On Monday, August 11^th, John Cox at Wild About Harry informed us that the official website for HISTORY’s Houdini miniseries had launched an online quiz testing your knowledge of Houdini.

I was intrigued by the comments on the following quiz question:

Houdini competed in the Olympics?  FACT or FICTION
ANSWER: FICTION – A talented amateur athlete, Houdini unsuccessfully tried out for the U.S. swim team.

Okay, FICTION, he did not compete in the Olympics, but did he really try out for the Olympics and if so, was it for the U.S. swim team, track team, or boxing team?

The excellent biography on Wild About Harry mentions that at one point he tried out for the U.S. Olympic team, but doesn’t mention what sport.

Another houdiniphile, recalls that Houdini was asked to try-out for the Olympic track team, but turned it down because there was no money in it.

And yet another houdiniphile, recalls that Houdini didn’t try out for the first modern Olympics in swimming or track. He tried to make the boxing team but he got the flu and couldn’t compete in the final trials and a boy he had previously beaten went in his weight class.

A quick search of the internet reveals the following:

Houdini For Kids:

Ehrich joined an athletic club, the Pastime Athletic Club, where he could make friends and enter competitions. He became so good that he tried out for the U.S. Olympic swim team, but he didn’t make it. At age 16 he won a prize in the American Amateur Athletic Union one mile race, and at 18 he set a record for a run around Central Park and defeated an English champion in a 20-mile race. Ehrich also enjoyed gymnastics, and in New York he began learning to box. By age 17 he was good enough to compete in amateur boxing matches, aiming for the 115-pound championship, which could have launched him in a boxing career. He became ill, however, and couldn’t complete the finals. The boy who won the championship had already lost to Ehrich in an earlier bout, so Ehrich might have won the match.

Kalush:

In New York, Harry expanded his athletic interests.  Besides gymnastics, he began to box, and by the time he was seventeen, he was tough enough to compete for the 115-pound boxing championship of the Amateur Athletic Union, oftentimes a segue to a professional boxing career.  Illness intervened and knocked him out of the finals, but he had already defeated the boy would go on to win the medal.  He also took up long-distance running, and when he was eighteen, he set the record for the run around Central Park.  Around the same time, he defeated Sidney Thomas, an English champion, in a twenty-mile race.  Thomas would later set world records for ten-, fifteen-, and twenty-mile races.

The first source above, along with some random internet references are the only ones I could find that mention the U.S. Olympic swim team. Neither Silverman nor Kalush mention anything about the Olympics.

The above two sources along with others confirm the fact that he couldn’t compete in the finals of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Boxing Championship in 1891.   So who won the 115 pound championship in 1891 that Houdini had once beat?

Boxers who have won the National AAU (United States) Amateur Bantamweight Championship. The weight class was contested at 115 pounds between 1889 and 1921. It was then contested at 118 pounds between 1922 and 1951, before moving to 119 pounds in 1952. In 2010, it was moved to 114 pounds, as as the Light flyweight class was eliminated, and the flyweight cost was shifted to a lower weight.

• 1888 – W. Rocap, Philadelphia, PA
• 1889 – W. Rocap, Philadelphia, PA (spring), W. Kenny, NJAC (winter
• 1890 – B. Weldon, New York, NY
• 1891 – G.F. Connolly, Boston, MA
• 1892 – Not held
• 1893 – Michael J. Hallihan, Philadelphia, PA
• 1894 – R. McVeigh, SAC
• 1895 – E. Horen, Pittsburgh, PA
• 1896 – J.J. Gross, New York, NY
• 1897 – Charles Fahey, Rochester, NY
• 1898 – Not held

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) worked closely with the Olympic movement to prepare athletes for the Olympic Games. However, there were no Olympics in 1892. 1892 is when the idea to start the Olympic Games again was first brought up.  In 1894, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded and began planning. The first modern Olympics did not take place until 1896 on a very special day.

Today in History, April 6^th:  First modern Olympics opens in Athens; This is also the day that Harry Houdini celebrated his birthday.

Ironically, when the modern-day Olympic Games resumed in 1896, the Athens committee didn’t include boxing as the sport was deemed too dangerous. Boxing was welcomed back to the Olympics in 1904 in St. Louis, as the sport had become very popular in America. The U.S. won all the medals that year, as it was the only country to enter a boxing team. In 1912, in Sweden, boxing was omitted again, since that country’s national law banned it. By 1920, boxing was here to stay.

However, swimming and bicycling was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 for the first time.

So, FACT or FICTION (Legend),

Did Houdini try out for the Olympics?

If you have any additional information on this, please comment or send me an email.

Courtesy of Milbourne Christopher Houdini A Pictorial Life

While two ads (see related posts) and a program (above) have been found advertising Houdini’s Buried Alive (aka The Secret of the Sphinx) in Boston on stage, I have been unable to find an eye-witness account or article to corroborate this until Houdini Expert, Patrick Culliton, shared the following snippet with me.

