HOUDINI, Harry (Erik Weisz, 1874 – 1926). Houdini’s Death-Defying Mystery. Cincinnati & New York: Russell-Morgan Litho., 1908. One sheet color stone lithograph depicting Houdini in his famous Milk Can escape, crouched down inside the galvanized metal container with water pouring down over his body. A vignette at the lower left shows the can in its locked state prior to Houdini’s death-defying escape. 40 x 30”. Even toning across the image and at margin edges, with faint restoration to old fold lines and very small border chips; A-. Linen backed. A RARE POSTER; one of perhaps five examples extant.
Houdini debuted the Milk Can in St. Louis in 1908. Appearing on stage in a bathing suit after the galvanized container had been filled with water by his assistants – and after its inspection by a committee from the audience – he plunged inside where he was “deprived of life-sustaining air” as the lid was clamped on and locked in place. Then, a curtained cabinet was put in place around the device as the audience was encouraged to hold its collective breath, the seconds suddenly and conspicuously ticking away.
As the first minute elapsed, nearly everyone in the theater was gasping for air. At minute two, the crowd was holding its breath again – but now figuratively, hoping the escape had not taken a dire turn. Houdini’s assistant Franz Kukol stood at the ready with an axe in hand, ready to split open the Milk Can and save his employer’s life.
But just as the tension was set to bust, out stepped a triumphant Houdini, chest heaving and breathless, but still very much alive. The curtains around the apparatus were cast aside to reveal not only that Houdini had escaped, but that the lid of the Milk Can remained securely locked shut.
This poster was acquired at the Houdini Estate Sale held in New Jersey in 1981 by a former owner; it was removed from one of many trunks found in the basement of Houdini’s home at 278 West 113th Street in Harlem, where it had been stored in the decades following the magician’s untimely death.