Houdini goes to war (Part 1)
On 31 October 1926, Harry Houdini died in Detroit, aged 52. A century later, he remains one of magic's most recognisable figures. To mark the centenary of his death, Magic at War is stepping briefly beyond its usual Second World War focus to explore his connections with the First. In this two-part article, we examine Houdini's encounters with the military, his efforts to prepare American soldiers for war, and the ways he put his remarkable talents and celebrity to work for the Allied cause. His story even has a Second World War postscript.
Harry Houdini, 1913(Source: Campbell-Gray Ltd, ChatGPT colourised)
The escapologist and the soldiers
In February 1918, American soldiers preparing for war in Europe were offered an unusual form of military instruction. At the New York Hippodrome, a room had been set aside where Harry Houdini, the world's most famous escapologist, would teach men in uniform how to free themselves from handcuffs, ropes and other restraints. Officers could arrange appointments during intervals in Cheer Up, the theatre's spectacular revue. Houdini had also offered to teach servicemen how to escape from sinking ships, attracting the attention of the War Department. [1]
There was a further irony. Houdini had been born in Hungary, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was fighting alongside Germany against the Allies. And several years earlier, he had reportedly offered instruction to another group of soldiers. Those men were German.
The magician who taught Germans to fly
Born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, Houdini emigrated to America with his family as a child. By the early twentieth century, he was internationally famous for escaping from police handcuffs, prison cells, straitjackets and increasingly elaborate contraptions. His performances combined physical dexterity and an exceptional understanding of locks and restraints with a remarkable instinct for publicity.
His interests extended beyond the theatre. In 1906, he published The Right Way to Do Wrong, an illustrated examination of criminals and their methods. Drawing upon his dealings with police officers and detectives, Houdini explored everything from burglary and safe-breaking to pickpocketing and confidence tricks. By exposing criminal methods, he hoped to help the public protect themselves. It was an approach that would later find an unexpected military application. [2]
His first significant connection with the armed forces, however, concerned an entirely different enthusiasm.
In 1909, captivated by powered flight, Houdini purchased a French-built Voisin biplane and began experimenting near Hamburg, where he was performing. Aviation was still in its infancy. The Wright brothers had made their first powered flight only six years earlier, and pilots faced unreliable machinery, rudimentary controls and the constant risk of crashing. Houdini needed somewhere sufficiently open to practise.
He found his opportunity at Wandsbek, outside Hamburg. According to accounts of his aviation experiments, Houdini reached an arrangement with the local German military commander: in exchange for permission to use the Army's parade ground, he would instruct soldiers in aviation. On 26 November 1909, Houdini made a successful flight, and photographs were taken of him with German military personnel gathered around his aircraft. [3]
See one of the surviving photographs here.
At the time, the association was a source of pride. Within a few years, it had become something Houdini reportedly wished to forget.
Bernard Kellock, writing in his 1928 biography Houdini: His Life Story, recorded that Houdini subsequently destroyed photographs showing him with the soldiers, apparently troubled by the possibility that men he had helped instruct might now be flying against American forces.
Kellock doubted how much useful instruction Houdini could have given them. The magician was himself a novice, and bad weather and mechanical difficulties had restricted his flying. There is no evidence that he trained effective military pilots.
Before the war, Houdini had apparently shared his knowledge with German servicemen. Less than a decade later, he would be offering Americans a very different form of instruction.
His aviation adventures continued in Australia during 1910. In March he made celebrated flights at Diggers Rest, near Melbourne, followed by further attempts at Rosehill racecourse in Sydney. His final Australian flight, on 1 May, involved difficult conditions and a dangerous descent. It proved to be his last. Thereafter, he returned his attention to escapology. [4]
A world divided by war
Four years later, in June 1914, Houdini was aboard the German ocean liner Imperator, returning to America. Among his fellow passengers was former President Theodore Roosevelt, recently back from an arduous South American expedition.
On 21 June, Houdini performed at a shipboard benefit for the German Sailors' Home and the Magicians' Club of London. He astonished Roosevelt with an apparent demonstration of mind-reading, revealing information about where the former president had spent the previous Christmas during his Brazilian expedition. The effect had been carefully prepared rather than improvised, but it made an impression. [5]
Houdini recognised the encounter's publicity value. Photographs were taken aboard the liner, and he subsequently had other passengers removed from one image, leaving himself apparently alone with Roosevelt. Both the original and altered photographs survive in the Library of Congress collections. [6]
The timing was extraordinary. On 28 June, only days after their meeting, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. Within weeks, Europe was at war.
The conflict disrupted Houdini's international career. Britain and continental Europe, including Germany, had provided some of his greatest successes. He intended to return for further engagements, but hostilities increasingly restricted overseas travel. Instead, he remained principally in America while the countries in which he had built his reputation fought one another.
