FOX leaves Houdini & Doyle off 2015-2016 schedule

This week U.S. television networks announce their schedules for the next year. There had been speculation that FOX would announce Houdini & Doyle as one of their new dramatic series for next year, but that didn't happen today. There was no mention of the series on FOX's new lineup for Fall 2015-2016.

FOX did announce the return of The X-Files as a six episode "event series." Perhaps because Houdini & Doyle has been described as a "Victorian X-Files", the network didn't want the two similar shows running concurrently?

Despite this, there is evidence that the series is going forward with the hiring of a production designer Arwel Jones and casting. When Sony Television sold the series last March, ITV in the UK and Shaw Media in Canada also picked it up for distribution, so it's possible we will still see the series later this year or next, just not in the U.S.

It's also possible Houdini & Doyle will show up as mid season replacement on FOX, or it will be announced as a new series for the Fall 2016-2017 season. There is also the hopeful note at the end of the official press release: "Additional schedule information to be announced."

As with all the other potential Houdini TV and movie projects, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, if you care to read about the real-life relationship between Houdini and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, I would recommend Christopher Standford's superb study, Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.

UPDATE: It's on! Michael Weston and Stephen Mangan are ‘Houdini & Doyle’

Related:

• Breaking: Houdini and Conan Doyle series picked up by Fox
• Sherlock production designer joins Houdini & Doyle
• Houdini & Doyle screentest on Vimeo

Houdini's baby shoe

Here's a Mother's Day treat from the collection of Jon Oliver (the man who sleeps in Houdini's bed). This is Houdini's baby shoe. This is from a pair presumably saved by his mother and then passed to Houdini. After Houdini's death, they went to Bessie's family. This appears to be the right shoe. David Copperfield has the left one in his collection. Oh baby.

Happy Mother's Day.

Thank you Jon.

Related:

• Here's to the moms
• The mothers Houdini
• Mama's death and the birth of a myth

The Medium Who Baffled Houdini -?

The Medium Who Baffled Houdini is a new book about Mina "Margery" Crandon by Elaine M. Kuzmeskus. Considering the title and the fact that the author is a spirit medium herself, I expect this book has some bias. But Margery is a fascinating subject and I'm interested to give this a read. Here's a description.

"Houdini the Magician Stumped," proclaimed the Boston Herald in 1924. Who was this medium who baffled Houdini? None other than Margery Crandon, the wife of a prominent Boston surgeon. "Margery the Medium" made headlines throughout the 1920s. She captivated not only Harvard professors, but the editors of Scientific American with her amazing physical mediumship. Margery was very much a woman of her time- the Roaring Twenties. By the time the Twenties were in full swing, Margery and her second husband Dr. Le Roi Crandon became interested in psychic phenomena. In May of 1923, Dr. Crandon invited two couples to join them in a table-tilting séance. During the evening, he discovered that his wife had a genuine gift for communicating with the spirits. Within months, Margery produced psychic music, direct voice, trumpet séance, and even apports. She not only fascinated her husband, but the scientific community in the United States and England. While Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle championed Margery's mediumship, Harry Houdini denounced her as a fraud. Was Margery Crandon too good to be true or was she the last of the great physical mediums?

Of course, Houdini was not "baffled" by Margery, although he acknowledged that she was a very "slick" medium. Houdini ultimately explained all her phenomena and prevented Margery from collecting the prize offered by the Scientific American for proof of genuine mediumship.

In October, David Jaher's eagerly anticipated new book, The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World, will be released, and I expect it will be the definitive Houdini-Margery study.

Purchase The Medium Who Baffled Houdini at Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

Related:

• The Margery Files
• Interview with Anna Thurlow, great granddaughter of "Margery"
• Margery's Curse

Young Houdini book 2 released in UK

The second book in Simon Nicholson's Young Houdini series, The Demon Curse, have been released in the UK as a paperback by Oxford University Press (OUP). The story finds young Houdini and best friends Billie and Artie investigating a mystery in 1886 New Orleans.

