Houdini press photos sell on eBay

Two exceptional original Houdini press photos sold on eBay today. This first one shows Houdini performing his suspended straitjacket escape from the Los Angeles Examiner Building on April 4, 1923 (more about that escape here). It was issued by Pacific & Atlantic and is a photo I've not seen before. It sold for $357.52.

The other is a terrific shot of Houdini facing a buzz saw (part of what I call the "Extreme Houdini" series). This came from the collection of the Minneapolis Tribune. It sold for $281.99.

Congratulations to the buyer(s).

Did Houdini's death begin here?

Check out WILD ABOUT HARRY tomorrow when we'll take a look at one of the lesser known links in the chain of events that lead up to the death of Harry Houdini.

'Houdini's Tour of Australia' released for Kindle

Houdini's Tour of Australia by Leann Richards is now available for the Kindle.

This very well-researched 60-page booklet chronicles Houdini’s highly eventful tour of Australia in 1910. It was during this tour that Houdini became the first man ever to fly a plane in Australia. But Richards also examines his Australian theater appearances, bridge jumps, challenges and more.

First released in 2006, Houdini's Tour of Australia is now a rare booklet, so this is a great way to have a copy without paying collector prices.

Purchase Houdini's Tour of Australia for Kindle at Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

FREE digital preview of The Secret Adventures of Houdini, Book 2

Today is "Free Comic Book Day" across the U.S., and the talented team who brought us The Secret Adventures of Houdini are offering a FREE digital preview of the next book in the series, The Golem of Prague. Here are the details:

Share in the highly anticipated return of Harry Houdini this Free Comic Book Day, 2014. The story of illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini returns to life as illustrator Sean Von Gorman and writer Todd Hunt introduce the newest, bite sized, installment of The Secret Adventures of Houdini graphic novel series. Discover another untold story from the final years of Harry Houdini’s life as his connection to the “Golem of Prague” is revealed.

In this free offering for Free Comic Book Day 2014, witness how the “Golem of Prague” connects the final moments of Harry Houdini’s last adventure to his thrilling return. Travel back to a world of magic and mystery as another piece of Houdini’s secret past leads up to his newest adventure and continue the story when The Secret Adventures of Houdini – Book Two is released in the fall of 2014 through ALTERNA Comics.

This special free issue can be downloaded now at www.comixology.com.

Free Comic Book Day is held the first Saturday in May each year. Visit the Free Comic Book Day website for more information and to get a list of participating stores in your area.

You can buy The Secret Adventures of Houdini, Book 1 on Amazon. For more information on the series, check out the official website.

Houdini Vs. The Automaton!

Here's terrific original art of Houdini battling his greatest foe, The Automaton! This is an exclusive preview of a special FREE digital offering from the creators of The Secret Adventures of Houdini that will be part of tomorrow's Free Comic Book Day 2014.

Hold on Harry! We'll be back tomorrow with the details!

And, just for fun, here's the real thing:

Jeremy Wheeler is Rabbi Weiss

British character actor Jeremy Wheeler will play Houdini's father, Mayer Samuel Weiss, in HISTORY's Houdini miniseries. The 57-year-old actor was born in Dover. He now lives and works in Budapest, Hungary, where the miniseries shot last year.

Rabbi Weiss has only once before been portrayed in a biopic by Curt Lowens in the 1998 TNT television movie, Houdini. In that film Rabbi Weiss only had one scene (his death). Hopefully Wheeler gets more screen time.

Houdini stars Adrien Brody as Houdini and Kristen Connolly as Bess. The 4-hour miniseries is directed by Uli Edel from a script by Nicholas Meyer. Other cast include Evan Jones as Jim Collins, Eszter Ónodi as Cecilia Weiss, and Tom Benedict Knight as Theo Hardeen.

Houdini will air over the course of two nights on HISTORY in the Fall.

The Confabulist released today

The Confabulist by Steven Galloway is a new novel about Houdini's death and the life of the Montreal student who punched him -- in this case a fictional character named Martin Strauss. The book is released today in the U.S. by Riverhead. It's also released this week in Canada by Knopf (with much better cover art). Here's the description:

From the beloved, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, a beautiful, suspense-filled novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a magical tale of intrigue, love and illusion.

