Houdini on race equality

We are living in a time of a serious re-examination of how historical figures may have helped or hindered the struggle for rights and equality for all, regardless of sex or race. So where did Houdini stand on this?

In Houdini's day the great struggle was that of women seeking equality in society and especially the right to vote. The "Suffrage" movement sparked demonstrations and even violence. When asked if he approved of "women participating in everyday life" (code for equal rights), Houdini's answer was an unequivocal, "Yes."

But he largely led by example–such as inviting Suffragettes onstage to challenge him in 1908–and avoided the mire of politics, stating: "I hope to keep out of politics, for that is a game in which most of us are defeated before we even get into."

But what about racial equality?

Being Jewish and an immigrant, Houdini certainly understood the sting of institutional discrimination. And while he wasn't perfect (his films and fiction trade on racial stereotypes), he had a strong sense of justice and did express a tolerance uncharacteristic for that time. For instance, he was impressed with the racial equality he witnessed in British Music Halls, and wrote about it in his New York Dramatic Mirror column on November 12, 1904.

In this remarkable paragraph, written in England for American readers, one may infer of his own feelings on race equality. And while Houdini's use of the word "colored" is considered offensive today, it was the most respectful language he could have used at that time.

Just a few lines referring to your article appearing Sept. 24, in which you reproduce a cut of a team called Cline and Clark, in which a white woman is doing a sketch with a colored man. That is nothing unusual on this side of the pond, and were I a colored man I would never leave this country. They are all looked upon here just as amicably as if they were white. The color line is unknown here, and many a team I've seen in which the man is colored and his partner white. The colored race over here has made a great big hit, and certainly are making good with their ability. I have been on the bill with several American colored acts that have "made good" without question. I may mention Brown and Navarro, Grant and Grant, La Belle Morcschania, Johnson and Dean, White and Black, the Four Black Troubadours, Eph Thompson, George Jackson, etc., and all have done well.

I trust that these few lines will not open any controversy, as I simply write for general information and nothing else.

Wishing everyone a safe and united Fourth of July weekend.

Related:

• Is Houdini's "Chinese Water Torture Cell" racist?
• Was Houdini a chauvinist?
• The Handcuff King's blog: Art and beer in Bavaria

The Handcuff King's blog: Shipwrecked

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

I'm going to conclude this series with some advice from Houdini for all you American singers, comedians, magicians, jugglers, loopers, hoopers, ventriloquists, cakewalkers, animal trainers, clay modelers, contortionists, and, yes, even escape artists, who are looking to make their names and fortunes in Europe.

It's November 12, 1903, and Houdini writes to us from foggy London:

I arrived safe and sound in England and walked around the streets of London so as to become accustomed to the foggy air. While strolling about Leicester Square, I discovered quite a few "shipwrecked" American acts. When I say "shipwrecked," I mean acts that hail from America that failed to obtain a prolongation of contract, or that came over without being booked. I think that it is only fair and just to let Mirror readers know that you have to make good in England, just the same as in any other country, and if you have a hankering to come over and cut your "capers," you should also be prepared to "do or die." Out of respect and good fellow-feeling the failures are never mentioned, and you only hear of the acts that have made good. So if you wish to come over to England, it is a good idea to have some agent book your act up for a run of six or eight months, and then you don't have to make good. You will work your contracts, and that is your finish, as an English contract is almost as good as so much money.

Houdini knew first-hand the hazard of being "shipwrecked" in England. Legend says Houdini and Bess gambled on making it in Europe and set out with no bookings and only $20 cash in their pockets. But in truth, the European trip was the idea of Martin Beck, Houdini's new manager, who had successfully shaped Houdini's act and booked him on his Orpheum vaudeville circuit in 1899.

Beck entrusted Harry's advanced European bookings to an international agent, Richard Pitrot, was supposed to travel with Harry and Bess to England. But Pitrot stood them up on the dock, and when Harry and Bess landed in the UK, they found that no contracts had been secured. They were "shipwrecked."