The first book in the series, The Magician's Fire, was released in the UK in January. The Demon Curse will be released in the U.S. as a hardcover in June.

The OUP website notes that film rights to both Young Houdini novels have already been sold. No word yet on a Book 3.

Purchase Young Houdini: The Demon Curse (UK edition) from Amazon.co.uk.

Houdini poster pulls a vanishing act

Recently this Houdini poster appeared on eBay with a starting price of just $15. The seller said it was found in a flea market. It seems too good to be true, but it appears this could be a worse for wear "1902" Amsterdam jail break poster which, ironically, I just did a post about HERE. Below is the poster and description:

Up for sale is this neat Houdini Prison Poster with print date Date Jan. 1902. This is being sold as a reprint, and found at a flea market. Looks great. Great for any collector of vintage pieces. Never seen one of these before! The item is in very poor condition (see pictures) and has dimensions of approximately 10" X 15". It is fragile. No returns accepted. DO not bid if you do not really want it.

The auction ended early with the explanation: "This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available." This sometimes means the seller accepted an outside offer. So the mystery remains: was this an original Houdini poster? If so, perhaps we will see it reappear with the restorationists at Poster Mountain. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Below are comments from magician Chuck Romano who makes an good case for this being a fake:

The Ebay poster dimensions are odd. Also notice the missing area to the right of the seal above Houdini's shoulder. I bet the words "From Reno Collection" appeared there. The Ebay poster conveniently has that area missing. 

A 10x15 reproduction could easily have been made from a printed image of the original Amsterdam poster. Look at page 69 of The Original Houdini Scrapbook by Gibson. It's even in sepia. That image says "From Reno Collection."

In 1990 a similar Houdini Amsterdam poster (1902) sold for $8,250 at the Neil. The size of that poster is approx. 20" x 30". In Europe the English Double Crown litho size was used. It measured 20" x 30". This would make sense since the Amsterdam poster was printed overseas.

I would bet the Ebay poster in question is definitely a fake.

Related posts:

• Rare Houdini Amsterdam prison break poster with error
• Houdini posters fetch big buck$ at auction
• Saving Harry Blackstone (Poster Mountain)

Houdini & Doyle screentest on Vimeo

Check out what appears to be an audition by actress Maddie Phillips for the role of Adelaide in the new series Houdini & Doyle (which I think is now safe to assume is definitely happening). It was uploaded a month ago to Vimeo by BC Buzz.

[UPDATE: The video has now been put behind a password wall.]

Houdini & Doyle is a fictional series that teams up Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle solving paranormal mysteries. The series will air on FOX in the U.S., ITV in the UK, and by Shaw Media in Canada. No air date has yet been announced.

Related:

• Breaking: Houdini and Conan Doyle series picked up by Fox
• Sherlock production designer joins Houdini & Doyle
• Houdini & Doyle - Believe It or Not!

Sherlock production designer joins Houdini & Doyle

Today we have further evidence that the Houdini & Doyle TV series is moving forward. According to IMDb, Arwel Jones has joined as Production Designer. Jones is best known for his work on Sherlock and Doctor Who.

In March, FOX purchased the Houdini & Doyle idea from Sony Television and creators David Titcher, David Shore and David Hoselton. It's said that Shore will helm the 10-episode first season. The series will film in Canada and the UK.

The networks announce their lineups for next year during the week of May 11. We should learn then if we can expect to see Houdini & Doyle solving paranormal mysteries on FOX in 2016.

Related:

• Breaking: Houdini and Conan Doyle series picked up by Fox
• Houdini & Doyle - Believe It or Not!
• What's next, Hollywood?

LINK: Lovecraft to Houdini about Edgar Allan Poe's desk

Here's a link that's been generating some excitement. Among the items on display at a recent Houdini event in Toronto was a letter written by H.P. Lovecraft to Houdini congratulating him on his acquisition of Edgar Allan Poe's writing desk. Images of the letter and desk are posted at Lovecraft eZine.

