Houdini eComic for iPad and iPhone

Rok Comics, a "champion of independent comics on mobile", have released Houdini: Mists of London by Jamie Allan Nicklin and Simon Mark Wheeler, the first of what appears to be a series of eComics featuring the (fictional) adventures of Houdini.

This clever 28-page electronic comic has swipe to read navigation, a full audio soundtrack featuring the voices of Jerry Curran as Houdini and Shanna Sharp as Bess, and pop-up extras profiling key characters and the world of Houdini. Artwork is by Rafael Broseta and David Belmonte. Here's more from Comic Cloud:

Rok Comics is proud to present the audio-enhanced adventures of the world's best-known escape artist Houdini, featuring a full soundtrack that brings the story added life and excitement! 

Terror stalks the streets of Victorian London as a masked villain known as the Vanished Man kidnaps the partners of the rich and famous for huge ransoms! But has he bitten off more than he can chew when he snatches Houdini's wife, Bess, from the dressing room of the Alhambra Theatre? 

Join Houdini and the best of Scotland Yard as he races to catch his dangerous foe before he harms his much-loved wife – and discover a deeper mystery behind the first! 

Houdini: The Mists of London is a Rok Comcs production with art by Rafael Broseta and David Belmonte, backed by a full voice cast and soundtrack!

You can download Houdini: Mists of London FREE via the iTunes Store. Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.1 or later.

The McGill explanation

The official website for McGill University in Montreal has an FAQ section and one of those FAQs is, as you might expect, what role a University student played in Houdini's death. Here is their answer:

Pretty good answer (despite misspelling Ehrich). However, the University is certainly taking a path that resolves Whitehead -- and by extension the school -- of any responsibility. While many now believe Houdini had a developing case of appendicitis when he was struck, there are some, like Houdini expert Patrick Culliton (Houdini's Ghost), who believes the punches did cause Houdini's illness. And there are others, most notably the gang at the Houdini Museum in Scranton, who would not categorize Whitehead's blows as "non-malicious". They believe Whitehead had every intention of doing serious harm to Houdini that day.

It is interesting that the answer confirms Whitehead's enrollment in 1926. I believe Don Bell in his seminal work, The Man Who Killed Houdini, said he was never able to confirm that Whitehead was ever actually a student. News that Whitehead never graduated is also new, although I think this was always assumed.

Something tells me the question of Whitehead's intent and the timing of Houdini's illness might never be entirely resolved.

UPDATE: Time to rethink the rethinking on the Houdini punch.

La Maitre du Mystere

The mighty Arthur Moses offers us a peek today at a new find. These French Pathe movie programs from 1920 advertise Houdini's serial, The Master Mystery (La Maitre du Mystere). Some very nice imagery here. Note the photo of the elevator shaft scene on the last program. This is not a shot I'm familiar with, but it appears to be the inspiration for the spectacular French Master Mystery poster that sold in auction in 2008.

Merci Arthur!

Reagan in the seance room

Last month I reported on a recent Houdini seance at the Magic Castle attended by Bobby Kennedy Jr. In the interest of non-partisanship, here's one from the other side of the political aisle.

www.magiccastle.com

In the latest Magic Castle newsletter, medium Leo Kostka writes about the evening of November 26, 1991, when former President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan attended a Houdini Seance with friends. Leo says there were eight Secret Service men keeping watch over the room, four on each door. He says he was pretty nervous and "investigated every working part of the seance room in preparation so that nothing would go wrong."

It still amazes me to think that the Secret Service would allow the lights to be fully extinguished and objects to unexpectedly fly about the room, but I'm assuming The Gipper got the full treatment!

By the way, how awesome is it that Reagan is wearing a Houdini Seance button on his jacket in the above pic? Guess he couldn't get into the room if he wasn't! Be cool to think that his Secret Service detail were also all sporting these. Reagan's button is the old style, which looked like this:

President Obama and Michelle...you're up!

House of treasure

One of the best parts of The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin is when Houdini tells the story of how he acquired many of his rarest magic treasures from magician and collector Henry Evans Evanion. It's a story that certainly should stir any collector as I expect we have all had our own "Evanion experience."