It took a handcuff escape at Scotland Yard (maybe true) and several auditions (definitely true) to convince C. Dundas Slater, the manager of the Alhambra Theater in Leicester Square, to give "The Handcuff King" a trial run.

The rest is history.

Also enjoy:

• Art and beer in Bavaria
• Freaks of Octoberfest
• Breaking into Russia
• Death of a rival
• The Flower Medium
• The inescapable Loop the Loop
• A night at the opera and a day in Liverpool

Two mysteries: Hardeen's partner and a lost patriotic poster

While researching my Handcuff King's blog series (watch for the final installment, "Shipwrecked", coming soon), I came across two curious items in Houdini's Dramatic Mirror column that I thought I'd single out here for closer examination.

The first involves his brother, Theo. Hardeen, whom Houdini set-up in show business during this time. In his April 29, 1905 column, Houdini writes:

Theodore Hardeen is in Paris and shortly returns to England. He has separated from his partner, and will in the future work alone.

Hardeen had a partner?

It's possible Houdini is referring to Hardeen's original female assistant, Miss Trixy, who worked with Hardeen in his version of Metamorphosis. As with the rest of his act, Houdini supplied Hardeen with "Miss Trixy" (a name Houdini would use again for a female escape artist he set-up in Germany). Miss Trixy can be spotted on the early Hardeen poster above. If we believe this image, it looks like not only did she play Bessie's part in Metamorphosis, but she also wore the same costume.

The next concerns a favorite topic here at WILD ABOUT HARRY, lost posters. On March 5, 1903 Houdini writes from Hanover, Germany:

I have had a new lithograph made and have had a small American flag put in the corner. Now everybody thinks that I am a German for no American ever has the American flag on a litho.

What litho could Houdini be talking about here? I can't think of any Houdini posters that have a small American flag in the corner. There is the poster below (from Ken Silverman's Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss) with the Great Seal of the United States in the corner. But because this poster depicts his Washington D.C. jail escape in 1906 (in which he escaped from the death row cell of presidential assassin Charles Guiteau), it can't be the poster Houdini is talking about in 1903.

So we have evidence of a lost Houdini poster, made in 1903, possibly in Germany. Let the search commence!

The Handcuff King's blog: A night at the opera and a day in Liverpool

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

Houdini's letters and diaries reveal that he could be at times quite introspective and also a keen observer of people. He was able to express what he saw and felt quite well. Happily, he also had these moments while writing his column for the Dramatic Mirror.

Below are a couple of passages that reveal the inner Houdini. I love this kind of thing because while we know what Houdini did, it's rare to be able to get inside his head and see how he saw the world around him.

First up, Houdini writes from Dresden, Saxony on October 30, 1903:

At last I have managed to see an opera here in Saxony, and at the Hof Opera House, which means Royal Opera House. I took in Fra Diavolo. The name makes me think of a "Loop the Loop" act, but it was nothing of the kind. The night I saw the opera the house was not well filled, and during the intermission to my astonishment I saw ladies in full evening dress unwrapping ham sandwiches from newspapers and calmly eating them in the vestibule. As all looked as if they belonged to the "400," it was a better sight to me than watching the opera. It looked to me like a small-sized comic opera in the vestibules to see all the well-dressed ladies eating their belegter brodchens, and they seemed to enjoy themselves.

While the above showed an amusingly observational Houdini, the following shows how he could also be introspective and even melancholy. It also suggests a man who might have been haunted by the fear of falling back into the poverty that he had escapes only a few short years before.

On December 5, 1904, Houdini writes from Brighton in the UK:

While walking in Liverpool I looked into a pawnshop and a large American eagle on top of a medal caught my eye. It was the once celebrated medal worth about $3,500, that was given to the minstrel man Sam I. Hague. It bears the inscription: "presented to Sam Hague by a few friends that know him. St. James Hall. Liverpool. May 20, 1875." It tells a mournful tale, lying there in the window, of a once famous minstrel. He has been dead a few years and always refused to part with this while living, but now that he has gone his widow has been forced to part with this once cherished trinket. Seeing this medal in the window brought back to my mind the medals that are pawned in New York with a well-known "uncle" in the Bowery, who displays with pride presentation cups, loving chains and championship prizes of all sorts. Many a time I have walked to this place and looked at the silent remembrances of past favorites and never have I forgotten the fact that "life is but and empty dream."