Houdini and Lovecraft knew each other well. Lovecraft ghostwrote Houdini's short story, Imprisoned with the Pharaohs, and at the time of Houdini's death they were collaborating on a book called The Cancer of Superstition. The two men have also been teamed up posthumously in many fictional adventures.

I've heard there is an Edgar Allan Poe desk in the collection of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. As they also house a large collection of Houdiniana, can we assume this was the desk Houdini owned?

Related:

• Houdini and Lovecraft in action
• Under the Pyramids - the book
• Houdini, Lovecraft, and The Cancer of Superstition

Houdini on radio

Here's a clipping from The Houston Post, November 5, 1923 announcing a radio address by Houdini on "The Sane Side of Spiritualism." It's not generally known that Houdini often spoke over the radio. In fact, the very day he was struck in his dressing room by J. Gordon Whitehead he gave a radio interview. I've always wondered how it's possible that not one of these radio addresses has survived. I have a fantasy that one day one will be discovered in some radio archive and we will once again hear Houdini "over ether."

For a taste of what Houdini might have said in this 1923 address, check out my post from back in 2010. There I shared from my collection a two-page radio talk that Houdini gave over station WTIC in Hartford on December 3, 1925:

"It affords me pleasure to address you for a few moments on the subject of Spiritualism"

Related:

• Houdini speaks in 1970
• The voice of Theo. Hardeen
• New Hardeen voice recording played on CBC Radio

The Man From Beyond screening in the UK, May 23

Houdini's silent feature The Man From Beyond will screen at the Southend-on-Sea Film Festival in the UK on May 23, 2015. Stuart Burrell, an escapologist and stamina strongman, will do a presentation that is said to include a clip from The Grim Game. My guess is this will not be from the new TCM restoration, but will be the plane crash footage from the Kino DVD set.

The official website notes that The Man From Beyond was "released in the UK shortly after his untimely death in 1926." I've never heard this before. As far as I know, The Man From Beyond was distributed via the Houdini Picture Corporation, and that was dissolved by the mid twenties. So who released the film in the UK in '26, I wonder?

The Man From Beyond screening will take place at the Park Inn Palace Hotel Ballroom on Saturday May 23 at 6:00pm. For more information, check out the official website.

UPDATE: According to the always amazing Joe Notaro of HHCE, The Man From Beyond was released by Unity Film Company on Dec. 27, 1926. Joe uncovered this information in a 1927 Kinematograph Year Book. More here.

Related:

• Houdini's rough ride at Niagara Falls
• Becoming Beyond
• Houdini and Zukor

YES!--"Jim Collins is still with me"

Here's an add-on to my post yesterday about Jim Collins and his "solo career." While researching that post, I found this terrific Hardeen-Hellzapoppin ad in the October 1938 issue of The Sphinx. There's a lot to like here, but note the line at the bottom, YES!--"Jim Collins is still with me."

Click to enlarge.

I expect this was an inside joke. Perhaps this was the question Hardeen was repeatedly asked by fellow magicians? It speaks to just how popular a figure Jim Collins was in the magic world. Collins, of course, worked as Houdini's chief assistant and engineer for many years.

Hellzapoppin was a madcap comedy revue show starring the popular Olson and Johnson. Hardeen appeared in it for four years. Unfortunately, he did not appear in the 1941 film version.

I also found this news item in the March 1938 issue of The Sphinx. This is the first I've heard of this accident, and I'm afraid I don't have any other details.

Jim Collins was recently portrayed by Evan Jones in the Houdini miniseries. Unlike what was shown in that movie, he was not a southern-fried bumpkin from Macon, Georgia. Jim Collins was born in the UK. He died in Philadelphia on March 6, 1942.

Collins with "the boss."

I hope you enjoyed our special Jim Collins Weekend. Stay tuned for our Franz Kukol Mega Month! (kidding)

Related posts:

• When Jim Collins went solo
• The man who kept Houdini's secrets
• Jackie Gleason in a Hardeen jacket?

