Category Archives: Terror Island

SEE Houdini’s “Feature” Movies

Posted on by
5

Advertising for Houdini’s four “feature” movies told audiences what they could expect to SEE:

  • The Grim Game
    • SEE Houdini escape from handcuffs, chains and a prison cell!
    • SEE him plunge between the wheels of a speeding motor-truck and foil his pursuers!
    • SEE him climb the side of a prison and crawl for a rope to the end of a flagpole swaying far from earth!
    • SEE him, on the brink of a gorge, fight a terrifying battle with his foes!
    • SEE him leap from the roof a skyscraper and release himself from a strait-jacket while hanging, head downward, on a rope!
    • SEE him risk his life in a deadly bear-trap and set himself free!
    • SEE him in all the other amazing scenes in this stirring story of love, mystery and dare-devil adventure!
    • SEE him, above everything else, in the most astounding feat ever caught by a motion picture camera:–Two aeroplanes race through the sky—The hero is lowered from one to the other — Just as he is about to board from one to the other — Just as he is about to board his enemy’s car the machines clash in an accident, turn over and over, and plunge to the ground thousands of feet beneath!
  • Terror Island
    • SEE Houdini escape from a nailed-up box forty fathoms under water.
    • SEE him release a girl from a safe that is locked and sunk in the sea.
    • SEE his hand-to-hand encounter with a pirate diver under the waves.
    • SEE him, at grips with a giant savage, plunge from a high cliff into the ocean.
    • SEE the overseas race to a South Sea isle to salvage sunken treasure.
    • SEE the battle royal for love and gold in a sinking submarine.
    • SEE the barbarous feast-day rites that lead to human sacrifice.
    • SEE the world’s master of magic and daring in the greatest feats of his whole career.
  • The Man From Beyond
    • SEE him fight to the death on the edge of the rocky cliff 300 ft above the yawning chasm!
    • SEE him make the sensational swim of the rapids of Niagara!
    • SEE him accomplish the unparalleled thrill of all times—the rescue of the girl on the very brink of Niagara Falls itself!
    • SEE him as the man who, encased in Artic ice for 100 years, is chopped out, and restored to life.
  • Haldane of the Secret Service
    • SEE how he escapes while bound hand and foot and cast into the Hudson.
    • SEE him battle the dignitaries beneath Paris streets.
    • SEE how he reaches the giant liner after he has gone to sleep.
    • SEE his miraculous escape while tied to the revolving water mill.
    • SEE him break the ring of nation’s counterfeiters, the financial foreign-backer of the world.
    • SEE him rescue his sweetheart from the clutches of the terrible Dr. Yu.

Boys Cinema May 14 1921 v3 n75

Posted on by
Reply

Boys Cinema ran every week from Dec 1919 (n1) to May 1940 (n1063). Houdini appeared in 1920, 1921, 1922, and 1923 issues:

  1. Jan 17, 1920. v1 n6. “Houdini the Handcuff King”  cover & p26.  (HHCE Collection)
  2. Feb 21, 1920. v1 n11. “Houdini”  p12+.  (HHCE Collection)
  3. Jan 8, 1921. v3 n57. photo  p5. (HHCE Collection)
  4. Feb 5, 1921. v3 n61. photo p26. (HHCE Collection)
  5. Feb 19, 1921. v3 n63. photo  p5. (HHCE Collection)
  6. May 7, 1921. v3 n74. “The Grim Game”  p14. (HHCE Collection)
  7. May 14, 1921. v3 n75. “Terror Island”  cover & p2+.  (HHCE Collection)
  8. June 25, 1921. v4 n81. “The Grim Game”  p14+. (HHCE Collection)
  9. July 30, 1921. v4 n86.  “The Marvelous Houdini” (photo feature)  p14+.  (HHCE Collection)
  10. March 4, 1922. v5 n117. Houdini card on cover.  (HHCE Collection)
  11. March 25, 1922. v5 n120. Houdini cover with Famous Heroes Card # 4 insert. (Missing)
  12. Jan 13, 1923. v6 n162. “Houdini In The Man From Beyond”  p14+.  (Arthur Moses Collection)

This week I share Houdini’s appearance in Boys Cinema May 14, 1921. v3 n75 from my personal collection.

This extremely rare issue of Boys Cinema takes The Terror Island Film Script (which I have seen, read and studied at the Margaret Herrick Library) and adapts it to a story paper format. It is broken up into 8 parts, which you can read below.

  1. A Prisoner Among Salvages.
  2. A Wonderful Submarine.
  3. An Offer Refused and One accepted.
  4. The Sham Fire.
  5. A Life in the Balance.
  6. Sent to a Watery Grave.
  7. The Rescue.
  8. On the Cannibal Island.

Houdini Movie Lots

Posted on by
Reply

An episode 10 Master Mystery Poster sold yesterday (7/25/2020) at Heritage auctions for $43,200 which included Buyer’s Premium.

