Previously I did a post on what these locations look like today:

• Strand Theatre, 122-124 Sumner
• Hotel Central, 106 Metropole
• Hotel Catalina, 129 Whittley

So in this post thought I’d share what these locations looked like back in Houdini’s day.

Strand Theatre:

Hotel Central:

Hotel Catalina:

And as a added bonus, here are images of the Hotel St. Catherine where Houdini stayed back in the day:

1918

1919

1919

1920

1921

Special thanks to Jessica Zumberge (curator at Catalina Island Museum) for going above and beyond to locate and scan these items from their archives for me to use in this post.

Credits:

• All photos are courtesy of Catalina Island Museum and published with their permission

Saturday, May 19, returned to Catalina for the special screening of Terror Island at the Art Deco Avalon Casino theater. My wife Kristina accompanied me on this trip.

We met fellow Houdini Nuts, Mark Willoughby, Joe Fox, John Cox, Jim Bentley and Stacey Zimmerman at Catalina Island Express.

After a little over an hour boat ride, we arrived in Avalon, where we were met by fellow Houdini Nuts, Lisa Cousins and Julie Perlin Lee (Executive Director at Catalina Island Museum).

Kristina and I dropped our luggage off at the museum while the others went on ahead to the Casino theater.

Our amazing tour guide Jessica then gave us a golf cart ride from the museum to the Casino Theatre, where we were greeted by more of the amazing museum staff (Gail, Kevin, Lydia).

We then found our reserved seats in the theater before going to a special VIP room at the Casino for brunch, mimosa’s and music (by my buddy “Scout”).

Returned to the theater for the VIP pre-screening performance by Magician and actor Jim Bentley.

Jim has portrayed Houdini on stage and television; and has performed many of Houdini’s death defying escapes and signature magic effects.

Jim brought his acclaimed comedy and magic act to the “Magic Isle”. He was funny and entertaining from start to finish and featured Houdini’s Siberian Chain Escape and ended with Houdini’s famous straitjacket escape.

After a brief intermission, we left the theater before returning with our tickets for the movie.

Everyone got an amazing 36 page program featuring Houdini that is definitely going to be a collectors item.

Julie Perlin Lee then welcomed everyone to the Magic Isle before the movie started.

Seeing Terror Island in a beautiful theater in a large screen accompanied by an orchestra was a truly amazing experience I will never forget. Michael Mortilla & The Accompanists are musical geniuses. Bravo!

After the movie was over, took a photo with Houdini Nut, Stacey Zimmeran dressed as Harry Harper from Terror Island.

Kristina went back to Hotel, while Houdini Nuts, Fox, John, Lisa, Mark, Stacey and myself went to find the pool from the Hotel St. Catherine where Houdini stayed.

After checking out the pool, part of the group went to see where Houdini attempted a rescue of a wayward boat in Avalon Bay.

We then joined the rest of the group and walked back to the Museum, to see the Houdini Exhibit,  that John and I had been raving about.

Everyone loved the exhibit and really appreciated the effort that everyone put into making it truly something special.

Julie and Jessica from the museum, then joined the Houdini Nut group and said they had a couple surprises to share with us.

Jessica shared the first surprise which was a 2/26/76 recorded Oral History interview that Chuck Liddell did of Stephen “Duke” Squirrel” D’Arcy, one of the men responsible for the rescue of the boat in Avalon Bay on November 28., 1919.

According to the interview: “On that day, they [Director Cruz and Assistant Director Vernon Keys) were shooting [Terror Island] scenes out in front of the St. Catherine and [Captain] McAfee almost lost his boat. Squirrel tells the interviewer that he went out there, got that boat and got his story in the paper.

And Julie shared the second surprise, which was a scrapbook that belonged to the other rescuer, Tinch Moricich, which not only had an original clipping from the Catalina Island paper with the story of the rescue, but it had two original clippings from the Los Angeles Examiner that had a picture of Houdini and boat tossed by high waves.

After my mouth dropped to the floor, it was time to see if we could get the museums newly installed Houdini Pinball machine to trigger the Houdini movies parts of the game, in particular, “Terror Island”.

After some pinball magic, we were finally successful.

It was past closing time at the museum, and most of the Houdini nuts had to catch a boat soon, so we called it a day; An Amazing Day and one I will remember for the rest of my life.

The next day, Kristina went shopping for an hour. And I went to the museum. After playing pinball and checking out the Houdini exhibit, Jessica let me listen to the interview again, and Julie let me look thru the scrapbook in detail. What a treat. It was now time to catch a boat, so we said our good-byes until next time.

On Saturday, May 5^th, spent some more time soaking up the Houdini Terror on the Magic Isle Exhibit in the SAPAP Gallery; And then Jessica Zumberge (a curator at the Catalina Island Museum) graciously offered to help me on a quest to find and visit the locations of the Strand Theatre [1920], the New Hotel Central [1919] and the Catalina Hotel [1919].

