The October 16, 1920 edition of ‘Pictures and Picturegoer’ contained a story adaptation of the Grim Game movie.
Over four posts, I plan to take you inside this edition of ‘Pictures and Picturegoer’ and share each chapter of the story by John Fleming.
Today I share CHAPTER I:
CONTENT MOVED: To be available in my 2024 book: Houdini Adaptations, The Grim Game and Terror Island Stories
Related:
HHCE Collection
At the last Haversat and Ewing Auction (#40), I was elated to be the only bidder on Lot# 70 [Price w/BP $47.20]:
Movie stills from Houdini’s 1919 [1923] film Haldane of the Secret Service. The movie co-starred Gladys Leslie, Jane Jennings, and Charles Fang. Original studio 8×10’s.
I believe this lot was overlooked, since the stills did not include Houdini and one may have even questioned whether these images were from Haldane, unless you compared the outfits the actor’s were wearing in the stills with the movie itself or other stills:
FWIW: Almost all of the production stills for Houdini’s movie, The Grim Game, contain Houdini, unlike Haldane and his other movies. Years ago, I won an original Lila Lee Terror Island production still on eBay that did not include Houdini, nor was it obvious it was from the movie Terror Island unless you were in the know.
Thought it would be fun to do a post on each of the three co-stars depicted in the stills:
Today we look at Charles Fang via Wikipedia:
Charles Fang was an American actor and comedian who was active in Hollywood primarily during the silent era. He was active on Broadway from 1930 to 1935. He was known during his time as “the greatest Chinese actor in America.” Fang was born in San Francisco to parents from Canton, China. He reportedly graduated from Yale University and served in the U.S. Navy before becoming a professional actor on the stage and screen.Reportedly discovered by Rex Ingram, Fang also served as a cultural advisor and interpreter on film sets.
Note: The stills above depict Charles Fang as Ah Ling in Haldane of the Secret Service
At the last Haversat and Ewing Auction (#40), I was elated to be the only bidder on Lot# 70 [Price w/BP $47.20]:
Movie stills from Houdini’s 1919 [1923] film Haldane of the Secret Service. The movie co-starred Gladys Leslie, Jane Jennings, and Charles Fang. Original studio 8×10’s.
I believe this lot was overlooked, since the stills did not include Houdini and one may have even questioned whether these images were from Haldane, unless you compared the outfits the actor’s were wearing in the stills with the movie itself or other stills:
FWIW: Almost all of the production stills for Houdini’s movie, The Grim Game, contain Houdini, unlike Haldane and his other movies. Years ago, I won an original Lila Lee Terror Island production still on eBay that did not include Houdini, nor was it obvious it was from the movie Terror Island unless you were in the know.
Thought it would be fun to do a post on each of the three co-stars depicted in the stills:
Today we look at Jane Jennings via wikipedia:
Jane Jennings was an American actress known for playing older motherly characters. In a 1918 edition of Motion Picture News she is described as a sweet looking little woman. Famous Players was one of the studios where she worked. She is on the cover of the sheet music for That Wonderful Mother of Mine (1918). By the 1925 film Self Defense, she had played 178 mother roles in films.
Note: The stills above depict Jane Jennings as Mrs. Clive Usher, mother of Mr. Usher, who Adele Ormsby was supposed to marry in Haldane of the Secret Service.
HHCE Collection
At the last Haversat and Ewing Auction (#40), I was elated to be the only bidder on Lot# 70 [Price w/BP $47.20]:
Movie stills from Houdini’s 1919 [1923] film Haldane of the Secret Service. The movie co-starred Gladys Leslie, Jane Jennings, and Charles Fang. Original studio 8×10’s.
I believe this lot was overlooked, since the stills did not include Houdini and one may have even questioned whether these images were from Haldane, unless you compared the outfits the actor’s were wearing in the stills with the movie itself or other stills:
FWIW: Almost all of the production stills for Houdini’s movie, The Grim Game, contain Houdini, unlike Haldane and his other movies. Years ago, I won an original Lila Lee Terror Island production still on eBay that did not include Houdini, nor was it obvious it was from the movie Terror Island unless you were in the know.
Thought it would be fun to do a post on each of the three co-stars depicted in the stills:
Today we look at Gladys Leslie via wikipedia:
Though less-remembered than superstars like Mary Pickford, she had a number of starring roles from 1917 to the early 1920s and was one of the young female stars of her day. Leslie began her movie career around 1915, acting in short films produced by the Edison Company. By 1917, she was making films with the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, including The Vicar of Wakefield (1917).
The New York Herald”s review of that film dubbed her the “Girl With A Million Dollar Smile,” and caused studio head Edwin Thanhouser to decide she was ready for leading roles.
