The Game Changing Illusion

The one magician who changed the face of illusion magic more than anyone in the 20th Century was P.T. Selbit. Born Percy Thomas Tibbles on November 17th, 1881 in London. He found the name Tibbles had a less than magical sound to it, so he reversed the spelling of his name and became Selbit. He was a performer and a creator of incredible mysteries.

Illusion magic during Selbit's time contained vanishes, appearances, floatings in the air and similar effects. But no one had ever presented the illusion of mutilating a human being in the way Selbit came up with*. His creation would start a whole new brand of illusion magic.

The illusion that changed everything was Selbit's Sawing Thru A Woman. It was first presented to the public on January 17th 1921 at the Finsbury Park Empire Theatre. It had been presented several times previous to that date to magicians and agents. Notice, it was not Sawing in Half. His version was Sawing Thru a Woman, a penetration illusion. But it gave birth to all later sawing effects. The Selbit Sawing was unlike anything that had been presented in the world of stage magic. A long rectangular box made of rough cut wood sat upon two small wooden platforms. Ropes were tied on the woman's wrists and ankles. The ropes would be fed through holes in the box and then these would be tied with knots preventing her movement within the box. Next, three sheets of glass were shoved down into the box from the top, and then two sheets of metal were shoved into the box from the sides. The woman was unmistakably divided into numerous sections. But the best was yet to come. A large cross cut saw was used to saw the box in two. This was not the super clean way we think about it today. No, the long saw was real and truly cut the wooden crate in half. It took a while to cut through the thick wood of the box. Unlike, the more popular versions, the now divided boxes were not separated. Instead, the blade was left below the two cut boxes, the lid was opened, the ropes cut and the girl emerged perfectly safe and healthy!

P.T. Selbit presenting his masterpiece

The illusion of Sawing Through a Woman was an instant sensation. Word spread across the globe and magicians in America got wind of the new effect. The Great Leon and Horace Goldin set about creating their very own versions of the effect, but with a subtle change. They would be sawing a woman in halves and separating the halved boxes. Their effect would not be a penetration like Selbit's but instead a destruction and restoration effect. Goldin began work first on his method when Leon inquired about it. He told Leon he owned the rights to the trick, but that was a lie and Leon later discovered the truth and created his own.

The Goldin Sawing had an advantage over the Selbit version in that you could see the girls head, hands and feet the entire time. But Goldin's first version which he debuted in May 1921 used a boy not a woman. Thurston saw this and recognized the potential in the effect but also knew it was not a finished piece. He worked out a deal to have his chief mechanic and builder Harry Jansen rework the prop. Harry Jansen, who would later be known as Dante, at one time had his own magic manufacturing shop in Chicago. His company had the building rights to Servais LeRoy's illusions. Jansen took the Goldin Sawing and added the LeRoy Asrah table base. In Mike Caveney's book The Great Leon, he says that Leon also used the LeRoy Asrah table but the method was slightly different. Goldin took his new and improved illusion and had it patented under his name alone!

Goldin knew an opportunity when he saw it and by Summer of 1921 sent out other authorized performers to present his Sawing a Lady in Halves. Among the early group were; Thurston, Dante, and Servais LeRoy. He had a total of nine performers traveling the country with his sensation. Selbit came to America in September of 1921 hoping to reap the rewards of his creation and was shocked to find he had been ripped off. Selbit sued Goldin and lost. It didn't stop Selbit from sending out magicians with his version of the effect as well though. David Price's book, A Pictorial History of Conjurers in the Theatre mentions that Houdini stepped into the fray to show a playbill from a London theatre dated back to the 1880s which had the headline "Sawing a Lady in Two".

Eventually, Horace Goldin came up with a method for the illusion that removed the box completely and the need for the long wood saw. Instead, a girl would be placed upon a table in full view and a large circular saw would rip through her body. This became known as The Buzz Saw Illusion. Three of the most famous practitioners of this illusion were Harry Blackstone Sr and Jr, and Richiardi. This illusion was created in 1931.

