The Man Who Invented The Handcuff Act

Bruce MacNab posted a photo of B.B. Keyes, over on the Facebook group CONJURING HISTORY - BUY, SELL AND TALK. He said his name comes up in most of the Houdini biographies but little is known about him. So, I decided to see what I could dig up.

Benjamin B. Keyes was born in Sandwhich, Massachusetts in 1837. He was the son of Samuel and Betsy Brown. He was an engineer by trade. In 1869 he married Sarah Russell of Charlestown Mass. According to Bruce MacNab's book on Houdini titled Metamorphosis, Keyes was a portrait photographer from Lynn Mass. But the magic community knew him as a mechanical genius.

The Sphinx and Mahatma both say his greatest creation was Astarte which he developed with William Robinson. However, according to a 2006 article in MUM Magazine, the original illusion was the work of Will B. Wood who called the levitation Edna, after his wife. B.B. Keyes actually reverse engineered the illusion while working for Kellar.

Besides Astarte, Keyes is credited with being a very prolific creator of magic. Many of his creations were sold through the Boston magic dealer W.D. Le Roy*. In Leroy's catalog you can find ads for The Floating Wand, invented by B.B. Keyes, and Table Lifting, invented by B. B. Keyes. There is also a big photo of Keyes in the pages of the catalog. That same photo is the one at the top of this article.

Maybe his true most famous creation was the commercially available Handcuff Act*. Below is the ad from Leroy's Catalog. Please note the price, $75.00. I went through most of the catalog and most everything was under $10. A few items reached $20 and $30 and a Sub-trunk reached $50. But here was the act that put Houdini on the map, and it's price much much higher!

Here now is an interesting piece from the May 1895 issue of Mahatma, "Mr. B.B. Keyes gave an exhibition of legerdemain and spirit manifestations at the E.W. Kinsely Post No.113 on April 23rd. His tricks with cards, coins, etc. were very deceptive, but the most astonishing feat of all was freeing himself from handcuffs, seemingly an impossibility. E.F. Gaskin, Captain of Police Station 14, at the request of the Commander of the Post was present with 4 different kinds of the latest improved hand-cuffs, the best the department could obtain. He applied them himself, one pair at a time, and was dumbfounded when Mr. Keyes removed and handed them back to him unlocked, in from twenty to fifty seconds."

So apparently the date of April 23rd, 1895 was when B.B. Keyes first showed his handcuff escape act to an audience. At least it was one of his early exhibitions if not the actual first time. Oddly, the first Handcuff Act that was sold by B. B. Keyes actually went to T. Nelson Downs, this information according to a 1919 letter by Dr. James Elliott. Here is an interesting side note, in the November 1930 issue of The Sphinx, T. Nelson Downs relates a story of meeting up with Houdini at their hotel while Houdini was working the London Alhambra. Downs took from his trunk a ring of 52 keys and said to Houdini, "Here are the tools you do your act with." Houdini replied, "Tom, I don't use keys. You know I did not have the money to buy the keys" etc. Then Downs said, "Well you can't open them with hot air!" 

According to The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, on pg 39 it states that in September 1895 Houdini purchased the above escape act from W.D. Le Roy. Patrick Culliton in his book Houdini The Key, shows several letters between Houdini and W.D. Leroy discussing the handcuff act and some issues that have come up with exposure. These letters were written in 1900, and apparently even at that date, Le Roy was still supplying Houdini with new keys.

The handcuff act by Keyes and sold by Leroy was a ring of keys that could be used to open many different styles of cuffs, and likely any brand readily available. Was this Houdini's sole secret to his handcuff act, not hardly.  He had been developing handcuff escapes prior to his purchase of the B.B. Keyes method, and no doubt continued to work on new and different techniques to beat any pair of handcuffs, but it was one method he used for sure. However, in 1908, Houdini sold his handcuff act through various dealers as 'The Defiance Handcuff Act'. The kit consisted of a set of keys and picks that would open 62 different handcuffs, and it came with 15 pages of typewritten instructions. This information comes directly from Patrick Culliton's book, Houdini The Key, which has an entire chapter of the Handcuff trick and illustrations of the Defiance Handcuff Manuscript. One of the dealers who sold this was August Roterberg of Chicago. I wonder what W.D. Leroy thought of this?

Benjamin B. Keyes, according to the April 1898 issue of Mahatma Magazine, "Keyes possessed almost a mania for automata and constructed some of the most complete mechanical working figures. He was widely known throughout the profession, frequently making goods for jugglers, trapeze artists, bicycle riders, etc.."

In a 1919 letter to Dr. A.M. Wilson from Dr. James Elliott that appeared in the July 1919 issue of The Sphinx Magazine, he mentions that Benjamin Keyes died of Bright's Disease and that he was the one who gave the diagnosis. Bright's Disease is an old fashioned word for chronic inflammation of the kidneys.  Keyes died in November 1895 in Chelsea, Mass. He would not live to see the fame that Houdini would achieve escaping from handcuffs.

