While going thru my images from my December 2018 visit to the McCord Museum, I came across a undated [May 1921] newspaper clipping that I found very interesting; especially with all of the great work being done by our friend Sean Doran at the Mysteriarch who is searching for locations from the 1922 silent film classic, The Man From Beyond. So without further adieu, here is the text from the newspaper clipping:
HOUDINI HERE FOR MOVIE SCENE
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“Handcuff King” Wants Pictorial Record of His Wonder Feats.
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CAMERA WORK AT FARMINGTON
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Plans to Retire From Dangerous Profession After World Tour
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Houdini, the original “handcuff king” who appeared in Hartford for the first time somewhere near a score of years ago, before he had won his international fame, is back to this section again, this time as a moving picture star in his own company. With a company of sixteen people he is at the Elm Tree Inn in Farmington and several scenes for his picture “The Frozen North” which he and his company have been working on for a number of months will be taken there.
Some of the scenes were taken in California, others in Europe during Mr. Houdini’s last trip there, the company was at Niagara Falls waiting for a number of days to get the scene they wanted there, and now in Farmington, on the estate of Winchell Smith and other places there he is preparing to film the scene which will complete the picture. They will include a number of daring feats which have made Houdini famous, and the taking of the picture may take several weeks, during which time his company will be at the Elm Tree Inn.
Houdini talked last night with a “Courant” reporter who chanced to have been one of the “stage committee” at his first appearance here, when Houdini was a much younger man than he is today.
“I am beginning to feel that it is nearly time to retire,” he said. “I have seen others try to imitate me. Four of them were fairly successful in a way for a time, but they all lost their lives. Now there are none of the imitators left. I am taking this picture not because of a desire to enter the moving picture field, but because, if I should die, as the others have done, I wish to leave proof that I have actually done the things I have been advertised to do.
“In a short time—within a couple of years—I plan to make a farewell tour of the world and give up my profession. And when I am through I want to have this pictorial record left.
“This is not a million dollar picture. I don’t make any pretentions of any such thing as that. At the same time I think it is going to be a good one. It is one I wrote myself, to a large extent and besides presenting the feats, I want to have pictured, I think the story will prove an interesting one.
“Burton King is my director, and Jane Connelly, who was known as the ‘the Sarah Bernhardt of vaudeville is my leading lady. There are sixteen people in the company with me, and I have six camera men.”
Mr. Houdini was reluctant to say just when and where the scenes will be taken or just what feats he will perform. He stated that the weather made it uncertain just when the filming could start, but declared that it was likely that the work of arranging the settings for some of the scenes would be under way today.
After reading the newspaper clipping, here were my initial observations:
Wow, just learned that the company stayed at the Elm Tree Inn in Farmington and filmed scenes on Winchell Smiths estate. But what about the scene references to “other places…” in Farmington?
now in Farmington, on the estate of Winchell Smith and other places there he is preparing to film the scene which will complete the picture.
What scene he is referring to? Houdini was “reluctant to say just when and where the scenes will be taken or just what feats he will perform”. Could it be the swim in the rapids [on the Farmington River] He told the Courant Reporter “that it was likely that the work of arranging the settings for some of the scenes would be under way today”.
After my initial observations, I decided to search Newspapers.com for references to Houdini and Farmington and according to the May 9th 1921 Hartford Courant, the rapids scene was done on Sunday, May 8th at Winchell’s Smith dam in the Farmington River:
COMPLETE FILMING FEATS OF HOUDINI
Screen Record of Daredevil’s Skill Finished at Farmington.
HANDCUFF KINGS SAYS HE IS A FATALIST
Not Concerned Over His Fate – “Hopes to Fool Em”
With beautiful summer weather to help him. Houdini the original “handcuff king” finished the scenes he needed for his new picture play, The Frozen North”, yesterday, in Farmington, and last night he had his company of sixteen departed. It had been expected that they would be at Elm Tree Inn for at least a week while getting “location” and otherwise preparing for the big scenes of the artic region in which Houdini does some of his marvelous feats, but Farmington, apparently has even Los Angeles beaten for “location.”
However that may be, the Houdini force, appeared to be “out on location” yesterday morning, not only picked the “locations” but filmed the scenes wanted and at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon “called it a days work” and also a finale and last night they packed up and departed for New York.
The scene for the big picture was taken at Winchell Smith’s dam in the Farmington river, and Houdini bound in a manner that would keep the average man secure for as long as he could live, was cast into the river above the dam.
The work of binding him was so well done that even the members of his company, who are used to seeing him do stunts which seem impossible declared that “he had a mighty close call.
“Yes,” said Houdini after it was all over. “It was a close call. It was nothing easy. And that was what I wanted. I am not trying to do easy work in this picture, but hard feats. I am trying to record just how far I can go and live. Some of the them thought I had gone beyond the limit, but I am still here.
“I am a fatalist,” he said, I believe I will not die until my time comes and when it does, I am ready.” He paused for a while, meditatively, “Isn’t it just about as worth while to die trying to do something that nobody else would attept as to die in bed? I think so.
“Thjs picture, which is to show just what I can do, is about completed now. When it is done I will have a permanent record of the feats I have achieved and when at least four of my imitators have died in attempts to reproduce. The time may come when I will make a miscalculation—when something will go wrong. It will furnish some material for the newspapers anyway. And I suppose there will be a lot of people who who who will say “I told you so”, But I hope to fool them all.
Houdini, who was one of the pioneers in aeroplane “stunting”, had planned to have Lieutenant Stuart Chadwick, now in Hartford, “drop in on him” while he was in Farmington and before leaving yesterday expressed his regrets at not having been able to wait for the promised airplane ride over Hartford and surrounding territory.
Bonus:
Houdini who always found a way to thrill his audience has a surprise ending for “The Far North” the special feature he is now making. The producers, while declining to state the nature of the thrill, declare it to be the greatest ever seen, not excepting the 4,000 feet aeroplane drop in another of Houdini’s films. [Buffalo Courier Sun Jun26, 1921].