War also reached into his theatrical company.
Among Houdini's most trusted assistants was Franz Kukol, an Austrian who had worked with him since 1903. Kukol helped prepare and operate the elaborate equipment upon which many of Houdini's dangerous escapes depended. Their relationship was close enough that Kukol named his son, born in 1909, Harry Houdini Kukol.
Houdini and Kukol had both been born within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, yet their careers had brought them together in America. Now the war appeared to be pulling them apart.
But Kukol's departure was not necessarily as straightforward as the announcement suggested. He had applied for American naturalisation in August 1914, while later references raise questions about whether he actually left Houdini's employment. A January 1918 New York Times profile described a German assistant of fourteen years' service whose departure had become necessary after America entered the war. In September 1924, Houdini also referred to Kukol in correspondence concerning his photographs with Roosevelt. [8]
Some researchers believe Kukol subsequently worked under another name, although the proposed identification with the assistant Frank Williamson remains disputed. Whether Kukol fought in Europe, remained in America or later returned has not been conclusively established. His story nevertheless illustrates how war complicated relationships within an international theatrical company.
There have also been suggestions that Houdini's international connections extended into intelligence work. William Kalush and Larry Sloman, in The Secret Life of Houdini, propose that he assisted British intelligence, possibly through contact with William Melville, an important figure in its developing intelligence services. His travels, relationships with police officials and skill in obtaining information make the possibility intriguing, but the more dramatic allegations remain difficult to verify independently. [9]
America goes to war
On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. Houdini was 43 and fiercely patriotic towards his adopted country. Whatever the complications of his European origins, his public allegiance was unequivocally American, and he encouraged fellow magicians to support the war effort.
The Society of American Magicians expressed its loyalty to President Woodrow Wilson and offered its services. On 2 June, Houdini became the Society's national president, placing him in a position to mobilise other performers for patriotic activities. [10]
Within months, that commitment found a substantial purpose.
On 17 October 1917, the American transport Antilles was returning from France when it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-62. The ship sank with the loss of 67 lives, including soldiers, naval personnel and civilian crewmen. It was among America's first major wartime losses at sea. [11]
Houdini helped organise a benefit for the bereaved families. First, he needed to attract attention.
On 5 November, he staged a suspended straitjacket escape above Times Square, hanging some sixty feet above the street from a crane associated with subway construction. He freed himself before the watching crowds while handbills advertised the forthcoming benefit. Wives of Society of American Magicians members also encouraged spectators to purchase war bonds and thrift stamps. The escape reportedly took about ten minutes and appeared in the following day's New York Tribune. [12]
It was vintage Houdini: a seemingly impossible feat, an enormous audience and assured newspaper coverage. This time, the publicity served a cause beyond selling tickets.
On Sunday 11 November 1917, exactly a year before the Armistice, the New York Hippodrome hosted Remember the Antilles. Presented under the auspices of the Junior Patriots of America, with the cooperation of the Society of American Magicians, the entertainment raised money for the families of those lost. Its surviving poster promised a 'Carnival of Magic' featuring some of the profession's greatest performers. [13]
Houdini was instrumental in persuading Kellar to return for what was advertised as his final public appearance. The evening became both a patriotic benefit and an affectionate farewell to an older generation of American magic.
Four days later, travelling west aboard the Twentieth Century Limited, Kellar wrote to thank Houdini. He recalled the audience of some 7,000 people rising to sing Auld Lang Syne, and praised Houdini's hospitality and efforts in organising the event. The letter, original programme and advertising poster survive. [14]
Later accounts put the proceeds at approximately $10,000. Whatever the precise sum, Houdini had brought together many of American magic's leading figures for a cause arising directly from the war.
The benefit also demonstrated his ability to turn public attention into financial support, a skill he would employ repeatedly during the following year.
On 7 December 1917, less than a month after the benefit, the United States formally declared war on Austria-Hungary. America was now fighting not only Germany, but also the empire in which Houdini had been born. By then, his allegiance to his adopted country was abundantly clear.
Houdini's school for soldiers
By January 1918, Houdini was appearing in Cheer Up at the New York Hippodrome, whose elaborate stage machinery and water tank permitted effects beyond the capacity of most theatres.
On 7 January, he introduced two spectacular feats. In one, he caused a fully grown elephant and its keeper to disappear. In the other, he escaped from a locked packing case submerged in the Hippodrome's enormous water tank.
Within weeks, the same theatre was being used for something quite different.
Houdini offered to teach American soldiers and sailors techniques that might prove useful if they were captured or trapped aboard a sinking vessel. On 26 February, Washington's Evening Star reported that he was preparing to reveal some of his professional secrets for patriotic reasons.
