When did Houdini and his mother go to Budapest?

This week seems to be all about Budapest, so let's finish on theme and head down an early Easter rabbit hole.

In my upcoming book, Handcuff King: The Conquests of Harry Houdini, 1900-1909, I'm hoping to provide the most complete and accurate chronology of Houdini's life during his peak "Handcuff King" days. I'm pretty confident my facts are confirmed and correct. But there's still one thing driving me crazy!

When exactly did Houdini and his mother travel to Hungary and have the "Queen for a day" reception at the Grand Hotel Royal in Budapest?

Every biography that includes this event puts it between Houdini's engagement at the Hansa-Theater in Hamburg and his opening at the Colosseum in Essen. That places it at the very end of April 1901.

However, this timing is problematic, if not impossible. Houdini closed at the Hansa on April 30 and opened at the Colosseum the next day, May 1 (after doing a police station test). So there's no time for a two-day excursion to Budapest.

I think it's more likely that it happened at the end of August 1901. Houdini himself said that at the end of the Budapest trip, he escorted his mother "en route to America." I take this to mean that he took her to her ship. And according to a letter Houdini wrote to Fredrick Roterberg (brother of Gus), his mother sailed for home on August 22.

Where does the April date come from? As far as I can find, the primary source for the entire Budapest story is Harold Kellock's Houdini: His Life Story. Kellock writes that it happened "at the close of his engagement" (implying Hamburg, but not saying that explicitly). What was Kellock's source? A clue can be found in this sentence:

"After listening patiently to his remonstrances," Houdini wrote in an autobiographical fragment, "I revealed to him my plot to crown my little mother and allow her to be Queen Victoria for a few fleeting hours."

I trust Kellock really did have an account of this written by Houdini, likely an unpublished document. However, I don't know where that document is today, and I don't believe any other biographers saw it. This is likely why Ken Silverman omitted the story entirely from his own book, Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss, but I think that's going too far. I believe it happened.

Milbourne Christopher in Houdini: The Untold Story goes with the April date, even adding the specific detail that Houdini closed on a Saturday. But Houdini's Hamburg engagement ended on a Tuesday. Christopher also says his mother returned to America before the end of Houdini's engagement in Essen in May. That's not correct either. So Christopher was working from a flawed chronology.

If I'm going to revise Houdini history and challenge the likes of Milbourne Christopher, I'd better have proof! Otherwise, I feel like I have to stick with the conventional placement of the trip at the end of April and add a caveat that it may have happened later. But, man, I'd sure like to know for sure!

My book is still a few months away from going to the printer, so my hope is that someone out there might have the Kellock document or anything that provides evidence for exactly when Houdini and his mother took their famous two-day trip to Budapest. April or August 1901? Or maybe some other time entirely???

If you have anything to share, feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

Thanks to Dr. Steffen Taut for helping me nail down Houdini's German performance dates. Top image from the McCord Stewart Museum.

Related:

• Fred Pittella follows Harry and Mama to Budapest
• Potter & Potter photo reveals Mama (still) in Europe
• OFFICIAL POLICE NEWS!

Deconstructing Houdini '53: Resurrection

Continuing my scene-by-scene dissection of Houdini (1953). Last time, an overboard box escape went horribly wrong and Houdini finally met his end. Or has he?

Chapter 19: Resurrection

This scene is the conclusion of the famed trapped under the ice sequence, but it's worth examining on its own as it contains a significant moment in Houdini's life. Maybe even THE most significant moment.

We dissolve from Otto standing alone by the side of the hole in the ice to Bess back in the hotel room, still dressed in black with the lights low. She hears newsboys calling on the street: "Houdini lost in Detroit River!" This atmospheric addition to the story was the creation of Bess Houdini herself. It first appears in the Harold Kellock book:

    Back in the hotel Mrs. Houdini was lying uneasily in bed when she heard newsboys crying in the street.

    "Quick, open the window wide," she said to her attendant, and suddenly the cries became clear: "Extree! Extree! Houdini dead!" "Extree! Houdini drowned in river."

