Last week I did a post that first tied Oscar S. Teale and Houdini to “Adams Press” in 1914 and 1923 respectively.
Today, I share the first page of a July 30th 1924 letter sent to 19 Park Place from Clinton Burgess (who is credited as compiling Elliotts Last Legacy) that reveals who is Adams at “Adams Press”.
Credit: McCord Museum
The above letter is addressed to Frank H. Adams.
Frank H. Adams of “Adams Press” also shows up in a 1894-95 Insurance Year Book:
According to Gresham:
He celebrated his 50th birthday back home on 113th Street with a grand family party…He felt sure he could live to be a hundred.
Well, I would like to think he has surpassed that goal.
HHCE Collection
Today, we celebrate his 149th birthday.
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y!
Kevin Connolly on his popular Conjuring History FB page asked the following question:
And Doug Edwards had an excellent answer:
As a follow-up, thought I would share (via this post) some additional thoughts and research that first ties Oscar S Teale to “Adams Press”.
You see, not only was Oscar Schutte Teale (1847-1934) an illustrator/researcher/ghostwriter for Houdini, he was also an architect, and he published under the name “Adams Press”.
In 1914, Oscar S. Teale self-published “How to do Architectural Drawing”. “Adams Press” (62 Williams Street, NYC) was the printer and selling agent.
In 1920, he published the book, “Higher Magic – Magic for the Artist” under the name “Adams Press” and used his home address, 240 Broadway, New York City.
In 1923, he started using address 19 Park Place for “Higher Magic – Magic for the Artist”.
1923 was also the year, he illustrated Houdini’s “Elliott’s Last Legacy”, under the name “Adams Press”, but utilized Houdini’s home address, 278 West 113th Street.
HHCE Collection
In 1924, “Adams Press” published a beginning magic book, “Magic and Home Entertainment”, via 19 Park Place address;
HHCE Collection
And also in 1924, “Adams Press” published “Houdini Exposes the Tricks used by Boston Medium Margery” via 278 West 113th Street address.
So by 1924/1925, you could get Teale’s Higher Magic – Magic for the Artist” and a “Magic and Home Entertainment” directly from 19 Park Place. And Houdini book orders published by “Adams Press” still went to 278 West 113th Street, but were printed at 19 Park Place.
Potter and Potter Spring Magic Auction 5/18/2019 Lot 85 Adams Press Mailer with “Elliotts Last Legacy” Prospectus, New York, 1925 5 pieces, including the original Adams Press mailing cover, addressed to Lewis Duff, a prospectus with order form for Elliotss’s Last Legacy, a sample booklet and bulk order for “Magic and Home Enterntainment{ and a return envelope.
Which just leaves one question, who was the printer and selling agent behind “Adams Press” located at 19 Park Place?
Tune in next week, where I reveal the answer to who is Adams at “Adams Press”.
Last year I acquired the 1924 newspaper article, Houdini Breaks into Playwriting, describing a new stage play adapted from The Grim Game.
Houdini actually broke into playwriting (if you can call it that) between 1911 and 1914 where he registered three of his famous illusions as “playlets” or short plays, with the U.S. Copyright Office. These deposited scripts are now held within the Reader’s Collection, Library of Congress Copyright Office Drama Deposits.
The three playlets were also published in the Linking Ring [Jun to Aug 1967] and Patrick Culliton’s books, Houdini’s Strange Tales – A Collection of fiction by the legendary Harry Houdini [1992], “Houdini Unlocked”[1997], and “Houdini – The Key” [2010]
Edgar Heyl says: “these plays are unbelieveable bad. Yet Houdini barged right ahead in writing them, completely oblivious of plot, motivation, characterization, credibility, reality and the many other factors that make the work of a professional playwright so difficult.”[Linking Ring August 1967]
This post concludes a 3 part series of posts where I summarize and share tidbits about the three copyrighted plays that he wrote:
Today we look at Buried Alive
Only one copy was deposited and it consisted of 4 small octavo pages typewritten double spaced.
SUMMARY
The premise of this play involves two tourists who try to one-up a local priest by performing a surprising “miracle”. The stage directions describe the tourist in a straitjacket, who is put into an empty box and lowered into the ground with dirt shoveled atop him. After a few chants and incantations, the tourist is revealed “relieved of his bonds, and appearing just as he was before.” The locals treat him as supernatural, but he insists he is a mere man.
[Houdini and the Magic of Copyright by Marilyn Creswell (March 24, 2021)]
Per Cullliton:
Like the other plays in this collection, Buried Alive was not a serious attempt at playwrighting on Houdini’s part. It was just an attempt to protect a new effect from the imitators who had dogged his every step.
The 1914 Buried Alive poster advertising “Harry Houdini’s original creation” goes hand in hand with the play and protecting his new effect. Note: Elcock did the artwork for the poster. Like the Water Torture Cell escape, the stage version (non-play) of Buried Alive would have to wait until a later date for Houdini to perfect and perform.
Last year I acquired the 1924 newspaper article, Houdini Breaks into Playwriting, describing a new stage play adapted from The Grim Game.
Houdini actually broke into playwriting (if you can call it that) between 1911 and 1914 where he registered three of his famous illusions as “playlets” or short plays, with the U.S. Copyright Office. These deposited scripts are now held within the Reader’s Collection, Library of Congress Copyright Office Drama Deposits.
The three playlets were also published in the Linking Ring [Jun to Aug 1967] and Patrick Culliton’s books, Houdini’s Strange Tales – A Collection of fiction by the legendary Harry Houdini [1992], “Houdini Unlocked”[1997], and “Houdini – The Key” [2010]
Edgar Heyl says: “these plays are unbelieveable bad. Yet Houdini barged right ahead in writing them, completely oblivious of plot, motivation, characterization, credibility, reality and the many other factors that make the work of a professional playwright so difficult.”[Linking Ring August 1967]
This post continues a 3 part series of posts where I summarize and share tidbits about the three copyrighted plays that he wrote:
Today we look at Walking Through a Brick Wall
Houdini purchased the idea on May 4, 1914. The play was written shortly after purchase of the illusion, possibly on the boat coming back from England. Only one copy was deposited and it consisted of 4 octavo sheets typewritten double spaced.
SUMMARY
The plot of this playlet involved a father who constructed a brick wall to keep the son of his “mortal enemy” from being able to look into his garden. The father states, “The day you can walk through the brick wall that separates our houses. I’ll give you my daughter.” The next day the father wakes up to see the young man made it through the wall. To his new fiancée, he explains, “Alice, whether I did or not [walk through the brick wall], everything is fair in love and war. This playlet includes a note after the curtain, which explains the illusion.
[Houdini and the Magic of Copyright by Marilyn Creswell (March 24, 2021)]
Per Culliton:
Houdini didn’t invent this amazing effect. He purchased the American rights from an Englishman named Sydney Josolyne. As usual Houdini had to try to protect the illusion from the plagiarists who had plagued his career and establish that, in the states at least, “Walking Through a Wall” was exclusively his. He accomplished this by copyrighting the playlet.
His lack of playwrighting ability aside, there is some old Houdini genius built into this play. He tells us precisely what the effect involved, and he even tips the secret if one can read between the lines.
Per Edgar Heyl:
I’ll never undestand what Houdini had in mind in writing this ridiculous playlet…that practically told how the illusion had been performed…material filed in the Copyright Office is open to public inspection at any time.
[Linking Ring August 1967]
Per Marlyn Creswell:
Soon others began selling cheap blueprints of the apparatus Houdini used to perform the trick. Even though the copyrightable words and script of Houdini’s playlet were not necessarily infringed, the act lost its appeal once its illusion’s methodology was well-understood. Houdini only performed the trick a few times, and then sanctioned his younger brother, Hardeen’s use of the trick.