The Confabulist weaves together the life, loves and murder of the world's greatest magician, Harry Houdini, with the story of the man who killed him (twice): Martin Strauss, an everyday man whose fate was tied to the magician's in unforeseen ways. A cast of memorable characters spins around Houdini's celebrity-driven life, as they did in his time: from the Romanov family soon to be assassinated, to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the powerful heads of Scotland Yard, and the Spiritualists who would use whoever they could to establish their religion. A brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe.

Author Steven Galloway recently told the Ottawa Citizen: "I had this loose idea that there was a really good novel somewhere in Harry Houdini and I hadn’t read it yet. As much as I am interested in story and voice and sentences, I’m really interested in the structure of novels and how they are built. When I realized there were these three components to the story (involving Martin Strauss past and present and Houdini) I saw how I could put those together."

Purchase The Confabulist U.S. edition at Amazon.
Purchase The Confabulist Canadian edition from Amazon.ca.

UPDATE: Got a nice thanks in this book.

HISTORY preparing "Houdini Live"

As a companion to their upcoming Houdini miniseries, HISTORY will air a 2-hour live television special featuring escape artist Robert Gallup called Houdini Live. Here are the exclusive details from The Hollywood Reporter:

History has resisted jumping on the live stunt bandwagon. But later this year, the network will mount its first live stunt with deadly escape artist and magician Robert Gallup.

For History's two-hour Houdini Live, which will air as a companion to its Adrien Brody Houdini miniseries (set to bow this fall), Gallup will attempt to free himself from a multilayered trap involving straitjackets, handcuffs and shackles at the bottom of a rock quarry lined with active explosives. History executive vp and general manager Dirk Hoogstra predicts it will be "jaw dropping."

But he notes that the two-hour Houdini Live is an organic fit with the scripted Houdini and does not require a significant additional marketing spend in order to promote it.

"I don't see [live stunts] as a long-term strategy," adds Hoogstra. "For us, it's more opportunistic. I'd rather spend on what could potentially be a new long-running series franchise."

As you can sees, THR confirmed my own speculation that the Houdini miniseries is now set to air in Fall and not next month as reported in Entertainment Weekly.

UPDATE: So it looks like this never happened. Way to go, Hollywood Reporter.

"Slicing A Girl" in Worcester

Following up on my post last week about Houdini's performance of Buried Alive at the Worcester Opera House in Sept. 1926, John Hinson, the great-nephew of Harry and Bess Houdini, has done some leg-work at the Worcester library and has uncovered this terrified newspaper ad for that very week of performances.

I love the illustration of Houdini here, and the fact that it notes this as his "Second Annual Tour." But what's especially interesting is this ad references "Houdini's Newest Sensation." No, it's not Buried Alive, but something called "Slicing A Girl." I've also seen this advertised as "Slicing a Woman in Seven Parts." But exactly what this effect was (apart from the obvious description) appears to be another Houdini mystery.

Thank you, John.

UPDATE: So it appears this wasn't such a mystery after all (just a mystery to me). Thanks to Joe Notaro and Tom Interval's Houdini Magical Hall of Fame Facebook page, here is a photo of the effect, along with a description from the great Patrick Culliton:

"The Cutting a girl into eight pieces apparatus was in the Niagara Museum from its opening until the fire. I put it together (not to perform, but, to display) for the Butterfield auction. I was not impressed with the illusion which Dunninger made, and Kevin Connolly has a letter from Houdini to Dunninger in which Houdini really complains about the shoddy workmanship. He says his men had to completely tear it down and rebuild it. It was really to take advantage of the Sawing a Lady in Half fad of a few years before. Hardeen performed it, and in a very rare professional appearance as a magician, Jimmy Collins performed it (and handcuff escapes and a straight jacket escape) around 1928."

- Patrick Culliton

It's said Dunninger's original design for the effect had the assistant fully concealed inside the box. But Houdini felt this would arouse audience suspicion, so he redesigned it to display the girl's head and feet.

The original "Slicing A Girl in Eight" apparatus sold for $3,450 at Butterfied & Butterfiled's auction of memorabilia from the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame held in Los Angeles on November 15, 1999. The restored effect was resold at a Bonhams auction of Entertainment Memorabilia on June 16, 2008 for only $2,700.

