covered in most Houdini biographies. Houdini went back and forth with the challengers, refusing certain aspects of the restraint, such as having his feet nailed to the floor. He also insisted on having two doctors present during the test. Houdini made his escape but vowed he'd never take on the dreaded Sangaw again.
However, magic history buff Whitt Smith recently sent me a detailed account of a special S.A.M. "Houdini Night" at the Palace Theatre from The Sphinx (January 1922)that reveals the sangaw was not a one-off escape after all. And more! The key excerpt is below:
Houdini then went on to say that while traveling through China in 1908, the natives challenged him to escape (privately and under their own conditions) from a Chinese sangaw--a wooden contraption similar in form to a horizontal bar on uprights, but being furnished also with a lower crosspiece. Houdini accepted their challenge, and had secretly introduced a movie man and his camera that the outcome of the challenge might be seen by the outside world. And so, on The S.A.M's. "Houdini Night," there was flashed upon the screen Houdini's escape from the sangaw of the Orient. In the picture the Chinese are seen binding Houdini securely and in the most businesses-like manner. First, securing each wrist to the central portions of the uprights, then securely binding the feet to the floor-piece, and lastly running a loop under the front part of the neck, thence around the head in such a manner that the head may not the lowered; then remainder of the rope is then securely fastened to the central part of the upper most cross-piece. At the conclusion of the picture, Houdini repeats his escape in real life before the audience, using a genuine Chinese sangaw and extracting himself with lightning-like rapidity from bonds identical to those used by the Orientals.
Not only is it exciting to learn Houdini did the sangaw at this event, but it's even more exciting to discover there was film of the escape! The idea that it was shot secretly in China in 1908 is pure hokum. It was almost certainly something Houdini staged himself. But how I'd love to see this! No matter how many descriptions I've read of the sangaw, I still don't understand exactly how this contraption worked. Alas, this film might be long lost.
Want more? You can read the full Sphinx article, which includes a terrific description of Houdini's Water Torture Cell, as well as the 1908 newspaper accounts of the original sangaw escape as a "Scholar" member of my Patreon by clicking below.
Two weeks ago I gave a lecture on "Houdini in Cleveland" at the Magic Collectors Expo 2023. After the conference I spent a day visiting many of the locations I featured in my talk. While it's all still fresh in my head, here's my fact-finding tour of Houdini's Cleveland.
Houdini's first appearance in Cleveland was the week of March 12, 1900. This was during his first Keith's vaudeville tour before he traveled to Europe. He appeared at the Empire Theater which stood at 750 Huron Road. Today Cleveland's beautiful art deco AT&T Building stands at that address.
During his 1900 engagement Houdini escaped from manacles at the Central Police Station on Champlain Street. This was one of his nude tests. That station was razed in 1925 to make way for Terminal Tower which still stands today in downtown Cleveland.
Houdini returned to Cleveland in 1905 and 1908 playing B.F. Keith's Theater at 619-625 Prospect Avenue. In 1908 he was more than a little chagrined to find he was not the headliner. Instead Julius Steger & Co. in the skit "The Fifth Commandment" was the featured performer. "Is this week the first step toward oblivion?" Houdini wrote in his diary.
The Prospect Avenue Keith's closed in 1923 and today a modern office building stands on the site. Or at least that's what I thought. When I visited, I could see that the "modern" building was a facade fronting what appears to be the original building that still shows the profile of a theater. The building beside it, which in Houdini's time was the Colonial Hotel, is still there and very recognizable.
Houdini cancelled his 1911 appearance in Cleveland when he broke a blood vessel in his kidney in Detroit (an injury that never properly healed and gave him pain the rest of his life). But he was back in 1915, this time playing the magnificent Hippodrome Theater at 720 Euclid Avenue. This was the second largest stage in the world at this time. Houdini would play the Hippodrome three times in 1915, 1916, and 1922. Among his escapes at this theater was a challenge from the Cleveland & Sandusky Brewing Co. to escape from a cask of their famous Gold Bond Beer.
The Hippodrome stood until 1981 when it was razed to make way for a parking garage. Today the new City Club Apartments are rising on the site of the theater.
A survivor in downtown Cleveland is the beautiful May Company building. The May Co. challenged Houdini to escape from a packing case made by their shipping department three times in 1905, 1908 and 1915. Houdini beat them every time. In 1925 they left it to their competitor the Baily Co. to challenge Houdini with their own packing case. He beat that one too!