From Magic magazine December, 1999 Centennial issue, Jay Marshall talks about readers picks for the top-ten magicians of the 20^th century:

Magic: As you know, Houdini received, by far, the most votes, placing him number one on the top 10 list. We guessed that, less than 1% of those voting had ever seen Houdini. How do you account for that enduring fame?

Jay: I don’t know, because the things I saw him do, at the time, did not impress me.

Magic: What do you recall of his show?

Jay: It was at the Majestic theater in Boston. I remember Houdini sitting on the stage across from someone at a table, which you could see underneath, and they were switching slates.

Magic: Was this (in the) Spiritualism segment of his final touring show?

Jay: Yes, and Houdini talked a lot. It didn’t seem like magic, and it didn’t mean shit to me as a kid. However, for the second act, they tied him up with a rope, handcuffed him, and put him in a thing that looked like a coffin my father told me he was going to get out of it. Now that got my interest. I listened as the music played, and the next thing I knew, when I woke up, Houdini was taking bows.

Magic: Dozing off during bad magic shows started at an early age?

Jay: I was seven, and that was in 1926, the year Houdini died. I was intrigued with him being tied up and escaping, but as far as Houdini being the magician of the century, I would not say so.

Magic: But the readers who voted did.

Jay: That’s right. He was a remarkable man. Look at the number of books he wrote. He didn’t have a formal education, and he edited the conjurers monthly magazine (1906 – 1908).

The question “what do you have on Houdini?” Is constantly heard by Elaine Lund at the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan. She’s got the “Milk Can Escape” that everybody wants to see. And they asked to see Houdini posters and all the literature on Houdini.

So much for the magic and spiritualism part impressing him.  At least the escape part got his interest and we finally have an eye witness account of the show, although be it as one remembers it as a 7 year old. The advertisement did say to “bring the kiddies“.  Jay Marshall was born August 29, 1919 so he was definitely seven in September 1926 when Houdini performed at the Majestic Theatre in Boston.

Special Thanks to Patrick Culliton for sharing this evidence.

Related Posts:

• The Master Mystery Postpones Buried Alive Stunt on Stage
• Ad shows Houdini performed Buried Alive in 1926 (John Cox blog)
• Episode 3 Additional Information (Dean Carnegie blog Includes another 1926 Buried Alive ad)

Houdini in the cockpit of his Voisin, at Hamburg before his first flying attempt. Image courtesy of Gywnn-Jones Collection

In 1909, while performing at theatres in Germany, Houdini purchased a French-built Voisin biplane.

Houdini then rented a building to serve as a hangar, and imported a French mechanic, M. Brassac, to teach him how to fly.  The German government even let him use a parade ground as an airfield on condition that he would instruct the regiment stationed there to fly.  He had many pictures taken with himself seated in the machine, the name HOUDINI painted proudly on the rudder, also photos with German army officers grouped around it.  After the war with Germany in 1917, Houdini destroyed these, saying “I taught those fellows to fly and they may have killed Americans”.

Early each morning Houdini would be at the hangar with Brassac, going over the plane.  Soon he was ready for his solo, but gusty winds kept him on the ground.  Finally after two weeks the wind died and he took off, rose a few feet and dived into the earth.

In his diary, he wrote: “I smashed the machine.  Broke propeller all to hell!”

Undeterred, Houdini arranged to have the plane repaired quickly so that the Voisin could accompany him on tour in Australia.

After two weeks for repairs, he managed a successful take-off and landing [November 26, 1909], staying in the air for a couple of minutes.

1909 Life Insurance Policy – Gywnn-Jones Collection

On November 29, 1909, in Hamburg, Houdini cautiously took out a 100,000 mark ($2500) life insurance policy with the Albingia Company of Hamburg prior to his tour in Australia and record breaking flight on March 18, 1910 at Diggers Rest. Displaying a fine sense of history, he wrote on the back of the policy: “This is the first insurance policy ever taken out re accident in an aeroplane. I had to pay 10 marks (about 25 cents) every time I made a flight.”

After making 18 flights in Australia, Houdini had the Voisin crated and shipped back to England.  He planned to fly the aeroplane to each of his performances during his next U.K. tour, as a publicity stunt. But Houdini never flew that aeroplane again.

In future weeks, we will examine some other Aeroplane accidents that Houdini was involved in.

Sources:

• Aviation January 1994, Houdini’s Historic Flight by Terry Gywnn-Jones
• Air Classics April 1968, Hedgehopping with Houdini By Manny Weltman

The story goes as follows:

• Before dying, the rabbi asked his promising young son to swear that he would take care of his mother.

Did Houdini’s father really make him swear to take care of Cecilia? Houdini said he did and lived accordingly.  In that light, I regard the story as true.

Last month on Mother’s Day, I asked you treat your mother like a Queen; so today please treat your father like a King.  Promise me.

Happy Father’s Day!

Is it true that Houdini never smoked?