The improved Goldin version using the box stayed around however. Milbourne Christopher in his Illustrated History of Magic credits a Turkish magician, Zati Sungar with shrinking down the size of the box and thus creating what we call today the 'thin model' sawing. Numerous variations have been developed since that time. Robert Harbin's contributions were probably the most unique. He created a simple to travel with Bow Saw version and then elaborated greatly on the theme and created The Zig Zag Lady!

Who can be credited with originally coming up with the sawing concept can be debated forever. One thing we know for sure, no illusion in the history of magic has ever created the sensation that the Sawing in Half Craze of 1921 did.

*There were other mutilation effects prior to Selbit's Sawing. The Sword Basket is one example as is the much older John the Baptist effect, where a head is severed from the body and set next to body on a table. But even those did not have the impact  that the Sawing Illusions first created.

Houdini vs The Mighty Mississippi

Houdini in New Orleans (Library of Congress)

I remember a few years ago, driving through Minneapolis and wondering if Houdini ever did a bridge jump into the Mississippi River. I don't know if he did one in Mpls. but I found a very interesting Challenge that took place in Mississippi River in New Orleans.

It began in the pages of The New Orleans Item Newspaper on November 13th, 1907. A daily column called SPORTING CHAT written by a fellow named simply as Ham, publicly challenged Houdini.

"Sporting Chat, dares Houdini to permit himself to be bound-say, by a member, in good standing, of the police department-with some reliable expert of chains and handcuffs as the judge; AND THEN JUMP INTO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. The challenge is in keeping with Houdini's boasts. Wonder if he'll accept?"

The November 15th, 1907 edition of the same newspaper has a small article with a photo of Houdini. The headline reads "WILL HANG BY TOES, THEN DROP IN RIVER". Houdini accepted the challenge and threw in a counter proposal. He agreed to the challenge and then added, "I have arranged a dive from the steamer J.S. and if Chat wants me to, I will hang by my toes, and plunge perpendicularly into the water". The time and date of the escape are mentioned in the article and the exact location is given, The Foot of Canal Street.

There is another interesting and revealing item. The article says "Houdini said today, he would offer $10 for the best picture taken, $5 for the next best and $2.50 for the third best". But I'm unaware of any photos taken of the escape. They may yet be out there!

On November 17th, 1907, the rain was pouring down in New Orleans. Still, almost 10,000 showed up to watch Houdini attempt his escape.  Houdini was wrapped in chains, shackles and padlocks by First Recorder’s Court Judge Jon Fogarty, using manacles provided by the Orleans Parish Prison. Houdini jumped into the muddy waters of the mighty Mississippi River and vanished below the surface of the water. Thirty seconds later a hand slowly emerged from the water holding the shackles and chains, Houdini had freed himself to the delight of the New Orleans crowd.

Special Note: The photo at the top is Canal St. looking out into the Mississippi River, the photo below is IN the Mississippi River looking towards Canal St.

The spot where Houdini escaped in the Mississippi River in New Orleans

A Female Houdini In the Movies

"Girl Defies Death, Houdini Marvels"
(newspaper article)

Houdini wants to know how it was done. And by the way, Mr. Houdini, the handcuff king, was at the Hippodrome in Cleveland a week ago and mystified all the folks who saw his performance. 

Helen Holmes, a movie picture actress with the Kalem Company, who is appearing in the film, "Hazards of Helen", has duplicated Houdini's stunts.
Recently, she was thrown into the rough and choppy waters of San Pedro harbor, California, with her hands and feed tied. She escaped and met her sweetheart on the bank of the big stream just as the scenario said she must.
Miss Holmes has worked for more than a year on the trickery of escaping bonds. She has shown most of these in her moving pictures, which are the most daring of the kind ever exhibited.

