A unique 1953 Houdini Artifact

 

Wayne Alan is a close friend of mine. I've known him for years, and he was actually the first magician I ever saw perform at my local mall, ages ago. Wayne does not consider himself a collector, and Im not sure he considers himself a historian, however, he has been working on a book on Houdini since the late 1970s. His research is extensive. He might have been one of the earliest people to visit David Copperfields collection on Houdini. Over the years he has met with and interviewed many historians and collectors and people associated with Houdini. I will be sharing more on Wayne over the next few weeks.

But, the guy who doesn't consider himself a collector, has a pretty amazing collection. A few years ago, he purchased the Dunninger Collection from Maxine Dunninger. He also has an assortment of other Houdini related artifacts.

The one I want to share with you today is very cool. A simple table. One that can be seen in the photo at the top of the page. This particular table doesn't appear in the actual movie, that I could tell, but it clearly was used during the photoshoots to promote the movie. It is an Abbott's table. And the one Wayne recently purchased came from a Movie Memorabilia House. This is the 1953 HOUDINI Movie, side table used during the photo shoot. 

The photo below shows the table more clearly. The drape is long gone. But it matches the table perfectly.  It is housed in the National Museum of Magic, which is one of the few museums on magic open to the public. Wayne owns the museum as well. And where is it? Stay tuned, more on this to come!!!

New Houdini Documentary On It's Way....and more!

 

Apparently, our friend John Cox has been holding out on us. Yesterday, he announced a new 3 part documentary that is coming out on Houdini, that he has been consulting on. It is called HOUDINI - Back From The Dead. This is going to appear on FOXNATION, and debuts Oct 14th. FoxNation has a good reputation for putting out quality historical programming having done projects in the past on George Washington, The World War 11 Generation and more.

What seems different here is the use of ai in creating new footage of Houdini, not just still images, but what appear to be video representations of his act and life. I am not a fan of ai. In fact, in some areas I am very much against it. But, it does have it's uses and here is an example of something that just cant quite be recreated by humans beings. Famous photos of Houdini come to life in a very interesting way and the results of stunning.

This is not the only documentary on Houdini using ai. There are some really pathetic ones online, that have dreadfully poor graphics and images that do not even look like the man. This one however is spot on. 

There is another Houdini Documentary in production at the moment, which is also using ai. But it also includes interviews with living breathing humans. That one debuts next year, I believe in February. That particular project began as a short video documentary for the Society of American Magicians, but has ballooned into a rather major project. 

100 years later, we are still talking about, studying, and learning about Houdini. Though his name is synonymous with 'ESCAPING' the reality is, his name is also synonymous with 'ACHIEVEMENT'. Maybe its achieving impossible things, being able to push forward and actually tackling what appear to be impossible odds to reach your goals and dreams. Because of this, Houdini will continue to remain in the public consciousness for many years to come.

You can watch the trailer below. And check out John Cox's announcement on his blog.

   

A Rare Peek At The Vanishing Elephant

 

On my recent podcast interview with Eric Colleary, the curator of Performing Arts at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas, and the man responsible for the new book and exhibit Houdini's Library, we talked about missing Houdini posters. I said, I was fairly confident Houdini must have had a poster for the biggest trick in history. Eric said there were actually two mock-ups of potential posters in the collection. 

One of these was made into a greeting card, which he was kind enough to mail to me. It is a wonderful piece and you can just imagine what the finished product might have looked like. Clearly this is an artist rendition of what the effect might have looked like. 

In real life, we know some sort of box was rolled around the elephant, but beyond that, the actual details vary from person to person. Some claiming the effect was unbelievable. Others saying they really couldn't see what was happening, due to sight restrictions. None of the props used in the effect remain, or at least are known to remain. Perhaps someone has a small garage in NY, that once was actually the box for an elephant, lol!

The Houdini's Library Exhibition is currently running at the University of Texas/Austin, and will continue to run until late January 2027. 

In case you missed the episode with the interview, here is the link: https://magicdetectivepodcast.com/e/ep-118-dr-eric-colleary-houdinis-library/

And I don't usually do this, but I also recommend you listen to Adrian Tenant's interview with Eric Colleary, his link is here: https://themagicbookpodcast.com/episode/dr-eric-colleary-houdinis-library

The two interviews are very different and should help to answer a lot of questions that might remain.