*William D. Le Roy was born in LaSalle Illinois August 5th, 1862. In his youth, he studied music and

the violin. By the age of 19 he was living in San Francisco and was giving classes on the violin. This appears to be where he picked up the magic bug and began to learn the trade. But, whether he met someone or discovered it from a book is not known.

In 1885, he made his first professional appearance as a magician at the Fountain Theatre in San Francisco according to the Feb 1909 issue of The Sphinx. He also appeared on the cover that month.

In 1887, he relocated to Boston and by 1893 opened the Boston School of Magic on 103 Court Street. According to the website Auspostalhistory.com, Le Roy altered the way his name was spelled in 1906 from Le Roy to Leroy. I would guess because it was easier to remember or to distinguish himself from Servais Le Roy.

He is credited with having the largest and most up to date magic catalog of it's time. Besides selling magic he was a big advocate of magic fraternities and was instrumental in signing up many people to the Society of American Magicians.

Le Roy passed away on June 10th, 1919. He is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Gloucester Mass.

I looked up the location of his shop on Google Earth, but sadly, that area has been completely redeveloped. However, below is a picture of his shop that appeared in The Sphinx.

*It was actually Samri Baldwin who claimed to have presented the first handcuff escape. I wrote about that in a previous article which can be found here.

Only 2 Days Till TheMagicDetective Blog Returns!

Coming in Just 2 Days, The Return of The Magic Detective Blog! I've written a number of articles that I've been saving. The first article will have a Houdini connection. I also have an article about Russia's greatest illusionist, and a brief article about Kalanag. They won't all appear on Sept 1, but you'll be seeing articles more often after that date. There's a lot more in store, so keep watching! Only 2 Days to Go!

The RETURN Of The Magic Detective!

On September 1st, the Magic Detective RETURNS with new articles, new content, an updated look (ok, more historical look). It's been a tough few months, as I'm sure you could tell from my last post. In that time, I've watched as other friends and associates have had to endure the trials of going through the death of a loved one, just as I did. I've had to sit back and be a spectator to the deaths of some iconic members of our magic family. 2016 has not been a good year. But, I'm determined to make it better! So September 1st, I'll put up my first blog article since April. I did post a brief article in June just to let every one know why I had vanished. But the true articles stopped back in April. Now, I'm ready to get in my time machine and travel to the past to enjoy more Magic History!!!!

The Reason For My Absence

I must apologize for my short hiatus from this blog. The recent deaths of my Dad and my best friend have taken the wind from my sails. For those who don't know, my best friend, Bobby Dymond was a performer, magician, balloon artist and probably one of the greatest rock and roll drummers who ever lived. He had been battling cancer and came through all his procedures with flying colors. However, he developed pneumonia, and though it looked like he was on the mend, on May 2nd, while walking out the door of his house, he collapsed on the front steps. An ambulance was called but he eventually passed away right on the front steps. Cause of death was congestive heart failure linked to his pneumonia. His death was such a shock to everyone. He died May 2, 2016 at the age of 61.

Then, only days later, my Dad, who had been hospitalized for 40 consecutive days, died on May 15th, 2016. It is still very hard for me to speak of this, or write about it. He began with a heart valve replacement which went well, but then he had incredible side effects from the medication, so he ended up back in the hospital. Then he developed peritonitis, and then a few days later a strangulated hernia. If that was not enough, only days after these things he came down with c-diff.  After 40 days of hospitalization, the Doctors said there was nothing else they could do, he was not showing any signs of recovery. Each day he seemed to get worse. There was yet another ailment that developed on day 39. So, we decided to move him to a hospice. I went in the ambulance with him to the facility. He was awake and alert. When we got him into his new room, he was fine but eventually fell asleep. The nurses would come in every hour and check on him and though he was asleep he was fine. At 5:20am, the next morning they came in and he had passed. My mom stayed with him every single night he was in the hospital. I stayed with him most days, as both moral support and relief for my mom when she had to head home to take care of things.

So now you know where I've been. I'm sure that I will return to the blog eventually. Maybe even fairly soon. But for now, I'm still trying to work through everything. Thank you all for being loyal readers of my blog. I know when I return, I will have more great content and stories to share, until then, be safe and be well.

Obscura Day Houdini Escapes DC-Update

Atlas Obscura hosted a fun event yesterday in Washington D.C. that they called Houdini Escapes D.C.. The event showcased Houdini's many visits to D.C.. It was a two hour event that began with a viewing of Ken Trombly's Houdini collection. Ken also spoke for about 45 minutes about Houdini and his collection. Unfortunately, I missed this part, but I have seen parts of Ken's collection in the past and it's incredible!

And thanks to Brian Suddeth, who was present, I can share some photos from Ken's presentation.
As I mentioned, Ken has an incredible Houdini collection. I was blown away by all the posters he had the first time I saw them in his home. At the event he shared some of those posters and  he also shared some smaller photos during his talk. The photo to the right shows Houdini's Metamorphosis poster, his King of Cards Poster, and one of my favs, the Prison Cell and Barrel Mystery Poster. I'm sure Ken gave information about each of the posters.

The next photo from Ken Trombly's talk shows him holding a photo of Houdini and Teddy Roosevelt. This is a classic photo. Long before Photoshop existed, Houdini was altering photos! The actual photo has several people on both sides of Houdini and Roosevelt. But Harry, had them all painted over so it looked like he was the only one standing next to Teddy.

It's ironic that Ken showed that photo, because I had planned to share the story about Houdini meeting Roosevelt on board the SS Imperator and performing for the former president. In fact, I was going to demonstrate the slate trick that Houdini fooled Roosevelt with, but I cut it from the show at the last minute because I didn't want to run long.

After Ken's talk the attendees walked a short distance to Farragut Square Park to watch Carnegie (me) and Denise present a Houdini-like show. Because this was my portion of the program I'll tell you what we had intended and I'll tell you what actually happened. We planned to present the first half of the show AS Harry and Bess. We had our period costumes, we also had the same music Houdini used along with some other musical selections from that era. I was even going to do the Houdini-voice! However, the circumstances didn't really feel right for such a theatrical approach, so on the fly, I changed to more of a historical presentation. I still did all the material just in a slightly different manner. Thankfully, I have a fantastic assistant who knows to expect these types of things when working with me.

Our show began with a quick, silent-to music escape sequence which started with a chain escape, a rope 'thing', and a single handcuff escape. The rope 'thing' is something I created a while ago and is actually part of a longer routine. It begins with a piece of rope about 3 feet long, dropped into a bag. My hands go into the bag and a moment or two later come out with my hands tightly bound! It's a cool moment and gets a nice laugh from the audience because they do not expect it. Next, I move on to the handcuff escape. In this instance a pair of Hamburg 8s were used. Boom, boom, boom, three quick escapes in under two minutes. NOT the way Houdini would have done them, but a nice way to present it for 21st Century audiences.


Next I share a bit about Houdini the King of Cards and presented the classic Cards Across. I chose this effect because it was one that Robert-Houdin presented and Houdini got his start in magic via the book, The Memoirs of Robert-Houdin. I figured it was very likely that Houdini presented this particular trick, even though I don't have definitive proof.

The next segment was the multi-handcuff escape. Truly one of the most painful things I've had to endure. You see, I have a medical condition which has me on blood thinning medication. This medication causes me to bruise easily. From several days of rehearsal, I ended up with multiple bruises up and down both arms. In fact, we had to drop three pair of cuffs because they would no longer fit my wrists due to the swelling. I was still able to get 6 pair of cuffs on along with a pair of thumbscrews.

Once I was all cuffed, I stepped inside my make-shift 'Ghost House', in other words a cloth cabinet, and proceeded to escape. I tossed the individual cuffs over the top of the cabinet after I was free of them. The last piece I removed were the thumbscrews, which I did in the open rather than inside the cloth cabinet.

I followed the multi-cuff escape with my routine which I call Chaplin. It's basically a story about how Houdini met a young Charlie Chaplin in England before Chaplin's rise to fame. In the story, Houdini helps Chaplin earn some money by playing a guessing game of sorts and he is rewarded if he wins. I've presented this hundreds of times and it's always a fun routine, though it is better indoors in a theatre setting.

The last item was a 100 foot rope tie. I got two volunteers out of the audience to help tie me up and well, I proceeded to escape.  The wonderful thing about this escape is, you never know just how people will tie you up. People always go about it differently, sometimes they start with the hands, sometimes, they wrap you up first, it's always interesting to see what choices they take. After about three minutes I was completely tied and it took me about 2 minutes to free myself.

Those two events, Ken Trombly's Houdini collection and my show, probably would have made for a perfect event. But there was one more thing yet to do. We all walked several blocks to the location of the old Keith's Vaudeville Theatre. The location is the corner of 15th and G St.. Today the spot is filled by The Old Ebbit Grill. But in Houdini's day it was Keith's Theatre. January 12, 1922, Houdini presented a hanging straitjacket escape from this location. It was his second straitjacket escape in DC but it's also his most famous due to the iconic photo of him hanging upside down in front of the building with the Treasury building on the far right and the Washington Monument off in the distance.

When we all arrived at the location, I spoke for 10-15 minutes about Houdini's escape and some of his challenge escapes he performed in D.C.. I also brought out an original program from Keith's with Houdini on the cover, along with a vintage postcard of the theatre. I took a few questions following the talk and we wrapped things up right there. Incidentally, if you go into the Old Ebbit Grill, the doors you walk through are the same entrance way that was used for the Keith's Vaudeville theatre. And if you walk to the back seating area you'll be sitting in the area that was the theatre auditorium itself.