(Photo by Hank Olen/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Caption:UNITED STATES – NOVEMBER 04 1926: Body of Harry Houdini lying in state at the West End Chapel.
Above is an image that is reported to be the body of Harry Houdini lying in state at the West End Chapel.
Houdini died at Detroit, Michigan on October 31st, 1926. His remains were prepared for burial by W.R. Hamilton & Company of Detroit and forwarded to New York City, where they were received by Samuel Rothschild on November 2nd, 1926. For two days they lay in state in Mr. Rothschild’s establishment, the West End Funeral Chapel.
Rothschild and Sons West End Funeral Chapel
If we compare the New York Daily News photo with the photo below that appeared in a morticians trade magazine captioned as being Houdini at the West End Funeral Chapel (this photo also appears in The Secret Life of Houdini), they don’t appear to be the same casket.
(Photo courtesy of Houdinitribute.com)
Is Houdini in either of these caskets?
What about the casket being lowered into the ground at Machpelah Cemetery on November 4, 1926. which is our last look of Houdini on earth?
(Photo courtesy of Historic Films.com via WildAboutHoudini.com)
We can be certain that Houdini is in the casket being lowered into the ground. The two caskets in the other photos don’t seem to match up perfectly. Houdini is still fooling the heck out of us.
Agreed! Not only do we have these caskets, there is the Elks Club casket, the caskets used in his underwater tests, the casket used in his buried alive stage effect, and the coffin liner used in the outdoor test. I would like to believe that the casket being lowered into the ground is the one from his buried alive stage effect and that inside of that is the coffin liner from the outdoor test.
The underlying theme here was Houdini’s morbid fascination with death and all things related to it. It would not surprise me if it was discovered that he periodically slept in a casket like a vampire in the basement of 278. Since a casket can be viewed as the gateway to the Great Beyond, it’s fitting that this object would intersect with Houdini throughout his life.
Houdini had been playing around with various ideas for coffin escapes as early as 1904, if not sooner.
Coffins are expensive, then and now, and gaffed coffins rigged for escapes are even more costly. Houdini started to experiment with coffin escapes when he could afford to do it. Yes, as soon as he was successful, he didn’t waste much time getting around to it.
In the 1960’s, I had to pleasure of meeting Arthur B. Rothschild, the son of the founder of the West End Funeral Chapel. I knew Arthur and worked with him and the last time I saw him was around November of 1978. The “casket” in which Houdini was transported in to New York City, was actually a copper or bronze liner. This is something that could be placed inside a regular casket, then sealed to offer additional protection to a body. Houdini used this for some of his under water stunts. The actual casket that Houdini was buried in was a cast bronze casket manufactured by the Boyertown Casket Company. However, the Elks Club, where Houdini’s funeral service took place, preferred that a wooden casket be displayed (possibly because some of the members were Jewish and felt a metal casket, especially a cast bronze, was not in keeping with Jewish tradition.) After the funeral service, the cast bronze casket was taken out of the wooden “outer” casket, carried to the hearse and then transported to Machpelah cemetery. This is the way Arthur B. Rothschild told it to me.
Very interesting! Thank You for sharing that.
Does this imply that he may not be in the coffin liner he was transported in to New York City?
Thank you, Bruce. Your info about the casket swap at the Elks Club corroborates what I was told by a semi-mysterious source here: http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2014/05/houdini-lying-in-state-at-elks-lodge-1.html
I told you it was two coffins inside the New York Elks Lodge #1. Why was there not a picture taken from the balcony instead. So it did not show the body or the double casket setting!
They could of taken a picture from 2 high up balconies. I’m sure you have seen the two levels of balconies of the NY Elks Lodge #1 lodge room / chamber room as they called it! I’m not that mysterious or am I???
I would like to mention that the possibility of the non-traditional (metal) casket issue was likely not the issue because
Embalming/Dressing/Cosmetizing
Open Casket/ Public Visitation
Delayed Funeral
Flowers
Metal Casket
Sealed Burial Vault
are just a short-list of the non-traditional Jewish issues involved here.
I am thinking, especially since Houdini married a woman who never converted, that he was not very observant.
That would be in-line with the vast majority of Jews in this country at that time, who were trying to assimilate as quickly as possible.
The old-timers who founded dedicated Jewish Funeral Chapels back in the day were only too glad to oblige and were quick to learn good embalming skills and welcomed all types of caskets into the Selection Room. I know my family always offered a variety of caskets,goods and services that were not at all “traditional”, and that was considered “normal” for Jewish Funeral Chapels well into the 1990’s. We all catered to the “Reformed Jewish” clientele.
