HOUDINI (Harry). & [HARDEEN (Theo).]

Handcuff Secrets

WITH A SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF HOUDINI & EPHEMERA

First edition. Portrait frontispiece & numerous illustrations to text. Extra-illustrated with a signed photograph of Houdini plus numerous newspaper clippings and a typed letter tipped in, ownership inscription to front free endpaper. 12mo. Quarter straight-grain morocco over pebbled cloth, spine gilt, extremities worn. xvi, 110pp. London, Routledge; New York, E.P. Dutton, 1910.

£7,500.00

This desirable copy of Houdini’s Handcuff Secrets includes a signed photograph, dated 27 September 1911, tipped onto the front pastedown. It is further distinguished having belonged to Reginald Townshend, who famously challenged Houdini’s brother, Theo Hardeen (1876-1945) to escape from a contraption called the “crazy crib” in 1912. The book is replete with ephemera recording the event.

By 1904, Houdini was already known as the “King of Handcuffs” but his first book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin didn’t appear until 1908, which was a debunking of his former hero. It was reprinted the next year as The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin together with a Treatise on Handcuff Secrets which was preparatory to this stand-alone volume published in the same year. It continues Houdini’s pre-occupation with preserving the reputation of magicians “who work on thoroughly legitimate lines” and to discourage his imitators. The book includes illustrated instructions on opening sealed handcuffs, lock pickers, safe openers, skeleton keys, and escaping strait-jackets.

At the time of publication, Houdini was the most famous magician in the world and had trained his brother, Theo, in magic and escapology. Performing under the name Hardeen, he was also extremely popular with audiences: an excellent magician and raconteur. In 1912, Hardeen was performing at the National Theatre in Boston. Reginald Townsend, and three of his fellow Harvard classmates, saw his show and issued a challenge:

“We the undersigned, having witnessed your escape from a regulation straight jacket last Monday evening, and marvelling at the apparent ease with which you accomplished this feat, have decided to challenge you to release yourself from a tie-up device known as a “Crazy Crib.” They proposed that “[w]ith the aid of our straps and cords, we challenge you to allow us to tie you according to our special device, to a regulation iron hospital bed” they also demanded that the escape attempt be made before a public audience. Hardeen accepted the challenge and on December 12, 1912 did so at the National Theatre.

A “crazy crib” was used in psychiatric hospital as a means of restraining violent patients. It was essentially a hospital bed with rings welded to its frame through which leather straps could be tied. Houdini himself had escaped from them previously, but the trick was impractical. As no less than William Lindsay Gresham wrote: “The escape had merit as a spectacle. But using it meant dragging a rigid steel cot around with your baggage.”

In addition to printed notices of the challenge to Hardeen, there are contemporary press clippings of Houdini’s shows and pictures of him escaping from a Siberian Transport Chain.

A rare and valuable souvenir uniting the two magician brothers.

Gresham, W.L., Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls (New York, 1969), p.44.

Stock No.
249952