“La-dies and gen-tle-men…” Houdini drew out the words like taffy, but before he could even complete his sentence, a stranger had leaped onto the stage.
“This man is a fraud,” the mustachioed intruder bellowed. “He claims to be the King of Handcuffs, but that is a title that is reserved for me, The Great Cirnoc.”
Ten seconds into the most important showing of his life, Houdini’s performance had been hijacked by a competitor. This turn of events seemed to paralyze Houdini, and he was strangely mute as the interloper seized the center of the stage, denouncing him.
“I am the original Handcuff King. This man is an impostor. He claims to come from America and hold proclamations from the police chiefs of the major cities there, yet I declare that his man is not even an American. He has never even been in the United States!” Cirnoc thundered.
At that, a distinguished-looking man sitting in the front row stood up.
“That is not true,” the man said calmly. “I know for a fact that that young man is an American. I also am an American, and I saw him several years ago doing his handcuff act.”
Houdini’s defender was none other than U.S. Senator Chauncey M. Depew, the junior senator from Houdini’s home state of New York. Depew had long been prominent in New York politics and was a mentor to then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. He also had connections to the world of magic through his nephew Ganson Depew, a practicing magician who later joined the Society of American Magicians.
Depew sat down to great applause. A testimonial from this distinguished guest seemed to bolster Houdini’s confidence.
“Get me the Bean Giant,” he whispered to Bess. “We’ll fix this fellow now.”
Bess supplied him with the cuffs, and Houdini advanced on Cirnoc, dangling the hardware from his fingertips.
“This is one of the finest handcuffs made in the United States,” Houdini said. “I will give you 500 U.S. dollars if you can free yourself from these manacles.”
Cirnoc frowned. “Let me see you get out of them first,” he said.
“Lock me in,” Houdini offered.
Cirnoc snapped the cuffs shut and Houdini retired to his cabinet. Minutes later, he emerged unfettered.
Then Houdini locked the cuffs on his rival. He even gave Cirnoc the key, but the humiliated intruder had to beg for Houdini to release him from his bonds. Houdini did, and a chagrined Cirnoc shook Houdini’s hand and left the stage.
Houdini finished his act with great aplomb. Thanks to his years of experience, his showmanship had been finely honed. He knew exactly how to add the element of danger to magnify the effect and how to prolong the tension and emerge from his cabinet at the peak moment. Houdini’s mastery even fooled his longtime friend Tommy Downs, who was sitting in the audience with William Hilliar, who would later migrate to America and become the founder and editor of the prestigious magic magazine The Sphinx.
“Downs and I both thought at one time during the progress of his act that Houdini would get ‘stuck.’ He stayed in the cabinet an inordinately long time, and we both noticed that his charming little wife and helpmate was very nervous. The tension had almost reached the ‘snapping’ point, when suddenly the cabinet burst open and Houdini rushed out—free. I shall never forget the storm of applause that greeted him. That one night was the foundation for his subsequent triumphs in Europe,” Hilliar later wrote.
The critics agreed. They lavished praise both on Houdini’s handcuff work and the Metamorphosis, calling him a “modern Jack Sheppard,” after the legendary English convict who routinely escaped from his cells. More important was another endorsement. “Absolutely a miracle,” gushed Superintendent Melville, London’s most recognizable policeman. Melville’s acknowledgment of Houdini’s skills prompted the magician to jettison his newly printed advertising brochure and order a new one trumpeting the endorsement on the front cover. Quid pro quo. Houdini’s stay at the Alhambra kept getting extended. He was the talk of the town and a visit to Houdini backstage at the Alhambra became de rigueur for London’s most prominent people.
