The Secret Life of Houdini

by William Kalush

  By July of 1917, three months after signing a contract, Houdini was still hashing out the script with the Williamsons. Both the war in Europe and a war between the Williamsons derailed the project. Desperately trying to salvage his film, Houdini entered into an arrangement with a company called Westart to film the opening scenes of his scenario, a manacled jump into the sea off the pier at Atlantic City. Though Westart would in a few years produce a series of low-budget Westerns, this one-day shoot appears to be all that became of The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini.

  Houdini’s movie career began in earnest when he met a Californian movie producer named B. A. Rolfe. Houdini again pushed his own script but Rolfe convinced him that his first outing should be a fifteen-part serial, where each weekly installment left Houdini’s fate up in the air. Arthur Reeve and Charles Logue, the writing team behind the successful Perils of Pauline serial, were hired, but from the beginning, Houdini’s input was crucial. “Houdini has an inborn gift, and, with it all, is one of the deepest students I have met,” Reeve told a reporter. “Everything he does is figured out from a logical beginning [and] is the result of years of work and study.”

  Working together, the three men blended elements of Houdini’s script into The Master Mystery. Instead of playing himself, Houdini would play the part of Quentin Locke, an undercover agent for the Justice Department. Ostensibly working as a chemist, Locke was infiltrating a company named International Patents, Inc. that had been set up by powerful industrialists to purchase innovative inventions solely to keep them off the market. In Houdini’s first onscreen scene, he was covertly listening in to the wiretapped conversation of the owner of the company.

  There were enemies galore, including an evil hypnotist, a Chinese Tong leader, a strangulation expert from Madagascar, and, for the first time in movie history, a robot in the form of a larger-than-life tin automaton. The serial featured a romance between Locke and the daughter of one of the evil industrialists who has a change of heart and tries to repent before he is stricken down with Madagascar Madness, thanks to an infusion of gas from his still-evil partner. The plot paled in the face of the showcasing of Houdini’s amazing skills. He finally got to use his diving suit escape but in addition, he burst out of straitjackets, handcuffs, and jails. He defied death by escaping from an electric chair, an oncoming elevator that threatened to crush him, and corrosive acid that threatened to consume him while he was lying bound on the floor. In one spectacular escape while he was hung from his thumbs, he used his legs to get his captor in a scissors hold and then choked him. Kicking off his shoes, he used his toes to find a key in the man’s pocket, which he then inserted in the door directly opposite him, unlocked the door, and turned the knob with his feet. With the door ajar, he then walked up it with his feet and tumbled into a backward arch, loosening his restraints with his toes and freeing himself!

  Filming in Yonkers during the summer and fall of 1918, Houdini literally threw himself into his work. By the end of shooting, he had suffered seven black eyes and broken his left wrist when he fell off a swinging chandelier during one fight sequence, but he was thrilled with the final product. “I have seen all the Serials, and believe that the Houdini Serial is the greatest ever screened,” he wrote Kellar, with typical modesty. “If it goes over, think I shall make the Silent Drama my next venture.” It did more than “go over.” On its opening weekend in New York, thousands were turned away from the theaters. In Boston, five thousand people milled outside, unable to get in. In one day in New England, Houdini set a record-making fifteen personal appearances to promote the film.

  The screen’s first robot threatens Houdini. From the collection of Ricky Jay

  Now Houdini was faced with a dilemma. He had been working on a big new illusion, Buried Alive. When Kilby wrote to ask him about his progress, Houdini was uncertain. “The Movie Fans are ‘clambering’ for another Houdini serial, and as that is much easier than my Self created hazardous work, I may step that way.” In February of 1919, two months later, Houdini’s return to film seemed certain. “With the finish of the Houdini serial, our income will cease,” he wrote Kellar. “——and then???”