A room had been fitted out on the Hippodrome's promenade floor, and officers could arrange appointments for groups of servicemen during intervals in Cheer Up. Houdini had also offered to teach men how to escape from sinking ships, receiving a letter from the Secretary of War thanking him for the proposal. [1]
The following day's Evening World provided further evidence that his instruction had received War Department approval. Houdini was not a commissioned officer or enlisted instructor, but a civilian entertainer whose specialist knowledge had been recognised as potentially useful. [15]
The subject was an obvious one for the Handcuff King. Houdini had spent years escaping from restraints supplied by police officers and defeating apparently secure confinement. His lessons were particularly associated with the possibility of American soldiers finding themselves bound by the Germans.
There were important differences, however, between theatrical escape and actual captivity. Houdini's performances often depended on preparation, knowledge of the restraints and conditions that allowed him to use his methods. A prisoner might be injured, exhausted, closely guarded or unable to examine his bonds.
Nevertheless, understanding how restraints operated, recognising opportunities to loosen them and preserving freedom of movement were skills Houdini had developed over many years. He evidently believed they were worth sharing.
His instruction was not confined to handcuffs and ropes. On 8 March, Brooklyn's Standard Union reported another session involving soldiers from Camp Upton, this time using the Hippodrome's great water tank. Houdini's experience of underwater escape made him an obvious person to demonstrate techniques associated with submersion and confinement. [16]
There is no firm evidence that Houdini's instruction subsequently enabled an American prisoner to escape German captivity, or that his underwater demonstrations saved lives at sea. Yet the lessons were a genuine attempt to apply the specialised knowledge of a professional magician to military needs. As the American Army prepared thousands of men for war, the world's most famous escapologist was sharing skills upon which he had built his career.
Houdini possessed another talent of perhaps more immediate value to the government: the ability to draw a crowd, attract newspaper attention and persuade people to spend money. He had demonstrated it through the Antilles benefit. During 1918, he would use it repeatedly in support of patriotic performances, charitable appeals and government war bonds.
In Part Two, we examine Houdini's fundraising, troop entertainment and draft registration, before concluding with the way his widow Bess kept his name associated with America's war effort during the Second World War.
For more information about Harry Houdini's life, John Cox's Wild About Houdini website is highly recommended.
Sources
2. Harry Houdini, The Right Way to Do Wrong: An Exposé of Successful Criminals (Boston: Harry Houdini, 1906), preface and chapters on burglary, security and criminal methods.
3. Bernard M. L. Ernst and Bernard C. Kellock, Houdini: His Life Story (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1928), account of the German aviation experiments; John Cox, ‘The photo Houdini didn't want you to see’, Wild About Harry, 12 June 2015.
4. John Cox, ‘Houdini's LAST Australian flight was the wild one’, Wild About Harry, 18 March 2021, drawing on contemporary Australian newspapers.
5. Original Imperator concert programme, 21 June 1914, described in RR Auction's catalogue.
6. Library of Congress, Houdini and Theodore Roosevelt aboard the Imperator, 23 June 1914
7. The Conjuring Record, September 1914, 'Obeys Call to War; Houdini Loses Assistant'. See John Cox, ‘The mystery of Franz Kukol’.
8. New York Times, 13 January 1918, ‘The Story of Harry Houdini’, discussing his assistants; text reproduced by Interval Magic. See also John Cox, ‘Franz and Frank’.
9. William Kalush and Larry Sloman, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero (New York: Atria Books, 2006).
10. Society of American Magicians, Parent Assembly No. 1, history of the Society.
11. US Naval History and Heritage Command, American Ship Casualties of the World War, entry for 17 October 1917.
12. New York Tribune, 6 November 1917, reporting Houdini's suspended straitjacket escape. Discussed in John Cox, ‘100 years ago: Houdini hangs in Times Square’, 5 November 2017.
13. Remember the Antilles, original poster and programme, New York Hippodrome, 11 November 1917. Reproduced in Potter & Potter Auctions, The Nielsen Collection, Part II, 2017, lots 125–126.
14. Harry Kellar to Harry Houdini, letter, November 1917, aboard the Twentieth Century Limited. Described with the programme in Potter & Potter Auctions, lot 126.
15. Evening World (New York), 27 February 1918, concerning War Department recognition of Houdini's instruction. Reproduced in John Cox, ‘Houdini and his doughboys take a dunk’.
16. Standard Union (Brooklyn), 8 March 1918, reporting the Hippodrome water-tank session involving Camp Upton soldiers. Reproduced in John Cox, ‘Houdini and his doughboys take a dunk’.
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