Herbert Allingham was the writer of a number of short story series that Houdini attached his name with:

• Jorkins & Co (Film Fun)
• The Amazing Exploits of Houdini (The Kinema Comic)
• Houdini’s Schooldays (Merry and Bright)

This week we explore, Allingham’s contribution to The Amazing Exploits of Houdini.

According to Julia Jones book, Fifty Years in the Fiction Factory, “Allingham had contributed a series of Houdini stories for the Kinema Comic in which he invented a cheerful cockney named Arth Wright as a resourceful boy assistant for the escapologist and had introduced him to one of his series detectives, Pelham Webb.”   And Julia’s thesis implies, “The story series had opened in 1922 and the first thirty of these ‘Amazing Exploits’ had been written by Allingham… Early in 1923 however, F.C. Cordwell, editor of The Kinema Comic, instructed Allingham to drop Houdini…Houdini was continued by other anonymous writers. ‘My price too high’, wrote Allingham in his diary.

But the ‘The Amazing Exploits of Houdini’ found in Kinema Comic, ran from April 24, 1920 to November 27, 1926.

For a complete list of all 343 issues of The Kinema Comic that contain “The Amazing Exploits of Houdini” see Houdini Periodical Bibliography References From 1898 – 2015 by Arthur Moses.  Note: The Oct 27, 1923 v4 n184 issue is the only one from the run that DOES NOT contain the series.

So, I am wondering if Allingham’s contribution to Kinema Comic started in 1920 or 1922?

I have copies of the first 7 issues from 1920 and have read the October 14, 1922 issue.

October 14 1922 issue

It appears that the October 14, 1922 issue is when Arth Wright makes his first appearance, so that would confirm 1922.

• Not Quite a Joke (October 14, 1922)

And the first 7 issues don’t read like Allingham to me.

• The Bride and the Orangutan (April 24, 1920)
• The Jewel Thieves (May 1, 1920)
• “Stop Thief!” (May 8, 1920)
• The Gold Melters (May 15, 1920)
• Adventure of the Midland Express (May 22, 1920)
• In the Dead of Night (May 29, 1920)
• Out of the Sky (June 5, 1920)

That said, I have tried unsuccessfully to get ahold of Julia Jones to get her thoughts on whether Allingham could have contributed to the earlier stories or were they written by others?

A diary entry for 10 June 1920 states that Allingham ‘went to New Cross and saw Houdini. Fixed up with him about school days’.

Houdini’s Schooldays Series started September 1920 in Merry and Bright, 5 months after the Amazing Exploits of Houdini series started in Kinema Comic, so…

Unfortunately, there is not an earlier diary mention for Kinema Comic, nor earlier copies of Kinema Comic than 1922 in the extraordinary archive of sixteen boxes of Allingham material that Julia Jones got to sort and collate.

At the Fortune Telling Hearings:

Houdini flashed $10,000 in U.S. currency as a challenge to any medium to tell them what his father had nicknamed him, then Madame Maria jumped up and screamed, “That money belongs to me! …” [Kalush p 482]

Kalush source was the New York Times, February 27, 1926 where it mentions:

Once he issued a general challenge to them to tell just what his mother had called him when he was a boy, but no Spirtiualist ventured to furnish that information and Houdini did not offer it.

If you think you know the answer, of what either parent of Houdini nicknamed him, please email me.

H A P P Y  F A T H E R ‘ S  D A Y !

Herbert Allingham was the writer of a number of short story series that Houdini attached his name with:

• Jorkins & Co (Film Fun)
• The Amazing Exploits of Houdini (The Kinema Comic)
• Houdini’s Schooldays (Merry and Bright)

This week we explore the not widely known, Jorkins & Co.

According to Julia Jones (author of Fifty Years in the Fiction Factory),  ‘Jorkins & Co’, was a short story series developed from The Duffer, Detective (True Blue, 1906), and ascribed in Film Fun to Houdini, the Handcuff King.

Below is Julia Jones summary, along with some Chapter I excerpts of The Duffer, Detective:

• Summary

‘Holt [aka The “Duffer” or “Houdini”] of Emmanuel’ is no timid non-collegiate student but a young man with ‘a certain easy swagger in his walk’.  He is however, short of cash (trouble with the trustees) so has summoned his old school friend, Arthur Merlin, down first-class from London in order to make use of Merlin’s L500 inheritance. Holt needs money to rescue an acquaintance called Jorkins, who has taken over his father’s jewellery shop in Clerkenwell and has subsequently disappeared.  Merlin is not instantly enthusiastic.

 

• Chapter I excerpts

‘Can’t you see that you are spoiling your life for the sake of a silly juggins who is probably in no trouble at all and who, even if he is, is not worth saving?’

‘Jorkins is my friend,’ replied Holt gravely.

Merlin sprang to his feet impatiently and walked nervously up and down the room.

‘Oh, of course,’ he cried irritably, ‘I know it’s no use arguing with you. Well what is the idiotic programme? Suppose I refuse to let you have a penny of my money?

Over the Duffer’s face came the charming smile which Merlin could never resist in the old days

‘In that improbable event,’ he replied, sweetly, ‘I should go to London and accept a situation as a clerk that has been offered to me at eighteen shillings a week, and in the evenings I should pursue my investigations.’

Merlin relents of course.

‘Oh Duffer,’ he cried,’ You are hopeless. Well we’ll have some fun and when our five hundred is spent we’ll go into the workhouse together.’

‘The workshouse! My dear Merlin, what an unpleasant suggestion! On the contrary when we have spent all our money we will earn some more. Really I begin to hope that my trustees will not relent. It would be rather fun to work for one’s living.’

‘Not much fun clerking on eighteen shillings a week, Merlin suggested.

Allingham’s  young men gallop out of Cambridge, knocking over the university proctor and his ‘bulldogs’.

‘Forward Merlin!’ cried the Duffer. ‘There is no time to apologise now. I must write to the the good man from town.’ Dons and townsfolk try to block their exit but Merlin and the Duffer are saved by a crowd of undergraduates.

The next moment the gallant steed with its double burden was thundering down the lane.

It  bore them across Parker’s Piece, in an out of the narrow streets beyond and then across the green that borders the River Cam.

They heard behind them a terrific uproar and it was clear that Town and Gown had come to blows but the pursuit was not continued.

‘It seems they’ve had enough of you, Duffer,’ said Merlin. ‘I fear your ‘Varsity career closes today.’

‘I fear so,’ admitted the Duffer, rather sadly. ‘It’s been a very happy time, but when duty calls one must not hesitate. Jorkins cries to us for help and he shall not cry in vain.’

While I have been unable to locate a copy of Film Fun’s “Jorkins & Co” (aka The Duffer, Detective) yet, I do have a copy of True Blue’s “The Duffer, Detective” (by David Pitt aka Herbert Allingham) which was 7 chapters:

• CHAPTER I (above)
• Chapter II
• Chapter III
• Chapter IV
• Chapter V
• Chapter VI
• Chapter VII