  The two planes were flying over Beverly Hills and heading for the ocean. Director Irwin Willat was in the third plane, along with the cameraman. They were filming the climatic scene of Houdini’s first full-length movie, The Grim Game, when, unexpectedly, tragedy struck. “I thought…my end had come,” Houdini told the press. “I was 3,000 feet up in an aeroplane, circling over another machine. The plan was for me to drop from my ’plane into the cockpit of the other by means of a rope. I was dangling from the rope-end ready for the leap. Suddenly a strong wind turned the lower plane upwards, the two machines crashed together—nearly amputating my limbs—the propellers locked in a deadly embrace, and we were spun round and round and round…. But, by a miracle, the ’planes were righted into a half-glide, and, though they were smashed into splinters by their terrific impact, I managed to escape unhurt.”

  French poster for The Master Mystery.Library of Congress

  Willat was quick thinking enough to keep the cameras rolling during the crash and descent, and the resultant footage was among the most spectacular in the then-short history of cinema. Stills of the two planes locked in their “deadly embrace” were struck and prominently featured in the advertising campaign along with a typical Houdini challenge: “$1000 REWARD TO ANY PERSON PROVING that the above picture is not a genuine photograph of an aeroplane collision during the filming of an aerial battle in the clouds.” Of course, the reward was never paid out because the collision had happened. There was a bit more deception in Houdini’s recollections of the crash. When the planes came down, not only had Houdini been safe on the ground the entire time but he wasn’t even in the scene. His part in the aerial action had been played by a stunt double.

  The Grim Game was the first of a two-picture deal that Houdini signed with producer Jesse Lasky a few months after The Master Mystery had been released, and like its predecessor, The Grim Game was another showcase of Houdini’s marvelous escapes and stunts. He does an upside-down straitjacket escape, frees himself from a bear trap, and, in an incredible sequence, rolls under a passing car, catches the transmission bar, and hangs on for dear life, hitching a ride so he can come to the aid of the heroine.

  The reviews were raves. “Houdini has stepped to the front as a film star,” The New York Herald opined. “Houdini is honestly a star….” The New York American agreed. “There is more excitement in one reel of The Grim Game than in any five reels of celluloid I have ever watched,” T. E. Oliphant of The New York Mail wrote.

  Houdini was excited at the prospect of doing features. “I am drifting away from vaudeville, and with the exception of my European dates have no plans re a return,” he told Kilby. Where he was drifting to was Hollywood, where the temperate climate and the chance to rub elbows with other movie stars were appealing to him. He became friendly with stars like Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle and spent time on the Lasky set with a young sultry star named Gloria Swanson. She sent him an autographed photo (“To Mr. Houdini, Please show me some of your tricks. Most sincerely, Gloria Swanson”) that he kept in one of his scrapbooks.

  Houdini was also thrilled to spend time with Harry Kellar, who lived only a few miles from the studio. He and Bess also frequently socialized with his old partner Jacob Hyman, who was married to an actress and was practicing medicine. Although still down-to-earth for the most part, Houdini began to show some signs of a Hollywood temperament. One night he was a guest at a “bohemian” dinner given by a prominent westerner who loved to be surrounded by an artistic crowd. Someone introduced Houdini to the company as “having been supplied by Mr. M——.” Houdini immediately bristled, “I was not supplied by anyone. I am too great an artist to be ‘supplied’ by anyone. I am here as a guest.” After a modicum of mollification, Houdini did consent to perform the Needles.

  With two films under his belt, Houdini was learning his new craft.
Although some modern self-styled acting critics have tried to fault Houdini’s acting, he never seemed out of place on the big screen. He generally got favorable notices, even for his acting ability, and by the time he was shooting The Grim Game, he had taken his craft seriously. “Picture actors and stage actors are entirely different,” he wrote from Hollywood. “And though the spoken stage may ridicule pictures, never the less picture must be intelligently portraied [sic] and is an art in itself. The smallest movie star can make the biggest spoken stage star look like a nickel before the camera, especially if they do not know the angle of the lens.”

