Monthly Archives: June 2018

Terror Island Underwater Box Escape Footage Found

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Last week, I did a post on searching for the Terror Island Underwater Box Escape Footage that by all accounts appeared on the “You Asked For It” show in 1953.

So now all I had to do is find that footage. I was hopeful that it would appear on the “You Asked For It” Rare TV Magic Acts (McIIhany) (4 DVD Set) and I was not disappointed.  George Pal Houdini Films appears on Volume One:

Below is part of the transcript:

George Pal: Hi Art!

Art Baker: Howdy!

Pal: We are just about to air.

Baker: Fine, we appreciate you taking time to answer…Here is a young magician and he wanted to see a film of the great Houdini himself.  Have anything for him?

Pal: Well Art in doing the research for Paramount’s new technicolor picture “Houdini” I ran across an old movie called “Terror Island”.  It has been made in 1920 [1919].

Baker: 20!

Pal: And it stars the real Houdini in person.

Baker: Huh!

Pal: So if you are ready, we can show one of his famous underwater escapes.

Baker:  Fine!

Pal: Okay Terry put on the first one.

And below are snippets of the underwater box escape footage from “Terror Island”:

Credits: William McIIhany (whm)

 

Dorothy Dietrich is an Inspiration

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My friend, Dorothy Dietrich, is the inspiration for the new novel “The Art of Escaping” by Erin Callahan:

Seventeen-year-old Mattie is hiding her obsession with Harry Houdini and Dorothy Dietrich from everyone, including her best friend.  Mattie has a hidden obsession: escapology. Told through the perspectives of the witty main characters, this funny and fresh debut explores the power of stage personas and secret spaces, and speaks to the uncanny ways in which friendships transform us.

Dorothy Dietrich’s probably the best-known female escapologist of all time. Enjoying a long career that began with New York television shows, she later founded The Magic Townehouse, a popular NYC magic venue. Regarded as the “First Lady of Magic,” she’s been an inspiration to female and  male performers alike.

She was famously the first woman to escape from a strait-jacket while hanging from a burning rope 15 stories up and without a net:

She’s known for being the first woman to catch a bullet in her mouth:

Her desire to perform magic and escapes started after reading a biography of Houdini in her childhood. She has a large number of television appearances including the following where she is referred to as “the world’s leading female escape artist“:

Related HHCE posts:

Search for Terror Island Underwater Box Escape Footage

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Parts 3 and 4 of the current version of Terror Island are considered missing. I previously did posts that described the missing scenes in chronological order for each part:

The Catalina Island Museum Houdini exhibit (Houdini: Terror on the Magic Isle) which runs May 5th to Oct 7th, 2018 has a audio-visual presentation that reconstructs these missing parts based on my work above that is a must see.

The museum also currently pieces together other must see Houdini footage (courtesy of John Cox) of how the underwater box escape likely looked in Terror Island.

This post is about my search for the actual missing Underwater Box Escape footage from Part 4 of Terror Island..

According to The Motion Picture Herald, August 8, 1953:

…the same show [“You Asked for It”]  is contrasting classic escapes: the one in “Terror Island,” in which the real Houdini escapes from an underwater sealed box, and the one in “Houdini”, in which Tony Curtis does the same. Paramount gets the credit, all along.

According to Linking Ring Vol 33 No. 7 Sep 1953:

The Baker Show ran a part of the original Houdini serial Terror Island showing the under water escape of Houdini from a packing case. Then a strip was shown from the new picture showing Tony Curtis duplicating the same feat, escaping from the packing case after being tossed into the ice covered Detroit River.

According to Linking Ring Vol 33. No. 6 August 1953:

There also was a showing of the real Houdini making one of his famous trunk escapes underwater and a scene from the Houdini picture showing Tony making the same escape. Very much the same.

According to Hugard’s MAGIC Monthly August 1953:

Recently Mrs. Bob Parrish asked for and got clips from an old Houdini picture and the latest Paramount film “Houdini”

According to Long Beach Independent, July 6, 1953:

YOU ASKED – One of Houdini’s most spectacular underwater escapes will be seen again when George Pal, producer of short movies guest with Art Baker on “You Asked For It” over KECA (7) at 8 p.m. Pal will show an old featurette of the great magician and casually introduce some film clips from his new movie, “Houdini”.

According to The Honolulu Advertiser, August 22, 1953 and [August 27, 1953]:

Houdini Appears [Houdini On TV]

One of Houdini’s most spectacular underwater escapes will be seen again when Producer George Pal guests on “You Asked For It” Thursday, Aug 27 at 7:30 p.m. over KGMB-TV.  Pal brings with him 35 mm film of an old Harry Houdini featurette i which he demonstrates his famous underwater escape.  Pal will show portions of his new Paramount film, “Houdini,” starring Tony Curtis as the great master of legerdemain.

According to Los Angeles Times, July  29, 1952 recently shared by John Cox at WildAboutHoudini:

Anthony Curtis, of the films is meanwhile busy at Paramount surveying old Harry Houdini silent films made about 1919 and 1920. Of particular interest, he finds, is “Terror Island,” directed by James Cruze…

So based on all the evidence above, it appears a more complete print of Terror Island existed at Paramount in 1952 and the footage of the missing underwater box escape was shown on “You Asked For It” in 1953.

Next week, I will share some screen shots and part of the transcript from when George Pal appeared on You Asked For It in 1953.  So tune in next week to find out if this underwater box escape footage was found.

“Houdini Nuts” Magic Castle and One Man Show Gathering

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Saturday, June 2nd, the day after the 1953 Screening of Houdini on Terror Island, the “Houdini Nuts” gathered at the Magic Castle in the Houdini Seance Room for brunch.