In 1915 Houdini performed one of his more untypical outdoor stunts in Cleveland. He was strapped into a straitjacket atop a railway boxcar and escaped while spectators watched from the Cleveland viaduct bridge above. For more details on this unusual escape, check out THIS POST.
Houdini performed two suspended straitjacket escapes in Cleveland. The first was from the John Harkness Brown Building at 1019 Euclid Avenue on December 20, 1916. Happily, the building still stands today as the Euclid Grand apartments.
Houdini's second suspended straitjacket escape was from the Cleveland Press building on February 3, 1922. The building stood on the NW corner of East 9th and Rockwell. A terrific photo of the escape ran in the paper the following day.
Today the Press building is long gone, and even the Dunkin Donuts that now stands on this corner was out of donuts when I visited. So a double let down at this location! But at least we know Houdini hung here.
In 1924 Houdini barnstormed the country with his spiritualism lecture. Cleveland was one of his tour stops. Houdini appeared at Engineers Hall on February 27, 1924. Engineers Hall was located inside the Engineers Building on St. Clair Ave. It was demolished in 1989 and today is the Marriott Key Tower. By the way, I didn't know the location of Engineers Hall when I gave my talk. Fellow expo attendee Jim Kopco found it for me. Thank you, Jim!
Tickets for Houdini's lecture were sold at the Korner & Wood bookstore located at 1512 Euclid Avenue. This was a popular store that stood until 1963. Both Houdini and Blackstone are remembered to have been customers. Today the store and building are long gone.
If there was ever a time to be a Houdini fan in Cleveland it was 1925. Houdini performed in the city twice that year. But don't take it from me. Let's hear from someone who was there!
Houdini performed at the Palace for two weeks beginning March 9, 1925. The first week he featured his escape act. The second week he devoted to spiritualist exposes. The Palace is inside the magnificent B.F. Keith Building at 1615 Euclid Avenue. The good news is the Palace survives along with several other beautiful theaters in Cleveland's Playhouse Square.
While the theater was closed during my visit, I was still able to find my way into the lobby. It's a beautiful space and I could imagine Houdini as the prince of this palace.
During Houdini's 1925 run he exposed the well-known trumpet medium George Renner. Houdini attended Renner's seance at 2650 Superior Ave. in disguise and secretly smeared his trumpet with lampblack. When the lights came on, Renner's hands and face were cover in the soot, proving that the trumpet manifestations were the work of the medium and not the spirits. Renner was arrested and charged with fraud. Houdini had ten minutes to make it to the Palace for his performance. Newspapers reported he did his act with his hands still covered in the lampblack.
While Houdini's exposures drew headlines and large crowds to the theatre, it made him at least one enemy. Check out the below from the March 10, 1925 Cleveland Plain Dealer:
While in Cleveland Houdini stayed at the Hotel Statler at 1127 Euclid Avenue. The Statler is still there (it's now apartments), and from the outside appears just as it did in Houdini's time. A bonus is that the building stands beside the former John Harkness Brown building where Houdini did his 1916 suspended straitjacket escape. It's a great block for Houdini location seekers!
Houdini returned to Cleveland in November 1925 with his "3 Shows in One." This time he performed at the Hanna Theater located at 2067 East 14th Street, just a block over from the Palace. The Hanna still stands today. I couldn't get inside, but I did find the old stage door and could feel Houdini's spirit on that spot.
During his final Cleveland appearance, Houdini performed for handicapped children at the Sunbeam School. Below is a terrific photo of Houdini performing for the kids. An account of this show in the November 6, 1925 Cleveland Plain Dealer details Houdini's performance of the die box. The original school building was razed for the new Sunbeam School located at 11800 Mt. Overlook Ave.
Houdini was booked to return to the Hanna for the week of November 9, 1926. This was to be his next stop after his two week engagement in Detroit. He didn't make it. As we know, Houdini died in Detroit on Halloween of that year.
There's one last Houdini Cleveland connection. In 2017 the city played host to the Official Houdini Séance inside a bank vault. Houdini was a no show, but his memory proved to be alive and well in Cleveland -- a five star Houdini city!
Want more? You can see an exclusive photo of Houdini in Cleveland from the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook and download the research I did for my lecture as a "Scholar" member of my Patreon by clicking the image below.
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