The Secret Life of Houdini (19 page)

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

H
OUDINI 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 times 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.