Thanks to an ad in the Catalina Islander from September 7^th, 1920 we knew that Terror Island was first shown continuously from 6 to 11pm at the Strand Theatre on Friday, Sept 10. This ad can be seen as part of the Houdini exhibit at the Catalina Island Museum.  And thanks to the Catalina Islander article from November 25, 1919 we knew that:

Two hundred players for the Lasky Film Company have spent the week [camping] at [TBD] Beach to reproduce a “South Sea Island” picture. [The Houdini exhibit reveals the name of the TBD Beach]

…

The star players of the reproduction have been guests at the Hotel St. Catherine, the New Hotel Central and the New Hotel Catalina during their stay on the Island.

On my first visit to discover Terror Island in February, we found the beach where the two hundred players stayed and the Hotel St. Catherine, where Houdini stayed. The Houdini exhibit has a nice image of the hotel, its swimming pool and two letters written by Houdini himself on Hotel St. Catherine stationary.

Jessica was able to use her resources at the museum to find and print the addresses of the locations during Houdini’s time:

• Strand Theatre, 122-24 Sumner
• Hotel Central, 106 Metropole
• Catalina Hotel, 129 Whittley

and off we went in Jessica’s golf-cart to see what the locations look like today.

Our first stop was 129 Whittley:

where the Catalina Hotel still stands.

Next, we went to where 106 Metropole would have been,

but there was only a driveway and no building there anymore, so the Hotel Central no longer stands.

Next, we went to 122-24 Sumner:

where we found that the building where the Strand Theatre was located still stands.

The theatre (1912-1925) was originally the Sumner theatre before it became the Strand in May of 1919 when it was upgraded with new projectors. The 600-seat theatre was located on the first floor. Apparently, doctors were on the second floor and an Emergency Hospital and maternity ward was on the third floor. Today, there is a liquor store and sports bar where the theatre once was and the upper floors are now an Health Center.

Last official stop was to find a spot where we could see the large Hotel Catalina sign that sits atop the Hotel.

As an added bonus, Jessica showed me the ruins of the Avalon Amphitheatre, and where the Incline Railway once operated.

Jessica was an amazing tour guide.

After Cinco De Mayo lunch at Coyote Joe’s, it was time to catch my boat.

Friday, May 4, I returned to Avalon Catalina for the First Friday “Magic at the Museum” and for the Grand Opening of the Houdini Terror on the Magic Isle Exhibition.

After late breakfast at Jacks, spent the day on the beach, before going to meet John Cox when his boat arrived in the afternoon.

John Cox and I then went and had an early dinner, before going to the Catalina Island Museum around 5pm to setup for John’s Houdini talk.

And then, Jessica Zumberge (Curator) and Gail Fornasiere (Director of Marketing and Public Relations) gave John and I the first look of what truly is a very special and unique Houdini Exhibit.

Check out John’s May 5^th blog where he describes some of the amazing artifacts that are on display for the first time ever from Houdini Collectors: John Cox, Arthur Moses, Fred Pittella, Chip Romero, Mark Willoughby and yours truly.

• Houdini is back on Terror Island starting TODAY

I love everything about this exhibit and am particularly proud of the museums audio-visual presentation that reconstructs missing Reels 3 & 4 from my work at the Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  Julie Perlin Lee (Excecutive Director), Gail Fornasiere (Director of Marketing and Public Relations), Jessica Zumberge (Curator) and all the staffers (e.g., Jason Clay, Lydia Dixon, Patty Salazar, etc) deserve a standing ovation.

After our breath-taking first look at the exhibit, it was a little after 6pm and time for the Friday Night festivities to begin.

World Champion Magician, Johnny Ace Palmer circulated throughout the crowd and performed a variety of jaw-dropping close-up magic until about 7:30. A coin even ended up under my wristwatch.

Gail Fornasiere then introduced Houdini Expert John Cox. John gave a well-received presentation on everything you need to know about Houdini in 15 minutes. He ended by playing a snippet of Houdini’s voice recording which was a perfect way to conclude an excellent talk.  John did Houdini and the exhibition proud.

Gail Fornasiere then introduced to the stage, the main magic performance by #1 Close-up Magician, Two-time Magic Castle “Close Up Magician of the Year.” And Academy of Magical Arts “Parlour Magician of the Year” Johnny Ace Palmer.

Palmer’s performance was magical, funny and downright entertaining. He performed magical feats with a bottle opener, coins, cards, rings, sponge balls, and ended by producing 3 live baby chicks under cups, along with making a rabbit appear from nowhere.

After the show, grabbed a cocktail from the Bartender (aka Kevin Liebson), who did an amazing job, and then hung out with John Cox and Johnny Ace Palmer briefly before they had to catch their 10pm boat.

I was spending the night so I could spend some more time in the new Houdini exhibit on Saturday May 5th, when it officially opened.  I also had plans on Saturday to do some more Houdini detective work on the Island before catching my 2:15 boat; And with the help of Museum Curator, Jessica Zumberge, we discovered some cool things which I will share in a future post.