UPDATE: A December 5, 1926 article in the New York Daily News reveals that the women in the box was Houdini's niece Julia Sawyer.

Related:

• Houdini's grand finale: 3 Shows In 1
• Houdini on his 1926 Buried Alive: "I like it very much."
• Ad shows Houdini performed Buried Alive in 1926 (and "Slicing a Woman in Seven Parts")

Has HISTORY locked up 'Houdini' until Fall?

Last week HISTORY repeated their "Houdini Handcuffs" episode of Pawn Stars. I recorded it in the hopes that we might see the first ad for their Houdini miniseries, which, according to Entertainment Weekly, is set to air next month.

Instead I saw a promo for The World Wars, a 3-night miniseries set to air on HISTORY and H2 starting on Memorial Day. This was the rumored time slot for Houdini. So what's up?

I might be jumping the gun here, but I'm thinking we may have to wait a while longer before we see Adrien Brody slip on the straitjacket. I'm guessing the Houdini miniseries will now air in Fall, probably around Halloween. The Houdini Halloween connection has proven irresistible to television networks in the past. Recall that The Great Houdinis originally aired in October. This would also explain the dearth of publicity at the moment.

I've been trying to get some official word out of HISTORY, Lionsgate, and A+E Studios, but getting basic information about this miniseries has been harder than prying secrets out of a magician.

Houdini stars Adrien Brody as Houdini and Kristen Connolly as Bess. The 4-hour miniseries is directed by Uli Edel from a script by Nicholas Meyer. It co-stars Evan Jones as Jim Collins, Eszter Ónodi as Cecilia Weiss, and Tom Benedict Knight as Theo Hardeen.

Click here to view all the news on the Houdini miniseries.

UPDATE: It's now confirmed that Houdini will air in Fall.

Houdini baseball doesn't make it to bat

The signed Houdini baseball that was offered as part of Potter & Potter's "Spring Magic Auction" sale yesterday was withdrawn from the auction, along with the proceeding lot (226), a mounted "Harry Handcuff Houdini" signature. It's unclear why the baseball didn't make it to the auction block. It was indeed an unusual item.

Thanks to Phil Schwartz and James Smith at Thayer Magic for the intel.

LINK: Chain defies Houdini

Check out Joe Notaro's Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence website today for a rare photo of Houdini in his most harrowing predicament yet!

Houdini in 1950

Last week I did a post about Houdini's "Radio of 1950" illusion. Today I thought I would be interesting to follow up with a look at Houdini in 1950. This article by Lloyd E. Jones appeared in the magic magazine, The Bat (No. 83, November 1950), and assessed Houdini's fame and legacy at the half-century mark.

Not only does this article feature a photo of Houdini in Oakland that I've never seen, but it's a nice gauge of the magic community's feelings about Houdini at this time. It's filled with the same kind of backhanded praise that one stills hears today. It's also fun to read that "Hollywood still talks of a picture of his life." Of course, only three years later, Paramount's Houdini would be made with Tony Curtis, and would do much to propel Houdini as the most famous name in magic for the second half of the century.

Click to enlarge.

It's now 50+ years later and things haven't much changed. Houdini was clearly The 20th Century's Man of Magic, and he's now marching his way comfortably through the 21st Century. As the article says, "There is no use butting one's head against such a solid wall."

You can read this entire issue via The Conjuring Arts Research Center's amazing Ask Alexander search engine.

Ovation explores The Art Of: Magic

Magic will be the focus of the Ovation Network's The Art Of this Sunday, April 27. The series explores a new creative field each week through "boundary-pushing artists."

The boundary-pushers for this magic episode are escape artist Curtis Lovell II, magician Chad Allen, and magician Misty Lee, who is also one of the Houdini Seance mediums at The Magic Castle. If the sample clips are any indication, there will be plenty of references to Houdini in the episode.

Below is a clip of Misty Lee. For more check out the Ovation Network website.

UPDATE: The show was pretty good! As expected, there were lots of references to Houdini, especially in Misty's segment which provided a nice look inside the Houdini Seance Room at The Magic Castle.