A couple weeks ago I did a blog on what is wrong with these pictures, “The Man From Beyond” and “Haldane of the Secret Service”.
This week, I thought I would share a mixed review from Variety magazine that said “The Grim Game” feature isn’t up to expectations:
Variety Friday August 29, 1919 page 66
At least the review ended on a positive note saying the photography was excellent.
I was intrigued by a question that John Cox brought up on his blog:
And of course, when I am intrigued by something, this blog is what you get.
Kalush via a mention by Will Goldston says it was September of 1915 in Kansas City. Silverman says it was hanging forty-five feet from the office building of the Minneapolis Evening Tribune on September 29, 1915 sourced to a newspaper in the Stanley Palm collection.
There is a very nice discussion on The Magic Cafe Forums but nothing is definitive.
Well the Sept 29th, 1915 date in Minneapolis is well sourced, so that leaves the Kansas City date that needs more research.
So what is this mention by Will Goldston?
It just so happens that I have the October 1915 edition of Will Goldston’s The Magazine Of Magic, with the article “Harry Houdini – His Latest Escape”.
[Page 17]
[Page 18]
But nowhere in the above “Harry Houdini His Latest Escape” article do we see a date.
So did he perform in Kansas City in September 1915?
I checked some other sources:
Next I contacted the Kansas City Public Library:
Jeremy Drouin, Senior Librarian of Special Collections, searched their electronic newspaper archive and found an advertisement for a September 11, 1915 afternoon show at the Orpheum Theater where Houdini was performing his water torture act.
Here is the full citation provided by Genealogybank: Advertisement Date: Saturday, September 11, 1915 Paper: Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO) Volume: 78 Issue: 218 Page: 11
This evidence of him performing the Water Torture Cell at the Orpheum Theatre puts him in Kansas City in September 1915, which means he could very well have performed the suspended straitjacket on September 8, 1915 as sourced by Kasson.
Unfortunately, the electronic database at the Kansas City Public Library does not include copies of the Kansas City Post which based on the evidence should have an article to match Goldston’s reprint of the suspended strait-jacket event and possibly some ads leading up to event as suggested by Kasson.
For the first time since 1993, a bust of Harry Houdini ornaments his family grave site in Queens. David W. Dunlap of New York Times
According to a New York Times City Room Blog, “Houdini Returns (Of Course.)”, published on October 24, 2011 by David W. Dunlap:
A bust of Houdini atop the central pedestal of his family plot at Machpelah Cemetary in Queens was smashed or stolen four times between 1975 and 1993. The Society of American Magicians, of which Houdini was president at the time of his death in 1926, then gave up trying to replace it.
The above quote implies that the bust was replaced three times between 1975 and 1993.
According to a New York Daily News Sunday Magazine, New York Live article, “The Trouble with Harry” on October 25, 1992 by John Bohannon:
Due to vandalism and theft, the bust has been replaced three times.
According to one of the Houdini New York Times article, “Houdini Returns (Of Course.)”, published on October 24, 2011 by David W. Dunlap:
Harry Houdini’s grave in Queens had gone headless since 1993, when the last of the four busts was wrecked. In September, however, the Houdini Commandos struck.
That is, we know that the last (fourth?) bust was replaced with a replica in September 2011 by Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz of the HOUDINI MUSEUM IN SCRANTON, PA.
According to Benjilini on Houdini (1994); Below are the dates and some information pertaining to the busts:
According to a John Cox at WILD ABOUT HARRY blog, below is the Grave timeline:
If we compare Benjilini dates with John’s dates, we notice that the 3rd bust was either stolen in November of 1988 or November of 1990; and the two benches were either destroyed in May of 1994 or sometime in 1993.
According to Bohannon: One bust was stolen in 1983, and another one was stolen in the late 1980s [1988 perhaps].
Sometime in 1990, John Cox of WILD ABOUT HARRY visited the Grave on just an ordinary day and saw what looked like a permanent bust on it; he has a photo. Tom Interval of HOUDINI MUSEUM also visited the gravesite around 1990; he wrote an article, The Houdini Grave, documenting his visit that included some photos he took that day; the Houdini bust is missing in Tom’s photos. According to Benjilini on Houdini (1994), the bust which is a black/gray color is mounted only for the “Broken Wand Ceremony” which takes place on the 31st of October. Benjilini had the honor of protecting the bust in October of 1990. The Parent Assembly of the Society of American Magicians keeps this bust in a safe place.