Nowadays, we have gone full-circle with most American Jews preferring a simple traditional service of direct-burial with the body ritually prepared by the local Chevra Kadisha,(No Embalming! No Viewing) dressed by them in a plain white muslin shroud, observance of “Shmira” where observant people sit with the body and read Psalms until burial, and burial, directly in contact with the earth, in a plain wooden casket free of adornments, metal and animal glue, manufactured on an assembly-line that is closed on the Sabbath..
Also, although I “grew-up” in Funeral Service, I really only remember back to the mid-1950’s. I recall there were a few different types of top-of-the-line Solid Bronze Caskets. The National Seamless Copper Deposit, The Belmont Masterpiece, and the Boyertown 48oz. Bronze “Grecian Urn” #3045-HL. This casket was a Full-Couch with a Solid Oval-Glass Sealer. The Outside Dimensions are: 83 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 22 3/4. This was the only Boyertown “Glass-Sealer” I could find in our old catalogue from the late 1930’s. We RETAILED it at $4995.00!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahahaha. Of course, back then that would have bought you Two new Cadillacs. By the 1960’s we were retailing the Nationals well in to the high-teens. Also, in those days the casket was sold as a package that included just about everything (removal,embalming, use of Chapel, Hearse,etc.) except cash-advance items.
Anyway, there were a number of different types on Glass Inner-Seals. Sometimes it was Two Panels of Glass if the casket was a Half-Couch. Also, we used to have custom beveled-glass inner-compartments made that we could place inside the shell and solder the top plate of glass on to seal it. We sometimes used this method for a Solid Hardwood. The Marsellius “President” of Hand-Carved Solid African Mahogany comes to mind.
There is a company (Verplank) in Tennessee that still markets a “moderately priced” Solid-Bronze Full-Couch with Glass Inner-Seal. Of course the York Western “Sarcophagus” still rings- the- bell when it comes to price. Last one I saw had a $225.000 price tag on it and that was JUST the Casket.
I have to say hello to you, Mr. Jacobs, as the grandson of Arthur Rothschild, son of his eldest daughter, Betty Jane Lampkin.
A fascinating read on my Grandfathers thoughts on the casket. I am just reading Playbill ; the have had a virtual reading of a musical about Houdini just a couple of days ago. So I was doing a Google check for the year Houdini layed in state at our family chapel. Did you work with him at Riverside? Or his association with the Campbell funeral home? A great photo of the chapel
Happy late Hanukkah,
Not according to what Arthur Rothschild told me. He said that it was Houdini’s wishes to be buried in the casket liner that was used for his underwater trick, but, that was placed inside the Boyertown cast bronze casket. The liner would not be durable over time, eventhough the casket was placed in a concrete burial vault.
As of today, there is a version of the Boyertwon cast bronze casket in the showroom of the Frank E. Campbell funeral home in New York City. It is not the exact same model Houdini was buried in, but, it is a cast bronze made by Boyertown. The price as of today is $155,000.
Thanks for that clarification and sharing the info on the version in the showroom, along with its current cost.
I found on the W R Hamilton funeral home website that Houdinis remains were taken to Campbell instead of Rothschild( now plaza community Jewish chapel) however Rothschild makes more sense to me because it is a Jewish funeral home Houdini being Jewish however Campbell also makes sense because they are known for their celebrity clients it just doesn’t add up
Interesting. I believe this is the first I have heard about Campbell.
At the time of Houdini’s death, Rothschild was considered New York City’s most prominent Jewish funeral home. Supposedly, according to Arthur B. Rothschild, they would only handle two funerals a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Houdini’s remains were taken to Rothschild and not to Frank E. Campbell. Yes, Campbell’s was, and is today, probably the most prestigious funeral home in the world, and, just about every famous person who died in New York City winds up there. Today, a very respectable percentage of Campbell’s funerals are Jewish, but, back when Houdini died, Campbell’s did not handle very many Jewish funerals.
Thanks Bruce for the clarification and your comments on this. It is much appreciated.
Can you clarify one more thing for the readers? Do you know if the Boyertown cast bronze casket being seen lowered into the ground above had a glass top?
I don’t know if the casket Houdini was buried in had a separate glass sealer or not. Arthur Rothschild never mentioned anything about that. Some people commented it appeared to have a glass top as it was lowered into the ground, but, that was probably because of the way the light was reflecting off of the top at the time, or, it just could have been a highly polished finish on the casket. I know the cast bronze that is at Frank E. Campbell’s in New York City today, has a glass toped inner sealer. I did not notice a separate glass top. Most probably, because of its size, the inner sealer takes up too much height in the interior of the casket, therefore, there would not be enough room for a separate glass sealer. However, if the outer lid of the cast bronze sealed like the top of the National seamless copper, there would be no need for an additional sealer. Also, because of the size of the casket, a large person would not be able to fit into it…Houdini was a man of slight build, so there would not have been a problem. It is much like the Matthews Pharaoh sarcophagus, that is manufactured today, a large person is simply not going to fit into it.
