Category Archives: The Grim Game

Aeroplane Sketches

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The following original art work sold at the Manuscript and Collectibles Auction in November 5, 2005:

(Houdini) Original Art Work. Pencil and Ink Sketch, 20″x12½”, Signed by the artist: “R.B. Ogle / 1920.” The scene shows a frightened Houdini dangling by a rope from one bi-plane as it crashes with a second plane. This scene actually occurred while Houdini was filming The Grim Game. The legend below the sketch, with the title “Exploits of Houdini,” quotes Houdini: “…I was dangling from the rope end ready for the leap. Suddenly a strong wind turned the lower plane upwards, the two machines crashed together – nearly amputating my limbs – the propellors locked in a deadly embrace, and we were spun round and round….” This scene could possible have been drawn for a lobby card to be exhibited in the theater. In any event, it is intriguing.  Realized:  $1265

(Houdini) Art Work From The Master of Mystery. Pencil and Ink Sketch, 10¾”x14½” of Houdini looking over the side of a biplane assessing his next action as the pilot watches., c. 1919. Lower border identifies the scene as being from “‘The Master of Mystery (7th instal. p. 4.)” “Kinema Comic” is stamped in the lower left border, and some measurements are marked on the sketch, which is mounted to board. R.B. Ogle is identified as the artist on the back. The art work was probably for a lobby card.  Realized:  $575

First Ever Pictures of Aeroplane Collision

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Last week, I posted a blog that had some incredible photos of aeroplane wreckage being used as part of a lobby display for “The Grim Game”.

In keeping with the Aeroplane theme, I thought I would post an article and photos from the New York Tribune, July 06, 1919:

THESE pictures are the first ever to be taken of airplanes in actual collision in midair.  The three extraordinary photographs above are part of a motion picture film which was recording the flight from another plane at the time of the accident.  The collision was unpremeditated and miraculously resulted in the injury of but one pilot.

The crash occurred 2,200 feet over Santa Monica, Calif.  The planes were chartered for scenes in “The Grim Game”, being produced by Famous Players-Lasky.  It was planned that a former army pilot, Robert Kennedy, should change planes in midair, dropping from a rope attached to the undercarriage of the upper machine to the top wing of the lower plane.  A third plane was to carry a motion picture camera, from which the scene was to be filmed.

Just as Kennedy prepared to leap, an up-current of air drove the upper wing of the lower plane full into the landing gear of the one above.  The planes locked and spun down nose on, with Kennedy helplessly dangling at the rope’s end.

At 1,200 feet the planes parted and dove earthward at terrific speed.  They finally flattened out and pancaked to the ground, but not without crashing.  Miraculously, no one was seriously injured, not even Kennedy, swinging helplessly on his rope during the fall.  And all the time the cameraman in the third plane kept on grinding.

The photo on the left shows the daredevil Kennedy standing beside one of the wrecked planes.

[New York Tribune, July 06, 1919, Page 6]

For more information and other photos of the plane crash, see American Heritage April 1972: Houdini’s High-flying Hoax by Art Ronnie, page 106 – 109.

Note: The planes used were Curtiss Canucks, Canadian versions of the famed Jenny, the World War I training plane.  They were rented from producer-director Cecil B. De Mille, who owned and operated two of the three airports in Los Angeles at the time.

[American Heritage April 1972: Houdini’s High-flying Hoax by Art Ronnie, page 108]

Lobby Display: The Real Aeroplane used to advertise “The Grim Game”

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When the Princess Theatre of Denver booked “The Grim Game”, T. A. Sullivan, the house’s enterprising manager, looked about for something novel in the way of publicity stunts.

Now the wreck of an aeroplane, a most thrilling and convincing sequence, is one of the film’s notable features, so Mr. Sullivan conceived the idea of getting a real wrecked aeroplane and setting it up in the Princess’ lobby.

He found one, just where we don’t know, and soon had the big machine mounted as you will see by the accompanying illustrations.

There could be no mistaking the fact that the machine had been wrecked.  It looked as if had been through the world war, for it was battered and banged and its paint had long since disappeared.  The crowds which began to collect the moment the machine was exhibited convinced Mr. Sullivan that he had picked a winner, but he did not stop with just showing the frame of the plane.  The big powerful gas motor was carted to the theatre and placed on exhibition also.

The Princess had a crowd of men and women about its lobby every hour of the “The Grim Game’s” showing.

[Motion Picture News November 22, 1919]

The Bear Trap

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Picture four saplings bent to the ground, each with stout rope attached, formed with a loop in the center and held down by a trigger to which is attached a large chunk of meat.

Houdini comes hurriedly toward bear trap, jumps over it and exits running.

Suddenly men appear from behind trees and pounce upon Houdini.  There is a big fight but Houdini is overpowered and held to the ground by the men.  The men place Houdini near center of trap; they hold him down while binding one rope after another to his hands and feet.  Houdini is stretched between the four saplings. The men then rise and let Houdini’s body shoot upward.

You can guess what happens next.  That’s right, Houdini releases himself, drops to the ground, and runs out in direction of lodge.

[Paraphrased from Paramount Files at Margaret Herrick Library]

 

This is just one of the exciting escape sequences from the “The Grim Game”.

Here are some others:

Over the Edge With Death Below and Imprisonment Above!

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Houdini is taken to an asylum.  He breaks away.  All exits blocked, he makes his way to the roof.  He is pursued by the attendants, one of whom has seized a straight-jacket. He is overpowered.  