Bess closes the door and breaks down in tears. But then the hotel door silently opens behind her. Bess turns to see a darkened silhouette of Houdini standing there. Is it a ghost? No, it's Houdini in the flesh, accompanied by Otto. He is risen! (At this point, the ten-year-old me decided I needed to devote my life to Houdini.)

Harry and Bess embrace. He explains that the current swept him downstream. He feared he'd "never find the opening," but then heard his mother's voice calling to him. He swam toward the sound of her voice and found the opening in the ice. (Presumably, with Otto still standing vigil.) Bess cries as Harry assures her, "I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you."

The addition of Houdini's mother's death and guiding voice is a deviation from the established mythology. Here, divine intervention saves Houdini from his Halloween fate (this time). But Houdini's own "true" version of the story has none of this. In fact, he goes out of his way to say that he searched and found no "greater" or "guiding light" to rescue him. In his own version of events, Houdini saves himself.

I do think it's inspired to not show Houdini's escape from his icy confinement. Letting the scene end on a down note makes his mysterious reappearance feel like an actual resurrection. It makes him an even more mythic and powerful figure. But his ascendancy comes with a cost.

The phone rings. Harry takes the call, and darkness descends over his features. "What time did she die?" he asks. When he hangs up, he tells Bess that his mother died at the same time he heard her calling to him. Houdini collapses into Bess's arms and we fade to black.

It's interesting to note that because the filmmakers chose to stage this on Halloween, it means his mother also died on Halloween. A bad day indeed! Houdini's mother actually died on July 17, 1913, and Houdini learned of her death during a press conference in Copenhagen. But the movie is correct in showing that Houdini was not present for his mother's death, and the news came as a great shock to him. Such a shock that it will change the course of his life and career.

But we'll save that for next time.

Click to see all chapters of Deconstructing Houdini '53

Related:

• Trapped under the ice with Houdini
• Punching a new hole in the ice story
• The Mother scrapbook

Deconstructing Houdini '53: Under the Ice

It was 49 years ago today that I first saw Houdini (1953), and it changed my life. What better day to continue my scene-by-scene dissection of the movie. Last time, Harry became an American sensation. But has he gone too far...

Chapter 18: Under the Ice

The following scenes are linked as one sequence, so I will treat them all in one post. This is arguably the most memorable sequence in the entire movie. It's certainly the most harrowing! But did any of it ever happen? Let's dive in.

We open with a procession of bellboys delivering buckets of ice to Houdini's hotel room. A strategically placed sign informs us this is Halloween Eve. The bellboys go into Houdini's bathroom and empty their buckets into the tub where Houdini lies in freezing water under a mound of ice. Otto tells the curious bell captain (Mike Mahoney) that Houdini is "going to jump into the Detroit River tomorrow."

Detroit? Halloween? This is starting to sound ominous.

Houdini in a tub of ice is a strange sight but a perfectly accurate one. Houdini did take extremely cold ice baths to prepare himself for his outdoor water escapes. However, Houdini did them at home under the watch of his doctor brother (Leopold) instead of in a hotel room. It's also unlikely that Houdini's baths had this much ice, but it's a great visual.

A flustered Bess enters and is taken aback by the entire scene. Notice Bess is dressed in all black -- a widow before the fact. She pulls Harry from the tub (or, rather, she tells Otto to pull him from the tub) and tells him the Detroit River is frozen over and he will have to cancel the stunt. Harry looks to Otto, who says casually, "We'll cut a hole in the ice."

Once again, we see Otto as a dark enabler, finding ways for Houdini to push into the higher realms of magic and death defiance. Bess is mortified by the idea, but Harry is delighted and even jokes about it. "If I had you with me under that ice, I bet we could set a new record." But then Bess cautions him that tomorrow is Halloween. "That's not your day." Houdini steels himself and says, "To me, it's just another Thursday."

This is a significant moment and a big change in Houdini's character. In his youth, Harry recognized the role fate played in his life, telling Bess, "Something strange always happens to me on Halloween." Now Bess is warning him that fate may be trying to send him a message. But Harry ignores them both. 

Is his skepticism due to hubris, or has he simply outgrown his youthful beliefs? The real reason may be expressed in his line, "The theater has advertised it for weeks; I can't back out now." He doesn't want to disappoint his audience. But we can't help but feel Houdini is entering into a stunt that is reckless in more ways than one.

