Combing the Harvard Theatre Collection for traces of Houdini, we ran across this unique "action sequence" of photos showing Harry and Bess doing their signature "Metamorphosis" illusion.
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"PUT INTO SACK WITH HANDS TIED BEHIND"
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"SEALING UP SACK WITH HOUDINI INSIDE"
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"HOUDINI HAS ESCAPED BUT THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE INSIDE SACK"
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| "LADY ASSISTANT IS DISCOVERED IN HOUDINI'S COAT WITH ARMS TIED" |
These originally appeared in the January 5, 1901 edition of an obscure British magazine called The Golden Penny. Our guess is that Harry sent them from their first London tour to his Harvard pal Dr. Joseph Waitt. Why would he do that? We think Waitt helped him build the box.
Houdiniphiles! Comments, please! Is this photo sequence unique, as we believe? Is this the stage at the Alhambra? Any ideas about Dr. Waitt?
Absolutely sensational! These pics also appeared in Bruce MacNab's The Metamorphosis, but they are very small. It's great to see larger versions. BTW, that's the trunk Pat Culliton owned for years. Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words & info, John.
ReplyDeletePaging Pat Culliton! Do you think Dr. Waitt helped build the box?
BTW, the captions on this are the original captions from the magazine.
First time I've seen these photos. They solved a mystery about that behind the back rope tie. The wrists are not bound tightly together as I had always imagined they would be.
ReplyDeleteCulliton writes in The Secret Confessions of Houdini that shortly after Harry and Bess became a team, Houdini and a Kansas City theatrical prop man named Frank Allen built a large trunk from used lumber to replace the box from the Houdini Brothers act.
Culliton also notes that later on Harry had another trunk made by the Taylor Trunk Manufacturing Firm of Chicago, Illinois.
As you know, he appeared at the Alhambra Theatre around the time these photos appeared in the magazine, but I couldn’t say if that is the stage at the Alhambra. WRT to Dr. Waitt, Houdini had been performing Metamorphosis for many years prior to meeting Dr. Waitt in January 1900. That said, supposedly Dr. Waitt of Boston, made some of the apparatus used by Houdini early in his career, so it’s possible he helped with improvements to Metamorphosis; Paging Pat Culliton. Kalush mentions that Waitt also helped Houdini design a few of his later spectacular challenges (e.g., glass box).
ReplyDeleteThese are fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteFantastic. Great to see these in the larger and clearer format. Thanks
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