Soon she was starring in the lead role in 1917″s An Amateur Orphan, but was quickly wooed over to Vitagraph Studios and starred in a number of Vitagraph releases in 1918 and 1919. Leslie and another young female Vitagraph star, Bessie Love, starred in numerous films in young girl-type roles that were popular at the time.
Leslie”s similar appearance to Mary Pickford was also often noted. Leslie”s association with Vitagraph ended by 1920 and she continued to make films with a number of different studios.
Her first non-Vitagraph picture in 1920 was A Child for Sale, directed by Ivan Abramson, where she played a starring role.
And in 1923, she had the lead female role in Haldane of the Secret Service featuring Harry Houdini. Nevertheless, her share of starring roles started to decline, and her last appearance was in 1925. She had always claimed, however, that she would stop making films when her bank account “has mounted high enough.” Leslie was born in New York City on March 5, 1899, and she died (as Gladys Leslie Moore) in Boynton Beach, Florida on October 2, 1976 at age 77.
Along with the new trend of actors doing product endorsements in the early 1920s, Leslie appeared in ads for Tokio Beauty Cream, which was claimed to have given her “magnetic personality.”.
Note: The stills above depict Gladys Leslie as Adele Ormsby wearing a wedding dress in Haldane of the Secret Service. The story opens with Haldane’s (Houdini’s) rescue of Adele from a forced marriage.
101 years today, Sunday Eve, April 2nd, Houdini premiered in person and on the screen in “The Man From Beyond” at Times Square. To celebrate, I share my collection of “The Man From Beyond” on VHS and DVD:
Last week I did a post that first tied Oscar S. Teale and Houdini to “Adams Press” in 1914 and 1923 respectively.
Today, I share the first page of a July 30th 1924 letter sent to 19 Park Place from Clinton Burgess (who is credited as compiling Elliotts Last Legacy) that reveals who is Adams at “Adams Press”.
Credit: McCord Museum
The above letter is addressed to Frank H. Adams.
Frank H. Adams of “Adams Press” also shows up in a 1894-95 Insurance Year Book:
According to Gresham:
He celebrated his 50th birthday back home on 113th Street with a grand family party…He felt sure he could live to be a hundred.
Well, I would like to think he has surpassed that goal.
HHCE Collection
Today, we celebrate his 149th birthday.
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y!
Kevin Connolly on his popular Conjuring History FB page asked the following question:
And Doug Edwards had an excellent answer:
As a follow-up, thought I would share (via this post) some additional thoughts and research that first ties Oscar S Teale to “Adams Press”.
You see, not only was Oscar Schutte Teale (1847-1934) an illustrator/researcher/ghostwriter for Houdini, he was also an architect, and he published under the name “Adams Press”.
In 1914, Oscar S. Teale self-published “How to do Architectural Drawing”. “Adams Press” (62 Williams Street, NYC) was the printer and selling agent.
In 1920, he published the book, “Higher Magic – Magic for the Artist” under the name “Adams Press” and used his home address, 240 Broadway, New York City.
In 1923, he started using address 19 Park Place for “Higher Magic – Magic for the Artist”.
1923 was also the year, he illustrated Houdini’s “Elliott’s Last Legacy”, under the name “Adams Press”, but utilized Houdini’s home address, 278 West 113th Street.
HHCE Collection
In 1924, “Adams Press” published a beginning magic book, “Magic and Home Entertainment”, via 19 Park Place address;
HHCE Collection
And also in 1924, “Adams Press” published “Houdini Exposes the Tricks used by Boston Medium Margery” via 278 West 113th Street address.
So by 1924/1925, you could get Teale’s Higher Magic – Magic for the Artist” and a “Magic and Home Entertainment” directly from 19 Park Place. And Houdini book orders published by “Adams Press” still went to 278 West 113th Street, but were printed at 19 Park Place.
Potter and Potter Spring Magic Auction 5/18/2019 Lot 85 Adams Press Mailer with “Elliotts Last Legacy” Prospectus, New York, 1925 5 pieces, including the original Adams Press mailing cover, addressed to Lewis Duff, a prospectus with order form for Elliotss’s Last Legacy, a sample booklet and bulk order for “Magic and Home Enterntainment{ and a return envelope.
Which just leaves one question, who was the printer and selling agent behind “Adams Press” located at 19 Park Place?
Tune in next week, where I reveal the answer to who is Adams at “Adams Press”.
Last year I acquired the 1924 newspaper article, Houdini Breaks into Playwriting, describing a new stage play adapted from The Grim Game.
Houdini actually broke into playwriting (if you can call it that) between 1911 and 1914 where he registered three of his famous illusions as “playlets” or short plays, with the U.S. Copyright Office. These deposited scripts are now held within the Reader’s Collection, Library of Congress Copyright Office Drama Deposits.