Learning of Houdini's interest in collecting from a newspaper interview, Evanion came to see the magician at his hotel during his tour of the UK in 1904. Houdini was ill at the time, and because Evanion's appearance was so shabby, hotel staff would not allow him up to Houdini's room. Eventually Houdini came downstairs and discovered the elderly man waiting in the lobby. Evanion then showed him a small portfolio of items he had brought. Said Houdini:

"I remember only raising my hands before my eyes, as if I had been dazzled by a sudden shower of diamonds. In his trembling hands lay priceless treasures for which I had sought in vain -- original programs and bills of Robert-Houdin, Phillippe, Anderson, Breslaw, Pinetti, Katterfelto, Boaz, in fact all the conjuring celebrities of the eighteenth century, together with lithographs long considered unobtainable, and newspapers to be found only in the files of national libraries. I felt as if the King of England stood before me and must do him homage."

Against doctor's orders, Houdini traveled the next day to Evanion's home, "a musty room in the basement of No. 12 Methley Street, Kennington Park Road, S.E." There Houdini continues:

"In the presence of his collection I lost all track of time. Occasionally we paused in our work to drink tea which he made for us on his pathetically small stove. The drops of the first tea which we drank together can yet be found on certain papers in my collection. His wife, a most sympathetic soul, did not offer to disturb us, and it was 3:30 the next morning, or very nearly twenty-four hours after my arrival at his home, when my brother, Theodore Weiss (Hardeen), and a thoroughly disgusted physician appeared on the scene and dragged me, an unwilling victim, back to my hotel and medical care."

Houdini and Evanion remained in contact and Houdini purchased his collection "bit by bit" as he toured Europe. The last item Houdini purchased was a "superb book of Robert-Houdin's programmes, his one legacy, which is now the central jewel in my collection."

Evanion died just ten days later on June 17, 1905.

So what could make this story even better? How about a visual? The amazing Andrew Beer, our man in London, has tracked down No. 12 Methley Street and photographed the house...inside and out!

A very big thank you to Andrew and the owners of No. 12 Methley for allowing us to see inside what for Houdini was truly a house of treasure.

Also enjoy:

• The Hippodrome rises
• Seance in Hanover Square

Petition to rename 113th Street "Harry Houdini Way"

Here's something fun. Daniel Modell of New York has started a petition on change.org to rename the 200 block of West 113th Street in Harlem to "Harry Houdini Way".

This, of course, is to honor the site of Houdini's house at 278 West 113th Street. The petition is addressed to W. Franc Perry of the District 10 Community Board and the New York City Council.

So far the petition has 18 signatures. It appears this is a repeated attempt. I'm not sure I really need to see the street renamed. I'm happy enough that the house now has a historic plaque at the door. But what the heck. I signed it anyway. Harry would love it!

You can sign the petition and/or watch its progress at change.org.

Thanks to Michael Cartellone for the heads-up.

Houdini plays the Palace

Seems like every week something especially noteworthy sells on eBay. This week that honor goes to this undated playbill/program for Houdini at the Palace Theater, which sold yesterday for $228. This is a nice piece of ephemera. Can't say I've ever seen Houdini billed as "The Man Who Will Not Stay Put" before.* I also like that this carries a quote from Teddy Roosevelt.

As always, congrats to the buyer.

* UPDATE: Ironically, right around the time this sold yesterday, I received an email with some clips of Houdini footage, and one of the clips showed an ad that said, "The Man Who Will Not Stay Put." So I went from never seeing this billing to seeing two examples on the same day. Weird.

Coming...

Our man in London, Andrew Beer, has once again made a fantastic Houdini find. This one is pretty obscure, but it should be familiar to hardcore Houdinites, and will certainly be of interest to all. So check out WILD ABOUT HARRY this week for a look inside the house of treasure.

Also on tap for this week: La Maitre du Mystere, The McGill explanation, and What if Houdini didn't die in 1926?

John Gaughan on Psycho and the Crystal Casket

Reader Leonard Hevia alerts me to two Houdini-related items that recently appeared in Genii magazine.

In the June and July issues, John Gaughan in his "Chamber of Secrets" column discusses the history of Kellar's Psycho and Robert-Houdin's Crystal Casket. Keller gave Houdini his famous Psycho automaton (now in the John Gaughan collection), and Houdini performed a version of the Crystal Casket in his full evening roadshow.

Thank you, Leo, for the heads-up. When Gaughan talks we listen!

Teller on Houdini: "He's one of the few magicians who mattered."

