Found! The man who bought Houdini's Voisin

Donald Stevenson

Magician and Master Locksmith Mick Hanzlik, author of Looking Into The Mirror, has teamed with Jon Becker in the continued search for Houdini's Voisin biplane, and today Mick sends over something pretty exciting!

No, he didn't find the plane, but he did find photographes of the man who bought the plane from Houdini in 1913, Donald Stevenson.

Until now, there were no known photos of Stevenson, a magician and engineer who worked alongside Chung Ling Soo building model planes in the great magician's workshop. In the color photo below you can see one of those model planes.

In 1913 Houdini offered Stevenson his historic Voisin if Stevenson would pay off the storage fees. The letter Houdini wrote allowing Stevenson to claim the plane can see seen in Milbourne Christopher's Houdini A Pictorial Life (page 73). Where the Voisin went after that...well, that's the next mystery.

Thank you Mick for sharing these terrific images!

Related:

• The search for Houdini's airplane continues
• Did Houdini’s Voisin land in the hands of Chung Ling Soo?
• The search for Houdini’s biplane is on!

The search for Houdini's airplane continues

Last year as part of the Centenary celebrations of Houdini's first flight in Australia, a search was launched to find out what happened to Houdini's historic Voisin bi-plane. The investigation culminated with the tantalizing idea that Houdini's plane could have landed in the hands of Chung Ling Soo (aka William Robinson) via a fellow magician and aviation enthusiast, Donald Stevenson, who purchased the plane from Houdini in 1913.

Not long after I first posted this story on my old website, a gentlemen named Andrew Stevenson posted the following in my Comments:

"I am Donald Stevensons grandson and we know he had a plane later on on display at his aeronautical and automotive engineering works in Maidenhead. We are trying to find some photos to see if it is the same plane."

Unfortunately, Mr. Stevenson did not post a follow-up comment, so it's unknown whether he confirmed or denied that this Maidenhead plane was Houdini's Voisin.

Now Jon Becker has taken up the case and is chasing down new leads and uncovering new information about Stevenson and Houdini's plane. Obviously, he would love to get in touch with Andrew Stevenson, or anyone who might have information on Houdini's plane. Are you still out there Mr. Stevenson?

Jon can be contacted via a special email address he has dedicated to his search: Houdiniplane@gmail.com.

I'm thrilled to hear the search for Houdini's Voisin is continuing. Let's help Jon find this sucker!

Did Houdini’s Voisin land in the hands of Chung Ling Soo?

Lions Club President Rob Mackay reports on an interesting development in the search for Houdini’s lost Voisin biplane, which is being conducted in anticipation of next year’s centenary celebrations of Houdini's first flight in Diggers Rest.

Is it possible the plane wound up in the possession of magician and aviation enthusiast William Robinson a.k.a. Chung Ling Soo? Rob reports:

"Harry Houdini shipped his biplane to England and never flew again. That year John Bevins Moisant, famous for his barnstorming, crashed a plane and so Houdini offered to help repair the damages by volunteering a replacement propeller and biplane for GRATIS. In December 1910 John Bevins Moisant died by crashing another plane. 

The biplane was held in storage until 1913, when a gentleman named, “Donald Stevenson” picked it up from the warehouse. Stevenson then sold it to another aviation enthusiast, who it is believed to be Chung Ling Soo, known, from a technical viewpoint, as the greatest magician of all time. Although Chung Ling Soo acted as a Chinese man, he was an Englishman named, William Ellsworth Robinson. He was also fascinated with planes and created the first model plane factory in the world."

The intriguing connection was uncovered by a tipster who discovered that Donald Stevenson, who was a magician and engineer, worked in Robinson's workshop behind the magician’s home, sharing expenses. When Robinson wanted help with his magic effects, Stevenson billed him for his time. Robinson's house was a large three story brick mansion that comprised two addresses at 48 and 50 Lonsdale Road in London. Both men had a fascination with aviation and model plane building.

Robinson died tragically onstage on March 23, 1918 performing the bullet catch trick. (Houdini was talked out of performing the same effect by magician Harry Keller.) Donald Stevenson later wrote a series of articles for Model Engineering magazine, detailing his early model aviation work and connections with Chung Ling Soo.

So if the Voisin found its way into the Soo/Stevenson magic and aviation collection, what happened to it after Robinson’s untimely death?

UPDATE: Found! The man who bought Houdini's Voisin.