“…a gathering of devotees that enjoy laughter, silliness, folly, merriment, & friendship. But mostly, we gathered to share our passion for Harry Houdini”  Arthur Moses

In attendance for the “Houdini Nuts” 2018 gathering was Arthur Moses, Patrick Culliton, Gene Franklin Smith, Mark Willoughby, Lisa Cousins, Joe Fox, Neil McNally, Ron Mondz, John Cox and myself.

The last “Houdini Nuts” gathering was in 2015 for the Grim Game premiere and festivities in Hollywood, where Arthur Moses surprised us with a “Houdini Nuts” Grim Game Souvenir Folder.

For the 2018 gathering, Arthur Moses surprised us with a Terror Island puzzle.  Thank You Arthur!

After brunch, Joe Fox and Arthur Moses each played something special just for the “Houdini Nuts” and then Arthur shared some incredible goodies with us, which included items he had for sale; I picked up a 1937 Adventure Comic book insert (The Thrill Book of Escapes) from England that had an interesting article on the Mirror Cuff challenge, titled “When Houdini Nearly Failed”. Thank You Joe and Arthur!

We then made our way to the Castle Library, where we got to see some incredibly clear film footage of Houdini. Thank You Lisa Cousins and Bill Goodwin!

I then picked up a Academy of Magical Arts, Inc 55 years Houdini Seance Coin from the gift shop.

It was now time to go home and take a nap before the “Houdini Nuts” gathered again to catch Duffy Hudson’s One Man Houdini Show at the Generation DCD Studio in Burbank.

I had the honor to sit to the left of Magic Castle’s Librarian, Lisa Cousins, at the premiere of the Grim Game in Hollywood, the showing of Terror Island on Catalina, and now Duffy Hudson’s One Man Houdini Show.

All the “Nuts”, referred to as “non-believers” and the “scary front row” by Duffy were treated to a very special performance of magic/escapes (strait-jacket, cards, handcuffs, needles) and Houdini’s life-story (which was well-researched).

After the show, Duffy hung out with the “Nuts” for a bit, signed some autographs and took some photos. Duffy gets my vote for Best One Man Show.

The “Nuts” then decided to end the evening at a near-by coffee shop.

Can’t wait for the next “Houdini Nuts” Gathering!

 

 

 

 

 

1953 Screening of Houdini on Terror Island

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Friday, June 1, I returned to Avalon Catalina for the First Fridays at the Museum screening of the 1953 film Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh in their outdoor amphitheater.

I was met at the docks by Jessica Zumberge from the Catalina Island Museum, who gave me a golf cart ride to the Museum, which is featuring the first ever exhibition about the making of Terror Island.  The exhibition is on view May 5 through October 7, 2018.

After checking out the museum gift shop which has some very nice Houdini items for sale,

Spent some time with some of Julie Perlin Lee’s amazing staff (Gail Fornasiere, Jessica Zumberge and Patty Salazar) who were all hard at work, looking up information for me.

Julie then joined the work party, and we discussed plans for the day.

I borrowed a golf cart (after Jason Clay made a key magically appear) with plans of having lunch and spending some time on Descanso beach where Houdini attempted a rescue of a wayward boat in the bay.

Plans quickly changed after the guy at the beach club told me the patio food bar was closed due to a water leak.

So I decided to go back into town to get something to eat, and that’s when I realized that there was an island wide water outage that closed restaurants and bathrooms all over Avalon.

I was about to give up and just go to Vons to get something to eat, when I noticed an outdoor bar was serving food, Yes!

After a quick lunch, went to beach (where no one was allowed in the water due the sewage pipe leak) and listened to some music before going back to museum to get Julie and her kids.

We all hopped in the golf cart to go pickup the mighty Arthur Moses and John Cox.

First stop, Strand Theatre building, where Terror Island screened on Friday September 10 in 1920.

Next stop, Joe’s RENT-A-BOAT.

Captain Julie gave us a VIP tour of Terror Island shooting locations which are only reachable by boat.

We then returned to the museum so Arthur could play the Houdini pinball machine and see the Houdini exhibit (which featured many items from his collection) for the first time.

I then took John and Arthur for a golf cart ride to check out the old pool from the Hotel St. Catherine, where Houdini stayed and also the Hotel Catalina where some of the Terror Island Cast members stayed.

We then decided, that the three of us would get dinner before the Friday night festivities started.

We quickly realized, that there wasn’t one place open for dinner; the couple bars that were serving food at lunch were now shutdown as well.

Julie graciously offered to make us a meal at her place, but we knew she had an event to prepare for, so we decided to grab some bread, lunch meat, fixings, fruit, and chips from Vons.

After our picnic dinner, we headed to the museum for the Friday Night Festivities.

Everyone mingled and enjoyed a beverage prior to the Tony Curtis Houdini movie being shown.

Our amazing bartender, Kellie Costello, made her signature cocktail, the “Hairy” Houdini, that was a big hit.

Once, the sun set, it was time to take our seats for the show.

Houdini Nut Julie Perlin Lee introduced the other Houdini Nuts in attendance which included myself, Arthur Moses, and John Cox.

After a brief introduction on the movie by John Cox, the movie started, which everyone seemed to really enjoy based on the reactions throughout the movie.

About, 9:30 realized that movie was going to end about 10pm, which was the same time we needed to catch the last boat back to Long Beach, so quickly said my good-byes to Jessica, Patty and Gail.

Julie then took John, Arthur and I to the boat dock.  We said our good-byes and as the Catalina Express pulled out from the dock, you could hear Tony Curtis at the outdoor amphitheater saying:

“that he will come back to her, he will find away somehow”

I will definitely find away back to Catalina for another adventure, Julie and her staff are the best.

Related HHCE 1953 Houdini Movie posts: