Houdini Released: Legendary escape artist’s memorabilia ready for auction

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 8:14 a.m.

As workers pulled the packaging off the milk can from which Harry Houdini once escaped, anyone watching might have expected the earth to shift or lights to flicker.

Too much drama, maybe. But that is the mystique of Houdini. And last week's unpacking of Houdini's famous props (to be auctioned this month) could be deemed a historic event. Chances are the milk can next to the Chinese Water Torture Chamber, in front of the "Iron Maiden," might not be in one another's company.

Bidders at the auction at the Liberace Museum might cherry-pick, sending the assortment of keys, handcuffs, straitjackets, movie posters and personal photos into private collections, living rooms and doctors' offices.

"My intention, of course, was not to see it broken up," said Sid Radner, owner of the collection, the largest in the world, estimated around $3 million. "I have no choice. I'm going to be 85 in December. At 85 I didn't want to run a museum."

The collection, Radner had hoped, would have been permanently placed at the Outagamie Historical Society and museum in Appleton, Wis., where Houdini grew up and where Radner's collection had been on display since the 1980s.

But the 15-year lease Radner had with the museum was not renewed. Additionally, there was a rift between Radner, the magic community and the historical society about the museum's intentions to expose Houdini's magic.

"It just wasn't a financial option to renew it," said Kim Louagie, curator of exhibits at the Outagamie Historical Society, who curated the Houdini exhibit that reveals the "metamorphosis" trick.

"The cost associated with the lease, curating and storing was very expensive. The attendance records don't pay the lease. This is really about business."

Houdini purists, and devotees of Radner, hate to see it go.

"It's very emotional for all of us," said Shirley Hansen, collection supervisor, while opening a box marked "straitjackets." "To see it all together and displayed ... we're all on a high right now. It's going to be heartbreaking at the end." The auction will be Oct. 30, the day of an invitation-only seance, originally orchestrated by Houdini, who left behind special handcuffs to unlock from the afterworld.

Until then the items are on display at the Liberace Museum, where visitors can get a closer look at the devices from which Houdini escaped.

There are the keys (estimated between $125 and $8,000) that belonged to the "Handcuff King," rings of keys, trays of keys and shelves of keys. There are dozens of handcuffs and iron restraints (estimated in the low thousands of dollars), billings, personal handwritten letters (estimated between $50 and $200), photos (estimated in the low hundreds of dollars) and documents regarding the Houdini Picture Company.

Higher-priced items include the straitjackets (estimated between $5,000 and $200,000), the Chinese Water Torture Chamber (estimated between $75,000 and $200,000) and the punishment suit (estimated between $15,000 and $35,000).

Many of the photos capture Houdini's sense of humor. Stopping at a 1909 photo of Houdini and his wife, Bess, at a public stockade where Bess and Houdini were shackled (next to another where Bess had escaped) Hanson said, "These are all very personal. A lot of these photos have not been seen."

Magic collection

The auction, which begins at 9 a.m., will be held at the museum and live on Ebay, where some of the items are already listed.

"For the collector, it's exciting," said Gary Katz, vice president of Capital Recovery Group of Enfield, Conn., which will auction the items.

"Now everybody gets a crack at it. We've got people who have contacted our office from all over the world, England, France and Germany. It's the first time they can get their hands on it."

Radner acquired the collection in 1942 from Houdini's brother, Hardeen. An escape artist and protege of Hardeen's, Radner traveled across the country getting out of anything he was put in, including Houdini's punishment suit, which he escaped from while on top of a diving board above a pool.

"In the will Houdini left to Hardeen, Houdini told him the items were to be used as he saw fit and to be destroyed and burned upon his (Hardeen's) death," Radner said.

"'He didn't want various secrets to be known. The water torture has been exposed in magic magazines. Always incorrectly.

"The real secret of Houdini was Houdini. Houdini was a great promoter. A great publicist. He was one of the greatest showmen in American history. The other was P.T. Barnum and P.T. Barnum preceded Houdini."

Why Hardeen passed along the collection to Radner, who added to it over the years, is something Radner said he can't answer. He only winces now at the fact that he passed up Houdini's diving suit and acetone films Hardeen had offered him.

Hansen said new owners of the items will not likely discover Houdini's tricks.

"He was no schlock," Hansen said. "Everything he did was not one simple lever. It is not a simple latch, simple bolt, simple escape door. Some people think they've figured out how to get out. But they haven't."

Munari's hope

Other existing collections include one at the the Outagamie Museum that was built from donations by Radner and other collectors.

"They have historical scrapbooks," Radner said. "Incidentally, I got other people to donate there and they're upset about it. I feel guilty. The collection is going to be broken. It shouldn't be.

"It was in my will, as a matter of fact, in a certain period of time, they would get it. Everything in the auction, plus more ... They decided that instead of a museum with historical information and research they decided it would be a lot cheaper to expand the museum and expose some of Houdini's magic."

Geno Munari, collector, magician and president of Houdini's Magic Shop, which has several stores at Las Vegas hotels, hopes to clean up at the auction, saying that to have the collection scattered would be "a shame."

If not him, he said, "I hope some angel comes and buys the whole thing. I'd love to see it all together."

"I'm going to be buying with two fists. I'm going to buy as much as I can. Houdini was not just a magician. He was an inventor, an aviator, a movie producer."

Munari owns the Houdini Picture Corporation and had opened the now-defunct Houdini Museum in the Venetian. Some of his collection will be seen in his new shop opening in the Forum Shops at Caesars with the new expansion.

"People love this stuff," Munari said. "I stand outside the store and watch people say, 'Oooh, there's Houdini's magic shop,' as if it's been there 50,000 years."

Las Vegas magician Dixie Dooley, who performs Houdinilike escapes, also owns a collection of Houdini's personal items.

Dooley said that owning Houdini items doesn't necessarily reveal secrets.

"Houdini's wife said the true secret was in Houdini's personality," Dooley said. "Hardeen performed Houdini's act 30 years after Houdini died and never had Houdini's magic onstage. By the time he was done with the water torture cell you thought it was a miracle and that what he'd done was impossible.

"He became a Superman, a character out of a comic book, hanging by his ankles, trying picking up needles with his eyelashes, tying knots with his toes. He was a mythical legend, difficult for other magicians to live up to."

Dooley won't be bidding on any auction items. His own collection, he said, came by chance, when he stopped at Houdini's New York home and the owner offered him the items. But he'd like to see the exhibit.

"The next time you see it, you might have to visit a thousand different places," Dooley said.

Dooley also holds a Houdini seance each year. This year's will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the Riviera. But Radner's seance is the official one orchestrated by Houdini, who spent the last years of his life debunking fraudulent mediums, and told his wife that if anybody could come back, he could.

Houdini died on Halloween 1926.

Houdini's wife held seances for 10 years, then gave up, said Radner, who owns the trademark to the title, "The Official Houdini Seance."

"I'd love to get him to come back now," Radner said. "If he's going to be back, wouldn't this be an opportune time to come back, when all his items are to be sold and in the same place?

"I'm skeptical. However, if he does come back, I'd want to be there."

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