When Jim Collins went solo

Our good friend Joe Fox has uncovered an interesting nugget of information about Jim Collins, Houdini's trusted chief assistant and engineer. It appears that after Houdini's death, Collins performed a solo act in a tent show doing Houdini's effects. Here's the item Joe found in the December 1931 issue of The Sphinx.

Magic Under Canvas

By Julien J. Poskauer

Carnivals and circus side-shows have used magic as drawing card during the summer season which has just closed, to an extent never before reached in the outdoor show business. About two hundred and thirty professional and semi-professional magicians have been working under canvas.

Indicating the extent of magicians' popularity is the fact that at the Connecticut State Fair which closed October 16th at Danbury, Conn., there were six magic acts working at the same time. James Collins, for many years assistant to Harry Houdini and the only man in the word that knows the secret to the last master's "Upside Down" trick, is featured in a tent of his own.

Collins is working a large illusion owned by Hardeen and himself, the Houdini Chinese Execution Trick in which eight steel blades "penetrate" the body of a beautiful assistant, the Flying Bird Cage and escapes from restraints of all kinds.

This "Chinese Execution Trick" is almost certainly the "Slicing A Girl in Eights" illusion that Houdini featured in the second season of his full evening show.

So what should we make of this tent show appearance? In 1931 Collins was working with Hardeen. However, this may not have been a full time job as it had been with his brother. This was during the depression and Collins probably needed to make extra money during the summer. Hardeen was playing the RKO-Pantages Circuit, so performing a State Fair tent show would not have been a conflict. Or it could even be that Collins was fulfilling this engagement on behalf of Hardeen. How Collins was billed might provide us with more clues, but I've not been able turn up anything more on this performance.

I'm wondering if this was a one off, or if Collins had a minor career in tent shows and small venues under the radar. If anyone has any additional info on Collins' solo act, please share in the comments below.

By the way, the author of this piece in The Sphinx, Julien Poskauer, later performed the Milk Can escape himself, assisted by none other than Jim Collins.

Thanks to Joe Fox and Paul Zenon.

Tomorrow our special Jim Collins Weekend continues with: YES!--"Jim Collins is still with me".

Related posts:

• The man who kept Houdini's secrets
• "Slicing A Girl" in Worcester
• Collins and Mackenberg materialize on eBay

ETSU conjure "A Houdini Experience"

The East Tennessee State University Department of Communication and Performance presents Mystery, Mirth, & Magic: A True Houdini Experience at their Bud Frank campus theatre, April 30-May 3. Shows begin at 7pm nightly and at 2pm for the Sunday matinee.

Brandon Bragg (Brando the Great) performs as Houdini in the production described as "an intimate story of Houdini himself. A monologue with magic, music, and death defying escapes. Jalopy Junction, a vaudeville theatre troupe, will be performing alongside the Wild-Man with some wild tricks of their own."

Admission is $10 for the general public and $5 for students. Additional information can be found at The Loafer Online.

The color of Houdini's bathing suit?

Here is a colorized image of Houdini created by Dana R. Keller (danarkeller.com). Dana previously colorized another image of this same escape -- Houdini's 1914 overboard packing case escape off Battery Park -- but this time the artist has made an interesting new choice in regards to the color of Houdini's bathing suit.

As you can see, Houdini is wearing red bathing trunks here. In Dana's earlier image it was gray and black. While we know Houdini wore an all-white bathing suit during his 1912 NY overboard box escape, the color of the 1914 suit was never recorded (as far as I know.) But in a description of a 1908 bridge jump in Philadelphia, a newspaper described Houdini as wearing "a bright red swimming suit," so red is a possibility here. It also makes sense that Houdini would wear a color that would make him visible among the crowd and in the water.

The color of the bathing suit Houdini wore onstage during his Water Torture Cell is recorded as having been a light blue.

You can buy a print of the above image at Dana Keller's Redbubble page.

UPDATE: We now know Houdini wore a "cerise-colored" bathing suit during his famous jump from the Harvard Bridge in 1908.

Related posts:

• Houdini in color
• Bess Houdini in color
• The untold story of Houdini's 1914 Battery Park escape