James William Elliot, Houdini’s longtime enemy, and Tommy Downs, Houdini’s longtime friend (l to r).Conjuring Arts Research Center
One of these was Alfred William Charles Harmsworth. Harmsworth was a self-made millionaire who started his publishing empire in 1888 at the age of twenty-three by copying the format of Tit-Bits, a wildly successful monthly magazine that answered readers’ questions. The success of Harmsworth’s Answers to Correspondents enabled him to launch new children’s and women’s magazines. By 1894 he had branched out to newspapers, buying up the nearly bankrupt Evening News. Giving it a makeover and adding eye-catching headlines revived sales dramatically. Two years later, he founded The Daily Mail, the first newspaper in Britain that catered to an audience that wanted shorter, punchier, and more lifestyle-oriented articles. It was an immediate success and when—during the height of the Boer War with South Africa in 1899—Harmsworth identified the paper with “the power, the supremacy, and the greatness of the British Empire,” patriotic readers sent the circulation skyrocketing to more than a million copies a day.
Superintendent Melville’s ringing endorsement of Houdini. From the collection of George and Sandy Daily
So it was a very prosperous, nattily dressed Harmsworth who was ushered into Houdini’s dressing room by Dundas Slater one night at the beginning of his Alhambra run. Harmsworth’s cherubic face belied the killer instinct that was necessary for survival in the highly competitive English newspaper racket. Houdini and Harmsworth immediately hit it off, and a friendship blossomed. Harmsworth took Houdini to long lunches, where the two men discussed Anglo-American relations for hours on end. “[Harmsworth] brought up a number of subjects on Americans [sic] views, which he was going to publish. I told him it was a grave error to do so, and eventually he decided to run them in spite of my advice to the contrary. But it appears he must have thought it over, for they never appeared.”
For the next two months, Houdini was sitting on top of the world. He had conquered England in one fell swoop, selling out London’s most prestigious music hall, receiving wild accolades from its normally cynical press, even influencing the opinions of its most powerful press lord. Houdini, a few months after his twenty-sixth birthday, was finally in a position where he could call his own shots. Yet, at the height of this triumph, he decided to ignore his London bookings, packed up his suitcases, bid farewell to Keppel Street, and set off on a journey to the land of the kaiser. Duty called.
From the collection of Kenneth M. Trombly
7
Police State
HOUDINI SAT BEHIND THE DESK AT the American embassy in London, his pen poised. He entered the date, “August 9, 1900,” and then proceeded to fill in the rest of the passport application for native-born Americans, which was his first lie.
I, Ehrich Weiss, a native and loyal citizen of the United States, hereby apply to the Embassy of the United States at London for a passport for myself, accompanied by my wife, Wilhelmina (professionally known as “Beatrice Houdini”). I am professionally known as “Harry Houdini, the King of Handcuffs.” I solemnly swear that I was born at Appleton, in the State of Wisconsin, on or about the 6 day of April, 1873; that my father is a naturalized citizen of the United States; that I am domiciled in the United States, my permanent residence being at New York City, in the State of New York, where I follow the occupation of artiste; that I left the United States on the 30 day of May, 1900, and am now temporarily sojourning at 11 Keppel St., London, W.C.; that I am the bearer of Passport No. 25768, issued by State Department on the 28 day of May, 1900; that I intend to return to the United States within two years with the purpose of residing and performing the duties of citizenship therein; and that I desire the passport for the purpose of travelling.
Underneath the oath of allegiance, Houdini signed Ehrich Weiss. Henry White of the embassy noted “(Unexpired passport surrendered.)” at the bottom of the form.
A comparison of Houdini
’s two passports raises some interesting questions. For one, on May 26, when he filled out his first passport application, Houdini used the proper form, the one for naturalized citizens, which he became on June 6, 1882, the same day that his father became a U.S. citizen. On that form he indicated correctly that he was born in Buda-Pest, Hungary. Both passports, however, state that he was born on April 6, 1873, which is inaccurate. Houdini’s adoption of April 6 as his birthday will remain a mystery, although he explained in a letter to his brother Theo that he would celebrate on April 6 because that was the day that his mother acknowledged his birthday. The answer to the mystery may be as simple as the possibility that some parts of Hungary may have recognized the Julian calendar at the time of his birth, whereas the United States used the Gregorian calendar. The difference between his actual birth date, March 24, and his adopted one was precisely the difference between the two calendars. As to the year of his birth, he apparently thought he was born in 1873 until someone, most likely his mother, corrected him. His birth year would be corrected by the time he filled out his next passport application, but from May until August Houdini changed his occupation (from “actor” to “artiste”), grew two inches (from 5'4" to 5'6"), and changed the color of his eyes (from “brown” to “blue”).