Ironically, when Houdini died, his own widow had money troubles and a healthy collection of trophies and prsenations cups from Houdini's storied career. But while Bess sold the house at 278 and part of Houdini's book collection, she held onto the trophies. Perhaps she knew all too well Houdini's fear of ending up a symbol of "life's empty dream" in the window of a Bowery pawn shop.

Coming next: Shipwrecked.

The Handcuff King's blog: The inescapable Loop the Loop

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

In 1900 a unique variety act took Europe by storm. Born of the circus in the 19th century, no one had ever seen anything like it on a Music Hall stage. The sensation spread from England to France and Germany and even traveled into Russia in 1903, defying police and garnering headlines at many stops. Imitators abounded, many pilfering the original act's very name.

Sounds like I'm talking about Houdini, doesn't it? But I'm not. I'm talking about the "Loop the Loop," a sensation that paralleled Houdini's own rise to fame and oddly seemed to follow him from country to country. Of all the acts Houdini discusses in his Dramatic Mirror column, none get as much attention as the various "Loopers" and their misadventures. It was the act he couldn't escape.

So what is a Loop the Loop? It's best described by the poster below advertising Diavolo, who was one of the most famous Loopers of the day. As you can see, a performer would ride a bicycle around a large wooden loop to loop apparatus. Some would perform the loop on roller skates and even in a car. What's shocking is just how many artists were injured and even killed performing the hazardous stunt

What follows are several excerpts from Houdini's columns which discuss the Loop the Loop. Gathered together, these provide a nice history of this unique turn of the century sensation, which may have helped shape Houdini's later career.

Manchester, Nov. 23, 1902 - Diavolo is being eagerly sought for by mangers on the Continent as all the riders that were going to do the "loop the loop" have lost their nerve and none of them will attempt it. Mrs. Barber [Diavolo's manager] will have to go to Berlin and France and scoop in the marks and francs.

Berlin, Feb 21, 1903 - I arrived here from Amsterdam and found things in the theatrical business, especially in Berlin, are booming. Every theatre in Berlin is playing to sold out houses. At Circus Schuman, Mrs. Barber's "Loop the Loop" has packed them in for the last two months, and is prolonged for the month of February. Nothing has ever drawn like the "Loop the Loop." Herr Director Busch, of Circus Busch, has had a "loop" built and for the last three months has looked for some one to ride it. Up to the present time no one has been successful, although every morning is devoted to trail performances. One German racing man named Mindner has tried it five times, but has come to grief every time. They are now reconstructing the "loop," and Busch hopes to have the trick in good running order in a few weeks

Cologne, March 25, 1903 - The Isoias Freres have again shown that the are lucky managers. Having engaged "Loop the Loop" from Mrs. Barber, they were busily billing Paris as it has never been billed before, and they have actually been compelled to raise the roof of their already high theatre Olympia. What was their astonishment to find one day, to their great consternation, that Dupre and Bornea, of the Casino de Paris, had also engaged a Loop the Looper, and were also busily engaged in letting Parians know the fact. Naturally this aroused great excitement and it was with great pleasure that both managers announced that they would positively have the only Loop the Looper to do the act in Paris. It was announced that the Mephisto Loop the Loop at the Casino would be stopped from trying to break his neck by Diavolo, who claimed through his mangeress, Mrs. Barber, that the Loop was patented. But the papers wanted to know how you could patent the Loop when it was already done in 1856, and said that you could not patent the Loop an more then you could a twist double somersault or a twister. Be that as it may, on the first attempt by Mephisto, he had an accident and smashed his wheel, and Mr. Police stepped in and stopped the show. But not so with Diavolo.