The Montreal Gazette has a nice interview with Teller (of Penn & Teller), which includes these thoughts about Houdini:

Teller called promptly at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, from the comfortable confines of a “little corner I call the Houdini alcove,” in his home in Las Vegas.

“It’s full of Houdini rarities,” he boasted. Asked whence his love for the famed escape artist, he continued: “He’s one of the few magicians who mattered. He dealt with topics that were not just mere amusements, in the Vaudevillian sense, but that came close to people’s lives.

“He was one of the major spirit debunkers of all time. In his day, spiritualism was very popular as a way of communicating with the dead. He did serious investigation into how it all worked, and that became part of his show.”

Read the entire article, Fantasia: Teller finds the terror in truth, at The Montreal Gazette.

Guest Blog: Houdini's encounter with the German police in 1902

Once again, Johan Ahlberg from Sweden shares with us some fresh research via translations of foreign newspapers. This time Johan digs into German papers to uncover some unknown facts about Houdini's lawsuit with the German police in Cologne. The translations from the original German are a little challenging to read, but Johan has unearthed some gold here. Enjoy.

The story when Houdini sued the German police for slander has been told many times and how he got an honorary apology by command of Kaiser Wilhelm II emperor of Germany. The stern policemen with moustaches and spiked helmets, armed with swords, looking down on Houdini standing manacled before the court like a dangerous prisoner makes a superb poster.

Different versions have been told about what really happened. After extensive research in the German newspapers, I found some interesting articles. The following is a translation from four different articles in The Rheinische zeitung and reports from the court proceedings. The originals are printed in old style German and hard to read. I had help from a German scholar to translate.

Court proceedings 26 February 1902

The artist Harry Houdini, who has performed as an escape artist, have given in a personal sue for slander against policeman Graf and editor Merfeld on the Rheinische zeitung. Houdini accuses Graf for have fettered him with a so called dead lock (tricked lock) that can’t opened after it’s locked. Therefore he had to blow the lock.

According to this there was an article in R.Z no.170 that the escape king Houdini in circus Corty Althoff was exposed by police officer Graf that could tell that Houdini had contacted him and that both of them could earn a lot of money on that Graf fettered him in such a way that he couldn’t get free. The private (this is a kind of private employed in the police force common used to transport prisoners) Lott should have received 20 Marks for lending Houdini  an extra transport chain Houdini showed the audience after he had saw through the (first) transport chain. The accused Merfeld (editor) explained that he got the material for the article by a trustworthy journalist.

The accused Graf claims that he told the story as it was told in several newspapers. Graf claims that it not was a dead lock but the lock he had put before the court. Houdini couldn’t open the lock since it has a concealed opening that Houdini didn’t know about. The witness Lott was in the audience at the circus with Houdini and Graf he was changing his story and admitted that he didn’t tell the truth. Houdini had asked him against 10 Mark to lock him so he couldn’t get free. Graf had another extra transport chain he had given to Houdini. Houdini was fettered and went into his cabinet and came out free from the transport chain. He said (Houdini) it was impossible to get free from the chain so he was forced to saw of the transport chain.

Houdini had offered before the court to make an escape from the transport chain. Graf fettered him with the transport chain around Houdini's wrists, as the police commonly do. Houdini went behind a table in the court room and freed himself immediately from the transport chain under the courts supervision.

Houdini's wife Bess statement tells that she noticed how Graf had removed the dead lock from his west pocket and fettered her husband with this lock. She tried to stop this but was forced back. The witness mechanic Krogh swore that the lock put before the court are the same as Graff fettered Houdini with and after the circus show he had altered the lock (?)

The hearing is closed. The plaintiffs lawyer (Houdini) claimed that the accused should be sentenced for slander and public offence.

The accused lawyer claims his client should be free.

The court ruling was given today: Graf was sentenced to pay 200 mark and Merfeld to 50 Mark. 

1. Gerich Zeithung (report from the court):
   
   The ruling in the court case Houdini against Graf is fine to pay 200 Mark and 20 days in jail, Merfeld are fined to pay 50 Mark. Of the hearing the judging court finds the witness Lott to be totally untrastable. The sentenced are going to take the case to a higher court.

