Page 5: Houdini - The Imitators

The late Milbourne Christopher in his book Houdini the Untold Story relates this incident involving Houdini attacking one of his competitors directly:

Almost overnight imitators sprung up, attempting 
to cash in on Houdini's popularity. One, who 
called himself Hermann, was booked by a circus 
in Berlin while Houdini was still at the 
Wintergarten. Harry, who did not believe in 
sitting back and waiting for his rivals to 
gather up the courage to challenge him, made 
a point of attending one of Hermann's shows. 
And when Hermann called for a committee from 
the audience, Houdini rushed to the ring. A 
quick glance was enough to tell him that 
Hermann was not using police handcuffs. 
     Harry shouted that he would give the 
German five thousand marks if he could free 
himself from a pair of Houdini cuffs: five 
thousand more if Harry himself couldn't escape 
from the irons the German was about to use, 
and another five thousand if Hermann could 
duplicate the naked release he had made at 
the police station. 

As Houdini had hoped, the newspapers carried the story. To promote himself further, Houdini sent this and hundreds of similar articles to his contacts in America. The American press loved Houdini's articles and published the stories of Houdini's European escapades.

The N. Osey Deception

Many of the newspaper articles were in fact written by Houdini under a fictitious pen name, or N. Osey, a name which he used to write vaudeville gossip columns in England. Which when spelled all together in lower case turns out to be "nosey." He was a vicious competitor. As a columnist he would often promote his own skills, "tooting his horn" writing about attending a show of "THE GREAT HOUDINI" while at the same time often degrading and belittling the shows and reputations of his competitors.

By 1905 Europe was saturated with "handcuff Kings" and Houdini's American audience was demanding the return of the now world famous Houdini, whom they had all been reading so much about. It was back to America for Houdini, with bridge leaps, packing-crate escapes, and jail breaks. But the most amazing feat was his salary or $1,200 per week. (Approximately $100,000 per month in today's dollars) For several years his act, advertising, and marketing strategy remained stable.

Then in 1908 he found that interest in his exploits were beginning to slacken. One of the greatest myths was created during this period of slack interest. This is the famous escape from beneath the frozen Detroit river in which Houdini barely survived buy breathing the air space between the ice and river.

IT NEVER HAPPENED! Houdini fabricated the whole story because so few reporters showed up for one of his bridge leaps. Instead of calling it a loss, he went back to his typewriter and wrote the now famous story of his escape from the icy peril.

- Next Page -

Ace Starry's Magic Pages / Starry's Escape Pages