Berlin, March 31, 1903 - Since writing my last letter regrading Paris and the "Loop the Loop" affair, Mephisto has again started in to work. He was stopped by the police, who were told that the act was patented, etc., but after several nights had passed Mephisto merrily risked his life just the same as Diavolo, who is drawing large houses at the Casino, while at the Olympia big business is also the rule. It seems that the people go first to see one and then the other "looper" as they wish to see which comes nearest to having an accident.

Berlin, April 12, 1903 - I have heard that an act called "Sloping the Slope" has opened in Paris. It consists of a man sitting down, and doing a kind of "Loop the loop," while in this position. Up to the present moment he has not received any medals for courage.

Interestingly, when Houdini traveled to Russia in the summer of 1903, the Loop to Loop followed...

Moscow, May 12, 1903 - Weston has brought a "Loop the Loop" act here and open at Aumont's inside of fifteen days, provided that the police will not interfere. News has reached Moscow that a young man was killed in Paris while giving a trial show, riding the loop, which will make it risky for any one to open up here, especially as I have heard that "Loop the Loop" will not be permitted.

Moscow, May 31, 1903 - Looping the Hoop opened last last night at Aumont's, and the police allowed four performances to be given, after which they were forbidden, and will have to move to St. Petersburg, where, I think the police will permit this "Hoop," for they allowed Madame Barber's "Loop" to work. Gifford's "Hoop," with which he was so successful in Berlin, and has so many uncertain first nights in Leipzig, has opened very successfully at the Hippodrome in London. Loop the Loop riders are again becoming scarce, as the late record of accidents is showing plainly that to ride the "Loop" successfully you race with a rider named Death, and there is no telling when something will happen.

Moscow, June 1903 - The latest sensation which is promised to Russia is the "Loop the Loop on Roller Skates," but I hardly think the police will allow it.

Moscow, July 19, 1903 - Emil Nolsett is drawing packed houses as Mephisto, King of Loopers, and with his loop the loop is going to tour the provinces of Spain. Barber, with his loop, is touring the South of France, and is also making a fortune. The looper Browns in Buda Pest was badly injured at Circus C. Sidoli last week and there is little hope of his recovery. Rambler, who had advertised a "Hoop the Hoop," failed to make his hoop work, and the young lady that he had engaged to ride the hoop sued him salary and was given the verdict.

Novgorod, Russia, Aug 8, 1903 - In Mannheim, at the Theatre Saaibau, there is a "Loop the Loop" being advertised and as far as I know the theater the only place that a "Loop the Loop" could be placed would be on the roof.

Holland, Sept 18, 1903 - In Frankfort A. M., a "loop the loop" was going to be delivered to the public, not the common way, with a bicycle, but with a man and woman seated on a tandem. At their first attempt they went around the loop, but the man, who was on the front seat and whose duty it was to steer the tandem safely around, must have forgotten to attend to affairs, for when they had completed the circuit he managed to steer the wheel out of the loop, and from what I hear they both are going yet. The lady recovered her senses the next day, and the gent has not recovered yet, as he says that he will try it again as soon as he finds a lady with the required nerve to make a second attempt. The first lady says that she is not taking any more chances, thanks. She is cured.

Dresden, Oct 14, 1903 - Noisett is touring through Spain with his own company, and the crop of Loopers is as large as ever. To give you an idea of how cheap Loop riders have become in Europe (outside of playing on percentage), you can obtain a Loop and rider for less than one-third of the price it cost at the time it was the rage. A Hoop the Hoop can be had for less than 300 marks a night, and two months ago they were paid 800 marks. So as, roughly counting, 420 marks make $100, you can easily figure out how much you can get risking your neck. Barber and Diavolo are still the highest paid of the entire lot, and rumor says that Madame Barber has collected the largest of the "filthy lucre" in connection with this device.