2. The escape artist, plaintiff Harry Houdini, in the third court (strafkammer) Cologne, the case are in session on Saturday regarding the complaint by Houdini against police officer Graf. The case against Merfelt was drawn back. The court session took a long time and was not finished before late evening. On Houdini's side was witnesses from London, Breemerhafen, Wilna, Dortmund and Essen.  Graf had one whiteness a police inspector, two captains (commissaries high rank police officer) and around 20 policemen, some private persons. In the court nothing new was presented, it got interesting when a discussion aroused between Grafs defense lawyer and Houdini when Houdini should open a manipulated lock that Graff brought with him to test Houdini's skills. Houdini looked for a short time on the lock and asked for a room where he in privacy could work on the lock. After two minutes had passed by Houdini arrived in the court with the lock opened. Graf was very surprised that Houdini managed to open the lock.

Graf was sentenced for slander and to fine 30 Mark and pay al costs. The costs are high since all witnesses should be compensated and the lost income. Houdini is on Grafs expense publishes the court ruling in al Cologne newspapers.

3. Plaintiff, the escape king Houdini. In the earlier message that Graf and Merfeldt was convicted for slander, can we report that the court has gone on Grafs line and convicted Houdini for public insult and Houdini should fine 3 Mark. In the court rulings against Graf and Merfeldt it’s heard that they should answer for slander. The newspaper article is impressing slander of the plaintiff as person and artist. The truth in the article can’t be strengthening. Regarding the conversation in the police station , where the plaintiff (Houdini) promised the police officer Graff 20Mark, are Graf accused and his statement cant be trustworthy, furthermore Krog and Bekelz says the lock had been changed (altered) after the circus performance. Krog only said that the lock had been opened. By the statement from Houdini is it clear that Graf in the circus performance changed the lock in the last moment. The other information in the newspaper article in circus is the whiteness Lott responsibility for.
   
   The court doesn’t think he is trustworthy and that he had given different statements regarding the 20 Marks. Under the cross examination had Lott said that the plaintiff had cut or blown the chain. It could be added by the captain that Lott are totally untrustworthy. Regarding the bribes to the lower ranks with 100 Marks is the captain’s statement right with the whiteness Joseph that didn’t tell this. There are no mistakes that the newspaper article was written to lower the plaintiff’s skills. It must be stressed that the plaintiff did escape within minutes from the police fetters that Lott had put on him.
   
   It’s possible that Graf not had acted against his conscious like editor Merfeld. In circus Lott had told Graff that he had received 20 Mark. The punishment against Graff have been set so high with thought on the disadvantage for the plaintiff.

Reflections

I think it’s clear that Houdini had approached the police to fetter him. In other cases it was claimed that Houdini paid challengers to bring their irons to test him. Its not certain that Houdini had paid to get an extra transport chain. There was two padlocks one regular and one special padlock fabricated so it couldn’t be opened once locked. What was told in court it had a hatch covering the keyhole to deadlock, this was fabricated by Krogh master mechanic and Houdini was fettered with it when performing. Bess immediately saw how the padlock was switched and gave Houdini the signal. The only reason was to snare Houdini so he couldn’t free himself even if Houdini had the key for the padlock. Houdini had to cut the chain and it was fair since he had been tricked.

In his book Handcuff Secrets, Houdini states that he picked the padlock with the picks marked X . To pick a three lever padlock with hands chained is not at all easy and if it can be done it will take time. When Houdini explains the method for escaping from a transport chain he either tells a story where he was friend with a locksmith Mr.Mueller, who had a shop in Mittle strasse Berlin. Working for free he repaired locks for Mueller and had him order several gross of locks “with a peculiar shape with 3 or 4 levers” he practiced for hours to pick the padlocks. In another explanation he claimed to have slipped the chain by use of a strong hook, painful at first, or using his teeth’s and by bringing the arms parallel he could slip the chain. Possible if you have small hands but not a method you can depend on if you are fettered by the German police.

It's an excellent example where Houdini the master showman turned the court to his favor by doing an escape from a chain and opening the dead lock. Other escape artists would have failed, or lost their nerves, but this must have confused the judge. Nothing is mentioned if Houdini was locked up in a safe or the special Berliner handcuffs he claimed to have been manacled with. It seems like the story of a public apologies in all German paper is not true it was in the Cologne newspaper Graf had to pay for advertisement.