While I don’t have a real photo of Houdini smoking, I do have some circumstantial evidence that he did:

On Monday 18th April, it was a cold and windless morning.  As Houdini waited for final preparation to be made, he smoked a cigarette.  This was highly unusual for Houdini and it indicated that he was nervous.  He gave orders in a ‘quiet yet incisive manner’ and watched with a ‘critical though quite unmoved eye.’

At approximately 8 am he took off and made a flight lasting between three to four minutes which covered a few hundred meters.  This marked the first officially recorded successful powered, controlled flight in New South Wales [Australia]. [Houdini’s Tour of Australia by Leann Richards]

After reading the above account, I searched for more evidence and was able to find a newspaper that documented this:

Houdini himself seemed the least perturbed of the party. Cooling smoking a cigarette, he watched preparations with a critical though quite unmoved eye. That he was taking an interest in the proceedings could be observed from the quiet yet incisive manner in which he ordered minor defects to be remedied. [The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 19 April 1910, page 8.]

I also found the following:

Though personally frugal, and except on their anniversary, rarely known to join Bess in a glass of champagne, Houdini may have explored other mood-altering substances around the time he went to Hollywood.  Will Goldston believed he sometimes partook of a ‘nip of opium’ of the kind widely available in Edwardian music-hall circles, if only for its analgesic properties.  The drug may have numbed the pain of a damaged kidney and other health-related issues collected over the years, but, as with Bess’s drinking, it didn’t always produce a felicitous state.  [Masters of Mystery by Christopher Sandford]

Does anyone else have knowledge or evidence of Houdini smoking or exploring mood-altering substances.?

Cecilia Weiss, Houdini’s mother, in “Queen Victoria” dress (Photo courtesy of Marguerite Elliott)

One day, toward the end of January 1901, Houdini happened to notice an elegant gown displayed in the window of a London shop.  When he stepped inside he learned that it had been designed for Queen Victoria, but she had died a few weeks before it was finished and hence never worn it. Seized by a sudden inspiration, Houdini persuaded the shopkeeper to sell it to him. He promptly wrote to his mother in New York, inviting her to join him in Europe.

They traveled to her native Budapest, where in Palm Gardens of the Royal Hotel, which Houdini had booked for the occasion, his mother held court wearing the gown designed for the Queen of England, while her son stood proudly at her side.

Was this really the dress designed for Queen Victoria, or was Houdini duped by the shopkeeper who sold it to him, or did he himself concoct the entire story? Does it really matter?

I hope everybody treats their mother like a Queen today.

H A P P Y  M O T H E R S  D A Y !

Source:  Houdini: A Mind In Chains by Bernard C. Meyer, M.D.

Last week, we looked at a couple famous photos published of Houdini surrounded by Girls.  As promised, this week, I am sharing one that has rarely been seen.

Houdini, whose stage specialty is breaking out of things, with equally conspicuous success, broke into the movies, and had no way to break out. He can wriggle free of handcuffs, steamer trunks and packing cases, but here is a chain that defies him. Seemingly he is suffering no pangs of humiliation.

Anyone care to take a guess when this photo was taken?

H A P P Y  E A S T E R !

Above is one of the famous images of Houdini surrounded by girls (and rabbits) who performed in his road show. Can you identify any of the assistants in the photo? Which one is Dorothy Young? Bragging rights for anyone that can identify all of the assistants in the photo?

There is also a famous image of Houdini surrounded by the Christie Girls that can be seen here at John Cox Wild About Houdini site.

Next week, I will post a rarely seen image of Houdini surrounded by 9 girls that you won’t want to miss.

April 6th is Historical!

Houdini’s adoption of April 6^th as his birthday will remain a mystery, although he explained in a letter [dated November 22, 1913] to his brother Theo that he would celebrate on April 6 because that was the day his mother acknowledged his birthday. It is interesting to note that by 1910 both Houdini and Bess knew with certainty that his actual birthday was on March 24.  While in Australia that year, Bess gave Houdini an engraved watch as a birthday present.

FOR HARRY

Ever Houdini Remembering In Complete Happiness

BESS

3-24-10

Not only was his birth date correct, but Bess employed a code in the dedication as well.  When you isolate the first letter of each word in the message, it spells out Harry’s real name E-H-R-I-C-H.

Sources:

• Kalush, The Secret Life of Houdini
• Letter- Walter B. Gibson, Original Houdini Scrapbook
• Watch – Magicol, Number 87, May 1988

Happy Birthday Harry Houdini!

The evidence for Budapest, and the 24^th March [140 years ago today], is incontrovertible, unless we assume a fantastic, elaborate forgery of the records.  The house, the names of the midwife and godmother and the Rabbi who performed the circumcision rite, are recorded.  Full details can be found in Milbourne Christopher’s wonderful Houdini: The Untold Story. [Abracadabra Saturday, 23^rd March 1974]

And the final report on June 1, 1972 from the Houdini Birthdate research committee concludes that the evidence supports Budapest and recommends that henceforth March 24, 1874 – Budapest, Hungary be known as the official date and place of birth of Harry Houdini.

Happy Birthday Harry Houdini!