So who was Helen Holmes? Well she was a silent movie actress from the Illinois born in 1893. She began making movies around 1912. As the Perils of Pauline serial began to take off, the Kalem film company decided to do a similar serial of their own starring Helen Holmes. Her films were somewhat different than the cliffhangers of the Perils of Pauline. Many of her films had Helen herself escaping her bonds or freeing herself rather than being rescued by someone else.

Given the time period in history, I kind of wonder if she did in fact do the escapes. She was known to perform her own stunts, so it's possible.

Helen did not perform the escapes outside of the movies, and any work she may have had in legitimate live theatre was as an actress and not as an escape artist. Her movie career ended in the mid 1920s but she remained in show business both working in theater and training animals for movies. She died in 1950

Below is a video of a typical Damsel in Distress shot from a movie. This is Helen Holmes in action. It appears she was doing these harrowing escapes in the movies before Houdini made his first film.

Houdini's Advice on Success

This is fascinating to me, it's an article that was written by Houdini, yet didn't appear in the papers until November 7th, 1926, a week after he died. The article is titled "Houdini Gave Advice to Modern Youth Battling for Success". The words he wrote are as applicable today as they were then.

"It's true, most unfortunately, that experience is a hard school, but we must learn 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 it cost in hard work, and never deviate from that course."

He then goes on to explain how success isn't achieved overnight. He shares the story of how he fearlessly jumps from high bridges and that he had to work up to that by overcoming the height challenges in stages. First learning to jump from one level and then going higher and gradually higher. It's a good analogy of how success is achieved through smaller steps but often to the outside observer who isn't aware of all that work, they think you just made those triumphs appear from thin air.

The final paragraph is interesting because on one hand it appears that he is pushing his anti-spiritualist agenda, but I think he is really expressing a thought with a double meaning. Sure, Houdini is pushing his fight against the Spiritualists, but by ending with this piece he is also expressing his view that success doesn't come about through 'magic or supernatural means' but by good ole hard work.

"No one possesses supernatural power... Do not therefore, be superstitious. Don't be afraid of spirits or spooks. There are none... Don't fear the dark. I have slept in haunted houses and cemeteries and the only thing I ever caught, was a cold."

I wish Houdini had lived longer so he could continue his columns of advice, but instead these were truly his final words.

Houdini Girl

The headline reads "Baby Houdini, Holder of the South American Underwater Swimming Title" on the cover of the June 22, 1921 edition of the Riverside Enterprise Newspaper. This young girl is Alma Mann and she is 11 years old in the photo above. She made a name for herself as a championship swimmer and diver. But she also included underwater escape stunts ala Houdini.

Alma Mann was from the Canal Zone in Panama. She was apparently quite the sensation down there and eventually came to NYC with her Canal Zone Swim Team to compete in swimming events and do exhibitions at the new Madison Square Garden Pool. At home, Alma was the first person to swim the Culebra Cut near the Panama Canal and she broke the ladies speed record of walking across the Isthmus (from Ocean to Ocean) a distance of 50 miles,  in only 16 hours. She did this at the age of 12.

Where she discovered her skills as an escape artist is unclear. She was obviously a tremendous swimmer and athlete at a very young age. The addition of underwater escapes did help her to get media coverage that other girls her age were not getting, so perhaps that was the sole reason she did them.

One of her stunts was to dive from a height of forty feet while bound in 70 feet of rope. She would remain underwater until she was completely free.

She continued to get press from her swimming and escapes stunts for a couple years and then my guess is she went back to an ordinary life as I could not find any other newspaper articles on her. She was never really a Houdini competitor, as far as I can tell she never worked vaudeville. She only added the escape stunts to help promote her swimming and diving exhibitions. I can't imagine an eleven year old even being allowed to attempt such a thing today, but this was back in the 1920s, definitely a different time.

Blog comments are welcome and encouraged. Also, if I happen to get some fact wrong historically I do appreciate having someone set me straight on that. I try to get the best information possible, but even I can miss something. If you want to discuss a blog in detail, please email me carnegiemagic@aol.com