Continued from Sequence G.

The next day, Houdini is in his living room, working at his desk, when the Butler announces that Sir Conan Doyle is here to see him.

Doyle asks Houdini to reconsider before his performance tonight, but Houdini tells him he believes in what he has to say.

The two part ways without shaking hands.

Later, Houdini, Powers and Bess are standing on the stage, Houdini is in street clothes. He is finishing the arrangements for the act.

The stage is draped with black curtains.  A rope painted white hangs from the loft.  Below the rope is a contrivance on which are two huge shiny swords that a path through the air in the cadence of the metronome. Houdini tells Powers that after he is placed in the straight jacket, he will be lifted to the flies and has he descends, that the swords need to keep moving.

Bess asks Erich if he plans to go through with the things he planned to say, tonight.  And Houdini says of course I am — I’d say it if it was the last thing I ever said on this earth.

Houdini goes off the stage down a dimly lit corridor and walks into his dressing room and closes the door behind him.  He senses  something.

Suddenly from the very dark shadows steps a figure of a man. He appears almost wraith-like.  He is dressed in black.  His very white and angular face stands out sharply from the black around him.  His eyes are cold and dark and piercing. He takes a step toward Houdini.

Houdini asks who he is and the man replies that it makes no difference, but that there are millions who believe in God and Houdini has no right to tell these people that there is no God.

The man looks at Houdini a minute, then turns, crosses to the door, locks it and then suddenly faces Houdini. As he does so, he puts his right hand in his pocket and slowly takes out a gun.

The man tells Houdini he is going to kill Houdini and then himself, because his work will be finished and he believes there is a God, but if Houdini is right and there is no God, then he doesn’t want to live any more.

Houdini takes a quick step toward the man, and as he does, the man fires.  Houdini staggers under the impact of the bullet and puts his hand on the left side of his stomach.

As he stands there, stunned by the shock and pain, there is the sound of two more shots.

Powers, Bess and a few attendants burst into the room and ask Houdini what happened.

Houdini says he has just seen a man kill himself for his God.

Bess asks if Houdini is hurt and replies, No, and to leave him alone so he can dress and get everything ready for the show.

The Master of Ceremonies introduces the worlds greatest magician and escape artist, THE GREAT HOUDINI

Bess tells Erich not to go through with his trick tonight, but Houdini tells her that he is alright.

Houdini addresses the audience:

Ladies and gentlemen all of you know that I’ve promised to give you a message tonight.  A message that is the result of my study and research. That message has been a little bit altered by something that happened tonight. I believe that there can be no contact in a material way between spirits and living humans. But I do believe there is a God — that, you must all believe.  There is a high destiny that governs all of our lives.

If I ever doubted that, believe me.  I’m sorry for it.  But you people must never let yourselves be fooled by fakers — by leeches — that not only bleed you of money but bleed you a faith you must have.  Bring these fakers out of their holes, expose them to the light and don’t let blind you and rob you and fool you.  There are many people who are honestly looking, trying to find that secret.  That is denied to us and that only comes to us, I believe, with death.

Suddenly a small group starts applauding.  Others pick up the applause.

A group of assistants are now grouped around Houdini and he is being put in a straight-jacket.  The white rope is lowered and tied to Houdini’s foot and he lifted up to the flies.

A burst of martial music begins.  The swords begin their steady beat, swishing through the air.  The rope is suspended.  Houdini is hanging, head down.

Hanging. His face is contorted with pain.

As Houdini is lowered closer and closer to the swords.

Hanging head down. We can see a dab of blood appear on his shirt and seep onto the straight-jacket.  Houdini is working feverishly.

Two drops of blood drop on the swords.

Suddenly there is a burst of applause.  He has freed himself from the straight-jacket.  He has lifted his body and is holding onto the rope by his hands.  The swords stop and Houdini is lowered to the stage.

Houdini reaches the stage, stands there a moment, bows and then suddenly collapses.

The curtain drops quickly.

Bess is kneeling beside Houdini.  She holds his head in her lap.  Powers and some of the assistants are grouped near him.  Powers has sent for a doctor.

Houdini tells them that the doctor won’t be able to help and that he is dying.

