I recently went through a Houdini scrapbook compiled by Houdini’s personal friend, Quincy Kilby, and thought I would share items related to his movies in chronological order.

Today, I share a December 15th Letter:

My Dear Quincy Kilby,

…

Re my Buried Alive Illusion of Mystery, it is not certain, for the Movie Fans are “clambering” for another Houdini serial, and as that is much easier than my Self created hazardous work, I may step that way.

…

Houdini

In 1914, Houdini copyrighted “Buried Alive” with a play and had a poster made for the effect, but the stage version would have to wait for Houdini to perfect and perform.

Per John Cox:

The Buried Alive is one of Houdini’s most elusive escapes. Houdini himself claimed to have performed it as early as 1908 in Germany. In 1914 he had a lithograph made for the effect, but there’s no record of him performing it at this time. In 1918 he announced Buried Alive for his return to the Hippodrome in Everything, but when he broke his wrist making The Master Mystery he had to substitute it with a suspended straitjacket escape. There’s also his famous 1919 accident while rehearsing a Buried Alive stunt in California, but that was an outdoor stunt, not the stage version.

Now here we have evidence of the apparatus being built in 1922.

…

Buried Alive wouldn’t surface until 1926, and then only for a couple performances.

 

Related:

• Houdini Breaks into Playwriting – Buried Alive
• The Master Mystery postpones Buried Alive Stunt on Stage
• Buried Alive surfaces in 1922