Will Rogers & Houdini

Will Rogers was a cowboy, entertainer and humorist. He rose from a cowboy who did roping tricks, to one of America's most beloved comedians. He and Houdini knew each other and worked together on many occasions. Houdini died suddenly in 1926 at the age of 52, Will Rogers too had a sudden tragic death at the age of 55 in 1935. Shortly after Houdini died, Will Rogers wrote about him in his newspaper column on November 21, 1926. Here are a few excerpts from his column.

Every one is any line of the theatrical business is always spoken of as a "Showman". Well what constitutes one is a man who can sell himself to the public in the very best way possible. Houdini was the greatest showman of our time by far. 

A great many are good and can sell themselves fairly well, but they will generally lack something, and if you figure it out it's ability. Well, Houdini never lacked ability. No person appearing on an American stage ever had more license to be there than Harry Houdini.

I played with Harry, at Keith's Philadelphia over 18 years ago for the first time. I was roping my pony on stage and was billed to close the show (that is, go on last). Harry was just ahead with his handcuff tricks. It was late when he went on. He held that audience for one hour and a quarter. Not a soul moved. He would come out of his cabinet every fifteen or twenty minutes perspiring and kinder size up that crowd to see just about how they were standing it. Now, mind you when he is in that cabinet there is not a thing going on. A whole theater full are just waiting. The city police had put these cuffs on him. Now he had that something that no one can define that is generally just passed off as showmanship. But it was in reality, Sense, Shrewdness, Judgement, unmatched ability, intuition, personality and an uncanny knowledge of people. Say, when he had finished I just as well got on my little old pony and rode back to the livery stable as to have rode out on that stage.

Houdini Handcuffed Jumps Into Lake

October 14, 1907, 11:00 a.m. Houdini was at CityPark in Denver Colorado to help promote his upcoming appearances at the Denver Orpheum. The stunt was planned for the newspapermen, but 100 people turned out for his escape.

Houdini was shackled by the Chief of Detectives William Loomis using 'Jack Shepard Irons'. His arms were secured behind his back as well as his hands and padlocks were placed in the irons. Houdini was helped to the roof of the band pavilion (see first photo above).

He leaped off the building feet first (second photo) into the lake and vanished below the surface of the water. The newspaper accounts said 'you could hear a shudder go over the crowd when he jumped as it did not seem possible for him to free himself.' Approximately one minute later, Houdini bobbed to the surface free from the restraints and  holding them in his hands. He swam over to a small boat (third photo) and was brought back to dry land.

The crowd went wild when Houdini freed himself. Houdini was in town for a two week run at the Orpheum in Denver. A fairly typical stunt for Houdini, but probably one of the last jumps for that year as it was already October! Bridge and water escapes were for warmer climates.

Below is a photo of the location today. The Gazebo, or Pavilion has obviously been rebuilt, but this is the very location where Houdini did his escape in 1907.

Houdini, Keaton, Thurston and more

(click on picture to see larger version)

Above is a theatrical page from 1907 edition of the Boston Journal. There are a number of interesting things to point out on this page full of ads. First, you'll notice that the Houdini ad is at the top of the page on the left. It's the first spot you'd see if you are reading left to right. His name is the largest in the ad and in fact, half the ad is devoted to his act, "HOUDINI - NOBODY CAN HOLD HIM" slightly below that it reads "ANYBODY CAN CHALLENGE HIM".

Look at the ad to the immediate right, for the National Theatre, and then go to the bottom of the ad and you'll see 'BOUDINI-NOBODY CAN HOLD HIM', followed by 'ALL CHALLENGES ACCEPTED'.  Houdini's imitators were right on his heels, even in the paper, but they never got the notoriety that he did! Over at the WildAboutHarry blog, you can find an article describing a challenge that took place between Houdini and Boudini in 1905. The outcome didn't seem to stop Boudini from performing because here he is two years later performing in the same town at the same time as Houdini.

The Three Keatons

If you go back to the first add for B.F. Keith's and look below the Houdini stuff, you'll see one of the acts on the bill THREE KEATONS Myra, Joe and Buster. This is young Buster Keaton's family. His real name was Joseph Frank Keaton. The story is that one day the young boy fell down some stairs and though he was ok, Houdini proclaimed 'he's a real buster' or 'that was a real buster'. The name 'buster' stuck, and his family referred to the boy as Buster the rest of his life. Even Buster Keaton himself told this very story on how he got his name. By the way, Houdini and Bess were also Busters Godparents.

One other interesting fact about Houdini and the Keatons. According to a number of sources, Houdini and Joe Keaton (father) owned The Mohwak Indian Medicine Company, a traveling medicine show in 1895. This seems to be well documented in the Buster Keaton biographies, but I've never seen it mentioned in the Houdini biographies, though they do mention the story of Houdini giving the boy the nickname. Their traveling medicine show must not have lasted very long.  In the Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini by Ruth Brandon, she mentions that in 1897, the Keatons and Houdinis worked together in Dr. Hill's California Concert Company, which was also a traveling medicine show. In HOUDINI!!! by Kenneth Silverman, he mentions that it was the California Concert Company where Houdini began to present a Spiritualistic Seance Act. The act ended in 1898 when the company disbanded, and not a second too soon for Houdini who did not like deceiving people with seances.

Howard Thurston

Finally, near the center of the page there is an ad for the GLOBE. In the ad is THURSTON-The World's Greatest Magician. Theo Bamberg is also listed as being in the show and doing his Shadowgraphy act (hand shadows).

This ad appears in the same year that Thurston met with Harry Kellar about becoming his successor and buying his show. No mention of Kellar in the ad, so this might have been just prior to that agreement. Kellar and Thurston toured together in the 1907-1908 season.

A lot of magic history on one newspaper theatre page!