London, Aug 30, 1904 - Morock, a trick cyclist, killed himself while trying to throw a somersault after coming out of the Loop the Loop. He had some kind of an arrangement made which would make him throw a somersault after leaving the loop. He went after the trick, was carried from his apparatus covered with blood, and died a few days after. Two of the boards on the loop broke and he was thrown twelve feet into the air.

Liverpool, June 4, 1905 - All Europe is waiting to hear what the judges will say in Paris to Dupree and Berney, managers of the Casino de Paris, for permitting Mile. Randle to do the "Somerset of Death" in a motor car. It seems her uncle forced the girl to do the leap, and some people are going to prove that she tried to jump out of the window the evening before she was killed. From what the Paris papers say it looks like some one will be severely punished; at any rate, this will be the death-knell to all hazardous performances in France.

Indeed, it appears the Paris case did help put an end to death-defying loop the loops acts. Or it's possible that by 1905 the public had simply had their fill. As to it being "the death knell of hazards acts" in Vaudeville...well, three years after penning this last entry, Houdini threw off the mantle of "The Handcuff King" and became Houdini The Death Defier when he introduced his Milk Can escape.

I can't help but wonder whether his early years playing alongside the death-defying Loop the Loop had anything to do with his decision.

Coming next: A night at the opera and a day in Liverpool.

The Handcuff King's blog: The Flower Medium

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

At the turn of the century a medium named Anna Rothe made a specialty out of producing various kinds of flowers for her sitters "from the fourth dimension of space." For this she was known as the "Flower Medium." In 1902 Rothe was arrested in Berlin, Germany. The book A Science for the Soul by Corinna Treitel, describes the episode:

In March 1902, two officers on the Berlin police force interrupted the medium Anna Rothe in the act of plucking first a hyacinth and then a narcissus flower out of thin air. They grabbed Rothe's hands, wrestled her to the ground, and whistled to bring several more policemen pouring into the room. As the other seance participants watched in horror, a female police assistant subjected Rothe to a physical examination that revealed 157 flowers as well as several oranges and lemons tucked under her petticoat. Placed under arrest and charged with fraud, Rothe spent most of the next year in jail awaiting trial.

When Rothe finally came up for trial, Houdini was playing in Germany. While many TV documentaries and movies connect Houdini involvement with Spiritualism to his mother's death in 1913, the truth is Houdini's interest in spiritualism and spiritualistic trickery dates back to the beginnings of his interest in magic itself. Houdini was well aware of the Rothe episode, and in his Dramatic Mirror column for March 31, 1903, he writes:

Anna Rothe, the "Flower Medium" was found guilty of swindling and given eighteen months in prison, for swindling the public, although she had several well-known professors to testify that she was a real spiritualistic medium. This city is very rough on spiritualists, as you will know from the treatment of Anna Eva Fay, Doctor Slade, Schraps and many other well-known mediums, and it has been a sad blow to the cause of spiritualism as Ann Rothe was looked on as the prominent medium of the time. She is pretty well on in years, and she has been in jail ten months waiting trial, this time will be deducted from the original sentence, so she will have to serve only eight months. I saw the trial, and had to go at eight in the morning in order to get standing room. All the spiritualists in Germany tried to be there, but the court room in Moabit was to small to even hold a small percentage of the hundreds that tried to obtain admission. Although there were no prices charged, it cost me 10 marks to stand up.

Houdini's tone here is interesting. He certainly does not reveal his own skepticism toward Spiritualism. Indeed, with phrases such as "a sad blow to the cause of spiritualism", he almost sounds sympathetic.

The story of Anna Rothe, the Flower Medium, surprisingly did not find its way into Houdini's book, A Magician Among The Spirits. However, Houdini did mention attending the trail in a letter he wrote to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when the two men were first beginning their friendship and discussions about spiritualism.

Coming next: The inescapable Loop the Loop.