We now dissolve to a beautiful shot (or rather, a beautiful matte painting by Jan Domela) showing the frozen Detroit River and what is, presumably, the Belle Island Bridge. Despite Otta saying Houdini would "jump" into the river, we see he's being manacled and locked into a steel box. Technical advisor Dunninger provided this box and claimed it was used by Houdini himself. However, there is no record of Houdini ever using a steel case for his overboard box escapes. (This box survives and is today displayed at the Laurel Canyon Houdini Estate.)

A construction crane hoists the box up and out over the bridge. But as it is being lowered, the chain breaks and the box plunges through the hole in the ice with no safety line attached. This was all staged in the water tank on the Paramount backlot, and it's sensational!

While panic ensues on the surface, we see the steel box land on the river bottom. After a moment's beat, Houdini emerges from behind it. This is similar to footage of the real Houdini escaping from an underwater box in The Master Mystery and Terror Island. This isn't by accident. The filmmakers had access to a print of Terror Island in the Paramount archives and studied it. Houdini producer George Pal even showed the scenes back to back on the television show You Asked For It.

Houdini swims to the surface only to find that he has been swept downstream under the ice sheet. He can not find the exit. He is trapped under the ice! He swims with growing panic until he finds a pocket of air. He takes a few merciful breaths, then plunges down and continues his search for the hole. This is every bit as frightening as it sounds!

Meanwhile, on the surface, Bess tells Otto, "I know he's in trouble. He should have been out by now." Otto orders hooks to be dropped into the water. The hooks snag the box and haul it to the surface. But when the box is opened, Houdini is not inside. Bess faints as Otto orders the lines dropped back into the water in the hopes that "he might see them."

We dissolve to several minutes later when it is clear Houdini has not been found. Reporters are leaving the scene with one saying forlornly, "Guess we got a headline." Another dissolve takes us to Otto, now standing alone by the hole in the ice, waiting for a miracle as the cold wind blows his coat. A magnificent shot.

Okay, a quick fact check. Houdini did jump handcuffed from the Belle Island Bridge in Detroit in very cold temperatures in November 1906. But the river wasn't frozen. Houdini himself created the myth of being trapped under the ice. When Houdini (1953) was made, the story was believed to be true. It's in the Harold Kellock book, Houdini: His Life Story, on which this movie is based. It wasn't until 1959 that the true facts of the Belle Island Bridge jump came to light. So we can't fault the filmmakers for including this and embedding it into people's minds to this day. It's just so dang powerful!

Too bad Houdini is dead and our story is at an end.

Or is it?

Click to see all chapters of Deconstructing Houdini '53

Related:

• The Belle Isle Bridge jump
• Trapped under the ice with Houdini
• Houdini freezes the Detroit river in 1912
• November 16, 1975

The Columbia was wild about Harry!

I've seen effusive Houdini advertising before, but this ad for the independently run Columbia Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio, takes the cake. This was for Houdini's two-week run in January 1908. I love how it adds "And Houdini" after every other name on the bill.

Cincinnati Post, Jan. 6, 1908

I would love to know what exactly was displayed in Max Joseph's cigar store window. 

This was Houdini's third appearance at the Columbia. During his first week, he escaped from a cell at Cincinnati’s Central Station in 31 minutes. The cell had once held the infamous Scott Jackson (right), a murderer whom some believed had hypnotic power and was able to impose his will on victims using his steel blue eyes.

During his second week, Houdini featured a string of challenges: packing case (Monday), leather bag (Tuesday), iron-bound willow hamper (Wednesday), paper bag (Thursday), and a packing case built on the stage (Friday). He finished his run on Saturday with a straitjacket escape in eight minutes on a $100 wager.

Another nice detail about this engagement is that Houdini's mother joined him. Houdini recorded in his diary that, upon her arrival in Cincinnati, “Charlie the dog went wild for thirty minutes with joy.”

The Columbia Theater stood at 525 Walnut Street. It became part of the Keith circuit in 1910 and was renamed the B.F. Keith Theater in 1912. Houdini played the theater seven times. It closed in September 1965 and was demolished in July 1966. Today, it is the site of Fountain Square.

