Historian Keeping the Magic of Houdini Alive

What’s in a name? Everything when that name is Houdini.

The late great escape artist and magician died in Detroit on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1926, at the age of 52. His legacy includes one of the world’s greatest collections of magical apparatus and personal papers ever assembled.

It took a professional practitioner of the art of legerdemain, naturally, to assemble such a collection. That individual is Sidney Radner, Houdini historian, foremost collector of Houdini memorabilia and a magician in his own right.

“I have the largest Houdini collection in the world,” Radner, 69, said in a recent interview from his Holyoke, Mass., home.

Radner estimated there are literally thousands of Houdini-related items in his collection, which he estimates to be worth about $2 million.

“I started off with an interest in magic when I was 9 years old,” Radner said. “I became very friendly with Hardeen, Houdini’s brother, who was a great magician in his own right and who told me in 1942: ‘You certainly have the greatest collection of Houdini in the world.’ ”

Since then, the Radner collection has grown even more. In fact, just a few months ago, he said he uncovered “a diamond in the rough”--three 8-by-11-inch black-and-white handbills advertising in Spanish Houdini’s early 1920s movie, “The Man From Beyond.”

A big chunk of Radner’s collection has been loaned to a museum in Appleton, Wis., where Houdini is believed to have been born, soon to be called--what else?--the Houdini Museum.

Other pieces of the Radner collection are in the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls; and, naturally, in Radner’s home.

“There’s nothing like it in the world,” Radner said. For example, he said, the Niagara Falls museum houses Houdini’s famous upside-down water-torture cell, an effect Houdini did for years, right up to the time he died.

In a 3-by-5-foot box filled with water, the diminutive Houdini would allow himself to be handcuffed and then lowered by rope--upside-down--into the water until he was fully immersed. The box, with a window displaying Houdini under water, would then be locked, a curtain drawn, and--as the audience held its collective breath for about three minutes while a clock ticked loudly--Houdini would make his escape.

More than 200 pairs of handcuffs Houdini used as part of his various escape extravaganzas are also in the Radner collection, as well as Houdini scrapbooks, letters and other documents.

Included is a bill of sale from another magician who sold Houdini, of all things, the concept of walking through a brick wall actually constructed in front of the audience. Then Houdini would lay down a carpet to show skeptics that there was no trap door. Finally, Houdini would raise a curtain so that a rapt audience could see only his upheld hand as he apparently walked through the seemingly impregnable wall.

“He was a legend while he was alive and he’s becoming more of a legend since he died,” Radner said.

Radner was in California this past Halloween for the official Houdini Seance at the venerable Magic Castle in Hollywood. Since Houdini died, seances to make contact with him have become as traditional on Halloween as pumpkins and costumes.

Seated at the seance table along with Radner and others was the Magic Castle’s spiritualist medium, Leo Kostka.

But, as usual, Houdini did not make his presence felt. Actually, as both Kostka and Radner pointed out, Houdini never believed in mediums.

Collectors of magic memorabilia can reach Radner at 1594 Dwight St., Holyoke, Mass. 01040.

Additionally, there is the quarterly Journal of the Magic Collectors Assn., 830 W. Bradley Place, Chicago, Ill. 60613.