The Handcuff King's blog: Death of a rival

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

When Houdini opened at the Alhambra Theatre in London in 1900, he was challenged onstage by another "Handcuff King" named Cirnoc. Cirnoc not only claimed that he was the true inventor of the handcuff act, but said Houdini had never been to America. Houdini was defended on this point by a man in the audience (Chauncey Depew) who vouched for having seen Houdini in America several years earlier. Houdini then challenged Cirnoc to escape from a pair of Bean Giant handcuffs. Cirnoc failed and the next day newspapers wrote accounts of the dramatic onstage confrontation. Houdini The Handcuff King was off to fame and fortune.

Cirnoc was later booked against Houdini in an opposition theatre in Germany, but after this he vanishes from the Houdini story and indeed from magic history. In his December 1, 1903 Dramatic Mirror column from Huddersfield, England, Houdini revealed the true reason for Cirnoc's disappearing act -- he died.

Several deaths have occurred lately, among whom may be mentioned Paul H. Conrich, better known as Cirnoc, who has made quite a reputation as a "Handcuff King." He had been failing in heath, and had just signed a contract with Manager Richards to open in Australia, according to London Era, and died on his way to Sydney, where he is buried. He was about forty-five years of age and had been a performer for many years. He leave a son and daughter. He was recently married to a lady who used to manage Karo, when Karo toured America.

For such a "hated" rival, Houdini is respectful and even sounds somewhat mournful here. Maybe Cirnoc was not so hated after all? Maybe he was actually a plant that night at the Alhambra? Or maybe Houdini's vitriol towards "all other magicians" has been somewhat overstated. I am quite surprised in reading these columns that Houdini isn't at all hostile towards other magicians. He even gives name-lifting escape artists such as Nordini space in his columns right alongside T. Nelson Downs, Horace Goldin, and his own brother Hardeen.

But as the years and sheer number of imitators continued to pile up, Houdini is clearly starting to get irritated. In a column dated October 19, 1904 he laments:

When I landed in England in May 1900, no one knew that a handcuff could be made useful as a stage effect. Now, alas, I see hundreds billed as "World's Greatest Handcuff Kings," so I changed my billing to "Jail Breaker" and the all took that title too. All you have to do in England to become a "jail breaker" is to buy an English handcuff with two keys and you are made. But there is one thing I will say--no one tries to steal your name or change their name to sound like yours, as is the case in Germany. Here in England they do not go so far, and make good with their own names, which is something that German artists ought to think over. I believe in the motto: "Live and let live," but then I am not an undertaker.

Interestingly, it wasn't just Houdini who suffered from imitation. The stealing of acts and names seemed to be the endemic in the world of Vaudeville at the time. In his same December 1, 1903 column, Houdini writes about a familiar performer (and friend) who's act and name was being purloined while he was out of the country:

While W.C. Fields is in South Africa he has an imitation in Germany--or he will find one--who calls himself O.C. Shields. Same make-up; the only thing lacking to make it the same act is that Herr Shields is a sad comedian. I hear his real name is Oscar Streirhauer. My word!

A gallery of "Handcuff Kings."

Coming next: The Flower Medium.

The Handcuff King's blog: Breaking into Russia

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

In 1903 Houdini traveled to Russia. It would be the first and only time he performed in the country. Much has been made of the fact that Houdini could or would even want to travel into Czarist Russia at the peak of his European fame. Certainly this is irrefutable evidence that Houdini was a spy!!!!

But Houdini's column for the Dramatic Mirror clearly shows that Russian Music Halls were booming along with the rest of Europe, and there were a great many American and European acts flowing into Russia at the time. As to the fact that Jews could not perform or even sleep in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Houdini himself provides the explanation for how he and his fellow performers got around this anti-Semitic edict:

Hebrews are not allowed at all into Russia, but this is easily overcome by simply denying your religion when you are having your passport vised by the Russian consul, or you can go into Russian with a license, like a dog.

OR you can be a Top Secret Secret Agent on a Top Secret Secret Mission!!! Believe what you like.

Anyway, with visa in hand and audiences waiting, the task was getting into the country, which Houdini discovered was a magic trick in itself. In a column headlined "Houdini in Russia" dated April 23, 1903, the Handcuff King writes:

The above is the Russian date, but it is May 5 in other countries. We left Berlin, and taking the "Courier" train, we were soon speeding on our way to Russia. We arrived in good time at the frontier, Alexandrowo, and the merry revenue inspectors were soon looking at the odds and ends as well as other things that we had in our trunk. Such an inspection! No detective ever looked for a clue with greater zeal, no Sherlock Holmes ever tried to find a needle in a hay stack as these official searchers did. They stop you first to take away your passport; then calmly proceed to ransack your baggage. All my reading material was taken away and my desk-trunk was to have stopped there until everything was read through by the censor, but I shipped it back to Berlin. [...] As I carry a lot of burglar tools in my baggage, I had to obtain permission from the Russian Ministerium to take them into Russia, and I think they would have sent me back to Germany had it not been that I carried a permit to take in the tools. Eventually the inspection came to an end, and once again we were on our way to Moscow.

Houdini's Russian tour was very eventful. He performed for the Grand Duke in Moscow and made a spectacular escape from a Siberian Transport Prison Van. These exploits have be told in the many Houdini biographies, so no need for me to go into them here. In fact, Houdini himself doesn't write that much about his Russian triumphs, but on June 22 ("Russian Date") he does offer up an untold story of how he and Bess celebrated the most American of holidays:

Although yesterday was the Fourth of July in American, it is only June 21 here in Russia, but just the same our American Consul, Smith, invited all the American performers who were in Moscow to a celebration on the grounds of the consulate, over which waved a large American flag, while the Russians looked over the fence and wondered what the "always-in-a-hurry Americans" were up to. Among the guests were the Manhattan Quartette, Smith and Doretto, Weston of loop the hoopology, four of the Florida Girls, Miss Walcott, Mrs. Harry Houdini and myself. There were many speeches, but not a single firecracker or report of a gun was heard, and without these it did not seem at all like the Glorious Fourth to me.

Houdini's fellow celebrators that day, the Florida Girls, who did a popular dance called a cake-walk (performed by Bess herself early in her career), later ran afoul of the Russian police. Houdini writes:

Every theater is under the power of the police. Nothing can be said or done against their wishes, and if they wish to stop any performance, why they stop it, and that is all that there is to it. For instance, the Seven Florida Creole Girls do a cake-walk. The police saw their first performance and allowed them to go on. Now, after their tenth performance, the police have stopped them, saying that the American cake-walk is too suggestive. As I saw the act, I can honestly say that it is not one-tenth as suggestive as some of the can-can dancers I have seen on the same stage. But then I am not the Russian police; I am simply the man that escaped out of their Siberian "transport-cell," greatly to their astonishment.

Snap!

Cakewalkers in 1903.

Coming next: Death of a rival.

The Handcuff King's blog: Freaks of Octoberfest

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the New York Dramatic Mirror. The columns are filled with wonderful tidbits about variety performers of the day, and also contain many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself. In a way, these can be read as if they are Houdini's own personal blog -- The Handcuff King's blog.

In our last installment, Houdini expressed admiration for Bavarian beer drinkers and shock at the availability of indecent postcards; "after I had purchased all I wanted--that is."

Now we find Houdini still in the capitol city of the German state during a very festive season. It's October 6, 1902, and in an column headlined "Houdini's Entertaining Chat" he writes:

München at the present time is enjoying what is known here as the Octoberfest, and is something on the order of our American Fair Grounds Exhibits. Thousands of small theaters have been built, and also thousands of beer-drinking booths, and therefore the Münchener public is happy. Everything imaginable is on exhibition. Among the freaks I recognize many Americans. Barnum's Aztecs are here. They are now gray-haired and wear whiskers (all except the lady folks), and one of them almost has a beard. The Living Skeleton is married daily to the fat lady for the benefit of the public and incidentaily [sic] the admission fees. The strong man makes love to the tattooed beauty; the magician sells tickets at the door and manages to mix people up with his short change methods, and so it goes. It reminded me of the time when I was traveling with the Welsh Brothers' Circus through Pennsylvania and had to be a freak myself. I was put in a small den and called "Projea, the Wild Man of Mexico." I remember once when Clint Newton threw me some raw meat to eat, he hit me in the eye, and I would not look at him for three weeks, as my eyes were closed. That caused me to become tame, and some one else had to play the wild man of Mexico.

