Today, I continue my series of posts where I share an interview that Pictures and Picturgoer magazine did with Harry Houdini:
“WILL you step this way, please?” The call-boy of a popular London music-hall beckoned to PICTURES representative, and hurried along endless corridors to a dressing room where reposed the man whose name is a household word the world over—Harry Houdini—the Handcuff King. Repose may seem an inadequate term to use in connection with this live, active and almost restless personality, but it is accurate. Houdini works hard, plays hard, and rests hard.
We talked of many things; of life and hopes and ambitions, of business and of romance.
- His future film plans.
- His pet superstition.
- His greatest happiness.
- His fertile brain.
- His pleasure in films.
His greatest happiness.
“I find my greatest happiness, ” he said, in my library among my books, in the company of my wife. I have a number of rare editions and a choice collection—one of the greatest in the world, I believe—of theatrical books. Some of my most treasured possessions, too, are souvenirs of various kinds, of famous stage-folk whom I have met in my career.
“My greatest ambition—maybe I’ll surprise you with my answer—it’s just this—to be worthy of my mother.” And in that one can sum up the character of this many-sided and amazing personality.
Houdini is a dark, slim man, in the early forties, active as a boy, always in the pink of condition, thanks to the healthy, athletic life he leads, and with a super-abundance of energy. Curiously enough he declares that. the less he sleeps the better he works.
Source:
- Picture and Picturegoers March 6, 1920
This is great stuff! Thank you Joe! It’s 1920 and Mama is still at the forefront in his mind. The Collection is up there as well. These brief journalism interviews can reveal a lot about the individual being questioned if you peel away some of the onion layers.