Tom Interval [Houdini Grave Aerial Map] mentioned that someone vandalized Leopold’s and Gladys headstones (Houdini’s brother and sister) in 1994, along with two hand-carved stone benches. Other articles on the internet, like http://www.johncassidy.org.uk/houdini.html, mention 1993 when the vandalism took place:
More vandalism occurred in 1993, when the whole grave was wrecked. This time, famous modern magicians, including David Copperfield and James Randi contributed to the replacement of two granite benches and for the casting of a copy of the bust that was placed in position on the grave only at observances commemorating Houdini by the Society of American Magicians. The cemetery also contributed to restoring the family plot and prepared concrete bases for the new benches. The new bust was said to be ‘made of a marble-like compound which looks exactly like the original’.
So based on the circumstantial evidence above, do you think the bust stolen in November of 1988 (1990) got replaced and was it there in 1993 (May 1994) on the grave when it was vandalized?
Let’s start with the obvious. The DVD artwork for both pictures is from a poster from “The Grim Game”.
Now, let’s briefly discuss the two films that Houdini wrote and produced.
The film (“The Man From Beyond”) had its faults, but critics agreed that one scene alone was worth the price of admission. “It has a whale of a punch,” Variety said. “Houdini does a sensational rescue of the heroine in the Niagara Falls rapids, and it has a kick that would carry any audience”.
Regrettably there was nothing in “Haldane of the Secret Service” to match the Niagara Falls rescue in “The Man From Beyond” or the fantastic escapes of his earliest films (e.g. “The Grim Game”). He (Houdini) read his reviews with dismay. He compared his cost sheets with his income statements. Sadly, he removed his pending productions from the active file and brought his career as a picture producer to an abrupt finish. [Houdini, The Untold Story by Milbourne Christopher]
Thanks to John Cox at Wild About Harry doing some research at the Margaret Herrick Library, we have evidence that the Grim Game screened in 1974. I was also fortunate enough to see this evidence at the library as part of my Grim Game research.
My latest research has uncovered the showing of the silent movie, “The Grim Game” at a 1986 magicians convention in Allentown PA. Below is text from the Article by Bill Gernerd, that appeared in The Morning Call on September 05, 1986:
A magicians convention in Allentown this week may discuss a rumor that an unknown magician is planning to disclose the secrets of some illusions – such as sawing a person in half – on a videotape to be sold to the general public.
An estimated 250 members of the Magicians Alliance of Eastern States, a fraternal organization of magicians from Maine to Florida, are meeting in the Allentown Hilton.
Joseph Keppel, a Bethlehem magician handling public relations for the convention, said yesterday the subject could be raised during one of the convention’s business sessions. But he also indicated there’s a strong possibility “it won’t be mentioned” amid feelings “the less said, the better.”
He said thus far, no one knows the identity of the magician who’s going to make the disclosure. And he said he understands that the magician will be promoting his disclosure of magical secrets on some national television talk- show programs.
But that concern aside, Keppel looks forward to another successful convention, noting it’s the fifth time the Eastern States group will be meeting in the Lehigh Valley area. The group last met in this area in 1978 in Reading “because there were no good convention facilities here in Allentown.”
The Eastern States group grew out of an organization of four Pennsylvania magic groups, those in Allentown, Lancaster, Harrisburg and York, to initially form the Keystone Federation of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1931.
The late William Endlich, a Macungie dentist, founded both the state organization and the Eastern States group and served as the latter’s executive director to the time of his death in the 1960s, according to Keppel.
The group actually hosting this year’s convention is the Allentown Society of Magicians.
Keppel, incidentally, will be leaving in about three weeks for a European tour with one of the nation’s premier magicians, Harry Blackstone Jr.
And in conjunction with the convention of the magicians, the Lehigh County Historical Society has opened a display of magician’s “tools” in the museum in the Old Lehigh County Courthouse.
The society also will host a performance and lecture on the history of magic at 2 p.m. Sept. 14 and will sponsor a magic workshop for children, ages 7 through 12, Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. in the Gold Courtroom of the old courthouse.
The History of Hocus Pocus display will be available for public inspection until Jan. 7, 1987.
Meanwhile, the convention will close tomorrow with an all-star show, open to the public, at 8 p.m. in Trexler Middle School, 15th and Greenleaf streets, Allentown.