Houdini playing the "Wild Man" has become part of his lore, mainly because it was so memorably portrayed in the 1953 movie Houdini with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. In the film Harry is playing the wild man in a dime museum and this is where he first sees and courts Bess...with disastrous results. "You can have tears in your eyes for the Wild Man; but for The Great Houdini, nothing."

The wild man story was told at length in the first major Houdini biography, Houdini His Life Story by Harold Kellock, and has appeared in many subsequent Houdini biographies. But it wasn't until Ken Silverman's seminal 1996 study, Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss, that the full name, "Projea, the Wild Man of Mexico," was ever revealed. Silverman doesn't give his source, but it's likely it was this very column. By the way, the meat thrower, Clint Newton, was the ringmaster of the Welsh Bros. Circus. (Read more about Houdini's tours with the circus here.)

It's fun to see the famous Houdini recalling his days as a sideshow circus freak. And remember; "it was women who made the wild man wild."

Bess meets The Wild Man in Houdini (1953).

Coming next: Breaking into Russia.

The Handcuff King's blog: Art and beer in Bavaria

When Houdini first toured Europe during his early fame as The Handcuff King, he penned a regular column for the entertainment section of the New York Dramatic Mirror back in the USA. The columns are filled with wonderful, bizarre, and sometimes very funny bits of information about variety performers of the day, and give a vivid snapshot of the world of show business during Houdini's emerging super stardom.

There are also many revealing opinions and slice-of-life gems about Houdini himself that have never found their way into any books. In a way, these regular columns can be read as if they are Harry Houdini's very own personal "blog."

Thanks to the great Patrick Culliton, I now have a large collection of these blogs...I mean columns. I've been working my way through them with yellow highlighter and today I'd like to launch a new series, The Handcuff King's blog, in which I'll share some of my discoveries.

Let's start with an entry from September 14, 1902, headlined "Houdini in Bavaria". Houdini was writing from München (Munich) and opened his report by sharing a few observations about the capital city of the German state of Bavaria. The first thing that impressed the famous teetotaler was, surprisingly, the beer:

Well, here I am in the famous city of München, and have admired it until there is nothing else for me to admire. This is the city of "Art and Beer." The beer ought to come first, and just so, as in München it is always beer first and last. They certainly have made it an art, the brewing and drinking of beer. The first thing they do in the morning, after opening their eyes, is to ask "how is the beer to-day?"

I have lived for years in Milwaukee, where every other house seems to be a brewery, and have always had a grand opinion of the beer drinkers there, but they would "away to the rail timbers" if they could could see the amount the average person here can put away.

While Houdini was impressed with the beer drinking, he was shocked (maybe) by another discovery in a München store:

I must make an apology to Paris for what I have said regarding her sale of indecent postcards. The cards sold here openly would make Anthony Comstock blush. I entered a store to purchase a few pictorial cards to send home. The very saintly looking lady behind the counter showed me some cards hanging on the wall, and I turned all colors and hurriedly went away, after I had purchased all I wanted--that is. I did not want them, but simply bought them to show how wicked are the pictorial cards in München. In Paris, London, Belgium and Germany they sell cards secretly, but in Bavaria they are actually sold the same as gum drops. No wonder this city is known for its "Art."

So all Houdini collectors are on notice. Should you find a collection of naughty Bavarian postcards among Houdini's private papers, know they were just purchased so he could show how "wicked" they were. Indeed.

Ironically, it was during this same first tour of Germany that Houdini posed for a famous series of photos in loincloth and shackles, some of which were later used on postcards. Nothing sexy about those.

Coming next: Freaks of Octoberfest.