The three playlets were also published in the Linking Ring [Jun to Aug 1967] and Patrick Culliton’s books, Houdini’s Strange Tales – A Collection of fiction by the legendary Harry Houdini [1992], “Houdini Unlocked”[1997], and “Houdini – The Key” [2010]
Edgar Heyl says: “these plays are unbelieveable bad. Yet Houdini barged right ahead in writing them, completely oblivious of plot, motivation, characterization, credibility, reality and the many other factors that make the work of a professional playwright so difficult.”[Linking Ring August 1967]
This post concludes a 3 part series of posts where I summarize and share tidbits about the three copyrighted plays that he wrote:
Today we look at Buried Alive
Only one copy was deposited and it consisted of 4 small octavo pages typewritten double spaced.
SUMMARY
The premise of this play involves two tourists who try to one-up a local priest by performing a surprising “miracle”. The stage directions describe the tourist in a straitjacket, who is put into an empty box and lowered into the ground with dirt shoveled atop him. After a few chants and incantations, the tourist is revealed “relieved of his bonds, and appearing just as he was before.” The locals treat him as supernatural, but he insists he is a mere man.
[Houdini and the Magic of Copyright by Marilyn Creswell (March 24, 2021)]
Per Cullliton:
Like the other plays in this collection, Buried Alive was not a serious attempt at playwrighting on Houdini’s part. It was just an attempt to protect a new effect from the imitators who had dogged his every step.
The 1914 Buried Alive poster advertising “Harry Houdini’s original creation” goes hand in hand with the play and protecting his new effect. Note: Elcock did the artwork for the poster. Like the Water Torture Cell escape, the stage version (non-play) of Buried Alive would have to wait until a later date for Houdini to perfect and perform.
Last year I acquired the 1924 newspaper article, Houdini Breaks into Playwriting, describing a new stage play adapted from The Grim Game.
Houdini actually broke into playwriting (if you can call it that) between 1911 and 1914 where he registered three of his famous illusions as “playlets” or short plays, with the U.S. Copyright Office. These deposited scripts are now held within the Reader’s Collection, Library of Congress Copyright Office Drama Deposits.
The three playlets were also published in the Linking Ring [Jun to Aug 1967] and Patrick Culliton’s books, Houdini’s Strange Tales – A Collection of fiction by the legendary Harry Houdini [1992], “Houdini Unlocked”[1997], and “Houdini – The Key” [2010]
Edgar Heyl says: “these plays are unbelieveable bad. Yet Houdini barged right ahead in writing them, completely oblivious of plot, motivation, characterization, credibility, reality and the many other factors that make the work of a professional playwright so difficult.”[Linking Ring August 1967]
This post continues a 3 part series of posts where I summarize and share tidbits about the three copyrighted plays that he wrote:
Today we look at Walking Through a Brick Wall
Houdini purchased the idea on May 4, 1914. The play was written shortly after purchase of the illusion, possibly on the boat coming back from England. Only one copy was deposited and it consisted of 4 octavo sheets typewritten double spaced.
SUMMARY
The plot of this playlet involved a father who constructed a brick wall to keep the son of his “mortal enemy” from being able to look into his garden. The father states, “The day you can walk through the brick wall that separates our houses. I’ll give you my daughter.” The next day the father wakes up to see the young man made it through the wall. To his new fiancée, he explains, “Alice, whether I did or not [walk through the brick wall], everything is fair in love and war. This playlet includes a note after the curtain, which explains the illusion.
[Houdini and the Magic of Copyright by Marilyn Creswell (March 24, 2021)]
Per Culliton:
Houdini didn’t invent this amazing effect. He purchased the American rights from an Englishman named Sydney Josolyne. As usual Houdini had to try to protect the illusion from the plagiarists who had plagued his career and establish that, in the states at least, “Walking Through a Wall” was exclusively his. He accomplished this by copyrighting the playlet.
His lack of playwrighting ability aside, there is some old Houdini genius built into this play. He tells us precisely what the effect involved, and he even tips the secret if one can read between the lines.
Per Edgar Heyl:
I’ll never undestand what Houdini had in mind in writing this ridiculous playlet…that practically told how the illusion had been performed…material filed in the Copyright Office is open to public inspection at any time.
[Linking Ring August 1967]
Per Marlyn Creswell:
Soon others began selling cheap blueprints of the apparatus Houdini used to perform the trick. Even though the copyrightable words and script of Houdini’s playlet were not necessarily infringed, the act lost its appeal once its illusion’s methodology was well-understood. Houdini only performed the trick a few times, and then sanctioned his younger brother, Hardeen’s use of the trick.
