Pages

▼

QUEEN VICTORIA'S DRESS


Houdini's mother wearing Queen Victoria's dress
As promised, we are harking back to one of our earlier themes - Harry Houdini's family. Today we consider the event that Harry recalls as the happiest moment of his life -- the moment where he is finally able to fulfill the deathbed pledge he made to his father. 

 The pledge was simply a promise to take care of his mother. But as always with Harry, he went the whole nine yards and another mile after that. He took care of his mother and he also took care of his father, restoring the family's good name in Budapest.

 This took place in 1901, when Harry's star began rising in Europe.

First, Harry buys his mother a one-of-a-kind dress, a dress originally made for Queen Victoria, who died before she was ever able to wear it. 


Harry, Bess, Cecilia & Queen Victoria's dress

Then he fetes her, wearing that dress, among all her childhood friends and family, as "Queen for a Day" in the most elegant spot in Budapest: the famous Palm Court of the Royal Hotel. 


Royal Hotel, Budapest, virtually unchanged since Houdini's day                          (via Royal Hotel website)
Palm Court Royal Hotel, Budapest, c. 1901                                                   (thanks to Botond Kelle)

As we have established with high probability in earlier posts, Harry's father had killed Prince Erich of the Habsburgs defending the family's honor and it had cost him everything. The father's pride crushed by poverty, he enlisted his son to protect their beloved Cecilia, wife and mother. Years later, at the Royal Hotel, Harry treated his mother like a queen. 


No comments:

Post a Comment