Want more? You can download research related to Houdini's 1908 engagement in Cincinnati as a Scholar member of my Patreon below. Thanks to my patrons for supporting content like this.

Related:

• Off-script in Cincinnati
• LINK: Houdini, Martin Beck, and Herrmann in Cincinnati
• Houdini living on the air in Cincinnati

Deconstructing Houdini '53: Europe's Eclipsing Sensation

It was 48 years ago today that I first saw Houdini on television, and it changed my life! So what better day to continue my scene-by-scene dissection of the movie. Last time Harry beat two challenges in London. Today he takes on the rest of Europe...

Chapter 13: Europe's Eclipsing Sensation

We're just over an hour into Houdini (1953), and Harry has become a sensation. What better way to show this than with a montage! I love a good Houdini movie montage. It's a chance to quickly touch down on some key events and see some cool recreations, and that's what we get here.

The montage begins with a shot of Houdini entering his 26th Week at the Alhambra in London. Oddly, this is being pasted over his "12th Week." Shouldn't it be Week 25? Anyway, it is true Houdini was held over for many weeks at the Alhambra in 1900, eight weeks during his first run and nine weeks at the end of the year. So a lengthy run at the Alhambra is right in sync with real Houdini history.

The next establishing shot is pretty vague, but it looks appropriately Europe-ish. Here we see Harry and Bess doing the Needles. This is a trick Houdini was famous for, so getting a recreation shot is a treat. The Needles is also on the cover of the Kellock book on which Houdini '53 is based, so that makes this extra special. It's worth noting that all the montage scenes, including several that did not make the cut, were filmed on Halloween 1952.

Paris is the next stop. Nothing vague here as we see a shot of the Eiffel Tower. Here Harry and Bess do an arrow through girl effect. This isn't a trick that comports with any known Houdini history, but this one falls into the category of contemporary magic for audiences of the time. In reality, Houdini's card magic won the day during his first Paris engagement. While Houdini's "big game hunter" costume might seem out of character, recall the photos of Houdini in his "ice cream suit" and pith helmet during his travels to Australia and publicity for Terror Island. So a pith-helmeted Houdini...box checked!

A shot of an overnight train takes us to Germany and the Hotel Europea in Berlin. Here we see Houdini is playing the Wintergarten, another real theater from Houdini's first European tour. As the montage ends, we learn that Harry's many letters sent to the enigmatic Herr J. Von Schweger have been returned.

In Chapter Eight I hinted that Von Schweger is rooted in reality. These returned letters should be the tip-off. To my mind, von Schweger is clearly Wiljalba Frikell. Houdini tried to visit the famous German conjurer during his first European tour, and Frikell repeatedly and mysteriously rejected him. The similarities will become even more evident in a few chapters.

We seem to have taken a leap in time as Houdini now shows grey at his temples. This is our first look at the successful and wealthy Houdinis, and Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh slip into these new roles perfectly. They were, after all, a wealthy and famous married couple!

Bess comments that it's his birthday, which Harry doesn't seem to want to celebrate. But then his mother appears as a birthday surprise. Houdini's mother did come to Europe at this time, so we are once again right in line with real Houdini history. I've also always thought this scene of Harry celebrating his mother in a hotel before an admiring crowd is a nod to the famous reception Houdini had for his mother at the Royal Hotel in Budapest.

Here the movie also reinforces Houdini's great love for his mother. "That's my girl," he says at the end of their dance. This echoes the famed "My two sweethearts" photo of Houdini with Mama and Bess in 1907. This is also the first time we hear "The Golden Years," which was offered as a 45 single and as sheet music and will come back later.

Houdini is then encouraged to do a trick. He does an impromptu broom levitation with Bess. This is not a trick the real Houdini ever performed, but it's another contemporary magic piece performed from beginning to end without a cut by the actors, and it's terrific! It's probably my favorite magic trick in the movie and the most effective.

It's worth noting that this hotel sequence is one that would be truncated or cut entirely when the movie was shown on television in the 1970s and 80s. The version I had recorded on Beta tape and watched endlessly went from the montage to the courtroom scene. It was many years before I ever saw this sequence in its entirety.

