HOUDINI, Harry (1874-1926). Autograph letter signed (‘Houdini’) to [Servais] Le Roy, Central Theatre, Dresden, 2 August 1900.

HOUDINI, Harry (1874-1926). Autograph letter signed (‘Houdini’) to [Servais] Le Roy, Central Theatre, Dresden, 2 August 1900.

Two pages, 285 x 225mm, with two annotated drawings of cuffs.

Harry ‘Handcuff’ Houdini’s first European tour: writing at the beginning of his career, before he became the most renowned escapologist in the history of magic, Houdini discusses with his fellow illusionist Servais Le Roy the practice of his handcuff act in Germany, comments on his competitors, and laments the desire to see acts exposed. Writing from the Central Theatre in Dresden, Houdini begins: ‘Opened here last night & made good. You ought to see the Handcuffs & irons used in Germany, here cuffs are used and every station has different cuffs in fact there are no two alike. I am going to bring some styles back with me & I’ll give you a fine pair. Here is the way they look [drawing]. Has two spring lock & looks like the lilly iron [;] the leg irons look like this [drawing]. Did you know I patented the Hand cuff act in Europe. The drawings wont [sic] be published in 9 months. Robinson patented his catching gold fish in the air, and he stopped Hiam from making the trick & Maskeleyne from doing it. The opposition house hired a man from Berlin to expose Hand cuffs & he was closed after his first show. It seems strange people like to see the act exposed. But it does not pay to expose anything’. He asks Le Roy if he might like anything from Germany, adding in a postscript that he had seen [T. Nelson] Downs in London.

The first decade of Houdini’s magical career was relatively unremarkable – his first incarnation as the ‘King of Cards’ failed to gain him recognition, as did his early acts alongside his brother and wife – but his magical fortunes changed when he met the vaudeville theatre manager Martin Beck (1868-1940) while performing in St Paul, Minnesota in 1899. With Beck’s help, Houdini developed his fledgling handcuff act into an international phenomenon, acquiring the moniker ‘The Handcuff King’ and going on to become the most famous magician and escapologist in the world: his European tour in 1900, from which the present letter was sent, marked the beginning of this ascent. The letter is written to his fellow illusionist Servais Le Roy (1865-1953), the Belgian creator of the levitation act known as ‘Asrah the Floating Princess’; further magical contemporaries are also mentioned here, including William Ellsworth Robinson (known as Chung Ling Soo; 1861-1918), John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917), English magician and inventor of the pay toilet, and Houdini's friend and rival T. Nelson Downs (1867-1938), 'The King of Koins'.