Among features for that show will be the illusions of Joe Eddie and Betty, who will be bringing with them a leopard and a 250-pound Burmese python. They will share the spotlight with Slap Happy, who recently appeared on a televised young comedians special; Harry Maurer, voted best opening act in Atlantic City, and Scott Drucker.
Other performers for convention activities will come in from Texas, New York, Washington and Ohio.
Another convention highlight will be the showing of the silent movie featuring Houdini, “The Grim Game.”
Most of the convention activities will be closed to the general public because performing magicians “will be explaining their tricks as they work them,” according to Keppel.
BONUS
Houdini’s Last Message to the American Public appeared in The Morning Call, Allentown PA as part of an editorial about him the day after he died:
It is true, most unfortunately, that experience is a hard school but we must all learn in it, and no other.
The light of another’s experience will not illuminate the path of youth very much. It is only after he has had his own hard knocks that he can profit by them.
Starting out thirty years ago as a magician, I have passed hundreds who did not know that success was just another name for hard work. Those in the arrogance of their youth rarely listen to their elders. Nevertheless, I say that inspiration plays little part in success and chance plays less. What little success I may have had has come from making up my mind in early youth to be the best in my line no matter what is cost in hard work, and never to deviate from the course.
People often commend me for my courage; often say, indeed, that I am a performer of miracles of courage. This is far from true. I do nothing anyone else could not do with equal practice and years of toil. When I train to jump from a high bridge, don’t think I jump from the great height all at once. It is all by gradual stages. I get a ladder, and each day jump from one rung higher than the day before. When I scaled a 7-story building in a certain motion picture, I started by climbing up one story and coming down, etc., till I had gone the seven. This is the whole secret of getting to the top of anything.
It is the same training under water. I started by holding my breath 10 seconds, increasing it gradually (in a swimming tank) until eventually I could remain under for two minutes. When I was half my present age I did four minutes in a tank.
Many scientists and students of psychic phenomena say I have supernatural power. This obviously is absurd.
No one possesses supernatural power. No supernatural power is manifested in this world. Do not, therefore, be superstitious. Don’t be afraid of spirits or spooks! There are none. Don’t dash by graveyards. Don’t fear the dark. I have slept in haunted houses and cemeteries, and the only thing I ever caught was a cold.
UPDATE: Also, in 1986, after a broken wand ceremony conducted at Houdini’s grave at Machpelah Cemetery in New York, on October 31st, Larry Weeks gave a lecture on Houdini and showed “The Grim Game” at the Glendale Public Library which is a short distance from the cemetery. [The Magic Circular Vol. 80 1986]
While on the internet, I came across a post for the Houdini Picture Corp that implied Houdini’s missing movies have reappeared and will soon be on display and available to the general public at Houdini’s Magic Shops. Below is a snippet from the post:
Houdini’s movies stayed in the family for some years following his death on October 31, 1926. While in the basement of a brother-in-law’s home, the films were discovered by an inspector who ordered the cartons of films be removed immediately as they were combustible. Sadly, a fortune Houdini films were hauled off as rubbish. But like Houdini himself, the films reappeared and will soon be on display and available to the general public at Houdini’s Magic Shops.
Unfortunately, it did not take me long to realize that the Houdini Picture Corp post (which is not dated) is old and that the full hour of The Grim Game and missing footage from Terror Island and The Master Mystery will not be on display and available soon at Houdini’s Magic Shops.
Wishful thinking on my part! My Bad!
For more information about the state of Houdini Films, see the plea from Patrick Culliton to “Safe the Houdini Films Before it is too late“
Now that I have your attention,
While going thru my Houdini magazines, I came across an article, titled, “Houdini” by Marie Hinson Blood as told to Robert Olson. This 25-page article illustrated with photos, clippings and other memorabilia gives some Houdini inside facts from an interview with Marie Hinson Blood, the niece of Houdini.
I thought I would share one of the inside facts in this blog:
Houdini made several movies and Marie can rattle them off just like that. “The Grim Game”, “Terror Island”, “The Man From Beyond” and “The Master Mystery”. Her father had all of these movies. Every Saturday friends would try and get into the Hinson house to see one of the films they would show. They could only take a certain number of people, others having to wait until the next Saturday evening. They were all on reels in big tin can with covers. One day a fire inspector came and found these films stored in the basement. Because of their extreme danger of being highly flammable, the inspector said they would suspend all of their fire insurance if they did not get rid of these films. So, her father threw them away. [The New Tops, September 1985]
I find the order of the movies that Marie could rattle off interesting, “The Grim Game” is first and “Haldane” is not listed.