Picture the attendants putting the straight-jacket on him and binding his feet with a long rope.

When, they finish binding him, Houdini, with superhuman effort, rolls over, he throws himself over the edge of the roof.  The attendants catch hold of the rope and hold him just below the cornice, suspended, head downward, in midair.  The attendants on the roof tie a half hitch around the chimney to hold Houdini and he begins to sway back and forth at the end of the rope tied to his feet, which he braces against the cornice to prevent them pulling him back on the roof.

With all the strength at his command, he releases himself from the jacket.  He then bends his body upward and grabs hold of the rope which is tied to his feet.  Holding on with one hand, he unties his feet with the other, kicks off his shoes and then drops his feet down and swings from one end of the rope.  A small window below his body offers a means of escape.  He swings like a pendulum at the end of the rope and catapults his body through this small window.

The attendants on the roof feeling his weight released rush to the edge of the roof expecting to see him dashed to pieces below.  This gives Houdini the opportunity to escape.

You can guess what happens next.  That’s right, Houdini on the run, scales a wall by pulling himself up and disappears over the other side.

[Paraphrased from Paramount Files at Margaret Herrick Library]

 

This is just one of the exciting escape sequences from the “The Grim Game”.

Here are some others:

Stone Walls and Chains Do Not Make a Prison – For Houdini

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Picture Houdini pacing up and down in the cell and then suddenly he stops, looks at his handcuffs and goes to the cell door. He peers out and sees the guard is not near.  He then sits down and begins removing his shackles. He succeeds in liberating his hands and now turns his attention to the leg irons.  He gets rid of the leg irons, runs to the door, peers out again and then sits back down on to the cot. He removes his shoe and takes the handcuffs and pries a portion of the sole of shoe revealing a steel shank in the instep.  This he pulls out.  He stands on the cot, reaches bars of window; puts cuffs on bars and using leg iron as lever begins to bend them. 

Finding that his head will now fit through the opening, he pulls himself up and wriggles his way through the bars and stands on window ledge many stories above ground.  Standing here, on the ledge, he reaches out and secures the rope of a flag pole.  He ties rope to bars of window, cuts rope with steel shank taken from shoe and begins lowering himself down to the window ledge below. Arriving on this ledge, he cuts off the end of the rope, ties it to the cell bar on this window and lowers himself again.  At each story, the rope gets shorter until finally, he is within one story of the ground. 

You can guess what happens next.  That’s right, he leaps down into the alleyway and makes a dive under a fast moving truck.  Houdini is seen clinging to bars underneath the truck as he makes his getaway.

[Paraphrased from Paramount Files at Margaret Herrick Library]

 

This is just one of the exciting escape sequences from the “The Grim Game”.

Here is another:

LINK: Inside the Houdini Estate

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Check out the incredible post that John Cox at Wild About Harry posted about his visit last month with Patrick Culliton to the Walker’s “Houdini Estate” in Laurel Canyon.  He lays out the full history of the famous property, including the guest house where Houdini may have stayed when he came to California in 1919 to film his two features of Famous Players-Lasky, The Grim Game and Terror Island.  Below is a snippet from the post:

“ — and when the magician came to California in 1919 to film his two features for Famous Players-Lasky, The Grim Game and Terror Island, he and Bess are said to have stayed at Walker’s guesthouse at 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd.

Now, it needs to be said that we don’t (yet) have smoking gun evidence that puts Houdini and Bess in the Walker guesthouse in 1919. But we do have circumstantial evidence. In Harold Kellock’s Houdini His Life Story (page 271), it says that Houdini spent “his leisurely evenings at home in the modest bungalow he had rented in Hollywood” and that “fellow players returning from late parties, who might have been moved to investigate the solitary light burning in the Houdini bungalow, would have seen the Handcuff king and escape artist scratching busily with his pen at a table littered with manuscripts and old volumes.”

The house at 2435 did indeed sit on a bluff above Laurel Canyon Blvd where, yes, one would have been able to see a solitary light burning in the window while driving to and from parties in the Hollywood Hills. The property was also practical — being relatively close to the Lasky studio (which sat at Sunset and Vine), and scenes from The Grim Game were shot in Laurel Canyon. There is also no other address for Houdini at this time.  “

Los Angeles Relics Postcard

Also check out John’s post from May 28, 2011:

“The card shows A Shady Nook in Laurel Canyon Hollywood, California; But to Houdini buffs, it shows much more!”

Forty Winks by the Star Reporter

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Forty winks by the star reporter (Houdini) permit the office jokers to get busy.

Picture Houdini seated at a desk of a very busy newspaper office.  His head is back and he has slid down in his chair. A police reporter sees that he is sound asleep and motions to two other reporters.  They decide to play a joke.  The police reporter carefully slips one end of a pair of handcuffs on Houdini’s wrist which hangs down at the side of the chair – the other he snaps over the rung of the chair.  The three jokers suppress their laughter as they tip toe to watch the results.  Houdini sleeps on and has no idea of his predicament until his boss from his private office yells out his name.

You can guess what happens next.  That’s right, Houdini manipulates the handcuff with a smile on his face – then rises from his chair – casts an amused glance toward the jokers and strolls toward the private office.  The handcuff is left dangling.

[Paraphrased from Paramount Files at Margaret Herrick Library]

This is just one of the exciting escapes from the “The Grim Game”.