Today, John Cox at WILD ABOUT HARRY is giving me the honor to share and comment on an excerpt from ‘High Lights in the Strenuous Career of Harry Houdini, Edited and Compiled by Houdini’s Brother Hardeen’. This rare footage comes from the collection of escape artist Rick Maisel.
According to Hardeen, we are looking at Houdini changing planes in mid-air and we are also looking at one of the first to accomplish this feat.
Houdini claimed that it was he that was the first to be photographed in a plane transfer, but he always gave credit to Ormer Locklear as the first to actually make the transfer.
Well, most Houdini nuts know that is stunt double Robert Kennedy (in the mid-air shots) attempting to accomplish this feat, not Houdini (seen in the close-up shots filmed at Lookout mountain in Laurel Canyon). But you may not know that It was the first time that Kennedy ever attempted a plane change.
And it was his last time.
A playlist of these clips from ‘High Lights in the Strenuous Career of Harry Houdini’ can be found on the WILD ABOUT HARRY YouTube Channel.
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Great stuff Joe! Hardeen disparaged the Kellock bio as filled with lies. Yet here he is continuing to perpetuate the HH plane to plane transfer myth. He must have known Kennedy doubled for that suicidal stunt. All that sensationalizing he learned to do in his younger days was still in his DNA. Assuming Hardeen compiled this film after HH’s death. If it was before then it’s reasonable to believe this was put together under the supervision of HH.
Thank You and great observations. Wish we knew when it was compiled.
This reel was definitely compiled after HH’s death because in one of the later clips you will see the Hardeen as successor Will stipulation. So likely 1930s. However, I’m wondering if some of the individual clips, like this one, might have been made by HH and shown before his act.
Thanks John!
WRT individual clips being shown, it’s very possible; We know that: Some years after the movie was released, Houdini used the final sequence in a vaudeville act. One night Tommy (aka David Thompson) took his wife to see the act and found that after running the clip in which the stunt man faltered and the planes locked, Houdini referred to this as his narrowest escape. He then invited members of the audience on stage. Wondering what Houdini’s reaction to him would be, Tommy joined the group. The great escapist recognized him at once and, without the flicker of a lash, identified him to the audience as “the hero who saved my life in The Grim Game.” [Hollywood When Silents Were Golden]