Also, yesterday (7/25/2020) , there were some great Houdini Movie Lots (390, 397, 398, 398A, 404, 405, 406, 410, 418, 419, 432, and 434) from The Magic Collection of Jim Rawlins and others that sold at Potter & Potter. Click here for prices realized.

While I have many of these items already, I had my eyes on Lot 398A (which had 2 items I had never seen before) and Lot 404.

Lot 398A

Houdini, Harry (Ehrich Weisz). Houdini “The Grim Game” Airplane Photographs. Circa 1919.  Uncommon group of five possibly unpublished photographs of Houdini and others on the set of “The Grim Game,” one of Houdini’s films.  One photo shows Houdini standing next to the Curtiss “Jenny” camera airplane piloted by Al Wilson; Lt. David E. Thomson, pilot; Robert Kennedy, Houdini’s stunt double; and Lt. Christopher Pickup, pilot of second airplane. Other photos show various images of pilots, cameraman, director, and co-star Ann Forrest. During the filming of a sequence, the planes collided in mid-air but managed to land safely, in what was likely the first airplane collision ever filmed. The damage to the one of the airplane’s wings is clearly visible in three of the photos. Very good.

Notes: Three of the five photographs have been published before. For example pages 94, 95 and 97 of “Locklear: The Man Who Walked on Wings.”  But two of the photographs, AFAIK, haven’t been published before.

Lot 404:

Houdini, Harry (Ehrich Weisz). Houdini Mastery Mystery Invitation. [New York], 1918. Brown ink on cream stock, listing the names of each character and actor playing the role, including Houdini as “Quentin Locke,” and being a “special invitation performance given at the Strand Theatre” on Nov. 7, 1918. 8 ¼ x 5 7/8”. Central folds.

Notes:  A broadside from my personal collection gave Newspaper reviews for this special performance at the Strand Theatre on Nov 7, 1918.

Congrats to the winners.  BTW: I won Lot 404, which will complement my Master Mystery broadside nicely.

Boys Cinema Feb 19 1921 v3 n63

Posted on by
2

Boys Cinema ran every week from Dec 1919 (n1) to May 1940 (n1063). Houdini appeared in 1920, 1921, 1922, and 1923 issues:

  1. Jan 17, 1920. v1 n6. “Houdini the Handcuff King”  cover & p26.  (HHCE Collection)
  2. Feb 21, 1920. v1 n11. “Houdini”  p12+.  (HHCE Collection)
  3. Jan 8, 1921. v3 n57. photo  p5. (HHCE Collection)
  4. Feb 5, 1921. v3 n61. photo p26.  (HHCE Collection)
  5. Feb 19, 1921. v3 n63. photo  p5. (HHCE Collection)
  6. May 7, 1921. v3 n74. “The Grim Game”  p14. (HHCE Collection)
  7. May 14, 1921. v3 n75. “Terror Island”  cover & p2+.  (HHCE Collection)
  8. June 25, 1921. v4 n81. “The Grim Game”  p14+. (HHCE Collection)
  9. July 30, 1921. v4 n86.  “The Marvelous Houdini” (photo feature)  p14+.  (HHCE Collection)
  10. March 4, 1922. v5 n117. Houdini card on cover.  (HHCE Collection)
  11. March 25, 1922. v5 n120. Houdini cover with Famous Heroes Card # 4 insert. (Missing)
  12. Jan 13, 1923. v6 n162. “Houdini In The Man From Beyond”  p14+.  (Arthur Moses Collection)

This week I share Houdini’s appearance in Boys Cinema Feb 19, 1921. v3 from my personal collection.

Question: Was this photo of Houdini and actor Theodore Roberts taken when he was on the west coast making The Grim Game or Terror Island?

Clue: Lila Lee, Island

Answer: The Grim Game

Lila Lee, Gloria Swanson, Tom Meighan and Thomas Roberts were making the Cecil B. DeMIlle film, “Male and Female” (the big picture production of the famous Barrie play, “Admiral Crichton“), at Lasky Studios around the same time. In June 1919 they filmed shipwreck scenes at Santa Cruz Island; Elaborate sets built to add realism to the location, in addition strengthening the illusion of tropical verdure. [June 21, 1919 LAT]

 

Related:

 

Boys Cinema Jan 8 1921 v3 n57

Posted on by
Reply

Boys Cinema ran every week from Dec 1919 (n1) to May 1940 (n1063). Houdini appeared in 1920, 1921, 1922, and 1923 issues:

  1. Jan 17, 1920. v1 n6. “Houdini the Handcuff King”  cover & p26.  (HHCE Collection)
  2. Feb 21, 1920. v1 n11. “Houdini”  p12+.  (HHCE Collection)
  3. Jan 8, 1921. v3 n57. photo  p5. (HHCE Collection)
  4. Feb 5, 1921. v3 n61. photo   (HHCE Collection)
  5. Feb 19, 1921. v3 n63. photo  p5. (HHCE Collection)
  6. May 7, 1921. v3 n74. “The Grim Game”  p14. (HHCE Collection)
  7. May 14, 1921. v3 n75. “Terror Island”  cover & p2+.  (HHCE Collection)
  8. June 25, 1921. v4 n81. “The Grim Game”  p14+. (HHCE Collection)
  9. July 30, 1921. v4 n86.  “The Marvelous Houdini” (photo feature)  p14+.  (HHCE Collection)
  10. March 4, 1922. v5 n117. Houdini card on cover.  (HHCE Collection)
  11. March 25, 1922. v5 n120. Houdini cover with Famous Heroes Card # 4 insert. (Missing)
  12. Jan 13, 1923. v6 n162. “Houdini In The Man From Beyond”  p14+.  (Arthur Moses Collection)

This week I share Houdini’s appearance in Boys Cinema Jan 8, 1921. v3 n57 from my personal collection.

Related:

100th Anniversary – Terror Island (Catalina Island Museum)

Posted on by
Reply

Today, August 18th, 2020 marks the 100th Anniversary of Terror Island being widely released.

To celebrate, John Cox is doing a live stream with Catalina Island Museum on their Instagram at 11:30am PST.

John Cox and I got to consult on a special exhibition at the Catalina Island Museum called Houdini: Terror Island on Magic Isle.

Having read my blog and extensive research on “Terror Island”, Julie Perlin Lee, the Executive director of the Catalina Island Museum and creator of the first ever Houdini exhibit devoted to his movies first contacted me about helping with this project back in November of 2016. We then got John Cox on board and between the three of us recruited others like Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Mark Willoughby, Arthur Moses, and Fred Pittella to loan artifacts for the exhibition.

The exhibition came to fruition in 2018 and was on view from May 5th to October 7th. I was lucky enough to visit the Museum on multiple occasions:

Reels (Parts) 3 and 4 of the existing (Library of Congress Realart) version of Terror Island are considered missing.

The exhibit showcased my work that reconstructs and describes the missing Terror Island scenes in chronological order for each part via an audio-visual presentation.

The exhibit also showcased the missing Terror Island Underwater Box Escape Footage that I located on an out of print magic video,

the research on locations on Catalina Island where Terror Island was filmed (Banning’s beach, Pebble Beach), and shown (Strand Theatre),

as well as Trade Cards, Stills, and Programs from my personal collection.

On my HHCE blog, I also uncovered and shared the TI Story that was adapted from the film script,

  1. A Prisoner Among Salvages
  2. A Wonderful Submarine
  3. An Offer Refused and One accepted
  4. The Sham Fire
  5. A Life in the Balance
  6. Sent to a Watery Grave
  7. The Rescue
  8. On the Cannibal Island

working titles for TI, Japanese Actors in TI, a theory of how Terror Island’s lost reels become lost, and exactly when the Library of Congress received their print.

Houdini is now a permanent resident of Catalina Island.

“You’ll note the display features a video screen which plays the overboard box escape from the film. This footage is missing from the existing movie. It was uncovered last year [2018] by our friend Joe Notaro and it is not available to view anywhere else. So Houdini fans who visit the island get a rare treat!”  John Cox

H A P P Y  1 0 0  Y E A R  A N N I V E R S A R Y ! ! !

Terror Island Trade Cards – No. 72-76

Posted on by
1

Today we look at Early Houdini Trading Cards (No. 72-76) from an extremely rare set of 25 Hoyo De Monterrey of Havanna Tobacco Cards (No. 57-81) circa 1920, depicting stills from his Terror Island movie:

No. 72 Still 318-42 HHCE Collection

No. 73 Still 318-41 HHCE Collection

No. 74 Still 318-48 HHCE Collection

No. 76 Still 318-70 HHCE Collection

Note: Card No. 75 is currently unidentified.

Related:

Terror Island Trade Cards – No. 67-71

Posted on by
3

Today we look at Early Houdini Trading Cards (No. 67-71) from an extremely rare set of 25 Hoyo De Monterrey of Havanna Tobacco Cards (No. 57-81) circa 1920, depicting stills from his Terror Island movie:

No. 67 Still 318-55 HHCE Collection

No. 68 Still 318-67 Ken Trombly Collection

No. 69 Still 318-23 HHCE Collection

No. 70 Still 318-24 HHCE Collection

No. 71 Still 318-5 HHCE Collection

Related:

Terror Island Trade Cards – No. 62-66

Posted on by
Reply

Today we look at Early Houdini Trading Cards (No. 62-66) from an extremely rare set of 25 Hoyo De Monterrey of Havanna Tobacco Cards (No. 57-81) circa 1920, depicting stills from his Terror Island movie:

No. 64 Still 318-7 HHCE Collection

No. 65 Still 318-3 HHCE Collection

No. 66 Still 318-68 Internet

Note: Cards No. 62 and 63 are currently unidentified.

Related