HOUDINI'S RUSSIAN CROWN JEWELS

Our new friend Andrey Fedorov, chief historian of the Russian Society of Magicians, isn’t buying into the accepted wisdom concerning Houdini’s trip to Russia in 1903. 

He is casting doubt on pretty much the entire Houdini story in Russia, from the date of arrival to the name of his rivals. 

In Fedorov’s recent presentation to the Magic Circle in London, he worked hard to demolish the stories connecting Houdini with the royal family of pre-revolution Russia.

One of the enduring legends about Houdini in Russia is his performance for Grand Duke Sergei at the Kleinmichel Palace on May 23, 1903. Harry wrote about it in the New York Dramatic Mirror and it’s been picked up by most of the subsequent Houdini biographers. A key element is the “jeweled ladle,” which, according to Harry, was presented by an admiring Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and became the crown jewel of Houdini’s souvenir collection.

Bess with souvenirs. Jeweled ladle visible near her left elbow..

A related gem has come down through the Larsens, owners of the Magic Castle in L.A. and friends of the Houdini family. Milt Larsen wrote it up for the Feb. 11, 2011 issue of the Magic Castle newsletter:

Bess wearing the royal brooch.

.... Harry Houdini’s wife, Beatrice Houdini ... died on the train to New York at the age of sixty-six. The year was 1943. I had the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Houdini since she was a great friend of my parents. Dad was an attorney and handled all her legal affairs pro bono. She helped them start Genii Magazine in 1936 and joined my mother in founding Magigals, the first club for lady magicians. There is a nice photo of a little kid doing a coin trick for Mrs. Houdini mounted on the wall in the Houdini Seance Room. I think I was about eight at the time. I remember her as a very nice lady.

Mrs. Houdini gave my mother a brooch made from a pin the Czar of Russia gave to Houdini. Houdini historian Pat Culliton lunches with us almost every Friday so he can tell you the story of Houdini’s fascinating relationship with the Czar. Houdini was offered the job of spiritual advisor to the family which he turned down. The job went to a fake spiritualist named Rasputin. Later the Czar wanted to hire Houdini to expose Rasputin. Pat probably has the facts but according to my mother the Czar gave Houdini the emerald and ruby encrusted pin at a dinner party honoring the Houdinis. The Czar felt Houdini insulted him when Harry refused to toast the occasion. He refused to drink wine.

Hey, Patrick. That’s what mom said and if you can’t trust your mother who can you trust.

What happened to that brooch? Mother gave it to my wife Arlene and she wears it on very special occasions.

The brooch sold at auction for $72,000. In his talk to the Magic Circle, Fedorov questioned whether the brooch was even Russian handiwork. And he deeply doubted that the performance for Sergei (never mind the Czar!) ever took place at all. He insisted initially and incorrectly that there was no contemporaneous record of it, and that it did not even appear in the Dramatic Mirror until after Sergei’s death - implying that the Grand Duke was no longer there to refute it. We pointed out that Harry's Dramatic Mirror report on that performance was dated July 25, 1903, when Sergei was still alive.

As for the ladle, Fedorov contended:

«Unlike the brooch, the Russian origin of the ladle is obvious. Only its belonging to the royal table is doubtful. The Houdini Ladle made of silver (not gold) was sold at Sotheby's Auction in New York on December 1975. No Russian royalties were mentioned in the description of the lot. Estimated price was $10,000-$15,000. I don’t know who bought it and what was the final price.»

He assigned the "Gifts from Russia" tale a "truthiness" probability of 20-percent.

Referring to the ladle as a "bucket," in a letter to The Houdini File he wrote:

The bucket is made of silver 88, covered with patterned enamel. The stones with which the bucket is decorated are not precious. These ornamental stones, polished in the form of cabochons. 

The author of the product is the famous jeweler of the late 19th and early 20th century Fedor Ryukert. 

The products of his workshop were very common at the beginning of the last century and were in mass sale. Today, the average market price of such a bucket, manufactured by Ryukert, is 30-40 thousand dollars.

The Houdini ladle (known as a kovsh in Russian) was sold to a buyer unknown to us. Ryukert produced much work of this sort for Faberge, and much of it carries the imperial seal.

The auction catalogue featuring the Houdini ladle seems to answer all doubts. Fedorov quotes Bess's niece, Marie Blood, as stating the ladle was "gold," which to him discredits the whole story, since it was made of silver. But as we can see from the catalogue, Ryukert frequently worked in gilt silver. In other words, the pieces were gold-colored. So it is quite possible that the unsophisticated Houdini and Marie would refer to a cabochon-encrusted gilt piece as "jewel-encrusted gold." And finally, contrary to Fedorov's assertion, the catalogue explicitly states that the ladle was presented to Houdini by the Russian Grand Duke.

As so often happens when trying to nail down a Houdini fact, it's open to interpretation and very easy to make a mistake or draw an incorrect inference. Our position has always been that Houdini (like all magicians) was fundamentally truthful. So if Houdini says it happened, the burden of proof falls on the skeptic to prove it did not.

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WHAT HOUDINI DID - AND DIDN'T DO - IN RUSSIA