The following photograph is from a May 18, 1933 Pittsburg Sun Telegraph newspaper:
And to my eye, it sure looks like the Tatler Cuff but with a Long Key, as opposed to a short key.
The direction of the middle hinge and catch match the Tatler Cuff and not the DC Cuff.
At the time (May 17th, 1933) of the photo, the cuffs were in Pittsburgh at the home of Theodore H. Heuber, 241 Atwood Street. McCaffrey (national vice president of the Society of American Magicians) was helping with arrangements for the national convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians to be held at Beaver Falls in June. He examined the handcuffs for a moment, and snapped them open.
So is that the Tatler Cuff in May of 1933? It most likely is, the handcuffs that Bess Houdini gave to Durbin, the first elected president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and editor of the Linking Ring Magazine. In, the Feb 1934 Linking Ring, Durbin states:
Today, I have in my possession, presented to me by Mrs. Houdini, the handcuffs which were made by Birmingham blacksmith and who took five years in making same, which Houdini got out of in the London Hippodrome after he worked for almost seventy minutes to release himself…I have never been able to find any magician or other person who can open and close these handcuffs.
So Durbin had these cuffs for some time prior to the Linking Ring article. Where are the handcuffs now? Don’t know, but Durbin’s collection became the nucleus of the Egyptian Hall Museum. That said, Durbin also had strong ties to the International Brotherhood of Magicians. And, we know Bess gave away the Russian Manacle that the Society of American Magicians got. So got to believe the Tatler Cuffs are still out there in a collection somewhere.
Thoughts!
Related:
Yowza! McCaffrey handled the Tatler cuffs in Pittsburgh a year before Bess gave it to Durbin in 1934? Was she visiting Pittsburgh in 1933 and had the Tatler cuffs with her?
I wonder if it was the Tatler cuffs Marie Blood saw in the glass showcase of HH’s bedroom. And the DC cuffs was discovered in the safe.
I believe Bess gave it to Durbin before 1934. Durbin mentions in the Feb 1934 Linking Ring Article that he has never been able to find any magician or other person who can open and close these handcuffs, which implies to me he had them at least in 1933.
Not sure what cuffs Marie Blood saw, but the 1933 McCaffrey photo convinces me the cuffs found in the safe (1935) are the DC cuffs (used in 1936 séance). Silver Replica shows up in photos in the late 1930s (1938).
Earth shattering. WHERE did you locate that photo? As a fan of Houdini for 45 plus years and one who pondered the Mirror cuff challenge for as long I salute you! This is a mind numbing discovery. Could the existence of the real cuff used in this escape in 1904 been hidden all this time within an SAM collection? Who could be contacted today to find out where it is? Perry from NJ
Thank You Perry. I appreciate that. Found it on Newspapers.com. Not sure where the real cuff was kept while Houdini was alive, but definitely belief Bess gave it to Durbin. IBM, SAM, and Egyptian Hall Museum is where the trail leaves off. I have been told Mike Caveney’s collection at his home only contains one framed Darby. Not sure if George Daily has any Egyptian Hall Handcuffs. BTW: Ed Saint make the Houdini Handcuff Board (now owned by SAM) with the Russian Manacle for the Final Houdini Séance.
Do we believe that all this is a complete surprise to everyone in the magic community? Did people such as Radner know of the existence of a second Mirror cuff, the real cuff Houdini escaped from in 1904?
I can’t speak for “everyone”, but believe it is a surprise to “most”. WRT Radner, in Backstage with Sid Radner [Mystifier 1st Qtr 1994], he mentions that sometime in the near future, he will supply the missing link to the Mirror Handcuff Challenge; Read my post on the Hungarian Handcuff for more info:
This is amazing!
Only thing I’d caution is McCaffrey is holding the cuffs the other way around from what we see in the Tatler pic. So it’s the hinge on the other side that we want to see to conclude this is the Taler and not the DC Mirror cuff. It’s possible the hinge is secured in an S formation that has an overlap on one side and the underlap on the other. I’ve searched and can’t find a pic of the DC cuffs to show us the other side (and to see if it has a Taler-like overlap).
But the KEY! Look at that. That is clearly something entirely different! This is crazy.
Actually, in the famous pic of HH holding the cuffs you are looking at this side and the hinge is NOT a match. So this is indeed evidence that another Mirror cuff (the Tatler?) was in existence in 1933 and maybe still is! Amazing find.
The hinge is not a match, nor is the catch. Mick Hanzlik pointed out that the DC Cuff has a little “foot” at the back of the catch which is NOT on the Tatlers or the Solid Silver cuffs. I don’t see the foot on the catch in the McCaffrey photo.
And the long key, now that’s intriguing. Wild!
That long key. Notice most of it is outside the cuff in the McCaffrey photo. I think it’s an extension attached to the barrel section of the short key. You can see the barrel clearly not all the way inside after McCaffrey had unlocked it. Durbin might have had a duplicate key made and asked that it be longer at the handle than the short key.
Joe made a big find. The McCaffrey photo is a really important discovery. It tells us the Tatler made it here to the U.S. and might be in a collection. The owner may not have realized what he has. It could be sitting in the trunk of a magic widow–once again.
…Or that long key may have been the actual duplicate HH used to open the Tatler. We know the committee man held on to that short key during the challenge. If I was HH I would have preferred a longer key to grip it easier between my teeth to open the cuffs.
That long key with the ultra large handle is exactly what I would expect if Houdini required a key to open a handcuff. Plenty of room to grip and turn with his mouth and long enough so he could see what he was doing. So we may be seeing THE true original Mirror cuff AND it’s method of escape in one very remarkable photo. I am blown away.
It is a remarkable photo! It appears HH had the Tatler, the DC cuffs, and the solid silver replica in his collection.