It’s interesting to note that by 1910 both Houdini and Bess knew with certainty that his actual birthday was on March 24. While in Australia that year, Bess gave Houdini an engraved watch as a birthday present.
FOR HARRY
Ever Houdini
Remembering In Complete Happiness
BESS
3-24-10
Not only was his birth date correct, but Bess employed a code in the dedication as well. When you isolate the first letter of each word in the message, it spells out Harry’s real name, E-H-R-I-C-H.
Somehow Mr. White, who was the first secretary at the delegation, and would go on to become, in Theodore Roosevelt’s words, “the most useful man in the entire diplomatic service,” allowed Houdini to surrender an unexpired passport for a naturalized citizen in exchange for a passport for a native-born citizen. According to English espionage expert Andrew Cook, this passport exchange indicates that Houdini was about to embark on a mission that entailed some risk. Presenting a native-born passport would be a safety device for Houdini. Since Germans at that time had very stringent penalties for espionage, Houdini’s original passport, which contained specific information about the date and location of his birth, would have given the German authorities a paper trail straight back to any relatives of Houdini who were still in Hungary. At that point, Hungary was part of the Austrian Reich, close allies of Germany, whose respective secret services worked hand in hand. Houdini’s relatives could very well have been used as pawns to force his cooperation in the case of his arrest.
Having an asset like Houdini relaying information back from Germany would have been very valuable for a number of important people in Houdini’s orbit. By 1900, the idea that Germany would be their next major adversary was current in both the United States and Great Britain. One of the proponents of this theory was Captain Charles Sigsbee, who had been the commander of the Maine when the battleship was blown up in Havana Harbor. Two years after that incident, Sigsbee became chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and it was here that he began planning measures to counter a German invasion of the United States. For years scholars attributed his concern to a paranoid delusion common to military men, but military historians in the 1970s uncovered long-suppressed evidence in German naval archives that Sigsbee was correct.
With a burgeoning population and an avid nationalistic mind-set, Germany at the turn of the century was poised to make its move on the colonial stage. As early as 1897, German naval officers began developing military scenarios where the German navy would invade U.S. waters, destroy the American navy, and occupy some part of the mainland, at either Virginia, New York City, or New England. The idea was not to overrun the country but to create an atmosphere of terror and use that as a bargaining chip to overturn the Monroe Doctrine and acquire colonies in South America.
These were not just abstract theoretical war game exercises. Germany sent some of her most important military men to the United States to spy on her intended targets. Sigsbee’s concerns over Germany were echoed by soon-to-be President Theodore Roosevelt, who advocated a strong United States Navy “to interfere promptly if Germany ventures to touch a foot of American soil.”
The Americans weren’t the only ones to fear the kaiser and the threat of his military might. Both Inspector Melville and publisher Alfred Harmsworth were obsessed with the idea that Germany would soon be Britain’s enemy. As early as 1897, Harmsworth had sent a writer to Germany to produce a sixteen-part series entitled Under the Iron Heel that warned of the strength of the German army and raised the real possibility that England would be defeated in a conflict with Germany. In 1900, Harmsworth wrote an editorial in his Daily Mail predicting war with Germany. For the next decade the Mail constantly played up the German threat. It was in this climate that Houdini traveled to Germany on September 2, 1900 and began to transmit reports back to Melville, who made note of them in his diary.
Life was not all roses for a handcuff King. From the collection of Kenneth M. Trombly
It was likely the most interesting demonstration ever undertaken in the conference room of the Berlin criminal police. It had certainly brought out all the heavyweights. There was the Berlin royal police director, Von Hullessem, and next to him, Mr. Dieterich, the high-ranking government advisor. Even Von Windheim, the president of the German police, was there. All told, three hundred criminal officers had packed the room, all to see the sensation who had been summoned down from Dresden, where he had been playing to wildly enthusiastic houses.
Houdini stripped down to his underpants. Then he was cuffed five times behind his back. Two pairs of leg irons were affixed. His mouth was bandaged, and thumbscrews were added to his burden. Then Carl Pollak, his booking agent, threw a sheet over him, and Houdini went to work. Six minutes later, the Handcuff King emerged with a radiant smile and neatly placed all the hardware on the table.
“It is not without significance for the criminal police to know what level of skill you can reach in the opening of locks of any kind without the use of any kind of tool or externally perceptible force. For the evaluation of any crime and the focus of the investigation, such a science can under certain circumstances be of great significance. Houdini’s performance was very instructional,” The Dresdner Anzeiger reported. At the end of the demonstration, Houdini received an almost unheard-of commendation from both Von Hullessem and Von Windheim.
Houdini, for his part, reported directly to Superintendent Melville, whose diary entry of September 24, 1900, is brief and to the point: “Report received from HH.”
The newspaper accounts of Houdini’s demonstrations at German police stations portray him as a police consultant rather than a mere entertainer. The truth is, he was both. Getting the endorsement of German authorities was crucial to Houdini’s success. In England and America, the endorsements helped generate interest and attention. In Germany, the police could actually close your performances and fine you if you fraudulently misrepresented your act.
Back in Dresden, Houdini continued his outstanding run at the Central Theatre, smashing all box office records. The German public identified with a man who could escape from the kaiser’s police force, and they were also pleased that Houdini presented his act in German, even if he butchered the grammar and syntax. The management of the theater wired the Wintergarten in Berlin, where Houdini was to appear next, seeing if they would postpone his opening there so his stay could be extended a month. The request was promptly refused, because the publicity from Houdini’s escape before the Berlin police brass had whipped up the city to a fever pitch.
Houdini finally began his Berlin run on October 1, and the response was so overwhelming that the police were forced to reprimand the Wintergarten management several tim
es for overcrowding the venue. They too wired Houdini’s next stop in an effort to hold him over for another month, but this time, after four thousand marks had been dispatched off to the Viennese theater, they were able to extend his engagement.
Life was not all roses for the Handcuff King. During his Berlin run, a man walked onstage and produced another thumb cuff from his pocket. “I shuddered when I saw it,” Houdini wrote. “This is a particularly devilish sort of handcuff, consisting of a small plate about three inches long by an inch wide, with two circular holes, each just large enough to admit one of the thumbs. This is slipped over the thumbs to the second flange. Then a nut at the side is turned, and circles of small steel pins, each ground to a needle point, close about the thumbs. Any movement of the hands causes these needle points to tear the flesh. Obviously if one attempts to pull his thumbs free, the flesh about the joint and the thicker upper flange will be lacerated cruelly.
“Well, having challenged the City of Berlin to produce anything it could in the way of handcuffs, I had to let the man put the thumbcuff on me. Also, I had to escape if I could. It was one of the most painful experiences of my career. The spikes penetrated to the bone, and the bleeding flesh hung in strips from my thumbs when at last I dropped the thumbcuff to the stage. Never has one of my tricks been greeted by more tumultuous applause than came to me for this demonstration, which actually was not a trick at all. And when I left the theatre, I found myself surrounded by a cheering crowd that raised me to its shoulders, and then unhitched the horses from my cab to draw me in triumph through the streets of the city.”
While Houdini was thrilled at the acclaim and the adoration of the audiences, he wasn’t letting his success go to his head. “I am really recognized as the biggest Trickster over here,” he wrote his friend Dr. Waitt, telling him that he planned to stay in Germany “at least 6 more months, and at an excellent salary no not an excellent salary but an ‘exhorbiant’ [sic] or newspaper salary.” At the same time, he wrote both Waitt and his old employer Edward “Marco” Dooley, thanking them for their encouragement on the way up. “Your letter expresses more gratitude to me than I deserve for what little favor I may have done for you,” Dooley wrote back, “Yet, it pleased me very much to have you express the feeling, for it is so rare nowadays to find anyone who appreciates kindness, and it shows, what I knew all along, that you have a good heart and it is in the right place.”
The Secret Life of Houdini Page 13