We end with Houdini being served a summons to appear in a German court for fraud. "I might go to jail," he tells Bess. Of course, this is also rooted in reality, and it's where we will be traveling next.

Click to see all chapters of Deconstructing Houdini '53

Related:

• Houdini at the Alhambra 1900 brochure sells on eBay
• Potter & Potter photo reveals Mama (still) in Europe
• November 16, 1975

The Mama message has returned!

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.

Related:

• The Mama message
• The real story of Houdini & Doyle
• Copperfield finds

Houdini's ideal girl (is no surprise)

Here's one for Mother's Day. I recently stumbled on this clipping from the July 28, 1926 Buffalo Times. Houdini's take on career women might get him canceled in less forgiving company, but his "ideal" should be no surprise.

Can't get enough of that Houdini mother love? Here are some more links for you.

Related:

• The Mother Scrapbook
• Houdini's Motherly Love (video)
• Bahl Yahn the Strong Man. A Good Night Story by Harry Houdini

Houdini in the bank

I'm working hard on the next installment about my visit to the Harry Ransom Center and planning to share it next week. In the meantime, here's a taste of things to come. I included this as part of my special part 2 preview for patrons, but it drew enough interest that I decided to break it out into its own post.

Among the papers in the Ransom Center are documents related to Houdini's finances. Here is Houdini's––or rather, Ehrich Weiss'––balance sheet for 1911. This shows his total income for that year was $117,851.27. According to the CPI Inflation Calculator, this is equivalent to $3,675,421.35 in 2022. And this is before there was such a thing as income tax. Not too shabby, Ehrich!

Click to enlarge.

I'm curious what kind of "House Maintenance" cost $7,912.13 ($246,667.73 today). I know at some point Houdini added a new heating system to 278. Maybe this is that?

If you're curious about the names at the bottom of the expense column: W.G. Weiss is Houdini's brother, Bill; Mrs. Cecelia Weiss is his mother; Miss Carrie Weiss is his sister; and Mrs. Rahner is Bess's mother.

Stay tuned for "More Treasures of the Harry Ransom Center."

Related:

• Treasures of the Harry Ransom Center
• "Darling Kadaria Wilhelmina Weiss"
• Houdini and the tax man

The Mother Scrapbook

Recently I had the opportunity to examine a very special Houdini scrapbook in the collection of John Gaughan. But I didn't examine the scrapbook at John's workshop, although that was my expectation. John insisted that I take it home. He wanted me to "live with it" and "absorb it." I was pretty reluctant to take responsibility for this precious (and brittle!) Houdini rarity, but John felt this was the best way to learn about it. He was right.

So, yes, for a week I lived with this highly personal and pretty strange scrapbook shaped entirely by Houdini's hand and mind. Only after returning it to John did I feel like I could write about it.

A little background on the scrapbook itself. This was part of the collection of Marie Hinson, who held onto many of the most personal items kept by her sister Bess Houdini. Doug Henning acquired many of Marie's treasures, which he shared in his book Houdini His Legend and His Magic. According to John, this scrapbook was something Doug hand selected out of the collection. He later passed it to John as a gift. So this is something precious even before opening it!

I had seen this scrapbook in John's display case on my visits to his shop. John kept it open to the first two pages, which best reflect the personal and mysterious nature of this scrapbook. With John's permission, I'm sharing that here for the first time:

Click to enlarge.

There's a lot about these pages that intrigues me. First and foremost is the quote Houdini has handwritten on the inside cover:

"Live with your friends.........

remembering they may one day be your enemies."

This is a pretty strange and dark sentiment. Why would this hold so much meaning for him? It's interesting that it is in quotation marks. Is Houdini quoting his mother here? If so, what does that tell us about his Cecelia Weiss?

There are other things on this page that perplex me. Why the question about the address for the Carnegie medals? Could M.S. be Mayer Samuel? And what's with the oddly cut out photograph of Houdini in the corner? And why has this page been framed with strips of paper? It all seems coded in some way that I can't quite decider.

