As promised in a previous post, I am sharing escape scenes from my script for a Houdini movie that was never made:

• Russia Transport Prison Van
• WATER TORTURE CELL
• Berlin Bridge Jump
• Buried Alive

This week, I share the Water Torture Cell scene:

The curtain opens, revealing BESS standing next to a tall glass-fronted cabinet filled with water. Iron bars enclose the inside. An over-sized clock with a second hand hangs stage left.

HOUDINI fills his lungs as he is lowered, water splashing around the cabinet. Atop a ladder, an assistant padlocks an iron grille over the yoke.

We hold on HOUDINI, naked, submerged and manacled. The audience is literally holding its breath. A uniformed New York FIREMAN takes up his position in front of the cabinet, gripping a fire axe.

The light beneath the cell goes off. Spotlights sweep over the stage. All we can see inside the cabinet are momentary glints of bubbles. Then, timed to avoid the swirling spotlights:

HOUDINI, submerged, smacks the cuffs against the iron bars; they fall open.  He violently contorts his body…

Deftly avoiding the spotlights, HOUDINI climbs down behind the cabinet, … He drops to his knees; a hand lifts the curtain behind him. He quickly slips underneath.

ONSTAGE: COLLINS stands near the FIREMAN, watching the clock.

COLLINS (calls: Cockney accent) One minute…

QUICK CUTS: Audience members holding their breath.

INT. ORPHEUM THEATRE — BACKSTAGE — NIGHT

HOUDINI wears a robe, a towel over his head as he reads the newspaper. BESS is nearby with a schedule of engagements.

BESS (quietly) We have Detroit tomorrow and Thursday. Then Chicago for the weekend…

HOUDINI (over his glasses) How many shows?

BESS Seven… one’s a benefit for the Elks.

Click on images to enlarge for reading.

HOUDINI (through his teeth) Thank You.

A TIME CUT:

BESS (dashes onstage) For God’s sake, break the glass! It’s been seven minutes!

The crowd is screaming. The FIREMAN rears back with his axe — smashes the glass. The lights flash on as a thousand gallons of water pour onto the stage: the torture cell is empty. Gasps.

The doors at the back of theater are thrown open. HOUDINI jogs down the center aisle, dripping wet. He leaps onto the stage, raises his arms. Then he throws back his head and laughs. And the crowd goes crazy.

Thanks to the mighty Arthur Moses, the French Canadian magazine, Monciné, with a Houdini article and artwork from his movies arrived in the mail this week.

For your reading pleasure, I took the liberty to translate the article from French to English via google translate:

It seems that Houdini’s name is known to a very large majority of people in the world. Deceased in 1926, long before the internet and television and even before talking cinema, Houdini still fascinates as much.

He is considered one of the greatest magicians of all time. How could his legend cross the last century despite the presence of great magic like David Copperfield? Why does Houdini’s name remain etched in people’s memories as an exceptional artist who transcends time?

Harry Houdini, whose real name is Ehrich Weisz, was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1878 at the age of four and died on October 31, 1926, in Detroit, United States. He took the name Harry Houdini because of his admiration for the Frenchman Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic.

He becomes famous thanks to his escape numbers and his publicity shots allowing him to attract the public to his shows. His two favorite numbers were to lock himself in a completely padlocked case submerged in a river, or to be tied by the feet at the top of a building and to try to free himself from a straitjacket. He also has the ability to free himself from all types of handcuffs. Among other things, he managed the feat of escaping from a safe and even from a London prison. In short, Houdini has everything of the superhero of his time, in addition to mastering the art of marketing.

An artist committed against fake mediums, during the height of spiritism, he went around the world to find concrete evidence of communication with the afterlife. This battle is motivated by the death of his father with whom he hoped so much to communicate with again. This search for fake mediums and the truth about the afterlife angered a long intellectual battle between him and Arthur Conan-Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), who strongly believed in spiritualism. On the other hand, the latter did not know, like Houdini, all the fraudulent means that could exist to make ghosts believe.

Houdini has published many books during his career and participates as a main actor in some films. In most of his cinematographic exploits, he tried to free himself from handcuffs, straitjackets or crates surrounded by chains with his escape techniques. Of course, he managed to free himself and catch the bad guys.

As an actor, his most notable films are:

The Master Mystery (1918)

The Grim Game (1919), Terror Island (1920)

After three films, Houdini created his own production company. He invested $500,000 with his friends in this new company. Over the next two years, he starred in two other films he directed himself.

The Soul of Bronze (1921), Haldane of the Secret Service (1923)

In 1923, he closed the company, complaining of insufficient profits. His tours of shows around the world were much more profitable. Ironically, when Houdini got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it was for his work in film rather than for his success on stage.

Despite his great popularity and the richness of his personna, few films have been made about him. Among the most important are the 1976 telefilm The Great Houdini, played by Paul Michael Glaser and directed by Melville Shavelson. In 2014, Adrien Brody played the famous magician in the two-part Canadian historical mini-series Houdini, The Illusionist. Finally, the most important is Houdini the great magician (Houdini, original title) directed by George Marshall and based on the scenario of Philip Yordan, after the work of Harold Kellock. This film, starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, was released on July 2, 1953. It tells the different aspects of Houdini’s life in a very romanticized and somewhat distorted way, not to say totally different from reality. It is certain that this film has added even more mystery around the legend and the character.

Houdini’s name is often mentioned in movies or TV series when it comes time to talk about spiritism or a place in an impossible way.

It should be noted that Houdini and his wife Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner agreed on a secret code in order to communicate from the afterlife, if one or the other died. This code was never revealed. And Beatrice never received messages from Houdini in her lifetime.

During his career, Houdini created numbers that are still presented by magicians today, like Water Torture Cell. More than 100 years after their creation, they still keep their appeal to the public. In addition, they remain as mysterious as ever.

Houdini is an extraordinary character. Nearly a century after his death. The magician continues to intrigue and the mystery around him continues to grow.

Last year, I attended my first NEMCA magic history conference which featured five Houdini-centric presentations by five fascinating gentlemen, Kevin Connolly, Jim Hagy, Ken Trombly, Arthur Moses and David Ben:

• Houdini-centric Presentations at NEMCA

While this year did not feature any Houdini centric presentations, he was still indirectly represented in some of the lectures, tour collections, auction conducted by NEMCA Sponsor Haversat & Ewing Galleries and the Broadside Breakout Session:

Lecture #1 Dai Vernon Remembered by Gary Plants

Gary shared Dai Vernon ephemera from his personal collection.

[Dai Vernon is known as the magician that fooled Houdini. Dai Vernon also did a scissor-cut silhouette portrait of Houdini from 1920.]

Lecture #3 – Pinetti – Traces of HIs Success by Pietro Micheli

Pietro mentions that [Like Houdini], Pinetti had an incredible skill in promoting his persona and his show; Pinetti had the capability to promote himself with his publicity material and media response.

[Pinetti was one of Houdini’s heroes.]

Lecture #4 – The Great Raymond Collection by Joe Quitoni

Joe shared a large collection of material related to The Great Raymond, including items related to his Handcuff Act.

[Houdini and Raymond had a rift; Raymond crossed Houdini by doing a Milk Can escape without his permission but made amends later.]

Tour #2- A Brief Walk Through Early Magic Literature at the Conjuring Arts Research Center by Bill Kalush

Kalush mentions another Pinetti and Houdini connection:

Pinetti of course, like so many other magicians had magicians steal their secrets, so his combat for that was writing a book of his own secrets and selling under his name which is quite a clever idea and worked very well and went through a number of important editions and is quite a great book [which a copy is displayed]. Now if we fast-forward another 100 or so years, we come to Harry Houdini, …, who had the same problem and so many other people imitated him that he thought one of his best methods of defense would be to reveal his own handcuff secrets … and he put out Handcuff Secrets [book which is displayed along-side what Houdini referred to as the Guiteau Cuffs].

Haversat & Ewing Auction

The auction consisted of 52 lots [with 8 lots related to Houdini]

Lecture #6 – The Screening Room: Preserving a Window into the Past by David Ben and Julie Eng

David Ben and Julie Eng walked us through Magicana’s digital journey in bringing Magicana’s archives and exhibitions online. Starting with early media acquisitions from the Sid Lorraine, P. Howard Lyons and Allan Slaight collections, we learn how the team at Magicana converted analog media into a free, searchable online video database, now housing over six hundred and fifty video clips. We also discover how Magicana procures, preserves, and shares digital media while offering curated insight as to why this media is of such importance to magic and its history.

[Magicana also acquired the McIlhany film archive, which may have some hidden Houdini gems on the vast amounts of unscreened tapes now in their possession]

Tour #3 – by Dr. Tim Moore

Dr. Timothy Moore shared his magic collection that includes some very rare Houdini and Hardeen material:

• Circus Busch Poster
  • Only a few Circus Busch posters survived and the one in Dr. Moore’s collection hung on the wall of Houdini’s Brownstone House in Harlem NY.
• Cabinet of Houdini owned Material
  • Bessie’s Hat, Houdini’s Lapel Pin Cuff Links, and numerous signed photos. Along with Rankin Leg Irons, a  Collar, Stotz Handcuffs, Irish Eights, Adam’s Handcuffs, and Marlin Daily Handcuffs
• Cabinet of Hardeen Material
• Hardeen Milk Can
• Milk Can Poster
  • Despite being a super well-known image, only 2 of the Milk Can posters survive; the other is at the Harry Ransom center.  Dr. Moore mentioned that the Milk can poster used creative deception to foil the audience. In the poster, the locks and the straps are down below the rivot-line, but in the actual can, they are located in a totally different location.

Zoom Session – Broadsides and Other Older Paper Ephemera moderated by Ken Trombly and Mike Caveney

I shared my one of a kind “The Master of Mystery Broadside” of Newspaper Reviews and got some great advice from Ken Trombly and Mike Caveney on how to protect and restore these type of items.

Thank You to the NEMCA Conference Committee, Sponsors, Presenters, Moderators and all the attendees that made my second NEMCA magic history conference a wonderful experience.  Hope to see some of you at the Magic Collectors Expo April 13-15th in Austin Texas, which will include a tour of Harry Ransom Center.