Houdini tells Bess that there is a secret that we all someday will find out, but we must die to find out that secret.

There is a pause. Bess cries.

Houdini looks up at her a moment, then closes his eyes, shudders and then his head drops and he dies. Bess bends down and kisses his head.

In the back can be heard the audience, still applauding and the music playing.

THE END

Last month, I had the extreme honor to assist Escape Artist, Joe Fox, at Scot Nery’s Booby Trap.

Scot Nery’s Boobie Trap is without a doubt the best use of a Wednesday night in Los Angeles.  It is an entertaining variety show with 4 minute acts that are full of laughs and surprises. And Joe Fox surprise appearance was no exception.

In the middle of the show, you hear the sounds of police helicopters and police sirens, followed by a guy (aka Joe Fox) rushing the stage in a orange jump-suit, shackled with 4 pairs of handcuffs.  Jail inmate number 103126 has just escaped from the police.

Joe offers to show the crowd his attempt at escaping from the handcuffs in 2 minutes or less without using the makeshift handcuff keys (“made in the slammer”) that are placed in the middle of a steel animal trap that could take his hand off.

As the official timekeeper, on my go, the house band “Fire Leopard” plays some dramatic music as Joe starts his escape, with me calling out 15 second time increments.

Joe uses the 4 inch lock-pick that he pulled out from his nose to pick the handcuffs one by one.

With only 15 seconds left, Joe is having trouble with the last cuff, and the steel animal trap gets sprung, but he is able to make his escape just before the 2 minutes are up.

Congratulations to Joe Fox!

According to Joseph F Rinn in “Sixty Years of Psychical Research”:

…Oscar Hammerstein, in June 1913, made him [Houdini] a great offer to come over to New York City to fill a two weeks’ engagement at his theatre with a new act Houdini had originated in  Europe which he called “The Chinese Water  Torture Cell”.

…

Hammerstein saw a chance for a publicity stunt for Houdini before his opening at the theatre, as a short time before, a convict ship of the days long ago had just arrived in New York Harbor. In this ship, prisoners used to be manacled to iron bars riveted to beams in the hold and nobody had ever escaped from the ship.  Hammerstein advertised:

ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 4, 1913, AT 1:30 P.M., HOUDINI WILL PUBLICLY ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM ONE OF THE CELLS OF THE CONVICT SHIP AT 79th STREET AND RIVERSIDE DRIVE.  THE PUBLIC ARE INVITED TO ATTEND.

The report of Houdini’s escape from the convict ship was given in the New York Tribune of June 5, 1913:

Houdini made good his boast to break out of the convict ship Success after being locked and shackled in one of the cells more than an hour  before he finally appeared and swam ashore.

Search for Convict Ship Footage of Houdini

Earlier this year, I searched for and found the missing underwater box escape from Terror Island.

And a couple years ago, I searched for and found the missing footage (episodes) from the Master Mystery at the UCLA Film & Television Archive (FTVA).

John Cox, who has been meaning to view the Master Mystery footage at the UCLA FTVA, but has not had time, noticed a brief mention of the Convict Ship and Houdini, when he was looking at the UCLA Library Catalog holdings online.  We agreed that I would see what this was all about.

So, I reserved [The Mutual weekly, Unidentified issues–excerpts] [ca 1913], a compilation of excerpts from silent newsreels, for the Summer Session.

Below is what I found.  It is my chronological description of “what you see” on one of the excerpts.

See the following text appear:

New York City. The British convict ship Success, on board of which more than 150,000 people were transported from Great Britain to Australia in the last century.

See the ship docked

See the bow of the ship and then the stern of the ship

See five men (4 in uniform) standing on the bow of the ship.

See restraints:

See more restraints and torture devices

See the Iron Maiden on deck of ship

See civilian people walking around the deck wearing suits and hats

See the following text:

 Convicts coming back from work” [reenacted]

See 7 convicts followed by a guard with a rifle on his shoulder on the dock.

See 7 convicts walking up gang plank followed by guard with rifle on his shoulder

See shot of 7 convicts on the deck of the bow each holding in their left hand, a ball with a chain fastened to their left ankle

See the following text:

Betting a 1,000 [dollar bill] Houdini can release himself from the Success cell

See a shot of Houdini looking sharp (cool hat, black bow-tie, white collar shirt, and black suit) with a crowd of people in front of the ship.