If we could only turn back the clock.
I hope I am invited to the next Saturday evening’s showing of “The Grim Game”.
Paul Negelovic, the Reference Librarian, at United States Military Academy (USMA) has recently posted a well-researched article on Edward H Martin (aka Police Reporter):
USMA Library Blog Link: Edward H Martin A West Point Grad’s One Man Crime Wave
Check it out and find out who the real Edward H Martin was.
Last weekend, my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary in San Francisco.
Harry Houdini, probably the greatest magician, appeared at least four times in San Francisco, nearly eight years apart: June 1899, September 1907, November 1915, and March 1923. He was 25 during the first appearance and was not yet famous enough to headline the theater billing at the Orpheum. But by 1907 he was known world-wide. In 1915, for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, he performed an escape from a manacled box lowered into the water at the Aquatic Park. He was also performing his famous Chinese-water torture escape at the Orpheum. But his visit in 1923 was his biggest. At the age of 49 and in front of 30,000 watchers, he performed his famous “escape from the strait jacket while in mid-air” at Third and Market streets. This visit was to be, unfortunately, his last. Before he could return to San Francisco, he died three years later from peritonitis on Halloween, 1926. [sfgenealogy.com]
We had an incredible visit to San Francisco that was very magical. It started with dinner at Pier 39 over-looking the Bay. We then walked around the shops and just happened to stumble across a Houdini’s Magic shop where I picked up a Houdini calendar celebrating Houdini’s 100th Anniversary of the Water Torture Cell; what is really cool about the calendar is that it identifies key dates and events in Houdini’s life.
We also stumbled into a shop at Pier 39 that specialized in displays of famous people signatures. For $9000, you could own the display below which includes signatures of Houdini, Blackstone, Thurston, Wilson and Dornfeld.
We then took a taxi to the Marrakech Magic Theater to see an uproarious one-of-a-kind close-up show in an intimate, historic setting located right near San Francisco’s famous Union Square.
The first thing I noticed when we walked inside the historic building was a beautiful poster of Carter the Great and The Vanishing Elephant illusion.
Of course it made me think of a couple items displayed below that I had seen a few weeks ago at an antique shop (after seeing the acclaimed “Watson and The Dark Art of Harry Houdini” at the Sacred Fools Theatre) in Hollywood with some magic associates.
The evening at the Marrakech Magic Theater began in the Sultan’s Oasis lounge where we enjoyed cocktails, a little pre-show entertainment and a meet and greet with magician-owner Peter Morrison. After about an hour, Peter personally took us into the main showroom. The main showroom was an intimate close-up theatre, where Peter put on an amazing 75 minutes of extremely fun and entertaining magic. He made sure to get every audience member involved in the show. I personally got involved in a multi-spectator mind reading prediction routine, where I had to write down the time to check out of the DEVON hotel (I wrote 1:19 PM).
My favorite routines of his were the following:
He also performed a very nice rope and ring routine, linking ring routine and multiplying billiard ball routine. I would highly recommend Peter and his show if you are in the San Francisco area.
What a great night of magic!
The magic continued the next morning. We had an incredible breakfast at the hotel and then walked to Ghirardelli Square where they had a “milk can” of chocolate that I just had to have.
Walking through the park on our way back to check out of the hotel, we came across a strait-jacket hanging from a tree. Only in San Francisco!
San Francisco was definitely a magical place to visit!
The Original Houdini Hall of Fame
Each of the last two Sundays, I did a blog that included different ads for the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame that was located at 4983 Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls Canada from 1972 to April 30th, 1995.
I thought I would wrap up this series with ads from the Houdini Hall of Fame’s original location, which was located at 5019 (aka 1019) Centre Street, Niagara Falls Canada from May 1968 to 1972.
The ad below identifies the original location of the Museum as 5019 Centre Street:
Ad 1 (Front):
Ad 1 (Back):
This next ad identifies the original location of the Museum as 1019 Centre Street as opposed to 5019 Centre Street:
Ad 2 (Front):
Ad 2 (Back):
Hope you enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed sharing my pictures, ads and personal experience from the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame.