The Escapologist

Thanks to Andrew Basso for finding this. Cool song!

Unique Houdini Find

I must say, the AskAlexander.com site is truly a wonderful resource. While looking up information on the Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery, I came upon an ad in an old Sphinx Magazine. I could hardly believe what I was reading. So I pulled out my old magazines and searched that issue, which I had. It's just an advertisement there was nothing else in that issue about the Barrel, but what a find!

Near the bottom of the ad it says "Owing to the fact that Hardeen has to give up his Storage Houses, I was able to get hold of these Houdini Illusions" Look at what is on this list, The Milk Can, The Sub Trunk, Straight Jackets, The Radio Illusion, The Barrel Escape, The DEKOLTA DIE!!!!, Kellar's Spirit Cabinet!!! I mean wow, my head is about to explode thinking about the historical value of this stuff. The Company is Royal Magic Studio (J.Yadah) on 167 North 7th St. Brooklyn NY.  I don't know enough about the old NY Magic Dealers to know who this is exactly. But he apparently picked up a treasure trove of stuff from Hardeen. This ad appeared in the Sphinx in 1934, several years before Hardeen gave the bulk of his collection over to Sidney Radner.

There is one item on here though that kind of stood out to me more than the others. The Hornmann's Original Flower Growth, with the original cost listed at $3000.00. Ladies and Gentleman, I think I've got this one covered, below is what I believe is a photo of that very prop. It resides in the collection of Ken Klosterman today. I took a photo of it when I was there because I was quite struck with the fact that Houdini had a Flower Growth in his show. It's quite the piece. I wish I knew where Kellar's Spirit Cabinet and the DeKolta Die were today. Of course there are a couple of Sub Trunks out there in various collections, as well as Straight Jackets. Oh, I'm also wondering how many MilkCan Escapes there were. I know of at least three. One is in Copperfield's Collection, One is in the Lund Collection which is currently on display at the Houdini-Art& Magic exhibition. The third is one I saw a few years ago on Ebay, which looked like it may have been a prototype, it had a similar shape but it was smaller than the other cans.

At any rate, please enjoy this picture of Houdini's Flower Growth, original cost $3000.

Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery

I have seen this poster in many Houdini books in the past, but I've never really taken a good look at it until recently. It's clearly a different routine for Houdini, but not one he seems to have kept. It dates to 1906 when Houdini finished a run in Boston in March of that year. He decided to take out a show of his own along with several other acts in the line-up. His feature, The Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery along with some handcuff escapes. He closed the show in May of the same year, so it had a VERY short run.

The description at the bottom of the poster gives away the effect which seems to be identical to the Metamorphosis/Sub Trunk, except with different props. In 'Houdini-The Key' Pat Culliton mentions that Houdini got this barrel from his former partner Jacob Hyman.

Mike Caveney and Stan Allen used to perform the Sub/Trunk years ago using a barrel as well. I don't think they did the 'prison cell' part, they just used a curtain.

I just read in an old issue of the Sphinx Volume 38 and article by Hardeen. He says that at one time he performed as Theo Houdini doing a Barrel Escape. Houdini asked him to change his name and came up with Hardeen for his brother so it wouldn't be confusing to audiences. I wonder if the Barrel Escape was from the routine above?

UPDATE: There is apparently a second Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery Poster. This one is a three sheet poster. It can be seen in the photo below, however it is on the far right hand side. I don't think this poster survives today however. There are also no complete frontal images of the poster, only this angled shot. Perhaps one day it will turn up.