Capital Times Madison Wisconsin Wed Jun 30 1920
The Terror Island ad above claims:
He has leaped, manacled off the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge, releasing himself before reaching the ground.
One of the FACT versus FICTION questions from the Houdini Miniseries Quiz was:
Houdini once jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge?
and the answer was:
Fiction, he leapt off Detroit’s Belle Isle Bridge, among others, but never New York’s favorite landmark.
Well, what about the Eiffel Tower? According to a Grim Game Ad, I blogged about a couple years ago:
As an instance he was once handcuffed, tied and sewn in a canvas sack, and thrown from Eiffel Tower, Paris. Halfway down Houdini was out of the manacles and the sack and clinging to a parachute.
Of course that same Grim Game Ad also claimed:
He was thrown from Brooklyn Bridge locked in a steel safe. He came up in one minute.
So take the ads for what they are.
I love this ad as it gives Lila Lee equal billing as a co-star. Never seen a Terror Island ad like this.
Great observation. There is definitely a lot to like about this ad.
According to Silverman, Houdini found his match in the Hollywood “hooey and “hype” department. That mini biographical sketch “outboomed” Houdini’s own drumbeating.
No easy task, but that’s the magic of Hollywood for you. Thanks for the Silverman reference on page 241.