Magic Detective Podcast Ep10 Notes on Harry Kellar in Retirement

Most people kind of fade out of the limelight when they retire. But this was not the case for Harry Kellar. Sure, he didn't spend all of his time on the road going from theatre to theatre but he still traveled a fair amount. He also visited his old friends quite a bit. And he kept up with magic.

Kellar retired in 1908 when he handed his Mantle of Magic over to Howard Thurston. But Thurston got a lot more than the Mantle. He also received Kellar's Manager, Keller's Touring Routes, Kellar's two chief assistants Frizt and Carl Bucha, as well as all the props and paraphernalia that went with the Kellar show. And to the surprise of many, Thurston only kept two of Kellar's illusions, the rest he sold.

The first thing he did after he retired was take a very long vacation in Atlantic City. Above is a photo of Kellar and Houdini in Atlantic City. According to the Ken Silverman bio on Houdini, this is where their friendship really began to take off. Over time they developed a father/son type of relationship and it's proven in the various letters they shared back and forth.

I mentioned on the podcast about a photo I had of an improved Kellar prop. His name was cast into the iron, and below is a photo of that prop. I'm only showing the part that has Kellar's name due to secrecy issues. The piece is now owned by David Haversat.

Here is a video of Kellar and Houdini. I'm not sure of the location, but I did learn that Houdini had some film footage taken of Kellar and himself while he was in Los Angeles, so that is possibly where this was taken.

One quick minor correction to the podcast also has to do with Kellar giving Psycho to Houdini in 1919. He didn't ship it to Houdini but rather gave it to him while Houdini was in California making movies. 

Finally, I wanted to give you the link to an article I wrote a few years back called 'Kellar's Last Mystery'.


I used the book, Kellar's Wonders by Mike Caveney and Bill Miesel, The Sphinx Magazine, Ken Silverman's Bio on Houdini, AskAlexander.org and several other sources during my research for the entire three part series on Harry Kellar. I also used Geneologybank.com, Newspapers.com to research newspaper articles on Harry Kellar.

Magic Detective Podcast Ep 9 -Notes

Episode 9 is up and ready to listen to. This is part 2 of the Amazing Life of Harry Kellar. It covers his years right after the tragic shipwreck, right up to his retirement in 1908.

Along the way I mentioned a few things and I wanted to share them below. First up was the Automaton Psycho that Harry Kellar ripped off from John Nevil Maskelyne. Below is a video of Kellar's Psycho in action.

Next I mentioned the Blue Room and also The Spectre Cabinet. After reading through the book Kellar's Wonders by Mike Caveney and Bill Miesel, it appears that the video below is actually The Spectre Cabinet and not the Blue Room, IF I understood this correctly. It is referred to as The Blue Room, and I'm assuming the two effects are similar in operation. At least you get an idea of how magnificent this effect really was.

This next video has a clip of The Mascot Moth, but you have to wait till the very end of the video. It's in the last few seconds.

Finally, here is an image of the beautiful Golden Butterfly Poster.

Episode 10 will conclude the series on Kellar and will cover his retirement years.

Carnegie On French Houdini Documentary

Back in May of 2018, I took part in a documentary segment about the time Houdini testified before Congress. This segment was for the French TV Channel ARTE. The segment finally aired TODAY, November 21st, 2018. It's all in French, so if you don't speak French, you won't understand a word, lol. But it's a pretty good segment and I hope you enjoy it. Below is the french version. 

By the way, during the actual event in 1926, Houdini presented the Spirit Slates to the Congressman, and then exposed it to them. He said, "My oath prevents me from exposing magic secrets, but I have no problem exposing the secrets of mediums". I did a quick demonstration of the Spirit Slates during my segment, though unlike Houdini, I did not expose it!