  Houdini shooting The Grim Game.Library of Congress

  Of course, it was a real accident, but Houdini wasn’t anywhere near it at the time. From the collection of Roger Dreyer

  Two of the most famous entertainers of all time, Charlie Chaplin and Houdini. From the collection of Roger Dreyer

  Harry gets cozy with a young Gloria Swanson. From the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook

  The genesis of the idea that Houdini was stiff and wooden as an actor may be Harold Kellock’s Bess-endorsed biography, in which it is claimed that Houdini’s “puritanical soul” shrank from love scenes with his gorgeous young costars. One director allegedly even asked Bess to leave the set because “whenever we get him to the point of kissing the girl, he spoils the shot by glancing anxiously at you.” That might be true from the point of view of Houdini trying to avoid a browbeating from a jealous wife, but there is ample footage of Houdini with his costars, some even just lounging between shots, that shows a relaxed, flirtatious, and even frisky Houdini. Contemporary reviews bear this out: “As a screen actor Houdini also wins laurels, playing his scenes with the heroine in a manner which reflects great credit to him,” a New York Telegraph reviewer noted.

  Houdini’s films were widely distributed internationally, especially the serial, and the star began receiving fan mail from all around the planet. The letters from men usually were pleas for Houdini to share the secrets of his magic, while females were more apt to ask for autographed photos. One Japanese girl wrote that after seeing The Master Mystery, she “was charmed by your excellent art with a lovely face.” Another American female fan harkened back to his escape days to compose her ode:

  I wish that I was Mr. Keith And in my house you’d play For you my maiden heart does seethe, And has since that first day When I sat in my seat and gasped, While you the handcuffs wrecked—I’d rather have my arms tightly clasped About your swarthy neck.

  I’d like to be put in a box With you, all clasped about With seven different kinds of locks—I bet you’d not get out! Your powerful, sturdy, graceful pose; Your shirt sleeves white turned up; Your curly hair; your handsome nose; With you I’d like to sup….

  I’d like to be put in that bag, And then put in the trunk Where you so closely follow, O ’t would make my feelings drunk. My consciousness would leave me, I would not think of harm If in that bag and trunk with you, My waist within your arm.

  I’d keep the people waiting, Expectantly, for days, While in the trunk with you I sat, My feelings in a maze; My head upon your shoulder, My cheek against your tan. O! Harry H. Houdini, You are the only man.

  The Houdinis’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary gala. From the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook

  With temptation all around him in Hollywood, and Charmian London on her ranch forty miles north, Houdini decided to make a very public show of his affection toward Bess on the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding on June 22, 1919. At first he put the word out that he was planning to renew their vows. Houdini even asked his friend Kellar to give away the bride. Whether they had actually ever been legally married at all remains an open question, and eventually the affair morphed into a celebratory dinner in the main ballroom of the Hotel Alexandria, Los Angeles’s crown jewel and the location of choice for the burgeoning film industry. In front of two hundred guests, all seated at one very long table, Harry and Bess entered the room as the band played “The Wedding March.” Bess was overcome with emotion, and Harry had to sprint to the bar and bring her back a bracing glass of wine.

  Houdini spared no expense for the gala event. The long table was covered with orchids, roses, and sweet peas. Two brilliantly lit fountains sprayed fragrant rose water into the air. A tiny bouquet of orange blossoms was set next to each guest’s name card. And what an A-list gathering it was. Will Rogers, Fatty Arbuckle, and other stars from Lasky’s studio were there, along with many behind-the-scenes power brokers.

  Back at their hotel room, Houdini presented Bess with some magnificent diamonds in a silver setting—“Wear this dear heart. It is my gift to my bride with all the love that is possible to give.” He also gave her two more love notes. The first, addressed to “My Soulmate Wife” and written while Bess and their niece Julia were “busy at the mirror making up,” seemed a candid declaration of love. “We have starved and starred together. We have had our little tiffs, but your sunny smile and my good sense (?) always robbed them of bitterness. I love you, love you, dearest, and I know you love me.” He signed it “Yours to the end of life and ever after. EHRICH (Harry Houdini).” At two A.M., Houdini added an addendum. “How wonderful you were! The most beautiful and wonderful of all. You will only surpass yourself, my Dearest, when you will be my Golden Bride. If the years pass as quickly as these twenty-five have done, we ought to begin at once to prepare to celebrate our golden wedding together.”