See Houdini tip his hat to the officer standing next to him, as they both laugh

See Houdini surface in the water with a dummy from the cell he just escaped from

See Houdini pulling himself up out of the water and adjusting his pants and shirt.  And then Hardeen is seen motioning to Houdini that they need to go.

See Houdini standing in a convertible car with a group of people that witnessed the escape and taking a couple bows.  Leo Weiss is sitting in the drivers seat, you also see Hardeen and Collins.

The End

Related

• LINK: Houdini vs. Success by Richard Norgard

Notes:

UCLA FTVA does not allow you to duplicate or record footage, so the majority of the images are from souvenir postcards and photos found in The History of the Ancient Australian Convict Ship “Success” And Its Most Notorious Prisoners

Although the postcards say 1790, the ship was builit in 1840.

Continued from Sequence FAs Beck walks out of the door.  Mrs. Gordon appears in the doorway.  Beck passes her in the hallway.

Mrs. Gordon tells Houdini that she too has suffered a great loss and with the help of some mediums has seen and spoken with her daughter.

She invites Houdini on Tuesday night to let these men help him.

After two sessions, Houdini tells Bess he has seen and heard some amazing things and for the first time feels this has helped him; he has been given a certain faith and a certain belief.

Bess tells hims that its the other way around, he has helped them with money.

Houdini tells Bess that he has reason to believe that eventually they will be able to do what he hopes they can do.

At the third session, Professor Harvey tells Houdini that he believes tonight will the night we cross the border.

The room is black. The organ is playing very very softly.  Harvey’s foot with the ghost-like face painted on the sole, is moving around the room.

Then suddenly, a very hollow voice is heard, as if from the distance. “Tonight there is someone who want’s to talk with Houdini

A phonograph is being played through a big horn.  The figure of an attendant stands near the phonograph.  The hollow voice is coming from the record on the phonograph.

Then suddenly Harvey brings his foot down and the head apparently disappears into thin air.

Suddenly four or five heads with long, gossamer and phosphoric tails appear and start floating up into the air.

Harvey asks if Houdini will be able to hear the message now and the Hollow Voice replies, Yes, Yes

Then suddenly from apparently right out of the wall appears the spirit of Houdini’s mother (This is of course, Mrs. Gordon dressed in a ectoplasm costume). She shines luminously in the dark and begins to speak, Erich, Erich, my son

Suddenly one of the heads that floated up, starts going down and hits Houdini’s shoulder.  There is a little hissing sound.

Houdini looks up and grabs the tail of a balloon and pulls it to him.

The spirit of Houdini’s mother (Mrs. Gordon) tells Houdini that she is happy and his son is happy.

Suddenly, Houdini takes the balloon and forces his hand into it and it explodes with a loud pop.  He gets out of his chair.

There is the sound of a little scuffle and then suddenly the lights go up and Houdini is standing at the switch.

Houdini then dashes over and rips the gown from Mrs. Gordon.

He turns over the table, rips down the drapes exposing wires, tears open the closet and exposes the phonograph, and smashes the records.

Harvey tells Houdini that will be enough.

Houdini tells him he hasn’t even begun, that he will put all of them out of business.

Houdini knocks Harvey to the floor, takes another chair and crashes it through the front window and then walks out of the room.

Next, Houdini is on the phone with Beck telling him he is ready to go back to work, and to arrange anything, to make it the biggest stunt he has ever tried.  He also tells Beck that he has another angle that will pack them in, he is going to crusade against fakirs who claim they’re spiritualists.

Beck asks Houdini what has spiritualism got to do with your set?

Houdini tells him it’s got a lot to do from now on, that he has been bilked, cheated, fooled, like millions of others and he is going to tell the world that here is no hereafter, there is no God, there is nothing.

With that he hangs up and tells Bess to think that he fell for it, to think that he believed even for one minute.

Bess tells Houdini that those men were fakirs, but that doesn’t mean that

And before Bess could finish her sentence, Houdini tells her it means that they’re all fakirs and he is not going to let others be fooled like he was anymore.

He is going to tell the world.

To be continued…Sequence H