Today I continue my series on The Daily Illustrated Mirror reports leading up to the Mirror Handcuff Challenge event of March 17th 1904, the event itself, and post-event reporting.
Previously I shared:
- March 11 1904 – Birmingham Man Invents a Handcuff With a Lock Which Cannot Be Picked
- March 14 1904 – The Handcuff King Accepts Our Challenge
Today, I share the March 15, 1904 issue of The Daily Illustrated Mirror:
The torture test referred to was none other than The October 24, 1902 Hodgson Challenge
But the Daily Illustrated Mirror Challenge will be no torture test but a scientific exhibition.
And implies the handcuff was submitted to London’s best locksmiths.
Thanks for another Daily Mirror article, Joe! They’re building up the contest for all it’s worth! They must have been selling newspapers and tickets for the Thursday contest like hotcakes! A win win for the Daily Mirror, the Hipp theater, and Houdini.
It should be noted that Houdini was pals with press baron Alfred Charles Harmsworth. He owned the Weekly Dispatch and the Daily Mirror. In addition, the Silver Replica cuffs were manufactured a year prior to the challenge. The stampings on the replica indicate this. Yet the Mirror representative told the audience that night that a silver replica of the cuffs would be made to commemorate the challenge. There’s no doubt whatsoever it was all a put on.
That is true about Harmsworth, however the replica cuffs could have been manufactured between May 1903 and May 1904 and still carry the 1903 “h” mark. Based on that, Mirror Cuff expert, Mick Hanzlik believed the replicas were indeed made in the six weeks following the challenge and not a year before as stated in Kalush and Sloman’s book.
That’s interesting! Where did Hanzlik mention the date of the replica cuffs?
2013, see:
https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2013/12/guest-blog-silver-mirror-cuffs-made.html
Thanks Joe! I forgot about that blog entry on WAH. John has so much information in there that I can’t remember it all.
Hanzlik admits in his WAH blog that he’s still guessing on the manufacturing date of the Silver Replica as being after the contest. He noted that it was presented to Houdini six weeks after the contest and according to him that’s about the time it would have taken to manufacture the replica. The time frame between May 03 and May 04 is still the best we have.