  The gale winds were buffeting the small launch, and now the worst happened: The waves had knocked out the steering gear, making it impossible to steer the small craft in the raging sea off Catalina Island. When the engine sputtered dead, the boat started dragging anchor and it rounded the reef blowing a distress signal. The boat was near the jagged rocks and no one dared risk their lives to save the four souls who seemed minutes away from a horrific fate.

  Except for Houdini. As soon as he heard the distress signal, he rushed down to Buttershell Beach, seized a line, threw it around his waist, and plunged into the surf. Someone threw him a circular life preserver and, using it to shield his head from the battering waves, he tried to swim out to the launch. He managed to get within twenty-five feet of the vessel when the seething giant waves, as if angry at his defiance, shook and flung him back against the rocky shore, but he wasn’t finished yet. He jumped back in the water and had almost made it to the boat when a baby tidal wave engulfed him and hurled him sixty feet right back into the rocks. Fortunately, he had had the presence of mind to put the life preserver around his neck, shielding his face, but now he found himself crushed against the rocks, holding on for dear life, threatened with being caught in the great undertow and swept back out to sea and a watery grave.

  Houdini does card magic for Fatty Arbuckle despite having a cast on his wrist. From the collection of Dr. Bruce Averbook

  If this had been a serial, the episode would have ended right here. Houdini was on Catalina Island in November of 1919, filming his second Lansky picture, Terror Island, but what was happening now was scripted only by Mother Nature. The launch, the Catalina Flyer, belonged to the production and had been carrying some of the film crew, who were on their way to set up the next shot. Houdini’s instincts were noble and heroic, and he actually did risk his life to save the men, but life didn’t imitate art in this case. Battered and bleeding from several cuts, Houdini weakened in the water and two deep-sea divers had to swim out and rescue the rescuer from the violent surf. With the star back on terra firma, a motorboat was sent out for the disabled launch. After a harrowing battle with the ocean, which was by then being filmed by the production’s cameraman, the men and the launch were finally rescued.

  Terror Island itself gave Houdini another chance to show off his underwater prowess and an opportunity to get close to his stunning costar Lila Lee, who, according to the comedian/film star Georgie Jessel, claimed to have a romantic fling with Houdini. Perhaps Houdini was thinking of more than just the weather when, back in frigid New York in December
for a stopover on his way to London, he wrote Kellar and told him he missed “sunny California.”

  They didn’t call it Terror Island for nothing. From the collection of Roger Dreyer

  Collins and Vickery were not pleased. They knew something was wrong when Houdini made an awkward move inside the Water Torture Cell and seemed to flinch. Within seconds, he was standing outside of the structure.

  “Nearly cracked my neck,” Houdini fumed, massaging his injury.

  Luckily for everyone, this was literally a dry run; they had been reluctant to fill the cell with water for fear of breaking the glass. Houdini was trying out a new torture cell preparatory for his return to the vaudeville stage in London, where old contracts that had been disrupted by the war were finally about to be fulfilled.

  One week into his performances, during his first show of the night, the glass broke in the cell, forcing Houdini to use a reserve pane in the second show. About a week later, Houdini injured his right ankle doing the stunt. It must have been painful, for the usually stoic escape artist saw a doctor named Parsons, who examined his ankle, did a general checkup, and proclaimed that Houdini was in “danger of death.” After a series of treatments that included a regimen of electrical “baking,” the ankle responded and Houdini informed the managers he could complete his tour. The doctor didn’t fare quite as well. Within two weeks, Parsons was dead. While Houdini noted the irony of the doctor’s death, Parsons’ warning must have had some impact on the conjurer. A few months later, Houdini sat for a bust of himself to be placed on his grave after his death.