The following caption appeared with the photo above:
During his stay at the Bradford Empire Harry Houdini, the noted self-liberator has been learning the game of golf. Above he is seen getting his first lesson on the West Bradford Golf Links, and is there seen making his very first drive. The group, from left to right, comprises Mr. A. E. Raper (president of the club). Mr. F. W. Topham (secretary), Mr. Frank Lynne, Mr. Spiegler (of the Spiegler Quintette), Mr. Percival Craig (manager of the Empire), Mr. Weldon (professional at West Bradford), and Mr. Houdini [Bradford Daily Telegraph Saturday 24 January 1914]
While the poor quality photo in the newspaper is questionable, Houdini was definitely in Bradford the week of Jan 19-24 [The Great Houdini: His British Tours, 2017 p279].
Related:
John Oliver has an undated image that is clearly Houdini on a golf course. Houdini is seen with Martin Beck and two unidentified men. Image can be viewed at WildAboutHoudini:
Per page 730 of the book, A Million and One Nights: A History of The Motion Picture Through 1925, by Terry Ramsaye:
In 1919 a quartet of brave conspirators met to form the Supreme Pictures Corporation to rehabilitate the status of the serial with a master effort in mystery and detective story thrills. It was to be a million dollar corporation, etc. In electing officers they decided to leave the presidency to the toss of a coin.
Louis Grossman, the business man of the party, flipped a quarter in the air. It struck the desk and rolled off on the floor.
Then the august directors of that million dollar corporation spent a half hour on hands and knees searching for the missing twenty-five cents.
The baffled searching party included John W. Grey, mystery scenario writer, Arthur B. Reeve, author of complex detective tales, and–Harry Houdini.
The corporation has faded and the quarter is still missing.
Per a side-note at the end of the June 11, 2014 Classicfilmaficionados post (titled Terror Island! A Cliffhanger, but not a Serial, starring Houdini) by C S Williams:
In autumn of 1919, John Grey, Arthur Reeve, Harry Houdini, H. Sumnich and Louis Grossman decided to form a new motion picture production company with Grey installed as president and Reeve as vice-president;[111] the company’s purpose was to rehab the serial genre.[112] The studios were located at Flushing, Long Island, New York.[113] The young company had a contract with Goldwyn, indeed, it is stated that the purpose of forming Supreme Pictures was to produce four Craig Kennedy pictures a year, over an undetermined number of years; what happened to stall that deal?[114] And what happened to the purpose? It is most likely not one impetus, but many that drove the group to establish Supreme Pictures.
Yet, the genesis may be found (at least Reeve’s reason) in Arthur Reeve’s attack on Democratic Senator Thomas Gore (grandfather of Gore Vidal, and a distant relative of Al Gore) of Oklahoma and his bill; Gore had introduced legislation to prohibit Interstate transportation of “blood and thunder” films or still pictures. Reeve was impassioned regarding the subject, and he deftly argued his points, simultaneously defending thrills in general, making mention that if Gore’s bill succeeded it would create a “namby pamby world.”[115]
But the Supreme Pictures Corporation lasted but one project and was done by the following year. The Mystery Mind, released in November of 1920, was the sole serial and only title for the company. Grey and Reeve collaborated on the writing (not uncommon for this pair), as well as acting as the producers of the fifteen-chapter photo-play[116]. Houdini was not involved in the making of the picture, and of course Grossman being the financial expert, took care of the business end.
[111] Exhibitors Herald, January 24, 1920; Wid’s Daily, May 24, 1920
[112] Motion Picture Daily, July 2, 1953
[113] Exhibitors Herald December 6, 1919
[114] Wid’s Daily, May 24, 1920
[115] Exhibitors Herald, January 24, 1920
[116] Exhibitors Herald, January 24, 1920
Per Motion Pictures News December 27, 1919:
Reeves of Supreme Pictures Promises Something New in “The Master Mind”
“The secret of serial success nowadays is to put over a new idea in every serial,” said Mr. Reeve, who is vice president of Supreme Pictures. “My ‘Exploits of Elaine’ made science famous in the movies with Peral White and Arnold Daly who played Kennedy, scientific detective. ‘The House of Hate’ had a central theme, the crushing blight of war and making millions out of the blood of our fellow men. Houdini and his marvelous escapes and feats were the new feature of ‘The Master Mystery’ and our ‘Grim Game’.”
Per The Moving Picture World January 3, 1920:
New “Master Mind” Serial Has Unique Mystic Villain:
“A serial is known by its villains, in fact a serial is made by its villains”, said Arthur B. Reeve, author of the Craig Kennedy stories and vice-president of Supreme Pictures, who is directing the Robert Pauline serial, The Master Mind.
“I may say in connection with the eight successful serials I have written, that in the The Master Mind Mr. Grey and I have the most unique mystical villain we have yet conceived. For example, the first serial I wrote, The Exploits of Elaine, had the famous Clutching Hand. In the House of Hate there was the Hooded Terror. One of the weirdest conceptions, I think was our Automat in the Houdini serial. Here in the Master Mind the great serial dealing with Hypnotism and the science of mind, we have two villains.”
Per The Moving Picture World January 31, 1920:
Supreme Pictures Officials Noted for Their Past Serial Successes
John W Grey became head of the scenario department for Pathe, supervising productions, among them many serials. Connection with Pathe brought Reeve and Grey together. Together they wrote “The Master Mystery” and “The Grim Game” for Houdini.
Note: In honor of Houdini and The Master Mystery serial, it is fitting that “The Master Mind” serial became “The Mystery MInd” serial.
[A] Houdini in Paris or Merveilleux Exploits du Celebre Houdini d Paris
[B] The Mysteries of Myra
[C] The Master Mystery or Le Maitre du Mystere
[D] Velvet Fingers
Let’s explore each of the possible answers.
[A]
Per Silverman:
Produced by Pathe-Freres, Houdini’s film was entitled Merveilleux Exploits du Celebre Houdini d Paris. No complete copy seems to have survived, although the original was probably not much longer than the three and a quarter minutes that remain. Houdini in a light suit and black fedora is strolling with Bess along a Paris street. They come upon some helmeted flics tussling with a drunk. Deploring their brutality, Houdini tries to breakup the fray: the police chase him. Knowingly he sends Bess off, then allows himself to be captured and taken to the station. Stripped to trousers and shirtsleeves, he is thrown in a bare stone cell. Six mustached cops wrestle him into a waist-length straitjacket, then leave. But the story-board announces that Houdini “snaps his fingers” at the police. He escapes the jacket, hurls it to the floor, scornfully stomps on it. The flics reenter the cell, astonished to find him free. They lock him in several pairs of handcuffs and leave again. Houdini bangs the cuffs on the floor, opening at least some of them, and kicks off his shoes. One of them conceals a door key, which he uses to open the cell. As he flees past a guard outside the police station, the available film breaks off.
The film candidly shows his frantic-looking struggle to get out: he crouches, kneels, twists, hops, trying to bring in front of him the strap that connects the long arms of the jacket behind his back. Then, still lying on the ground, he sets both feet on the strap, stirrup-style. Violently he arches back and forth as if astride a haywire rowing machine or lunatic rocking horse, pushing the strap down with his legs until the jacket begins skinning off his body. After seventy-five seconds he is out, shirt mussed, hair wild.
Per Kino Film Notes by Wood:
The first part of the film was indeed shot – probably on a Pathé set – in 1901. But he says the film was re-shot in 1909, this time outdoors in the real world of Paris.
Houdini and his wife Bess are walking along the Seine in Paris, when he encounters a melee between a drunkard and the police. In the ensuing confusion, Houdini is arrested and taken to the police station where he is handcuffed, manacles, shackled, straitjacketed and otherwise tied up to a chair. He escapes from all these restraints. The film, originally shot in 1901, and re-shot in 1909, is intended as a way of recording the amazing escapes of Houdini the illusionist.
The Adventures of Houdini in Paris was actually made by Film Lux, a rival to Pathe. While it could be argued that maybe Houdini made an earlier film for Pathe in 1901 (as noted on the photograph), Solomon’s search of the Pathe archives turns up no work with Houdini, and he even nails down the precise release date for Merveilleux Exploits; May 17, 1909.
The complete film survives (disassembled), and the outside scenes are definitely 1909. What argues against the interior scenes being 1901 is the presence of Franz Kukol. Franz is the French policeman strapping the straitjacket and handling the handcuffs. Franz joined Harry in 1903. So those scenes have to have been either 1905 or 1909, the years HH returned to Paris. As Houdini appears exactly the same in the interior and exterior scenes, I think it was all done in 1909. It also fits as this is when Houdini was filming many things.
I currently believe the film was actually made in 1909, not 1901, and was released by Lux Film not Pathe Film.
[B]
It has often been said that one of his first credits was a special effects consultant on the Mysteries of Myra cliffhanger serial, though others have claimed that Houdini had no involvement in the production.
Mr. Houdini was not involved in the production of THE MYSTERIES OF MYRA. Nothing could have been more pro-spiritualism and Houdini as you know was interested in debunking all things occult, not promoting them as real as MYRA does. The actual consultants on the film were Hereward Carrington, who was the real-life prototype for the screen’s first paranormal investigator Payson Alden, and Aliester Crowley, who the villain the “Master” is made to resemble.
The confusion about Houdini being involved in this serial comes from his relationship with the Grossman pictures outfit which made THE MASTER MYSTERY serial and had filmed two serials in Ithaca previously, where MYRA was filmed, one of which was called THE CROOKED DAGGER. “Houdini is making a serial with a studio that worked in Ithaca” has been transformed over the years to “Houdini consulted on THE MYSTERIES OF MYRA serial which was filmed in Ithaca.” No evidence exists that Houdini even ever visited Ithaca for any reason and if he would have worked on MYRA the Whartons would have promoted that fact in their advertising. There’s no such mention of him in the original literature; the press releases are all about Hereward Carrington, the prolific spiritualist writer and founding member of early spiritualism societies.
I currently believe that Houdini had no involvement in Myra. That said, contributing to the confustion is the fact, that they also used a whirling-mirror gadget capable of inducing hypnosis in the Master Mystery which can be seen starting at the 2:42 mark of the clip below.
[C]
[
Per Silverman:
The serial was shown in France under Pathe sponsorship—the publicity identifying Houdini as “L’homme le plus populaire du monde entier”—and was booked in the United Kingdom, the Scandinavian countries. South America, the Philippines, and Australia. Export & Import Film Company exhibited it in India, China, and Japan as well, giving Houdini for the first time an audience in Asia.
Based on French advertisements, I am with Silverman on this one.
[D]
This WAH footage snippet has been previously described as Marvels of Motion (aka Houdini in “VELVET FINGERS”) a short from 1925/26. However, we know that Pathe released a serial titled “Velvet Fingers” on December 5, 1920
Per: Marvels of Motion, Issue C (1925) – IMDb:
The patented Fleischer-Novagraph process provides unique images in slow motion, reverse motion, and freeze-frame. Subjects include athletics, dancing, dogs, cows, and the card tricks of Harry Houdini.
Per Moving Picture World May 30 1925 that reviewed Marvels of Motion Issue C:
Per Silverman:
The movie business also kept Houdini on the go, but now only as a litigant. Except a brief appearance in one installment of the Pathe Review, demonstrating card flourishes, and an effort to import a Swedish film. The Witch, presumably for American distribution, his career as a film star and producer was over.
Per Motion Picture News, March 20, 1926:
Pathe Review No. 12 brings Houdini to the screen as a master manipulator of playing cards in a novelty called “Velvet Fingers.”
Per Greensboro NC Record, March 21 1926:
HOUDINI’S VELVET FINGERS
Houdini, master magician, brings to the screen his grace and form in handling playing cards in a current issue of the Pathe Review. He also presents an expose of some of the card tricks by means of which card sharps have mulcted the public of millions of dollars. Slow motion analyses “the gambler’s cut,” in which the middle and bottom of the deck are transposed, leaving the top as it was; the “forearm rifle” in which Houdini makes a whole deck of cards obey his orders and the “forearm toss,” in which every card stays in its place as if under hypnotic control, and other stunts that make the cards almost sit up and talk.
Based on 1925/26 clippings with descriptions of Marvels of Motion and Velvet Fingers, I don’t think the 1920 serial has anything to do with the 1925 Marvels of Motion Issue C that was released March 1, 1925. And I believe the 1925 Marvels of Motion short (produced by Red Seal Pictures) was featured on its own as Velvet Fingers (produced by Pathe) in 1926.
CONCLUSION
So Houdini did not directly make any of these films for Pathe, but his Master Mystery Serial and Marvels of Motion short was sponsored by Pathe at later dates as Le Maitre du Mystere and Velvet Fingers respectively.
Since my Harry Ransom Center whirlwind visit to review material on Houdini’s film career, I noticed in the inventory of papers on Harry Houdini, the following manuscript listed in the Subseries E Manuscripts section:
Reeve, Arthur B. The Submarine Mystery. Handwritten draft inscribed to Houdini from Reeve, 19 December 1918. Container 60.7
With my fascination with Reeves connection to Houdini
To start the 2023 New Year off, thought I would share a special card with a special message from my personal collection:
The front of the card has a spanish ad for the Houdini Serial, The Master Mystery:
Below is a similiar ad in English:
This card was sent from Holyoke MA to Niagara Falls, NY.
It would have been sent out in the early 1990s:
First Class postage in the US was 29 cents from February 3rd 1991 to January 1, 1995. Prior to that it was 25 cents for the first ounce. In 1995 it was increased to 32 cents for the first ounce.