The story is intriguing and facts points at methods used by Houdini. Houdini got a lot of publicity from this court case. On the other hand had he failed it could have been the ruin of his career at least in Germany. The ruse to trick Houdini by changing the lock or handcuffs was tried in the challenge with Mr. Wilson in Blackburn, England in 1903. Bess did immediately spot the switch and signaled Houdini. Brian Lead and Roger Woods wrote an excellent book on that matter.

Even if the newspaper reporters on the Rheinische zeitung was not accurate, it is as close we ever will come to Houdini's secrets.

Johan Ahlberg ©
Sweden

The Magic Castle installs a Water Torture Cell aquarium

The Magic Castle in Hollywood continues to make post-fire improvements and Houdini-themed additions. This week they've installed a custom fish tank in the Inner Circle made to resemble Houdini's Water Torture Cell.

Unfortunately, one isn't allowed to take pictures inside the Castle, so I don't have any photos of it to show. But I have heard chatter that a reality show about custom aquariums (Tanked?) did a segment on the Castle tank, so keep a watch out for that.

It's worth noting that the earliest version of Houdini's Water Torture Cell presented the apparatus as, yes, an aquarium! On April 29, 1911 Houdini performed the escape as part of a one-act play in London called Challenged or Houdini Upside Down. The purpose of the playlet, which was performed only once, was to copyright the new effect. In it a "multimillionaire sportsman" named Tim Connor eyeballs his clubhouse aquarium and concocts the idea of locking Houdini inside it.

Connor: Well, my idea is to put this Houdini fellow into that aquarium head first, understand me, head first, with his feet in the air, then put a lid or cover on, fasten his feet to this cover and lock him in. This is my challenge, in the rough of course.

It's kind of fun that after 100 years the Water Torture Cell has returned to its original purpose as a private clubhouse aquarium.

UPDATE: Houdini aquarium revealed on Tanked.

Fractured Mystery

Here's something that has been hiding in plain sight for almost 50 years. Until now, I believed that the first time any footage from Houdini's silent films appeared on American television was in the documentary The Truth About Houdini in 1976. However, it turns out nearly 3 minutes from The Master Mystery first aired on American television in 1963 as a "fractured flicker."

Fractured Flickers was a syndicated half-hour comedy show produced by Rocky and Bullwinkle creators Jay Ward and Bill Scott and hosted by Hans Conried. The show was made up of clips from silent movies dubbed over with comedic dialogue. Even though it's a little depressing to see classics like Blood and Sand and The Hunchback of Notre Dame reduced to this use, the show had some funny and subversive moments, and back in the day this was pretty much the ONLY way you could see actual footage from classic silent movies on TV.

And it turns out that footage included Houdini! In the third episode of the first season, Houdini's 1918 serial, The Master Mystery, was given the full fractured flicker treatment. This footage is nice and clear, but as the show does not credit their sources, it's unclear if this footage came from the Rohauer archival print or another source.

The segment, which you can watch below, juxtaposes three different sequences from The Master Mystery and jokes it up as the adventures of "The Clover Boys at Camp." (The aerial footage is from a different film.) It's not especially funny, but many of these moments, including shots of the Automaton in action, would not be seen until The Master Mystery was finally released on VHS in 1998.

Fractured Flickers - The Complete Collection was released on DVD in 2004. It's possible there are more bits of Houdini's silents buried among these 26 episodes. Over the next few weeks I'm going to look them over and see if I can discover what else might be hidden among the Fractured Flickers.

Image: Cranched for Now.com

UPDATE: Having now scanned through all 26 episodes, I can report that the show continued to use random clips from The Master Mystery, including more footage of the Automaton, Jack Burns, Ruth Stonehouse, and Houdini in the electric chair. However, nothing that is considered lost.

UPDATE 2: Bill Mullins has provided a list of even earlier Houdini appearances on TV: Houdini on early television

Houdini on the backlot

Another week, another fantastic unpublished photo of Houdini sells on eBay. This one shows Houdini standing on what is almost certainly a movie studio backlot, possibly the Famous Players-Lasky studio which sat on the corner of Vine Street and Selma Ave. in Hollywood.

As Houdini in Hollywood is my specialty, I badly wanted this one, but was outbid in the end. So a grudging congrats to the buyer of this beauty.

UPDATE (6/9/19): This photo once again cycled through eBay and this time sold for $511.99.