Houdini's Life Changing Event In St. Paul That You Haven't Heard

7th St. St. Paul-The Palm Garden is down this street.

According to the history books, in March of 1899, Harry Houdini was playing at a beer hall in St. Paul Minnesota called The Palm Garden*. We know that at some point prior to March 14th, Martin Beck arrived at the beer hall with a group of other theatre owners. Beck witnessed Houdini's act of escaping handcuffs, but thought they must be faked. So Beck challenged Houdini to escape from some handcuffs that he would bring. The following night Beck brings with him three pairs of handcuffs and Houdini escapes from all three. That's the story we are all familiar with. It's the same story in Kenneth Silverman's bio on Houdini, and basically similar story to the Kalush Bio. In the William Kalush biography, The Secret Life of Houdini, he adds a story that took place before the Beck meeting which really had nothing to do with performing.

On March 14th, Houdini gets a telegram from Martin Beck in Chicago. The telegram says, "You can open Omaha, March 26th, at $60, will see act, probably make proposition for all next season." Houdini records in his journal "This wire changed my whole life's journey."

That's what we know to be the historical record of the day Houdini's life changed forever. However, there is something else, and I do not know if it happened before Beck's arrival or after. It could have even been the thing that lured Beck to the Palm Garden, that is IF it happened before. If it happened after the Beck encounter, then Houdini was making the most of this encounter by pulling out all the stops.

The St. Paul Globe Newspaper, March 7th, 1899 edition. This records an event that happened one week before Houdini got the telegram from Martin Beck. So somewhere in between is when likely when they met. Here is the story....

Houdini was performing at the Palm Garden, and part of his act was the challenge handcuff routine, where anyone can bring cuffs and he will escape from them. A member of the audience suggests he let the police try. So between acts, Houdini and the Manager of the Palm Garden head to the Central Police Station in St. Paul and ask Chief Schweitzer if they would challenge Houdini with a pair of their police cuffs. The Chief comes out with an unusual pair. According to the newspaper the Chief is quoted as saying "I'll fix him, I've got a pair that would defy Mephistopheles himself." They put the cuffs on Houdini and then add a more up to date pair of cuffs on him as well. Then Houdini is taken to another room to attempt his escape in private.

Two minutes later, Houdini came back into the room with the cuffs not only removed, but locked together. The locking together is a subtle way of showing that he didn't simply 'slip' the cuffs of his wrists, but rather had to open them in order to put lock them together. The feat made the newspaper.

To add to this, I checked the complete newspaper for a day or so before and after and the Palm Garden never ran any ads for Houdini's appearance. So this blurb on March 7th is the only recorded historical record of his St. Paul visit. As I mentioned before, if it happened before the Beck meeting, it could have been what drew Beck to the Palm Garden. If it happened after, then it was Houdini doing what he did best, getting publicity. And it's the last article that would be written on him before he went off under Martin Beck's direction.

*The Palm Garden was a type of indoor beer garden that became very popular in the 1890s. I don't know how many there were, but it appears that many major cities had one. Some of them offered entertainment, usually orchestras or smaller bands. 

Bess Houdini's Love Triangle

Well well well. What do we have here? Turns out Bess Houdini has been secretly meeting with John Cox and Tom Interval behind ole Harry's back! Shameful. What would Harry say if he found out? I'm really disappointed in....well you know......in the fact I didn't get invited to the freaking party! Oh, wait, I'm TOO BUSY! Hey Bess, don't call me, I want nothing to do with this love triangle you've created. This is just sick. This is why in the Victorian Times people looked down upon Show People! Theo was right, Bess is a bad influence!

Ok, now that I've got this out of my system, Congratulations to John Cox and Tom Interval for their connection to Bess Houdini, played by actress Kristen Connolly, and the new HOUDINI Miniseries. It's really exciting to see these guys have their talents and knowledge recognized. The following link is to an interview with Kristen where she mentions both Tom and John as sources of her research on Bess. I really couldn't be happier for you guys!!!!!

However...............if the movie sucks, now I know to who to blame! :)

Just kidding! Bravo to John and Tom, and to Kristen for seeking out two of the smartest Houdini Guys alive today!!!!

The Houdini Soundtrack is Available NOW on iTunes

Is this possibly the first Houdini Soundtrack ever available from any of the movies? Actually, one of the lesser known Houdini movies Fairy Tale-A True Story, has a sound track and a very hard to get one too. The music in that movie is fantastic...but as I said, hard to get.

Here is the link to the iTunes Houdini Soundtrack... https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/houdini-volume-1-original/id909175974


You can check out ALL the various articles on the 30 Days of Houdini
by clicking here, http://www.themagicdetective.com/search/label/30%20days

The Houdini Tramp Chairs

In the photo above, is an unusual item from the Salon De Magie, the collection of Ken Klosterman. I'm not sure of the origins, as far as where Ken got this, but he is very thorough in his documenting items that he puts in his collection, so I have no doubt it's authentic. My guess is that it's a challenge that Houdini received. I do know it's featured in his book Salon De Magie, unfortunately, it's one of the few books I do not have. In the photo above, you'll need to excuse the leather device underneath the chair and the orange/red box sitting on the chair, as they are not part of the Tramp Chair.

I did some general research on this type of chair and they were basically made in small jails when there was no space for extra prisoners. These could sit in a hallway or outside the cells and still contain a prisoner because they would be handcuffed to the chair. I have a feeling the neck collar was added just for Houdini, and for all I know, it may have been added BY Houdini.

The was this would look in performance or in challenge performance is Houdini would have both wrists handcuffed to the chair section and his neck would be put in the neck collar and locked up. This would prevent Houdini from bending down, so he couldn't use a key in his teeth. He also would be unable to lift a hand to help undo either the neck collar or the other hand. At least this is how it would appear by the audience. Whether he did this in full view or behind a cabinet I do not know, though my guess is with this particular device he probably presented it behind some sort of curtain.

His brother Hardeen also encountered a Tramp Chair which was dubbed the Maine Tramp Chair. This is a very different device. The Maine Tramp Chair is like a portable jail cell, or a chair on wheels surrounded by a jail cell. It's a very strange relic from the 19th Century. Hardeen successfully escaped from one of these at the Bijou Theatre in Bangor Maine, in 11 minutes 54 seconds.

Houdini also claimed to have escaped from a Maine Tramp Chair in Boston, but he called his a 'Witches Chair'. For historical purposes, there was something called a 'witches chair' but it was not the same as the Maine Tramp Chair, it was a wooden chair with spikes embedded in the seat and back cushion so as to cause the sitter extreme pain. I think that Houdini's Witches Chair however, was not this, but in fact was another Maine Tramp Chair or one similar. The description of the Maine Tramp Chair can be found in Houdini's Magic & Escapes by Walter Gibson.

Maine Tramp Chair

You can check out ALL the various articles from 30 Days of Houdini HERE!

A Little Unintentioned Houdini Duplication

David Saltman is the writer who runs HoudiniFile.com. He is also a writer, producer and director of quite a few documentaries and he is a well established author who has a book coming out on Houdini very soon. Plus, David is a nice guy. I was fortunate enough to meet him last year at the Washington D.C. Symposium on Magic History.

I was looking at his site which always has very unique articles on Houdini and magic, and which sadly I don't look at enough. I say that because I noticed on May 22 he posted a piece on Houdini having issues with his luggage. He put the actual newspaper article in the piece as well. Fast forward to August and yours truly puts the same article, though a different headline from a different paper on this blog as part of the 30 Days of Houdini. Ugggh, I hate duplicating stuff other people have done, though sometimes it's unavoidable.

Speaking of duplication, yesterday I put up the details on where to find the HOUDINI-Miniseries DVDs. I am very aware that John Cox was the first to put this up, but as I recall he pointed people to Amazon.com whereas I pointed them right to History.com. A small detail, but this is more of a service to help you (the readers) find these great Houdini items that you can add to your collections.

I have to stop for a minute and mention, I have NOT seen the Houdini Miniseries yet. I have not even seen the first night, as some folks have. I've been so busy, I've hardly seen the trailers, lol. I have pretty mixed feelings from what I've seen and from some things I've heard. But I'm hoping for the best and trying not to past judgement too early. If memory serves, I was quite excited about the last Houdini movie, which was called Death Defying Acts with Guy Pierce and Catherine Zeta Jones. I truly did not think any movie could be bad that had Catherine Zeta Jones in it, but I was wrong. That movie was awful and had nothing to do with Houdini.

I don't expect this version created by The History Channel to be perfect, but as I mentioned I'm hoping for something good. The Tony Curtis/Houdini movie is filled with fictional stuff and that movie did more to bring new people into magic and get people interested in Houdini than anything I can think of in my lifetime. So a bit of artistic liscence I guess is ok. But there are some things I've seen in still images that are causing me great concern. I'm going to hold my tongue for the moment.....BUT, I know someone who has already put his opinion out there, David Saltman. And David, has done a very good job of backing up why he thinks the way he does. So I'm adding the link to one of David's articles on the new movie. There are three I think. You may wish to wait until you've seen the movie in case you are afraid of forming an opinion before seeing the movie. Or, you can just read what he has to say, all of which I tend to agree with, and then watch the movie and judge for yourself.
http://www.houdinifile.com/2014/08/houdini-sharks.html