Fascinating! Thanks for taking the time to reply and share what you know. And contribute to the legacy of Houdini.
It seems we all share a great fascination (I know I do) in the great magician, especially his death. It is wonderful to know he continues to enchant us today decades after his abrupt demise. Thank you for including me in the conversation!
Not a problem. He is a fascinating subject. Thank You for joining in.
For those not too familiar with caskets, I would like to add the hint that color pictures of a Boyertown cast bronze casket and of a hermetically sealing bronze liner with an oval plate glass top are available on the Internet if one takes a look at the Comments of the Askives.Com Question: Who had the most expensive casket? The casket pictures shown at the end of the comment are not exactly those used by Houdini, but quite similar.
The casket pictures are great. Thanks for sharing.
Just as a matter of clarification, I wish to add some personal knowledge of the Jewish funeral establishments back in the day. The Rothchild business was certainly one of many busy Jewish firms back then. I think it fair to say they were the “most prestigious” at that time, however, the Rosenthal’s crashed that when “The Riverside” was built at it’s present site in the late 1920’s at W.76th and Amsterdam. They were one of the old firms that evolved from the old Meyer’s & Co. Undertaking firm in the Lower East Side. When the Rosenthal’s took control they had the foresight and the money to “follow the business” as the Jewish population got on their feet and moved to nicer uptown accomodations, first in south Harlem and then the Upper West Side. Eventually there were “Riverside” branches opened in all the other boroughs and out on Long Island, and a few down in Miami as well.
After they opened the main Chapel on W.76th, everybody else was a “has been” for years to come. At one point in the 50’s,60’s and 70’s they were averaging over 30 funerals a DAY. (Lucky for them most Jewish funerals are held at the “graveside”). The opulence of the main chapel alone was finer than ANY other firm in the city Jewish or gentile. It made all the other Jewish firms look like dumps (and some of them were). (It is still one of the most beautiful Memorial Chapels in NYC).
In the late 1940’s the Rosenthals bought Frank E. Campbell’s. Then, in the the 1950’s they bought out Walter B. Cooke (about 10 Chapels all around the city).
So even though they did not change the names of those firms, it was fair to say they were most certainly “Jewish owned”. I think the Rosenthals made a business decision to keep the Jewish people out of Campbell’s so as not to “upset” the gentile uptown business, which was certainly the “golden goose” for Campbell’s.
What modern “revisionist” history fails to mention today is that the vast majority of those signs that said “No Colored” or “No Negroes” ALSO said “No Jews” or “No Hebrews”. I remember those days very well. So there was significant prejudice within the gentile community against the Jewish community and the Rosenthals were not going to rock that boat.
During this time period the “Kinney Corp” was formed which included many city parking garages and a livery service. (Can you imagine all the professional cars needed to run all those funeral homes every day??!! Hearses,Flower Cars and Vans, removal vehicles, limousines,etc.) Kinney Corp. became the “umbrella” for all the Rosenthal’s businesses including the funeral homes. The combined volume of services certainly was pushing 15 THOUSAND calls a year by the mid-1960’s!
Sadly, for the unsuspecting general public, and good for the Rosenthal and Ross Families, The (by then re-named) Kinney-National Corp. was sold to the large funeral business corporation Service Corp. Int’l. out of Houston,TX.
The Rosenthal and Ross Families then took all those millions and bought Warner Communications. They then built them into the media giant they are today.
So it can be truthfully said that Warner Communications was built on the Backs of three major funeral establishments!
I will close by mentioning that “West End Funeral Chapel” was eventually sold to S.C.I. as well who changed the name to “The Plaza Jewish Memorial Chapel”.
Some years ago, after the majority of the smaller Jewish establishments were swallowed by S.C.I. the New York State anti-trust forced S.C.I. to divest itself of a number of those firms. The Plaza was one of them. So the old Rothchild West End Funeral Chapel has survived (if greatly remodeled and updated). If you are up on W.91st be sure you drop in. I’m sure they will show you to the chapel where Houdini lie in state.
Houdini was buried within his glass covered hermetically sealed coffin liner. This is the one he used for his test in front of Summerfields store in Worchester. (The one we have a photo of where we cannot determine is it contains a living or dead Houdini). This liner was placed within a bronze coffin. I would think the top of the coffin would not be made of glass due to the potential for breakage.