The next pages hold a remarkable two-page poem written by Houdini "whilst on a train" in 1907. It's devoted to his father and is based on an existing poem, Rock Me to Sleep by Elizabeth Akers Allen. It's really quite moving. A sample verse:

Happiness and Cheerfulness was then our lot
But now you slumber in the family plot
Whilst I have money at my command
All of which Id give with you to stand
To lead you away, from that Hospital door

Like Doc and I once did, in the dim days of yore.

The remainder of the scrapbook is less specifically about Cecelia and more devoted to motherhood and life lessons in general. It might not be correct to call this the "mother scrapbook" as there is so much more. It seems this was a scrapbook Houdini kept for all things that moved him personally. There's even some random stories about how people get better in middle age and one about the treatment of various skin diseases. There's lots of poetry, and Houdini seems especially fond of the columnist Walt Mason. There's only one photograph, but it's one that greatly intrigues me. Where is "The Cecilia Weiss Ward" I wonder?

Among the many stories Houdini clipped is the below. I'm sharing this one because it's the one I can't forget. And you won't forget it either. When I relayed the story to John Gaughan, he shuddered.

Overall, the scrapbook is filled with many accounts of mourning and loneliness. There are several stories that illustrate how fame and riches do not bring true happiness. It's hardly what one would expect from The World Champion Handcuff King and Prison Breaker. But Houdini had plenty of scrapbooks devoted to his greatness. This is one in which he appears to process his deepest thoughts and self-doubts.

I only paged through the entire scrapbook once as it is very brittle and I wasn't about to let a single piece of paper flake off on my watch. I'm happy to report I was successful.

Having this scrapbook in my home was a powerful experience. I actually had it over the weekend that marked the anniversary of Cecelia Weiss's death. While most of the time I kept it closed inside it's archival container, for those two days I took it out and let it live inside my own display case.

My thanks to John Gaughan for giving me this intimate and surprisingly intense Houdini experience.

Want more? You can read Houdini's full poem for his father as a member of my Pateron.

Related:

• A magical visit to the workshop of John Gaughan
• Look who dropped by the L.A. Magic History Conference
• Lost Houdini Spiritualism scrapbook discovered in California

The secret origins of Houdini the debunker

One of the more engrained Houdini myths is that his interest in spiritualism and crusade against fakes began with his mother's death in 1913. It didn't. But I've already tackled that in a post HERE. The question I want to tackle today is what did motivate him to begin exposing spiritualistic fraud?

Turns out Houdini answered that himself in an interview with the Dayton Daily News on September 26, 1925. It's a story that opens a door to a wider speculation, which I will get into in a moment. But first, here's that interview with the key paragraph excerpted:

    Houdini, born in Appleton, Wis., has been actively experimenting with spiritualism since he was 17, soon after his father died.

    "My father left his insurance papers in an usual state," said Houdini. "Innocent then, my mother and I went to a spiritualist.

    "Three of the four mediums enabled us to talk with my father. He said he was perfectly happy. It seems strange to me that my father, knowing our pinch circumstances, would say any such thing.

    "That's what started my suspicions and caused me to expose this cruel deception to the world."

So there we go. Houdini smelled a rat as early as the 1892. But for me this explanation has embedded within it something even deeper.

What I find most interesting here is his mother's participation. It begs the question: Did Cecelia Weiss believe in spiritualism? Could she even have been an ardent believer? 

If so, this would explain the conflicting nature of Houdini's obsession with the subject. On one hand, he was committed to protect his mother by sussing out the frauds that he saw prying on grieving windows like herself. But was he also driven to redeem his mothers belief by finding the real thing. Hence, Houdini's search for a real thing was every bit as strong as his hunt for fakes.

I really think this could be a key to Houdini's psyche and I have thought this for some time. But evidence is scant. Because just as we have a Germany problem, we also have a "Mama problem." 

Houdini was buried with all his mother's letters forming a pillow under his head, so no conversation between them survives. Therefore, we really don't know all that much about the most important person and most influential relationship in Houdini's life. How many of those letters discuss spiritualism, I wonder?

Food for thought!

Related:

• Mama's death and the birth of a myth
• Houdini exposed mediums MUCH earlier than we thought
• The Houdini birth year conundrum

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"